Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Bohme: Theosophy, Hagiography, Literature (Mcgill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas)

253 Pages·1999·12.67 MB·English

by  Paola Mayer

JENA ROMANTICISM
AND ITS APPROPRIATION OF JAKOB BÖHME
Interest in German Romanticism has been revitalized in recent years by
new post-structural, interdisciplinary, and intertextual perspectives.
However until now this renewed interest has not led to a re-examination
of Jakob Böhmes's formative influence on Jena Romanticism. In Jena Ro-
manticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Böhme Paola Mayer radically re-
vises previous views, arguing that the relationship between Böhme and
the Jena Romantics should be understood as appropriation rather than
influence. This reversal of perspective leads to the recognition that Ro-
manticism's interaction with Böhme was not passive but polemical, se-
lective, and predatory. Not only was there not an influence, there was
not even a Böhme, since his name and aspects of the writings were
adapted to promote ideas wholly unrelated to any historical person or
body of thought that might have been Böhme.
These appropriations fall into two main groups: those pertaining to
the name Böhme or a life assigned to it, and those involving concepts or
images from the mystic's oeuvre. The first group constituted an attempt
to co-opt the aura of sanctity attached to portrayals of the poet-prophet
in order to invest Romantic Poesie with the sacral standing of religion.
The second group, exemplified by Friedrich Schlegel and Friedrich
Schelling, involved the borrowing and radical redefinition of a few con-
cepts and images from Böhme's work in the hope of bridging the gap
between the abstract first principle of idealism and the personal God
that became an emotional necessity for both thinkers.
Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Böhme treats the Roman-
tic reception of Böhme as a striking example of how the past is appro-
priated and rewritten in the service of self-affirmation. Analysing the
need and the techniques for this self-affirmation sheds light on the
nature of the self to be affirmed and on the content and underlying mo-
tivation of the Romantic program.
PAOLA MAYER is assistant professor of European studies at the Univer-
sity of Guelph.
MCGILL-QUEEN'S STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
1 Problems of Cartesianism
Edited by Thomas M. Lennon, John M. Nicholas, and
John W. Davis
2 The Development of the Idea of History in Antiquity
Gerald A. Press
3 Claude Buffier and Thomas Reid
Two Common-Sense Philosophers
Louise Marcil-Lacoste
4 Schiller, Hegel, and Marx
State, Society, and the Aesthetic Ideal of Ancient Greece
Philip J. Kain
5 John Case and Aristotelianism in Renaissance England
Charles B. Schmitt
6 Beyond Liberty and Property
The Process of Self-Recognition in Eighteenth-Century
Political Thought
J.A.W. Gunn
7 John Toland: His Methods, Manners, and Mind
Stephen H. Daniel
8 Coleridge and the Inspired Word
Anthony John Harding
9 The Jena System, 1804-5: Logic and Metaphysics
G.W.F. Hegel
Translation edited by John W. Burbidge and George di Giovanni
Introduction and notes by H.S. Harris
10 Consent, Coercion, and Limit
The Medieval Origins of Parliamentary Democracy
Arthur P. Monahan
11 Scottish Common Sense in Germany, 1768-1800
A Contribution to the History of Critical Philosophy
Manfred Kuehn
12 Paine and Cobbett
The Transatlantic Connection
David A. Wilson
13 Descartes and the Enlightenment
Peter A. Schouls
14 Greek Scepticism
Anti-Realist Trends in Ancient Thought
Leo Groarke
15 The Irony of Theology and the Nature of Religious Thought
Donald Wiebe
16 Form and Transformation
A Study in the Philosophy of Plotinus
Frederic M. Schroeder
17 From Personal Duties towards Personal Rights
Late Medieval and Early Modern Political Thought, 1300-1600
Arthur P. Monahan
18 The Main Philosophical Writings and the Novel Allwill
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
Translated and edited by George di Giovanni
19 Kierkegaard as Humanist
Discovering My Self
Arnold B. Come
20 Durkheim, Morals, and Modernity
W. Watts Miller
21 The Career of Toleration
John Locke, Jonas Proast, and After
Richard Vernon
2 2 Dialectic of Love
Platonism in Schiller's Aesthetics
David Pugh
23 History and Memory in Ancient Greece
