MYSTICISM

* Neoplatonism [Неоплатонизм] (III-VI). Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the second century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as it encapsulates a chain of thinkers which began with Ammonius Saccas and his student Plotinus (c. 204/5 – 271 AD) and which stretches to the 5th century AD. Even though neoplatonism primarily circumscribes the thinkers who are now labeled Neoplatonists and not their ideas, there are some ideas that are common to neoplatonic systems; for example, the monistic idea that all of reality can be derived from a single principle, "the One". After Plotinus there were three distinct periods in the history of neoplatonism: the work of his student Porphyry (third to early fourth century); that of Iamblichus (third to fourth century) and that school's later continuation in Syria; and the period in the fifth and sixth centuries, when the Academies in Alexandria and Athens flourished. Neoplatonism had an enduring influence on the subsequent history of philosophy. In the Middle Ages, neoplatonic ideas were studied and discussed by Muslim, Christian, and Jewish thinkers. In the Islamic cultural sphere, neoplatonic texts were available in Arabic and Persian translations, and notable thinkers such as al-Farabi, Solomon ibn Gabirol (Avicebron), Avicenna, and Moses Maimonides incorporated neoplatonic elements into their own thinking. Thomas Aquinas had direct access to works by Proclus, Simplicius and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and he knew about other Neoplatonists, such as Plotinus and Porphyry, through secondhand sources. The mystic Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – c. 1328) was also influenced by neoplatonism, propagating a contemplative way of life which points to the Godhead beyond the nameable God {"transcendent / abstract / detached / indifferent / impersonal God"}. Neoplatonism also had a strong influence on the perennial philosophy of the Italian Renaissance thinkers Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, and continues through nineteenth-century Universalism and modern-day spirituality and nondualism. Neoplatonism underpins the mystical traditions{union with the divine} in all three of the major Abrahamic religions. Неоплатонизм. Направление античной философии III VI вв. н.э. Представляет из себя синтез и систематизацию учений Платона, Аристотеля и неопифагореизма. Основатель неоплатонизма Аммоний Сакх. В основе учения неоплатоников идея о сверхсущем Едином и иерархическом строении бытия, разработанная Плотином и Проклом. Основные школы неоплатоников: гимская, сирийская, пергамская, афинская, александрийская. Неоплатонизм оказал существенное влияние на восточную и европейскую философию. // Neoplatonism is a thought form rooted in the philosophy of Plato (c. 428-347 B.C.E.), but extending beyond or transforming it in many respects. Neoplatonism developed as a school of thought in the Roman Empire from the third to the fifth century of the common era (C.E.). However, the term itself was coined only recently in the mid-ninteenth century, when German scholars used it to distinguish the ideas of later Greek and Roman Platonists from those of Plato himself. Plotinus (c. 204-270 C.E.) is considered the first main proponent of Neoplatonism, and his intent was to use Plato's thought as an intellectual basis for a rational and humane life. Neoplatonist ideas are more explicitly religious than those of Plato, and they developed largely to counter dualistic interpretations of Plato's thought. For example, Neoplatonism sought to overcome the Platonic cleavage between thought and reality, or Ideal and Form. Platonism is characterized by its method of abstracting the finite world of Forms (humans, animals, objects) from the infinite world of the Ideal, or One. Neoplatonism, on the other hand, seeks to locate the One, or God in Christian Neoplatonism, in the finite world and human experience. This is evidenced in Plotinus's now-famous maxim that the Absolute "has its center everywhere but its circumference nowhere." {<> Plato: the Good ??} PBS - Neoplatonism

