About
Jacob Boehme

The following information about Jacob Boehme has been drawn from a wonderful essay by Edward A. Beach. You can find it off-site at http://www.evansville.edu/~nb6/boehme.html.

Boehme was a German, Protestant mystic who lived from 1575 to 1624. A cobbler by trade, he experienced a spiritual awakening at age 25 when he saw sunlight reflecting off the water in a pewter dish. This produced an ecstatic vision by which Boehme perceived God as the unmanifest unity which reflects Itself in Its creation.

According to Boehme, prior to creation God was without knowledge of Himself for He had no beginning and knew nothing like Himself. Because He desired to experience self-consciousness and self-knowledge, He brought forth the universe from Himself. Thus Boehme viewed the act of creation as an act of self-revelation, and the universe of multiplicity as the mirror of God.

He further goes on to state that the suffering experienced by sentient beings is a necessary component of self-revelation. It is through suffering and opposition that created beings evolve to consciousness and eventually to full spiritual realization. When God's consciousness is reflected in one of His creature's fully awakened consciousness, there is an experience of unspeakable, ecstatic love.

Lutheran church authorities did not take kindly to Boehme's writings, and he was persecuted and threatened with imprisonment.

Christain Mysticism | Quotations drawn from Boehme | Bibliographic references | ©1999 by D. Platt