Philosophia perennis: Historical Outlines of Western Spirituality in Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Thought (International Archives of the History ... internationales d'histoire des idées)

509 Pages·2010·1.9 MB·English

by  Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann

PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS
ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D’HISTOIRE DES IDÉES
INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
189
PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS
Historical Outlines of Western Spirituality in Ancient,
Medieval and Early Modern Thought
By
Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann
Founding Directors:
P. Dibon† (Paris) and R.H. Popkin (Washington University, St. Louis & UCLA)
Director:
Sarah Hutton (Middlesex University, United Kingdom)
Associate-Directors:J.E. Force (Lexington); J.C. Laursen (Riverside)
Editorial Board: M.J.B. Allen (Los Angeles); J.R. Armogathe (Paris); A. Gabbey (New York);
T. Gregory (Rome); J. Henry (Edinburgh); J.D. North (Oxford); J. Popkin (Lexington);
G.A.J. Rogers (Keele); Th. Verbeek (Utrecht)
Philosophia perennis
Historical Outlines of Western Spirituality in Ancient,
Medieval and Early Modern Thought
By
Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann
Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
AC.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 1-4020-3066-5 (HB)
ISBN 1-4020-3067-3 (e-book)
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For Tony Grafton
Acknowledgments
This book is the English version of a study published under the same title
in German in 1998 by Suhrkamp. The English edition is more of a re-
working than a mere translation of the German publication. Some sections
were left out, others were shortened, and it is my hope that the book has
become more understandable as a result. Errors that were brought to my
attention in the German version have been corrected. Some new secondary
literature has been included in this edition, although I did not attempt a
complete treatment of research in the field.
Many people and institutions have helped make this book possible. I
name them in alphabetical order: Boris Bayer, Barbara Ertl, Tony Grafton,
Anja Hallacker, Sarah Hutton, Millay Hyatt, Sebastian Lalla, Sicco
Lehmann-Brauns, Gregg Lyon. The institutions: Center for Advanced Judaic
Studies, Philadelphia; Freie Universität Berlin; Herzog August-Bibliothek,
Wolfenbüttel; Volkswagen-Stiftung, Hannover. I extend my sincere
gratitude to all of them.
- vii -
Contents
Preface..............................................................................................xiii
A. Introduction
1.FANTASY AND THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF IMAGINATION.................3
1. Pious Imagination as a Condition for the Understanding of
Spiritual Literature......................................................................3
2. A Short History of Imagination...................................................9
3. Johann Arndt’s Theology of Emblems.....................................22
2.OUTLINES OF PERENNIALPHILOSOPHY...........................................27
1. Elements of Perennial Philosophy............................................27
2. Perennial Philosophy in Nicholas of Cusa................................36
B. Glory
3.DIVINENAMES................................................................................59
1. Proclus’ Doctrine of Plato’s “Divine Names”...........................61
2. Dionysius the Areopagite’s Dialectic of Divine Names...........67
3. St. Jerome’s and Isidore of Seville’s Positive
Philosophy of Divine Names....................................................76
4. Raymond Lull’s Theology of Concepts....................................81
5. Christian Cabala I: Giovanni Pico, Johannes Reuchlin,
and Paulus Ricius......................................................................93
6. Christian Cabala II: Jakob Böhme’s Doctrine of Qualities.....117
ix
x Contents
4.KOSMOSANTHROPOS...................................................................129
1. Theology of the Logos............................................................129
2. Platonic Myths: Androgynous Primeval Man.........................131
3. Wisdom...................................................................................135
4. Philo’s Cosmic Adam.............................................................138
5. The Apocalyptic Kosmokrator................................................142
6. The Inner Man and the Aim of Creation:
Gregory of Nyssia’s “Oratio de Creatione Hominis”.............143
7. Eriugena’s Angel.....................................................................150
8. Hildegard of Bingen’s Caritas.................................................152
9. Exempla Humanitatis: Alain de Lille’s “Anticlaudianus”......156
10. Ficino’s Angel and the Intellectus Agens.............................162
11. Giovanni Pico: Pious Philosophy and the Dignity of Man...169
12. Paulus Ricius’ Cabalistic Cosmos.........................................173