* Mystical theology [II]. Mystical theology is the branch of theology that explains mystical practices and states, as induced by contemplative practices such as contemplative prayer. Early Christianity. (See also: Disciplina arcani} Early Alexandrian tradition. According to Origen (184/185–253/254AD) and the Alexandrian theology, theoria is the knowledge of God in creation and of sensible things, and thus their contemplation intellectually (150–400AD) (see Clement of Alexandria, and Evagrius Ponticus). This knowledge and contemplation leads to communion with God akin to Divine Providence. St. Macarius of Egypt. In the theological tradition of Macarius of Egypt (ca. 300–391AD) and Pseudo-Macarius, theoria is the point of interaction between God and the human in the heart of the person, manifesting spiritual gifts to the human heart. The highest form of contemplation originates in the heart (see agape), a higher form of contemplation than that of the intellect. The concept that theoria is allotted to each unique individual by their capacity to comprehend God is consistent. This is also the tradition of theoria, as taught by St. Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022AD), that one cannot be a theologian unless one sees the hypostases of God or the uncreated light. This experience cultivates humility, meekness and the love of the human race that the Triune God has created. This invisible fire in the heart for humanity is manifest in absolute kindness and love for one's neighbor akin to selfless humility, agape or love, growing from mortification, kenosis {'self-emptying'}, or epiclesis {the invocation of the divine (??)}. This agape, or holy fire, is the essence of Orthodoxy. Cappadocian tradition. In the Cappadocian school of thought (Saint Basil {of Caesarea}, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint Gregory Nazianzus) (350–400AD), theoria is the experience of the highest or absolute truth, realized by complete union with God. It is entering the 'Cloud of Unknowing', which is beyond rational understanding, and can be embraced only in love of God (Agape or Awe). The Cappadocian fathers went beyond the intellectual contemplation of the Alexandrian fathers. This was to begin with the seminal work Philokalia {Добротолюбие, Филокалия}, which, through hesychasm, leads to Phronema {mind/understanding of the Spirit} and finally theosis {glorification, deification}, which is validated by theoria {contemplation, illumination}. One must move beyond gnosis to faith (meta-gnosis). Through ignorance, one moves beyond knowledge and being, this contemplation being theoria. In this tradition, theoria means understanding that the Uncreated cannot be grasped by the logical or rational mind, but only by the whole person (unity of heart and mind); this perception is that of the nous. God was knowable in his manifestations, but ultimately, one must transcend knowledge or gnosis, since knowledge is based on reflection, and because gnosis is limited and can become a barrier between man and God (as an idolatry). If one wishes to commune with God, one must enter into the Divine filial relation with God the Father through Jesus Christ, one in ousia with the Father, which results in pure faith without any preconceived notions of God. At this point, one can commune with God just as Moses did. Gregory of Nyssa presented as the culmination of the Christian religion the contemplation of the divine Being and its eternal Will. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite's apophaticism Main article: Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (5th to early 6th century; writing before 532), himself influenced by the Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus, had a strong impact on Christian thought and practice, both east and west. Theoria is the main theme of Dionysius’ work called "The Mystical Theology". In chapter 1, Dionysius says that God dwells in divine darkness i.e. God is unknowable through sense and reason. Therefore, a person must leave behind the activity of sense and reason and enter into spiritual union with God. Through spiritual union with God (theosis), the mystic is granted theoria and through this vision is ultimately given knowledge of God. In the tradition of Dionysus the Areopagite, theoria is the lifting up of the individual out of time, space and created being, while the Triune God reaches down, or descends, to the hesychast. This process is also known as ekstasis ("mystical ecstasy"). While theoria is possible through prayer, it is attained in a perfect way through the Eucharist. Perfect vision of the deity, perceptible in its uncreated light, is the "mystery of the eighth day". The eighth day is the day of the Eucharist but it also has an eschatological dimension as it is the day outside of the week i.e. beyond time. It is the start of a new eon in human history. Through the Eucharist people experience the eternity of God who transcends time and space. The Dionysian writings and their mystical teaching were universally accepted throughout the East, amongst both Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedonians. St. Gregory Palamas, for example, in referring to these writings, calls the author, "an unerring beholder of divine things". In western Christianity Dionysius's "via negativa" was particularly influential in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, on western mystics such as Marguerite Porete, Meister Eckhart, John Tauler, Jan van Ruusbroec, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing (who made an expanded Middle English translation of Dionysius' Mystical Theology), Jean Gerson, Nicholas of Cusa, Denys the Carthusian, Julian of Norwich and Harphius Herp. His influence can also be traced in the Spanish Carmelite thought of the sixteenth century among Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. Eastern Orthodox Church. Symeon the New Theologian. {Main article: Symeon the New Theologian} Symeon the New Theologian (sometimes spelled "Simeon") (Greek: Συμεὼν ὁ Νέος Θεολόγος; 949–1022 AD) was a Byzantine Christian monk and poet who was the last of three saints canonized by the Eastern Orthodox church and given the title of "Theologian" (along with John the Apostle and Gregory of Nazianzus). "Theologian" was not applied to Symeon in the modern academic sense of theological study; the title was designed only to recognize someone who spoke from personal experience of the vision of God. One of his principal teachings was that humans could and should experience theoria (literally "contemplation," or direct experience of God). Symeon repeatedly describes the experience of divine light in his writings, as both an inward and outward mystical experience. These experiences began in his youth, and continued all during his life. They came to him during inward prayer and contemplation, and were associated with a feeling of indescribable joy, as well as the intellectual understanding that the light was a vision of God. In his writings, he spoke directly to God about the experience variously as "the pure Light of your face" and "You deigned to reveal Your face to me like a formless sun." He also described the light as the grace of God, and taught that its experience was associated with a mind that was completely still and had transcended itself. At times he described the light speaking to him with kindness, and explaining who it was. A central theme throughout Symeon's teachings and writings is that all Christians should aspire to have actual direct experience of God in deep contemplation, or theoria. Regarding his own mystical experiences, he presented them not as unique to himself, but as the norm for all Christians. He taught that the experience came after purification through prayer, repentance, and asceticism. He especially called on his monks to take on the traditional charismatic and prophetic role in the Church. In his writings, Symeon emphasized the power of the Holy Spirit to transform, and the profound mystical union with God that is the end result of a holy life. Symeon referred to this as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, compared to the more ritualistic Baptism of water. Symeon believed that Christianity had descended into formulae and church ritual, which for many people replaced the earlier emphasis on actual and direct experience of God. The Discourses express Symeon's strong conviction that the life of a Christian must be much more than mere observance of rules, and must include personal experience of the presence of the living Christ. Symeon describes his own conversion and mystical experience of the divine light. Palamism and the Hesychast controversy. {Main articles: Palamism and Hesychast controversy} Under St. Gregory Palamas (1296–1359AD), the different traditions of theoria were synthesized into an understanding of theoria that, through baptism, one receives the Holy Spirit. Through participation in the sacraments of the Church and the performance of works of faith, one cultivates a relationship with God. If one then, through willful submission to God, is devotional and becomes humble, akin to the Theotokos and the saints, and proceeds in faith past the point of rational contemplation, one can experience God. Palamas stated that this is not a mechanized process because each person is unique, but that the apodictic way that one experiences the uncreated light, or God, is through contemplative prayer called hesychasm. Theoria is cultivated through each of the steps of the growing process of theosis. Gregory was initially asked by his fellow monks on Mount Athos to defend them from the charges of Barlaam of Calabria. Barlaam believed that philosophers had a greater knowledge of God than did the prophets, and valued education and learning more than contemplative prayer. Palamas taught that the truth is a person, Jesus Christ, a form of objective reality. In order for a Christian to be authentic, he or she must experience the Truth (i.e. Christ) as a real person (see hypostasis). Gregory further asserted that when Peter, James and John witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, they were seeing the uncreated light of God, and that it is possible for others to be granted to see it, using spiritual disciplines (ascetic practices) and contemplative prayer. The only true way to experience Christ, according to Palamas, was the Eastern Orthodox faith. Once a person discovers Christ (through the Orthodox church), they begin the process of theosis, which is the gradual submission to the Truth (i.e. God) in order to be deified (theosis). Theoria is seen to be the experience of God hypostatically in person. However, since the essence of God is unknowable, it also cannot be experienced. Palamas expressed theoria as an experience of God as it happens to the whole person (soul or nous), not just the mind or body, in contrast to an experience of God that is drawn from memory, the mind, or in time. Gnosis and all knowledge are created, as they are derived or created from experience, self-awareness and spiritual knowledge. Theoria, here, is the experience of the uncreated in various degrees, i.e. the vision of God or to see God. The experience of God in the eighth day or outside of time therefore transcends the self and experiential knowledge or gnosis. Gnosis is most importantly understood as a knowledge of oneself; theoria is the experience of God, transcending the knowledge of oneself.[note 1] St. Gregory Palamas died on November 14, 1359; his last words were, "To the heights! To the heights!" He is commemorated on the Second Sunday of Great Lent because Gregory's victory over Barlaam is seen as a continuation of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, i.e., the victory of the Church over heresy.

