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On
Jakob Boehme and Creation
Or
God’s Quest for self-revelation
Ryan
Renfro
November
30th, 1998
Mysticism
Mark
Saatjian
“Am Anfang schuf Gott Himmel und Erden.” These
words begin the Genesis account of creation, an account well
known to Jacob Böhme or anyone familiar with the Western
tradition. This creation epic is not enough for Böhme,
however, because it fails to address the question of why it even
took place at all. He seeks, both in Aurora and in
his following, more-developed works, to explain why creation is a
logical effect of the internal workings of the Godhead. What
he finds is that the oneness of the Godhead must necessarily
limit itself in order to comprehend itself as not only God but
also as anything at all. Böhme defines God as a primordial
abyss or Ungrund, whose quest for self-definition and
self-revelation lead to the two principles of divine wrath and
love, the interaction between these leading consequently to the
creation of the physical and spiritual worlds which in turn
enlighten God concerning his own nature, which is reflected in
creation.
Böhme chooses the quotation “Am Anfang schuf Gott Himmel und Erden” not only because it begins the story of creation in Genesis, but because these words encompass everything that was and which shall come to pass. The word Anfang signifies that there was a beginning and consequently will therefore also be an end. God is present at the creation of the temporal and heavenly worlds; thus, God must transcend the barrier of time because he is present when it, dependent upon the natural world, is formed. Böhme writes that “The Father is all, and all power subsisteth in the Father: He is the beginning and the end of all things: and besides and beyond him is nothing; and whatever is, is from the Father” (Aurora, 71). This is an infinite God, from whom everything that is came into being has sprung and there can be nothing that does not have its roots in the eternal infinity of God.
In the primordial state the Godhead, or Gottheit, is
undifferentiated and referred to as the Ungrund, that
which is without reason, das Nichts, the nothing or
no-thing, or the abyss in English (Beach, 2). Although
there are of yet no distinctions within this no-thing yet
everything, the Oneness has the potential ability of becoming
something actual and concrete, creating in this Nichts the
longing to reveal itself or come to some conception of itself as
God (Beach, 3). The question of why the Ungrund
would want to reveal itself or long to distinguish itself in any
manner in the first place seems to be a problem for Böhme.
Perhaps given that there is a possibility for the Ungrund
desiring and thereby acquiring distinction and an a period of
time which transcends infinity to work with, it would seem
logical that the possibilities of God’s desire for
distinction taking place would be infinitely high.[1] At any rate, this
longing for definition is the first phase in the creative
process, although not truly first in a temporal sense because
finite time does not come into being until creation has taken
place. It is a centrifugal movement, like the sound of God
going forth as stated above, that of the will of God moving
across the depths of his being, seeking to discover his true
nature. However, this spiritual hunger which desires
definition is an impurity or a “darkness” in the Ungrund
(Beach, 4). This discovery of darkness or impurity is
countered by a centripetal force or desire which, because of the
realization of potentiality for individulalization, moves back on
itself in a futile attempt at reestablishing the original unity
of the Gottheit, thus the sound of God moves back towards
himself.[2] This
unrealized desire for unity turns to divine wrath or Grimmigkeit,
turning in upon itself and causing the third phase, that of
anguish. This anguish is the result of the tension between
the rotating wheels of these two forces within the Gottheit (Liem,
13). The outward and inward force, along with the
relationship between them, form the first triad of qualities
which must break down at some point and give rise a second triad
and in turn to creation.[3]
The tension between the two desires within the Godhead was too great, resulting in an explosion or fiery conflagration. This is the point where everything changes, or rather comes into what is termed existence. One cannot help but think of the Big Bang Theory. Through this flash all differentiation comes into being. All of the paired opposites, previously present and united within the Godhead, manifest themselves as being not only different but also contradictory to one another- Good and evil, light and dark, and so forth. These will allow God to define himself as being of one quality but not another: he is good but not evil, the light but not the darkness.
The second occurrence within this flash is that the first principle, i.e. the divine wrath, overcomes itself and its harshness and the second principle and fifth phase emerges, a joyous light or divine love (Liem, 13-14). Although the first principle exists as divine wrath before the conflagration, this is before the differentiation between love and wrath, good and evil and therefore cannot be seen as evil or as subject to the problem of evil; thus, evil is not a part of the primordial Godhead. As the second principle, or God the Son, comes into existence, the first, or God the Father, looses his quality of wrath. Böhme writes that the Son “is the cause of the springing joy in all powers in the whole Father” (Aurora, 72). The first principle of divine wrath is transformed by the second and takes on the nature of the latter, casting the wrath into a outer birth or hell, to which all that is opposing what is now a good and loving God is banished. This is a necessary step for Böhme because he believes that both of these opposing forces exist within nature.