13. The Threefold Man of Paracelsus.........................................180
14. Jakob Böhme’s Theology of Creation...................................187
15. Abraham Herrera’s Adam Kadmon......................................192
16. The Pious Practice of the Divine Sophia:
Gottfried Arnold’s Conversion.............................................202
5.ARCHETYPES.................................................................................209
1. Creation before Time..............................................................209
2. Philo’s Archetypes..................................................................211
3. The Book Yezirah and the Archetypes of the Alphabet..........220
4. Plotinus’ Spiritualised Space...................................................228
5. Origen’s Free Spirits...............................................................231
6. Augustine’s Trinitarian Archetypes........................................237
7. Dionysius the Areopagite: The Radiance of the Holy.............245
8. The Echo of the Word: Eriugena’s Seminal Powers...............250
9. De Vita Coelitus Comparanda:
Ficino’s Cosmological Medicine............................................260
10. On the Shadows of Ideas:
Giordano Bruno’s Seminal Combinatorics...........................265
6.SPIRITUALSPACES........................................................................273
1. The Eternal and the Temporal Beginning...............................273
2. The Dark Beginning: Plotinus and
Dionysius the Areopagite.......................................................274
3. The Infinite Sphere of Light....................................................278
4. The Splendour of the Angels...................................................280
5. Space as Bursting Point: Robert Grosseteste..........................283
Contents xi
6. Magical Rays: Al Khindi’s Theories of Light.........................287
7. The World of Albert the Great................................................292
8. Giorgio Veneto’s Harmonia Mundi........................................305
9. Agrippa’s Doctrine of Spiritual Elements...............................316
10. The Dimensions of the Spirit: Nicholas of Cusa’s
Conceptions of Space............................................................319
11. Giordano Bruno’s Infinite Space...........................................321
C. Theology of Time
7.THE RETURN OF TIME...................................................................327
1. Apocalyptic Time....................................................................329
2. St. John’s Revelation as the Type of the World’s End............335
3. Origenism................................................................................339
a. Freedom, Resurrection, and the Inner Image:
Origen’s Christian Platonism...........................................339
b. Eriugena’s Resurrection...................................................346
c. Pico’s Apology of Origen................................................350
d. The Unification of All Religions:
Guillaume Postel’s Synergetic Apokatastasis..................352
e. Johann Wilhelm Petersen’s Cosmic Redemption............359
8.EPOCHS AND ERAS........................................................................369
1. The Turning of History in Christ: St. Paul’s Theology
of History................................................................................329
2. Sex Aetates Mundi: Bede’s World-Times..............................375
3. Joachim of Fiore’s Typology of the Coming Time.................381
4. Daniel’s Visions and the Holy Roman Empire.......................392
9.TRANSLATIOSAPIENTIAE.............................................................409
1. The Historical Logic of Perennial Philosophy........................409
2. St. Augustine’s Genealogy of World-Wisdom.......................412
3. The Patriarchs’ Encyclopaedia: Roger Bacon’s
Perennial Philosophy...............................................................416
4. Antediluvian Wisdom and the Peoples’ Genealogy:
Annius of Viterbo’s Edition of ‘Berosus’...............................421
5. The Third Revelation: Steucho’s Philosophia Perennis.........428
6. Johann Heinrich Alsted’s Universal Apocalyptic Science......435
xii Contents
D. The Echo of Perennial Philosophy
10.SCHELLING’S“WORLD-AGES”...................................................445
1. Positive, Negative, and Adept Philosophy..............................448
2. Philosophy of Spirit.................................................................450
3. History of the Father and the Son............................................458
4. History of the Spirit.................................................................464
Bibliography
Abbreviations....................................................................................469
Primary Sources................................................................................470
Secondary Sources............................................................................476