* Phronema. Phronema is a transliteration of the Greek word φρόνημα, which has the meanings of "mind", "spirit", "thought", "purpose", "will", and can have either a positive meaning ("high spirit", "resolution", "pride") or a bad sense ("presumption", "arrogance"). In the New Testament, the word is used four times in Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans: twice with "τῆς σαρκός" (of the flesh) and twice with "τοῦ πνεύματος" (of the spirit): "for the mind of the flesh [is] death, and the mind of the Spirit – life and peace; because the mind of the flesh [is] enmity to God ...and He who is searching the hearts hath known what [is] the mind of the Spirit" (Romans 8:6-7,27). Eastern Orthodox theology. The term phronema is used in Eastern Orthodox theology for one particular mindset or outlook – the Orthodox mind. The attaining of phronema in this sense is a matter of practicing the correct faith (orthodoxia) in the correct manner (orthopraxis). Attaining phronema is regarded as the first step toward theosis, the state of glorification. // Phronema. Phronema is a Greek term that is used in Orthodox theology to refer to mindset or outlook; it is the Orthodox mind. The attaining of phronema is a matter of practicing the correct faith (orthodoxia) in the correct manner (orthopraxia). Attaining phronema is regarded as the first step toward theosis, the state of glorification. Meaning. These terms are part of what is called the "therapeutic method" of Orthodoxy, or the "therapeutic tradition." Orthodox theology teaches that a faith is true if it heals spiritual sickness, and brings the faithful to "behold the uncreated Light." Phronema refers to "the completely self-sacrificial trust and faith in religious and ethical truths... from the voice of God.... an unshakeable certainty about the truth of Faith... undiminished and vibrant throughout life, a continually verified daily experience," "a growing feeling for and understanding of God's and the practice of Orthodox piety—Orthodox Worship and behavior." The phronema is vested in tradition "against all heresies and schisms of all times". The "mind of the Fathers" is also termed phronema as is the "mind of the Church." OrthodoxWiki - Phronema // Таким образом, главная особенность социогумантарного знания заключается в «пристрастном» отношении к бытию. Знание получает гуманитарный потенциал тогда, когда оно не просто описывает бытие и открывает его характеристики как вечные, постоянные и неизменные законы бытия, а когда проявляется уважение к существованию объекта, когда оно открывает и учитывает хрупкость и неповторимость бытия, когда оно знает, что может быть нанесен ущерб бытию. И таким потенциалом может обладать не только знание о человеческой реальности, но и знание о чисто природных явлениях, например, экологическое знание. Поэтому гуманитарное знание – это такое знание, которое реагирует на возможность изменения бытия, более того – на возможность исчезновения (смерти) бытия, которое оно знает, на возможность небытия. Это знание, которое знает небытие, и этим оно отличается от знания в классическом смысле, которое знает конкретное сущее или сущее как таковое. Знание сущего, как оно сформировалось в античной культуре, получило название эпистема (epistéme – знание, умение, наука, от epistamai – знать, уметь, полагать, думать). Именно такое знание ориентировано на общее и закон и появляется в результате генерализации. Для обозначения мышления и мысли, живой мысли, выражающей намерение, план, греки употребляли слово фронема (frónema – мысль, мнение, намерение, образ мыслей, дух, от froneo – мыслить, обладать умом, думать). Гуманитарное знание по сути своей есть фронема, а не эпистема, оно сохраняет свою связь с реальным состоянием мышления познающего субъекта, так как для гуманитарного познания важна позиция познающего по отношению к познаваемому, в конечном счете, важна даже личностная реакция на ситуацию познания. Поэтому социогуманитарное познание должно быть понято как такая работа познающего ума, которая рождает мысль (фронему), а не знание (эпистему), мысль о... как живое содержание ума (или «живознание», по выражению русского мыслителя А.Хомякова), которое может в любое мгновение измениться, а не знание, истинность которого остается на века. Состояние мысли предполагает не просто знание, но и знание о знании, когда обнаруживаются границы знания, и тем самым мысль вводится в область незнания. Это состояние познающего ума сопровождает всякое познание, ведущее к появлению нового знания, но в случае знания о природе ставшее научное знание теряет свою связь с живой мыслью, отрывается от нее, объективируясь в языке (в научных терминах или формализмах), и реализуется благодаря работе этого языка, а в случае знания о человеческом мире ставшее знание не может разорвать свою связь с живой мыслью, так как для своего существования требует действия человека в бытии, о котором оно высказывается. Эпистема науки и фронема социогуманитарного знания – два различных продукта познающего ума. Эпистема науки говорит о сущем, а фронема говорит о бытии-в-мире. Характеристики социального знания

