This volume brings together for the first time some of the world's
leading authorities on the German mystic Jacob Boehme, to illuminate his
thought and its reception over four centuries for the benefit of
students and advanced scholars alike. Boehme's theosophical works have
influenced Western culture in profound ways since their dissemination in
the early 17th Century, and these interdisciplinary essays trace the
social and cultural networks as well as the intellectual pathways
involved in Boehme's enduring impact. The chapters range from situating
Boehme in the 16th Century Radical Reformation, to discussions of his
significance in modern theology. They explore the major contexts for
Boehme's reception including the Pietist movement, Russian religious
thought and Western esotericism, as well as focusing more closely on
important readers: the religious radicals of the English Civil Wars and
the later English Behmenists; literary figures such as Goethe and Blake,
and great philosophers of the modern age, among them Schelling and
Hegel. Together, the chapters illustrate the depth and variety of
Boehme's influence and a concluding chapter addresses directly an
underlying theme of the volume - asking why Boehme matters today, and
how readers in the present might be enriched by a fresh engagement with
his apparently opaque and complex writings.