Böhme’s sixth phase is sound, undoubtedly related to the Son, who is referred to as the Word of God both in the beginning of the Gospel of John as well as in Böhme’s works. Böhme probably decides on the word sound because of its relation to the Word of God, although it is meant to represent all sense perceptions (Liem, 14). The conception of these new sense perceptions led to the development of the first state of consciousness within the Godhead. He is able to experience or sense himself and thereby apprehend his nature. At their very core these sense perceptions are expressions of the nature of God: they are him experiencing himself. God now has some sense of what he is and what he’s not; but this thesis and this antithesis, God’s love and sense perceptions, lead to a new synthesis- visual variety or the physical universe (Encyclopaedia Britannica P.3).
Böhme’s seventh and final quality is the realization and the product of the previous qualities- creation itself. Since mankind and the angels were created in his image, God sees his own qualities or properties reflected in the mirror of creation. Böhme considers angels and men to each contain some part of the whole Godhead, writing, “an angel, and a man, is a creature, and not the whole being, but a son of the whole being” (Aurora, 120). Creatures are of use to God because they allow him to see himself without having to become something other than himself.
One might wonder what Böhme’s answer to the problem of evil is. In his system, God alone dwells solely within the innermost birth because all natural bodies, even those of the angels, must be comprised of the qualities of love and wrath together.[4] Because God is beyond these bodies and exists as a spirit[5], he is not subject to the quality of wrath or evil, which in combination with love is needed to sustain creatures (Aurora, 39-40). Although Böhme believes this wrath to have come from God, since all creatures are in part made from it, he is no longer part of it because it fell at the time of the manifestation of distinction. He writes that:
“Out of the powers of God are the heavens proceeded; out of the heaven are the stars; out of the stars are the elements; out of the elements are the earth and the creatures come to be. Thus, all had its beginning, even to the angels and devils, which, before the creation of heaven, stars and the earth, were produced from the same power from which the heaven, the stars and the earth were produced” (Aurora, 61).
This allows God to be the sole creator the of the universe, but also allows for the existence of evil, denied by Augustine; thus allowing evil to exist within creation without placing the root of it as evil in God. Furthermore, God has the powers of wrath and the devils “strongly shut and bolted up” (Aurora, 476), that is apart from himself and firmly under control, and they can have no power to hinder the work of the Holy Spirit. He may even be seen as using the evil in nature as a testing ground for the good, which he shall “extract” from this world and use it to glorify and praise himself eternally (Aurora, 470). In any event, God uses creation, imperfect as it may be, to both distinguish and define himself, in what he is and what he is not, and also to glorify himself.
Böhme’s belief that God uses nature to manifest certain aspects of himself is certainly not surprising considering his views that nature is an acceptable means of contemplating the divine nature. Although his teachings about creation appear to fail at providing an answer to the Ungrund problem since they never give God a reason for existing, they to turn the Nichts into an Etwas by giving some definition to what God is and what he is not, and even give some sort of reason why a transformation from Oneness to a differentiated being was likely to have occurred to the Gottheit.
Bibliography
Beach, Edward A. “Jakob Boehme” 1995. The Ecole Initiative. Ed. Karen Ræ Keck and
Norman Hugh Redington. Nov. 30, 1998.
< http://www.uwec.edu/academic/philrel/beach/boehme.html>
Boehme, Jakob: The Aurora. John Sparrow, transl. London: Watkins and Clarke 1960.
(Reprint of 1914, ed.) 721 pgs. Pages 1-18, 39-53, 56-61, 62-65, 70-75, 120-126,
174-177, 201, 230-231, 464-478l, 560-563.
“Jacob Boehme” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, Vol. III. Charles Scribner's
Sons, New York, 1878.
Pendle Hill Pamphlet #214. Jacob Boehme: Insights into the Challenge of Evil. Lebanon, Pennsylvania: Sowers Printing Company, August, 1977.
Stoudt, John Joseph. Sunrise to
Eternity: A study in Jacob Boehme’s Life and
Thought. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1957.
[1] This is the old monkeys typing Shakespeare logic. If you give a monkey a typewriter, the chances of him randomly typing the complete works of Shakespeare are needless to say very slim. (although it would seem that Darwin might argue otherwise!) However, if you gave an infinite number of monkeys typewriters, the chances of one of them producing the desired work becomes infinitely high.
[2] “the sound (the voice of God) went forth from the heart of God…but when it was found to be evil, then the sound returned again into its own place.” (Aurora, 464)
[3] The Encyclopaedia Britannica names the first triad of forces as “Attraction, Diffusion, and their resultant, the Agony of the unmanifested Godhead.” (“Jacob Boehme, P.3)
[4] Böhme writes that “there are two qualities in nature…The one is pleasant, heavenly and holy; the other is fierce, wrathful, hellish and thirsty.” Further, “no creature in the flesh, in the natural life, can subsist, unless it hath the two qualities.” (Aurora, 40).
[5] “But it (wrath) has no such substance in God, for he hath not flesh and blood, but he is a Spirit, in whom all powers are” (Aurora, 58).