* John Scotus Eriugena [Johannes Scotus Erigena, neoplatonist theologian; Иоанн Скот Эриугена] (c 800-c 877) was an Irish theologian, neoplatonist philosopher, and poet. He wrote a number of works, but is best known today for having written The Division of Nature, which has been called the "final achievement" of ancient philosophy, a work which "synthesizes the philosophical accomplishments of fifteen centuries." He also translated and made commentaries upon the work of Pseudo-Dionysius, and was one of the few Western European philosophers of his day that knew Greek, having studied in Byzantine Athens. || Eriugena is generally classified as a neoplatonist, though he was not influenced directly by such pagan philosophers as Plotinus or Iamblichus, Jean Trouillard stated that, although he was almost exclusively dependent on Christian theological texts and the Christian Canon, Eriugena, "reinvented the greater part of the theses of Neoplatonism." || A tradition, largely considered spurious, says he was stabbed to death by his students at Malmesbury with their pens. His work is largely based upon Augustine of Hippo, Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, and the Cappadocian Fathers, and is clearly Neoplatonist. He revived the transcendentalist standpoint of Neoplatonism with its "graded hierarchy" approach. By going back to Plato, he revived the nominalist–realist debate. The Greek Fathers were his favourite authors, especially Gregory the Theologian, and Basil the Great. Of the Latins he prized Augustine most highly. The influence of these was towards freedom and not towards restraint in theological speculation. This freedom he reconciled with his respect for the teaching authority of the Church as he understood it. The first of the works known to have been written by Eriugena during this period was a treatise on the Eucharist, which has not survived. In it he seems to have advanced the doctrine that the Eucharist was merely symbolical or commemorative, an opinion for which Berengar of Tours was at a later date censured and condemned. As a part of his penance, Berengarius is said to have been compelled to burn publicly Eriugena's treatise. So far as we can learn, however, Eriugena was considered orthodox and a few years later was selected by Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, to defend the doctrine of liberty of will against the extreme [two-fold] predestinarianism of the monk Gottschalk (Gotteschalchus). Many in the Church opposed Gottschalk's position because it denied the inherent value of good works. The treatise De divina praedestinatione composed for this occasion has been preserved, and it was probably from its content that Eriugena's orthodoxy became suspect. Eriugena argues the question of predestination entirely on speculative grounds, and starts with the bold affirmation that philosophy and religion are fundamentally one and the same. Even more significant is his handling of authority and reason. Eriugena offered a skilled proof that there can be predestination only to the good, for all folk are summoned to be saints. The work was warmly assailed by Drepanius Florus, canon of Lyons, and Prudentius, and was condemned by two councils: that of Valence in 855, and that of Langres in 859. By the former council his arguments were described as Pultes Scotorum ("Irish porridge") and commentum diaboli ("an invention of the devil"). Eriugena is believed to have been a believer in apocatastasis or universal reconciliation, which maintains that the universe will eventually be restored under God's dominion {Golden Age (??)} (see also Christian Universalism). Eriugena's great work, De divisione naturae (On the Division of Nature) or Periphyseon, is arranged in five books. The form of exposition is that of dialogue; the method of reasoning is the syllogism. Nature (Natura in Latin or physis in Greek) is the name of the most comprehensive of all unities, that which contains within itself the most primary division of all things, that which is (being) and that which is not (nonbeing). The Latin title refers to these four divisions of nature: (1) that which creates and is not created; (2) that which is created and creates; (3) that which is created and does not create; (4) that which is neither created nor creates. The first is God as the ground or origin of all things; the second, Platonic ideas or forms; the third, phenomena, the material world; and the last is God as the final end or goal of all things, and that into which the world of created things ultimately returns {Monad (??)}. The "creation" of the world is in reality a theophania, or showing forth of the Essence of God in the things created. Just as He reveals Himself to the mind and the soul in higher intellectual and spiritual truth, so He reveals Himself to the senses in the created world around us. Creation is, therefore, a process of unfolding of the Divine Nature. The Division of Nature has been called the final achievement of ancient philosophy, a work which "synthesizes the philosophical accomplishments of fifteen centuries." It is presented, like Alcuin's book, as a dialogue between Master and Pupil. Eriugena anticipates Thomas Aquinas, who said that one cannot know and believe a thing at the same time. Eriugena explains that reason is necessary to understand and interpret revelation. "Authority is the source of knowledge, but the reason of mankind is the norm by which all authority is judged." It was condemned by a council at Sens by Honorius III (1225), for appearing to promote the identity of God and creation {pantheism}, and by Gregory XIII in 1585. According to Max Bernhard Weinstein, Eriugena argued on behalf of something like a panentheistic definition of nature, although Eriugena himself denied that he was a pantheist. He maintained that for one to return to God, he must first go forth from Him. Eriugena's work is distinguished by the freedom of his speculation, and the boldness with which he works out his logical or dialectical system of the universe. He marks, indeed, a stage of transition from the older Platonizing philosophy to the later scholasticism. For him philosophy is not in the service of theology. His assertion that philosophy and religion are fundamentally one and the same is repeated almost word for word by many of the later scholastic writers, but its significance depends upon the selection of one or other term of the identity as fundamental or primary. For Eriugena, philosophy or reason is first, primitive; authority or religion is secondary, derived. Eriugena's influence was greater with mystics than with logicians, but he was responsible for a revival of philosophical thought which had remained largely dormant in western Europe after the death of Boethius. Leszek Kołakowski, a Polish Marx scholar, has mentioned Eriugena as one of the primary influences on Hegel's, and therefore Marx's, dialectical form. In particular, he called De Divisione Naturae a prototype of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. // Religion Wiki - Johannes Scotus Eriugena The first of the works known to have been written by Eriugena during this period was a treatise on the Eucharist, which has not come down to us. In it he seems to have advanced the doctrine that the Eucharist was merely symbolical or commemorative, an opinion for which Berengar of Tours was at a later date censured and condemned. As a part of his penance, Berengarius is said to have been compelled to burn publicly Eriugena's treatise. So far as we can learn, however, Eriugena's orthodoxy was not at the time suspected, and a few years later he was selected by Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, to defend the doctrine of liberty of will against the extreme predestinarianism of the monk Gottschalk (Gotteschalchus). The treatise De divina praedestinatione, composed on this occasion, has been preserved, and from its general tenor one cannot be surprised that the author's orthodoxy was at once and vehemently suspected. The Church was threatened by Gottschalk's position because it denies the inherent value of good works. Eriugena argues the question entirely on speculative grounds, and starts with the bold affirmation that philosophy and religion are fundamentally one and the same. Even more significant is his handling of authority and reason. Eriugena offered a skilled proof that there can be predestination only to the good, in that all men are summoned to be saints. The work was warmly assailed by Drepanius Florus, canon of Lyons, and Prudentius, and was condemned by two councils: that of Valence in 855, and that of Langres in 859. By the former council his arguments were described as Pultes Scotorum ("Irish porridge") and commentum diaboli ("an invention of the devil"). Eriugena was a Christian universalist; he believed that all people and all beings, including animals, reflect attributes of God, towards whom all are capable of progressing and to which all things ultimately must return. To Eriugena, hell was not a place but a condition and punishment was purifying, not penal. He was a believer in apocatastasis, which maintains that all moral creatures—angels, humans and devils—will eventually come to a harmony in God's kingdom. He based his beliefs on the Greek writings of the early Christian fathers, like Origen, and considered himself an orthodox Christian thinker. // SEP - John Scottus Eriugena Overall, Eriugena develops a Neoplatonic cosmology according to which the infinite, transcendent, and “unknown” God, who is beyond being and non-being, through a process of self-articulation, procession, or “self-creation” {~emanation}, proceeds from his divine “darkness” or “non-being” into the light of being, speaking the Word who is understood as Christ, and at the same timeless moment bringing forth the Primary Causes of all creation. These causes in turn proceed into their Created Effects and as such are creatures entirely dependent on, and will ultimately return to, their sources, which are the Causes or Ideas in God. These Causes, considered as diverse and infinite in themselves, are actually one single principle in the divine One. The whole of reality or nature, is involved in a dynamic process of outgoing (exitus) from and return (reditus) to the One. God is the One or the Good or the highest principle, which transcends all, and which therefore may be said to be “the non-being that transcends being”. In an original departure from traditional Neoplatonism, in his dialogue Periphyseon, this first and highest cosmic principle is called “nature” (natura) and is said to include both God and creation. Nature is defined as universitas rerum, the “totality of all things”, and includes both the things which are (ea quae sunt) as well as those which are not (ea quae non sunt). This divine nature may be divided into a set of four “species” or “divisions” (divisiones) which nevertheless retain their unity with their source. These four divisions of nature taken together are to be understood as God, presented as the “Beginning, Middle, and End of all things”. [E28]

* Solomon ibn Gabirol [Шломо Ибн Габироль; neoplatonist philosopher] (XI). Solomon ibn Gabirol was an 11th-century Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher in the Neo-Platonic tradition. He published over a hundred poems, as well as works of biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics and satire. One source credits ibn Gabirol with creating a golem, possibly female, for household chores. Gabirol made his mark on the history of philosophy under his alias as Avicebron, one of the first teachers of Neo-Platonism in Europe, and author of Fons Vitæ. As such, he is best known for the doctrine that all things, including soul and intellect, are composed of matter and form (“Universal Hylomorphism”), and for his emphasis on divine will. His role has been compared to that of Philo both were ignored by their fellow Jews, but exercised considerable influence upon Gentiles (Philo upon primitive Christianity, Gabirol upon medieval Christian scholasticism); and both served as cultural intermediaries (Philo between Hellenistic philosophy and the Oriental world; Gabirol between Greco-Arabic philosophy and the Occident). Fons Vitæ posits that the basis of existence and the source of life in every created thing is a combination of "matter" (Latin: materia universalis) and "form". The doctrine of matter and form informed the work's subtitle: "De Materia et Forma." Its chief doctrines are: 1) everything that exists may be reduced to three categories: God; matter and form (i.e. Creation); will (an intermediary). 2) All created beings are constituted of form and matter. This holds true for both the physical world (Latin: substantiis corporeis sive compositis) and the spiritual world (Latin: substantiis spiritualibus sive simplicibus), which latter are the connecting link between the first substance (i.e. the Godhead, Latin: essentia prima) and the physical world (Latin: substantia, quæ sustinet novem prædicamenta, lit. "substance divided into nine categories"). 3) Matter and form are always and everywhere in the relation of "sustinens" and "sustentatum", "propriatum" and "proprietas": substratum and property or attribute. For over six centuries, the Christian world regarded Fons Vitæ as the work of a Christian philosopher or Arabic Muslim philosopher, and it became a cornerstone and bone of contention in many theologically charged debates between Franciscans and Dominicans. The Aristotelian Dominicans led by St. Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas opposed the teachings of Fons Vitæ; the Platonist Franciscans led by Duns Scotus supported its teachings, and led to its acceptance in Christian philosophy, influencing later philosophers such as the 16th-century Dominican friar Giordano Bruno.