Gordon Shrimpton
24 Kierkegaard as Theologian
Recovering My Self
Arnold B. Come
25 An Enlightenment Tory in Victorian Scotland
The Career of Sir Archibald Alison
Michael Michie
26 The Road to Egdon Heath
The Aesthetics of the Great in Nature
Richard Bevis
2 7 Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation
of Jakob Böhme
Theosophy - Hagiography - Literature
Paola Mayer
JENA ROMANTICISM
AND ITS APPROPRIATION
OF JAKOB BÖHME
Theosophy - Hagiography - Literature
Paola Mayer
McGill-Queen's University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca
© McGill-Queen's University Press 1999
ISBN 0-7735-1852-5
Legal deposit third quarter 1999
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social
Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada.
McGill-Queen's University Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government
of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP)for its
activities. We also acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our
publishing program.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Mayer, Paola
Jena romanticism and its appropriation of Jakob Böhme:
theosophy, hagiography, literature
(McGill-Queen's studies in the history of ideas; 27)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7735-1 852-5
1. Romanticism-Germany. 2. Böhme,Jakob, 1575-1624-Influence, 3. Philosophy,
German—19th century, I. Title, II. Series.
PT365.B64M39 1999 141'.6'094309034 c99-900848-x
This book was typeset by Typo Litho Composition Inc.
in 10/12 Baskerville.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
I JAKOB BÖHME: HIS THOUGHT AND EARLY RECEPTION 9
1 The Seduction of Influence: A Forschungsbericht 11
2 Böhme's Thought: A Précis 18
3 Böhme's Reception in the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Centuries: A Typology 26
II JAKOB BÖHME AND THE JENA CIRCLE:
THE STORY OF A RECEPTION 53
4 The Discovery: Ludwig Tieck 55
5 An Interrupted Reception: Novalis 76
6 Towards a Mystical Science: J.W. Ritter 96
7 The Limits of the Reception: F.E.D. Schleiermacher,
A.W., Caroline and Dorothea Schlegel 101
III FROM UNIVERSALPOESIE TO CHRISTIAN IDEALISM: BÖHME'S
THOUGHT AND PHILOSOPHICAL ROMANTICISM 111
8 Universalpoesie, Mythology, and Christian Idealism:
Friedrich Schlegel 113
9 Idealism, Human Freedom, and the
Problem of Evil: F.WJ. Schelling 179
10 Conclusion 222
Bibliography 227
Index 239
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Acknowledgments
The origins of the present study lie in my PhD dissertation, written at
Princeton University under the supervision of Theodore Ziolkowski. To
him I owe especial thanks for all his help and advice both during my
time at Princeton and in subsequent years. Heartfelt gratitude is due to
my friend and mentor, Hans Eichner, whose advice and support has ac-
companied me throughout my scholarly life, and who has generously
read and commented on more than one version of this study. Of the
many colleagues from whose insights and encouragement I have prof-
ited I would like to mention Steven Taubeneck, with whom I thrashed
out many an idea in highly enjoyable discussions, the late Ernst Behler,
who repeatedly placed his vast knowledge at my disposal, and Jim Car-
scallan, who graciously acted as well informed and sympathetic sound-
ing board for my views on the reception of Neoplatonism and helped
me with some thorny translation problems. My thanks also go to the
readers of my dissertation, Walter Hinderer and Emory Snyder, who
provided useful pointers on new areas to be explored. By far the great-
est debt is a personal rather than professional one: to my husband, with-
out whose support (both practical and emotional) this book could not
have been completed.
Some parts of the argument in chapters 4 and 5 have appeared previ-
ously in my article "Reinventing the Sacred: The Romantic Myth of Jakob
Böhme" in German Quarterly 69 (1996): 247-59.1 should like to thank the
editor of German Quarterly for permission to reuse this material.
I am very grateful to the staff of McGill Queen's University Press, partic-
ularly to the editor whose suggestions resulted in a number of technical
and stylistic improvements. Much of the work on this study was carried
out in my two years as Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Brit-
ish Columbia. The publication of this book is made possible by a grant