Existence is 'a stream of fire', men and women are 'half-dead angels'. Could there be a world if there is but a single principle to give it birth? Is manifestation of any kind possible without the presence of imperfection and therefore of evil'?
Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) is widely regarded as one of the most important mystical thinkers of Germany, and has profoundly influenced the development of philosophical and religious thought. Yet he grew up as a peasant and worked throughout his life as a shoemaker.
It has been said that he provides one of the most extraordinary cases in modern history of a man of no favouring circumstances, no advantages from school or university, no external help of any kind, who has nevertheless made a permanent contribution to intellectual life.
He attacked the central problem of religion, the question of suffering and evil, with unparalleled persistence and astonishing originality. Living in a strictly Christian environment - he was a sincere Lutheran throughout his life - he struggled to understand how a God who is both all-powerful and all-good could be reconciled with a world of continuous change and remorseless destruction of the weak and helpless. The answers he arrived at stretched Christian thought and the concept of a Creator-God to its very limits.
About the speaker
Dr Stephen Cross is an author and lecturer with a long-standing interest in Indian thought in both its Hindu and Buddhist forms, and the convergence between Asian philosophical ideas and certain aspects of European thought. He is a Fellow of the Temenos Academy and a member of its Academic Board, and is joint author (with Jack Herbert) of Inward Lies the Way: German Thought and the Nature of Mind, and the author of The Elements of Hinduism and of Schopenhauer's Encounter with Indian Thought.
26 июл 2024