* David of Dinant [Давид Динанский] (c 1160-c 1217; pantheistic philosopher). David of Dinant was a pantheistic philosopher. He may have been a member of, or at least been influenced by, a pantheistic sect known as the Amalricians. David was condemned by the Church in 1210 for his writing of the "Quaternuli", which forced him to flee Paris. (...) From these sources we learn that David was a Pantheist. He identified God with the material substratum of all things, materia prima (prime matter) {undifferentiated prime matter}. He reduced all reality to three categories, namely bodies, minds, and eternal substances. The indivisible substrate or constituent of bodies is matter (yle); of minds, or souls, intellect (nous); and of eternal substances, God (Deus). These three, matter, intellect, and God, are one and the same. Consequently, all things, material, intellectual, and spiritual, have one and the same essence — God. The phraseology, which must be David's own, as well as the title above mentioned, "De Tomis", suggests the influence of Johannes Scotus Eriugena. Eriugena's work must have been widely known and read in the first decades of the thirteenth century, as is evident from many undeniable facts. Whether David was influenced also by Amalric of Chartres is a matter of debate. Albert, who was a contemporary of David, says that David merely renewed the heresy of someone known as Alexander, "who taught that God and intellect and matter are one substance". It is impossible to determine whom Albert means by Alexander, "a disciple of Xenophanes"; probably the reference is to some Arabian work that went under the name of a Greek philosopher. There were several works of that kind current in the early part of the thirteenth century. Some critics, however, put forward the surmise that David's immediate source was Avicebron's "Fons Vitæ", or the work "De Unitate", written by Archdeacon Gundisalvi of Segovia, who was well versed in Arabian philosophical literature. Whatever the source, the doctrines were pantheistic, as all authorities concur in describing them.

* Amalric of Bena [Amaury de Bène/Chartres, pantheist philosopher, cult leader; Амальрик из Бена] (d c 1204-07). Amalric of Bena (French: Amaury de Bène, Amaury de Chartres; Latin: Almaricus, Amalricus, Amauricus) was a French theologian, philosopher and sect leader, after whom the Amalricians are named. Amalric taught philosophy and theology at the University of Paris and enjoyed a great reputation as a subtle dialectician, his lectures developing the philosophy of Aristotle attracted a large audience. In 1204 his doctrines were condemned by the university and, on a personal appeal to Pope Innocent III, the sentence was ratified, Amalric being ordered to return to Paris and recant his errors. Amalric appears to have derived his philosophical system from [John Scotus] Eriugena, whose principles he developed in a one-sided and strongly pantheistic form. Only three propositions can be attributed to him with certainty: that God is all (omnia sunt deus) and thus all things are one because whatever is, is God (omnia unum, quia quidquid est, est Deus); that every Christian is bound to believe that he is a member of the body of Christ, and that this belief is necessary for salvation; that he who remains in love of God can commit no sin. Because of the first proposition, God himself is thought to be invisible and only recognizable in his creation. According to Hosea Ballou, then Pierre Batiffol and George T. Knight (1914) Amalric believed that all people would eventually be saved and this was one of the counts upon which he was declared a heretic by Pope Innocent III. (...) Almaric was posthumously subjected to the persecution. Besides being included in the condemnation of his disciples, a special sentence of excommunication was pronounced against him in the council of 1210, and his bones were exhumed from their resting-place and cast into unconsecrated ground. The doctrine was condemned again by Pope Innocent III in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) "as insanity rather than heresy", and in 1225 Pope Honorius III condemned the work of Johannes Scotus Eriugena, De Divisione Naturæ, from which Amalric was supposed to have derived the beginnings of his heresy. The movement survived, however, and later followers went even further, arguably evolving into the Brethren of the Free Spirit. // Amalricians. A denomination that arose in the thirteenth century. They derived their origin from Almaric Amalric, professor of logic and theology at Paris. His adversaries charged him with having taught that every Christian was obliged to believe himself a member of Jesus Christ, and that without this belief none could be saved. His followers asserted that the power of the Father had continued only during the Mosaic dispensation, that of the Son twelve hundred years after his entrance upon earth; and that in the thirteenth century the age of the Holy Spirit commenced, in which the sacraments and all external worship were to be abolished; and that every one was to be saved by the internal operations of the Holy Spirit alone, without any external act of religion. Charles Buck Theological Dictionary // ALMARICIANS AMALRICIANS, the followers of Almaric Amalric, professor of logic and theology at Paris, in the fifteenth century. He opposed the worship of saints and images; and his enemies charged him with maintaining that in his time the reign of the Holy Spirit commenced, in which the sacraments and all external worship were to be abolished. A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/Almaricians // Unlike the Father and the Son, the Holy Ghost was to become incarnate, not merely in one individual of mankind, but in every member of the human race. Moreover, as the Old Law had lost its efficacy at the coming of Christ, so, in their day, the law of the Gospel was to be supplanted by the interior guidance of the Holy Ghost, indwelling in each human soul. In consequence of this they rejected the sacraments as obsolete and useless. Those in whom the Holy Spirit had already taken up His abode were called "the spiritualized", and were supposed to be already enjoying the life of the Resurrection. The signs of this interior illumination were the rejection of faith and hope, as tending to keep the soul in darkness, and the acceptance, in their place, of the light of positive knowledge {spiritualization as a liberation from mere belief and the embracement of a curiosity for knowledge; the basis of all science!!}. It followed from this, that in knowledge and the acquisition of new truths consisted their paradise; while ignorance, which meant adherence to the old order of things, was their substitute for hell. New Advent - Catholic Encyclopedia - Amalricians // АМОРИ, АМАЛЬРИК (Amaury, Amalricus, Amauricus) Венский (ок. сер. 12 в., Бен близ Шартра – между 1205 и 1207, Париж) – магистр логики и теологии Парижского университета до своего осуждения в 1204 за тезис о том, что каждый христианин должен верить в свою принадлежность к телу Христа и причастность к его крестному страданию. Учение Амори гадательно реконструируется по полемике Иоанна Тевтоника, Фомы Аквинского, Альберта Великого, Г.Сузо, Гильома Бретонского, у церковных историков. Амори прочитывал слова ап. Павла «будет Бог все во всем» и Псевдо-Дионисия Ареопагита «Бог бытие всего» в том смысле, что Бог есть сущность всех тварей и мировое бытие; поскольку все вернется к нему, а он вечно неизменен, то уже сейчас «все едино и любая вещь есть Бог»; люди по своей слепоте не видят это, зло есть плод невежества. Амори ожидал «третьей эпохи» мира, откровения Св. Духа. Его вынудили отречься от своих учений, в 1209 был эксгумирован и сожжен его труп. Начав крестовый поход против альбигойцев, церковь посмертно отлучила Амори; заодно с ним были осуждены Давид Динанский, Годен Амьенский, (отчасти) Эриугена {Eriugena}, запрещено (на время) преподавание «Метафизики» и натурфилософии Аристотеля. // "Были еще амориты, практиковавшие всеобщую коллективную любовь."

