Page Fourteen
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
Page Fourteen THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
Sunday, May 25, 1958
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SIX THEOSOPHIC POINTS, AND able. He was not an academic or Points (1620), On the Earthly and sterdam. The first English trans-THE treatment of the subjects
OTHER WRITINGS. 'Hy Jacob even well-educated: he was, in Heavenly Mystery (1620), and On lation of these works is that of indicated above is, of course,
Boehme. The University of fact, a shoemaker and glove man- the Divine Intuition (1622). These Sparrow-Ellistone, published first largely in Boehme's mystical man-
Michigan Press. Ann Arbor. ufacturer. He wrote a number of are from what scholars regard as in 1661. (There were "Behmenist" ner. There are, though, fairly ex-
$1.65. works, all in German, though few his middle period. (The views on societies in England then.) An tensive passages which are in what
were published in his lifetime. the origin of evil here expressed introduction to these Boehme;U
By ChARLES E. CATON However, the circulation of one of thus should not be taken as his works is finished by an essay by might be called a atraightforward
ACOB BOEHME (1575-1624) is them, "Aurora," in manuscript only or his final views on the sub- Nicolas Berdyaev entitled "Un- religious and moralistic style. That
the most famous anu influential brought on a charge of heresy, ject), The four works are not derground and Freedom." This ap- is, they are like sermons of the
of a series of German Protestant which was renewed when his Way among those published in Boeh- pears in its first English transla- fire-and-brimstone variety, thoug1h
to Christ appeared in 1624. me's lifetime. They were originally tion, made for the University of a bit peculiar, due to allusions to
mystics. His influence on nine- The four works reprinted here published in a Dutch translation Michigan Press. It was first pub- the mystical prolegomena and to
teenth-century German philosophy are entitled Six Theosophic Points about 1635, followed by a German lished in Frerch as a preface to Paracelsian science. But the langue
is generally regarded as consider- (written in 1620), Six Mystical edition about 1680-both in Am- Nicolas Berdyaev's translation of age of the concluding par tof'the
______________________________________________________________________ __ 1Hocisme's Mysterium aeMfthacnluignartf'h
------- - - - - --- Bs Magnum Six Theosophie Points and of most
(Paris, 1945). of the three other works will be
largely familiar to Christians. I
THE FOUR WORKS reprinted would be foolish, however, to pre-
are evidently characteristic tend that I understood or that th6
works of Boehme, though they are average reader will understand the
not amon his best known. None rest, i.e., what is in the mystical
of them are mentioned by Ber- vein. One will be reminded repeat-
dyaev in the introductory essay, edly of various thinkers and move-
which was not written for this ments from Heraclitus and Stoic
volume, but is rather an introduc- metaphysics to contemporary ex-
the Silver Dollar Store etionto Boehme's thought as a istentialism, including ancient
whole with special emphasis on its Neo-platonism, early Christian
importance in the history of Chris- and pagan gnosticism, Schopen-
"CO LEG E INNtian thought and for the later hauer, and no doubt (if one knows
history of philosophy. Schelling) Schelling.
Any attempt to summarize the
contents of the four works would HOUGH I am forced to be
Our FAMOUS BLUE BOOK CORNER is now enlarged. be valueless. But Boehme's sub- Tmodest about understanding
titles will give some idea of their Boehme, still perhaps the follow-
subject-matter: the "high and ing suggestions may be helpful tb
Genuine ARTHUR SUMMERFIELD postal cards going at cost ... j deep grounding of Six Theosophic the prospective reader. First, it
b ' 'e ePoints" is subtitled "an open gate seems to me doubtful that one
besides we're open early and late at night. So get em here. of all the secrets of life wherein should begin with the first work,
the causes of all being become Six Theosophie Points. One would,
Our NO DOZ and NO NODS are out of this world. i known." The Six Mystical Pointy I think, be better advised to read
has no subtitles, but the poin's the Earthy and Heavenly Mystery
themselves are headed "On the (at least the first six "texts") and
Instant coffee? Yes. At your Best Student Supply Drug Store. blood and water of the soul," "On the Divine Intuition first: one gets
the election of grace. On good and the basic ideas faster and more
evil," "On sin. What is sin, and clearly in these. Also, the Berdyaev
Now at the Silver Dollar Grill, our famous how it is sin," "How Christ will essay should certainly be read in
deliver up the kingdom to his conjunction with the text and I
BIG BOY BURGER . . .25c (Fine quality from the finest Father," "On Magic. What magic think probably before reading the
OMAHA beef.) is. What the magical ground is; Theosophie. or Mystical Points.
and "On mystery. What it is." The This introductory essay is excel-
"fundamental statement concern- lent. It might be remembered,
We manufacture our own ice cream in our own store .. . truly an tog the Earthly and Heavenly though, that, in the first place,
We maufacure rulyMystery" is subtitled "1How they Berdyaev agrees with Boehme in
Ann Arbor product (Our Vanilla is the top of the crop.) BOUR- are in one another, and how in the his basic emphasis on the dynamie
earthy the heavenly is manifested character of God, and, secondly,
BON BEANS from Madagascar proudly percolated at 70 degrees ...where Babel, the great city on that for what Berdyaev calls
earth, is to be seen with its powers "Freedom" Boehme's usual word
to a perfect strength. and marvels. Why Babel is born, (at any rate in the works here
and from what. Where Antichrist reprinted) is "will" - at leas
Our Creme De Menthe ICE CREAM is Natural Peppermint shall stand naked." And "the Berdyaev so interprets Boehme.
highly precious gate of the Divine
smoothed out with a dash of ginger - no harshness or bitter intuition" is represented as "show- AS A SECOND HELP to the
ing what Mysterium Magnum is, prospective reader I will men-
aftertaste. and how all is from, through and tion what I take to be a, or the,
in God; how God is so near all fundamental difficulty in under:.
things, and fills all." Apart from standing Boehme's mystical Ian-
- -- _- - __----.- - -- -..... ---.. quoting these, I will say only that guage. It has to do with the refer-
Boehme seems in metaphysics to ential expressions used. These
have been a voluntaristic nihilist mrrost often take the form of "the
with leanings toward pantheism C," where "C" is a common noun,
and panpsychism' or just "C," where "C" is a com-
Mmon noun used like a proper name.
1225Souh UnverityCharles Caton is on instruc. The difficulty arises from the fact
1225 South University ;r in the University's phulo. that these common nouns bear a
sophy deparntment. metaphorical sense. This creates
a difficulty in understanding what
is said, whether this is openly4
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metaphorical or not. For involved
in understanding ordinary meta-
phors (and, or including, the per-
haps partial understanding we
have of some non-mystical reli-
gious language) is our understand-
ing of the referential expressions
used.
It seems to me, that is, that
normally the problem of under-
standing metaphors is one of
understanding non-referential ex1 I
pressions and we solve it (if and
to thecxtent that we do) through
our knowledge of the literal means
ings of those expressions and by
knowing what thing or sort of
thing is referred to by the asaw'i
elated referential expressions.
The trouble in understanding
Boehme is that the references
themselves are obscure because
theytake the form "the C"or"C,"
where "C" is a common noun
which is itself being used meta-
phorically; so that we do not knot
what is referred to and hence can't
use thts latter to figure out what
is being said about the thi
referred to, whatever it is.If this
actually is a basic difficulty,
reader might be helped by know-
ing that it is in that he would
know where to concentrate his
efforts.
A THIRD help, at least to -the
unwary, would be the warning
(Continued on Next rage)