Abstract

The primary purpose of this dissertation is a reevaluation of the esoteric writings of Jacob Bohme, a phenomenon in late German Renaissance literature. The dissertation as intertextual study investigates the effects of the Qabbalah as main source for Jacob Bohme's work. It is well known that Bohme was in contact with the Qabbalists Dr. Balthasar Walther and Abraham of Franckenberg, even though there has never been any direct evidence concerning the contents of these oral conversations. This study based mainly on the internal evidence of the text, is divided into three parts: Qabbalah and Bohme teach a theosophy based on the polarity of Nothing and Being, that is the ungrounded divinity in the emptiness of nothing must become essentialized as God, and as such finds identity. The teachings of both, Qabbalah and Bohme, culminate in cosmogony, a genesis of 'world' constituted by the ten qabbalistic sefirot and Bohme's ten powerful figures of fire. The cosmogonies in both teachings involve the parallel figure of primordial man as the idea of God in nature and nature in God. The most obvious link between the Qabbalah and Bohme is their approach toward the problem of evil. Contrary to Platonic philosophy, evil has an essentialized existence of its own. The origin of evil is located within the divine order, within God, where evil has the functions of creating order within the cosmos and setting limitations to an unlimited divinity. Evil with all its ethical implications is constituted only in isolation from its original place in the cosmological order, thus starting the drama of human existence. Bohme, the Christian cabalist, initiates with this metaphysical teaching a philosophical and hermeneutic tradition that is still in process today. In the current debate on literary theory, Bohme is again important as a protagonist in the development of Postmodernism