* Amalricians [Амальрикане] (XIII). The Amalricians were a pantheist, free love movement named after Amalric of Bena. The beliefs are thought to have influenced the Brethren of the Free Spirit. The beginnings of medieval pantheistic Christian theology lie in the early 13th century, with theologians at Paris, such as David of Dinant, Amalric of Bena, and Ortlieb of Strasbourg, and was later mixed with the millenarist theories of Gioacchino da Fiore. Fourteen followers of Amalric began to preach that "all things are One, because whatever is, is God." They believed that after the age of the Father (the Patriarchal Age) and the age of the Son (Christianity), a new age of the Holy Spirit was at hand. The Amalricians, who included many priests and clerics, succeeded for some time in propagating their beliefs without being detected by the ecclesiastical authorities. // These three propositions were further developed by his followers, who maintained that God revealed Himself in a threefold revelation {three eras}, the first in the Biblical patriarch Abraham, marking the epoch of the Father; the second in Jesus Christ, who began the epoch of the Son; and the third in Amalric and his disciples, who inaugurated the era of the Holy Ghost. Amalricians taught: Hell is ignorance, therefore Hell is within all men, "like a bad tooth in a mouth"; God is identical with all that is, even evil belongs to God and proves God's omnipotence; A man who knows that God works through everything cannot sin, because every human act is then the act of God; * A man who recognizes the truth that God works through everything is already in Heaven and this is the only resurrection. There is no other life; man's fulfillment is in this life alone. Due to persecutions, this sect does not appear to have long survived the death of its founder. Not long after the burning of ten of their members (1210), the sect itself lost its importance, while some of the surviving Amalricians became Brethren of the Free Spirit.

* Almaricians (see Amalricians).

* Almaric (see Amalric of Bena)

* Ortlieb of Strasbourg [pantheist theologian; Ортлиб Страсбургский, Ортлиб из Страсбурга] (early XIII). Ortlieb of Strasbourg ( also spelled Ordevus, Orclenus, Ortlevus and Ortlibus) was a theologian in the early 13th century who lived in Strasbourg. He was the founder of a pantheistic movement, whose followers called themselves the Ortlibarii (or Ortliebers, Ortliebiens, Ortibenses, Ordibarii). His teachings were condemned by Pope Innocent III in c. 1216. His followers were mentioned in 1239 in an anti-heresy law of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, and in 1254 in a papal bull. The main resource for detail on Ortlieb is Albertus Magnus's Determinatio (1273). The only statement traditionally attributed to him is "A man ought to give up all externals and follow the leadings of the Spirit within himself." He taught a pantheistic union of man with God and the eternity of existence, contrary to the creationist dogma of the church. By ''giving up externals" he meant that the inner authority of the Spirit was much more important then church hierarchy, sacraments and so forth. No wonder that his teachings were branded heretical by the church authorities. There are suggestions that similarities have been detected between the teaching and practices of Ortliebarii and the Waldensians, the Cathari and the Amalrcians. Rufus M. Jones suggests that Ortlieb was Amalrician and a disciple of Amalric of Bena. Ортлиб Страсбургский. Ортлиб Страсбургский (также пишется Ordevus, Orclenus, Ortlevus и Ortlibus) был теологом в начале 13 века, который жил в Страсбург. Он был основателем пантеистического движения, последователи которого называли себя (или Ортлиберс, Ортлибиенс, Ортибенсес, Ордибари). Его учение было осуждено Папой Иннокентием III в ок. 1216. Его последователи упоминаются в 1239 г. в законе о борьбе с ересью Фридриха II, императора Священной Римской империи , и в 1254 г. в папской булле. Основным источником подробных сведений об Ортлибе является Determinatio Альберта Магнуса (1273). Единственное утверждение, которое ему традиционно приписывают: «Человек должен отказаться от всего внешнего и следовать указаниям Духа внутри себя». Он учил пантеистическому единству человека с Богом и вечности существования, вопреки креационистской догме церкви. Под «отказом от внешнего» он имел в виду, что внутренний авторитет Духа был намного важнее церковной иерархии, таинств и т. Д. Неудивительно, что его учение было заклейменным еретическим церковными властями. Есть предположения, что были обнаружены сходства между учением и практикой ортлибариев и вальденсов , катаров и амальрцианцы . Руфус М. Джонс предполагает, что Ортлиб был амальрикийцем и учеником Амальрика из Бены. 360Wiki - Ортлиб из Страсбурга - Orrin B. Hartley House

* Duns Scotus [John Duns, theologian, philosopher; Иоанн Дунс Скот] (c. 1265/66 - 1308). John Duns, commonly called Duns Scotus ("Duns the Scot"), was a Scottish Catholic priest and Franciscan friar, university professor, philosopher, and theologian. He is one of the three most important philosopher-theologians of Western Europe in the High Middle Ages, together with Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham. Scotus has had considerable influence on both Catholic and secular thought. The doctrines for which he is best known are the "univocity of being", that existence is the most abstract concept we have, applicable to everything that exists; the formal distinction, a way of distinguishing between different aspects of the same thing; and the idea of haecceity, the property supposed to be in each individual thing that makes it an individual. Scotus also developed a complex argument for the existence of God, and argued for the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Duns Scotus was given the scholastic accolade Doctor Subtilis ("the Subtle Doctor") for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1993.

* Angela of Foligno [mystic; Блаженная Анжела/Анджела из Фолиньо] (1248-1309). Saint Angela of Foligno, T.O.S.F. was an Italian Franciscan tertiary who became known as a mystic from her extensive writings about her mystical revelations. Due to the respect those writings engendered in the Catholic Church she became known as "Mistress of Theologians". Angela was noted not only for her spiritual writings, but also for founding a religious community which refused to become an enclosed religious order so that it might continue her vision of caring for those in need. It is still active. The Catholic Church declared Angela to be a saint in 2013. Considered a "great medieval mystic," Angela is said to have received mystical revelations, which she dictated to a scribe in the late 13th century. These accounts are contained in a compilation of two works, usually published under the title Il Libro della Beata Angela da Foligno.

*Marguerite Porete [beguine ?? mystic; Маргарита Поретанская] (XIII-1310). Marguerite Porete was a French-speaking mystic and the author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, a work of Christian mysticism dealing with the workings of agape (divine love). She was burnt at the stake for heresy in Paris in 1310 after a lengthy trial, refusing to remove her book from circulation or recant her views. Today, Porete's work has been of interest to a diverse number of scholars. Those interested in medieval mysticism, and more specifically beguine {>>} mystical writing, cite The Mirror of Simple Souls in their studies. The book is also seen as a primary text regarding the medieval Heresy of the Free Spirit {Brethren ot FS ~ 'heretical beguines/beghards'}. Study of Eckhart has shown a similarity between his and Porete's ideas about union with God. // Porete was a Beguine {??}. Marguerite de Porete by Student Elizabeth Cobb

