The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 1 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 1 (part 1)
p.
33 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME.
"Our whole doctrine is nothing else but an instruction to show how man may create a kingdom of light within himself.
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He in whom this spring of divine power flows, carries within himself the divine image and the celestial substantiality.
In him is Jesus born from the Virgin, and he will not die in eternity." ( Six Points , vii.
33.) p.
34 "Not I, the I that I am, know these things; but God knows them in me." ( Apology , Tilken , ii.
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35 CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
"Science cannot abolish faith in the all-seeing God, without worshipping in His place the blind intellect." "The true faith is that the spirit of the soul enters with its will and desire into that which it does neither see nor feel." ( Four Complexions , 85.) It is self-evident that if we wish to attempt a contemplation of that which is divine and eternal, we must first of all not refuse to believe in the possibility that something divine and eternal exists or may reveal itself in the constitution of man.
This spiritual principle in man is superior to the animal and reasoning man; superior to the material body, and superior to the arguing intellect; it does not need to reason and guess; it perceives and knows.
Being superior to the intellect, it cannot be conceived intellectually; but it can be perceived by man if he rises above the animal and intellectual plane to the consciousness of his own divine spirit; or to express it in the language of Boehme, if he attains self-knowledge in Christ.
The animal instincts in man belong to the animal nature in man, his intellectual faculties belong to his intellectual nature, but that which is divine in him belongs to his God, his own true and real and permanent self.
Merely theoretical speculation in regard to the things that belong to the Spirit in man is therefore entirely inadequate for their true understanding, and is not divine wisdom; it can only lead to the formation of theories and opinions about it, which may or may not be true, but which do not constitute real knowledge, while true wisdom is the result of practical experience, p.
36 attainable in no other way than by entering the divine state.
In other words, it is the knowledge by which God in "man" knows His own self.
Most surely the attainment of this divine state is not the result of fancy's flights, of pious dreaming, or of allowing the imagination to run away with one's self.
There is nothing more positive, real, and practical than the consciousness of being a man, and to find one's centre of gravity in the dignity which arises from true manhood; or in other words, from the knowledge of being a living temple wherein resides the power of one's own immortal self.
Every state of knowledge has its uses in the sphere to which it belongs and not to any other.
Jacob Boehme says:— "I do not say that man should not investigate natural sciences, and gain experience in regard to external things.
Such a study is certainly useful to him; but man's own reasoning should not be the basis of his knowledge.
Man should not have his conduct guided merely by the light of external reasoning, but he should, with all his reasoning and with his whole being, bow in deep humility before God." ( Calmness , i.
3 5.) As long as a man does not recognise the existence of a divine principle within his own self, it will be of little use for him to philosophise and speculate about the attributes of the Divinity in the universe; he cannot know the Holy Ghost as long as the Spirit of Holiness is not active within himself.
Eckhart's signature doctrine that the Father eternally begets the Son in the ground of the soul; the human interior as the actual site of the divine generative act, distinct from inner_light's static indwelling.
[auto] The text quotes Boehme stating 'In him is Jesus born from the Virgin', indicating the divine generative act within the human soul.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
Man is described as a 'living temple wherein resides the power of one's own immortal self', reflecting the divine structure.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
[auto] The text describes man carrying the 'divine image' and God knowing His own self in man, indicating transformation into divine nature.