Three Principles of the Divine Essence

by Jakob Böhme

Jacob Boehme, 'The Cobbler of Gorlitz', one of the great mystics of the Reformation era, who influenced such diverse figures as the Cambridge Platonists and the Quaker George Fox.

Genres: Theology

477 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1619

About the author

Jakob Böhme (probably April 24, 1575[1] – November 17, 1624) was a German Christian mystic and theologian. He is considered an original thinker within the Lutheran tradition, and his first book, commonly known as Aurora, caused a great scandal. In contemporary English, his name may be spelled Jacob Boehme; in seventeenth-century England it was also spelled Behmen, approximating the contemporary English pronunciation of the German Böhme.

Reviews

[Lieutenant · Rating 1 out of 5]

I maintain the three stars after a second reading, the book does have problems from a Roman Catholic perspective, I still think it important that some read it, because of its impressive comprehensive world view from spiritual lenses. But certainly not all, and under no circumstances new converts.

It is strange to rate in this website, because I also gave three stars to Kierkegaard, and to C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, but in my view Boehme is much better than they, even here, Boehme's opinion as protestant as it is, is much closer to the traditional Catholic than the modernized "catholic" (or pseudo-Catholic) clergy and the evangelical protestant worldview of Lewis and Kierkegaard.

In brief, it goes very profoundly into the nature of evil, the distinctions in the Trinity, the fall of humankind and it's spiritual and material consequences, the power of intercession of God and the saints and other topics.

I will not stop reading Behme's work, but for now (i.e. June of 2024) I am going to dedicate my time to reading some treatises of Saint Thomas Aquinas on the angels, which in my view have gone misunderstood by many who have read him in recent times.