* Meister Eckhart [Майстер Экхарт] (c 1260-c 1328). Eckhart von Hochheim OP, commonly known as Meister Eckhart or Eckehart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha in the Landgraviate of Thuringia (now central Germany) in the Holy Roman Empire. Eckhart came into prominence during the Avignon Papacy at a time of increased tensions between monastic orders, diocesan clergy, the Franciscan Order, and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Preachers. In later life, he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII. He seems to have died before his verdict was received. He was well known for his work with pious lay groups such as the Friends of God and was succeeded by his more circumspect disciples John Tauler and Henry Suso.[citation needed] Since the 19th century, he has received renewed attention. He has acquired a status as a great mystic within contemporary popular spirituality, as well as considerable interest from scholars situating him within the medieval scholastic and philosophical tradition. Theology. In Eckhart's vision, God is primarily fecund. Out of overabundance of love the fertile God gives birth to the Son, the Word in all of us. Clearly, this is rooted in the Neoplatonic notion of "ebullience; boiling over" of the One that cannot hold back its abundance of Being. Eckhart had imagined the creation not as a "compulsory" overflowing (a metaphor based on a common hydrodynamic picture), but as the free act of will of the triune nature of Deity (refer Trinitarianism). Another bold assertion is Eckhart's distinction between God and Godhead (Gottheit in German, meaning Godhood or Godhead, state of being God). These notions had been present in Pseudo-Dionysius's writings and John the Scot's De divisione naturae, but Eckhart, with characteristic vigor and audacity, reshaped the germinal metaphors into profound images of polarity between the Unmanifest {essence} and Manifest Absolute {trinity: manifestation}. Contemplative method. John Orme Mills notes that Eckhart did not "leave us a guide to the spiritual life like St Bonaventure’s Itinerarium – the Journey of the Soul," but that his ideas on this have to be condensed from his "couple of very short books on suffering and detachment" and sermons. According to Mills, Eckhart's comments on prayer are only about contemplative prayer and "detachment." Theologia Germanica and the Reformation. It has been suspected that his practical communication of the mystical path is behind the influential 14th-century "anonymous" Theologia Germanica, which was disseminated after his disappearance. (...) The following quote from the Theologia Germanica depicts the conflict between worldly and ecclesiastical affairs: "The two eyes of the soul of man cannot both perform their work at once: but if the soul shall see with the right eye into eternity, then the left eye must close itself and refrain from working, and be as though it were dead. For if the left eye be fulfilling its office toward outward things, that is holding converse with time and the creatures; then must the right eye be hindered in its working; that is, in its contemplation. Therefore, whosoever will have the one must let the other go; for "no man can serve two masters"." (...) Eckhart generally followed Thomas Aquinas's doctrine of the Trinity, but Eckhart exaggerated the scholastic distinction between the divine essence and the divine persons. The very heart of Eckhart's speculative mysticism, according to Royce, is that if, through what is called in Christian terminology the procession of the Son, the divine omniscience gets a complete expression in eternal terms, still there is even at the centre of this omniscience the necessary mystery of the divine essence itself, which neither generates nor is generated, and which is yet the source and fountain of all the divine. The Trinity is, for Eckhart, the revealed God and the mysterious origin of the Trinity is the Godhead, the absolute God {overarching 'entity' -> quaternism - fourfold godhead}. (...) Modern spirituality. {See also: Nondualism} Meister Eckhart has become one of the timeless heroes of modern spirituality, which thrives on an all-inclusive syncretism. This syncretism started with the colonisation of Asia, and the search of similarities between Eastern and Western religions. Western monotheism was projected onto Eastern religiosity by Western orientalists, trying to accommodate Eastern religiosity to a Western understanding, whereafter Asian intellectuals used these projections as a starting point to propose the superiority of those Eastern religions. Early on, the figure of Meister Eckhart has played a role in these developments and exchanges. Renewed academic attention to Eckhart has attracted favorable attention to his work from contemporary non-Christian mystics. Eckhart's most famous single quote, "The Eye with which I see God is the same Eye with which God sees me", is commonly cited by thinkers within neopaganism and ultimatist Buddhism as a point of contact between these traditions and Christian mysticism. (...) Reiner Schurmann, a professor of philosophy, while agreeing with Daisetz T. Suzuki that there exist certain similarities between Zen Buddhism and Meister Eckhart's teaching, also disputed Suzuki's contention that the ideas expounded in Eckhart's sermons closely approach Buddhist thought, "so closely indeed, that one could stamp them almost definitely as coming out of Buddhist speculations". Schurmann's several clarifications included: 1) On the question of "Time" and Eckhart's view (claimed as parallel to Buddhism in reducing awakening to instantaneity) that the birth of the Word in the ground of the mind must accomplish itself in an instant, in "the eternal now", that in fact Eckhart in this respect is rooted directly in the catechisis of the Fathers of the Church rather than merely derived from Buddhism; 2) On the question of "Isness" and Suzuki's contention that the "Christian experiences are not after all different from those of the Buddhist; terminology is all that divides us", that in Eckhart "the Godhead's istigkeit [translated as "isness" by Suzuki] is a negation of all quiddities; it says that God, rather than non-being, is at the heart of all things" thereby demonstrating with Eckhart's theocentrism that "the istigkeit of the Godhead and the isness of a thing then refer to two opposite experiences in Meister Eckhart and Suzuki: in the former, to God, and in the latter, to `our ordinary state of the mind'" and Buddhism's attempts to think "pure nothingness"; 3) On the question of "Emptiness" and Eckhart's view (claimed as parallel to Buddhist emphasis "on the emptiness of all 'composite things'") that only a perfectly released person, devoid of all, comprehends, "seizes", God, that the Buddhist "emptiness" seems to concern man's relation to things while Eckhart's concern is with what is "at the end of the road opened by detachment [which is] the mind espouses the very movement of the divine dehiscence; it does what the Godhead does: it lets all things be; not only must God also abandon all of his own – names and attributes if he is to reach into the ground of the mind (this is already a step beyond the recognition of the emptiness of all composite things), but God's essential being – releasement – becomes the being of a released man." Майстер Экхарт. Майстер Экхарт (ср.-в.-нем. Meister Eckhart, традиц. русское написание Мейстер Экхарт), то есть учитель Экхарт, известный также как Иоганн Экхарт (Johannes Eckhart) и Экхарт из Хоххайма или Хоххаймский (Eckhart von Hochheim; ок. 1260; Хохгайм (Тюрингия) — ок. 1328; Авиньон) — средневековый немецкий теолог и философ, один из крупнейших христианских мистиков, учивший о присутствии Бога во всём существующем. Католическое учение не могло принять концепцию Экхарта, и в скором времени после его смерти папской буллой Иоанна XXII от 1329 года 28 положений его учения были объявлены ложными. В XX веке в Ватикане был поднят вопрос о реабилитации Экхарта. Экхарт дал определённый импульс развитию немецкой христианской мистики, предвосхитил идеалистическую диалектику Гегеля, повлиял на Лютера, сыграл большую роль в становлении литературного немецкого языка.

* Eckhart - Godhead [Экхарт - Абсолют]. In Eckhart's {c 1260-c 1328} vision, God is primarily fecund. Out of overabundance of love the fertile God gives birth to the Son, the Word in all of us. Clearly, this is rooted in the Neoplatonic notion of "ebullience; boiling over" of the One that cannot hold back its abundance of Being. Eckhart had imagined the creation not as a "compulsory" overflowing (a metaphor based on a common hydrodynamic picture), but as the free act of will of the triune nature of Deity (refer Trinitarianism). Another bold assertion is Eckhart's distinction between God and Godhead (Gottheit in German, meaning Godhood or Godhead, state of being God). These notions had been present in Pseudo-Dionysius's writings and John the Scot's De divisione naturae, but Eckhart, with characteristic vigor and audacity, reshaped the germinal metaphors into profound images of polarity between the Unmanifest and Manifest Absolute. (...) The Trinity is, for Eckhart, the revealed God and the mysterious origin of the Trinity is the Godhead, the absolute God. // Экхарт - Учение. (Meister Eckhart) Автор проповедей и трактатов, которые сохранились в основном в записях учеников. Главная тема его размышлений: Божество — безличный абсолют (gotheit), стоящий за Богом-Творцом. Божество непостижимо и невыразимо, оно есть «полная чистота божественной сущности», где нет никакого движения. (См. Эйн соф). Через своё самопознание Божество становится Богом. Бог есть вечное бытие и вечная жизнь. (...) По концепции Экхарта, человек способен познать Бога, поскольку в человеческой душе есть «божественная искорка», частица Божества. Человек, приглушив свою волю, должен пассивно предаться Богу. Тогда душа, отрешённая от всего, вознесётся до Божества и в мистическом экстазе, порывая с земным, сольётся с божественным. Блаженство зависит от внутренней самодеятельности человека. (...) (Майстер Экхарт)

* Johannes Tauler [neo-platonist theologian, mystic; Иоганн Таулер] (c 1300-1361). Johannes Tauler OP was a German mystic, a Roman Catholic priest and a theologian. A disciple of Meister Eckhart, he belonged to the Dominican order. Tauler was known as one of the most important Rhineland mystics. He promoted a certain neo-platonist dimension in the Dominican spirituality of his time. Таулер, Иоганн. Иоганн Таулер (ср.-в.-нем. Johannes Tauler, 1300, Страсбург —16 июня 1361, Страсбург) — немецкий христианский мистик и проповедник. "Царство Божие внутри нас."

* Beguines and Beghards [Бегинки и бегарды] (XIII-XVI). The Beguines and the Beghards were Christian lay religious orders {challenged the authority of the Church almost per definition} that were active in Western Europe, particularly in the Low Countries, in the 13th–16th centuries. Their members lived in semi-monastic communities but did not take formal religious vows. That is, although they promised not to marry "as long as they lived as Beguines," to quote one of the early Rules, they were free to leave at any time. Beguines were part of a larger spiritual revival movement of the 13th century that stressed imitation of Christ's life through voluntary poverty, care of the poor and sick, and religious devotion. Religious authorities believed the Beguines had heretical tendencies and sometimes tried to bring disciplinary measures against them. The Synods of Fritzlar (1259), Mainz (1261), and Eichstätt (1282) brought measures against them and they were forbidden as "having no approbation" by the Synod of Béziers (1299). They were condemned by the Council of Vienne (1312), but this sentence was mitigated by Pope John XXII (1321), who permitted the Beguines to resume their mode of life after reform. The Beghards were more obstinate; during the 14th century, they were repeatedly condemned by the Holy See, the bishops (notably in Germany) and the Inquisition. The Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges that men of faith and piety were found among the Beghards. In their behalf, Pope Gregory XI (1374–77) and Pope Boniface IX (1394) addressed Bulls to the bishops of Germany and the Netherlands. The doctrine of Quietism is believed to resemble the stance of these community members. // beghard - (historical) One of an association of religious laymen living in semimonastic communities in imitation of the Beguines, and influenced by Albigensian teachings and by the Brethren of the Free Spirit. // Beghards and Beguines are the names of the {lay} religious orders of the Middle Ages, who united into convent-like groups for the sake of unselfish activity and a deepening of religious life. The Beghards were the men, the Beguines the women of these free organizations. Lambert le Begue (d. 1187), a priest of Liege, was formerly considered the founder of these societies, known as beguinages (Realencyclopedie für Protestantische Theologie and Kirche II, 517 ff.). They arose not so much out of the need for homes for impecunious women, as out of the urge for discipleship of Jesus. They were a kind of convent, whose inmates were not required to take the vows of a nun and could freely leave their beguinages. The first beguinage was founded in Cologne in 1230. About 1400 nearly all the cities, and even the small towns had their "houses of God," and they were also found in the countryside as well. In Switzerland they were called Sisters of the Forests. The number of inmates in a beguinage varied from two to 50. There was no uniformity in dress; but the greatest simplicity in dress was obligatory. Women who entered gave up all worldly possessions, supporting themselves with the work of their hands. In later times they devoted themselves to social work, especially nursing and the education of girls. In the 14th century they had acquired the character of poorhouses and alms establishments. The Beghards arose in the 13th century to correspond with the Beguines. They were found in Louvain, Belgium, as early as 1220, and in Antwerp by 1228. Beghard and Beguine are epithets of ridicule probably of Walloon origin. They are also called Lollards, boni pueri, or boni valeti. Though not so numerous as the Beguines, Beghards were found scattered throughout Germany as far as Poland and the Alps. The earliest Beghards in the Netherlands, where the movement reached its highest development, were principally weavers; later they did much copying and selling of manuscripts. German Beghards were also potters, weavers, etc.; in addition they served as nurses and pallbearers {a person helping to carry or officially escorting a coffin at a funeral}. In the second half of the 13th century cruel persecution set in. It was assumed that the pantheism of the "Brethren of the Free-Spirit" found its principal support among them, a suspicion which was, for the most part, unfounded. At the Council of Vienna, 1311, it was decided to suppress them because of their heresy. This decree was most brutally enforced. Thousands died at the stake. The male beguinages were transformed into inquisition prisons; the female beguinages were sold and the proceeds used for church purposes. Their most violent opponents were Johann Mülberg, a Dominican of Basel (1400), and Felix Hemmerlin (1440), a Zürich canon. In Belgium there were still some beguinages, numbering 15 in 1896 with 1,230 members, in 1933 only 11 beguinages. They engaged in pious introspection and handwork, chiefly lacemaking, which was an important source of income in the beguinages of Ghent. Other occupations were the teaching of children and nursing. Their clothing was usually black, with a white linen headcloth under which they wore close-fitting caps. Two Catholic beguinages had been preserved in 1933 in the Netherlands, one at Amsterdam with 13 inmates, and one at Breda with 46. Ludwig Keller {Ludwig Keller (1849 – 1915) was a German archivist and historian, known for his writings on the Reformation, Anabaptism and Freemasonry.} (Reformation, 32 ff.) supposed that the beguinages were identical with the almshouses of the Waldenses, who erected similar "houses of God" beside their churches where persons not belonging to their brotherhood were given a living. In this way the Waldenses did an enormous amount of social service. Very early the name "Beghard" was applied to the "apostles" they sent out, who founded these almshouses and were the spiritual advisers of the poor. It is a known fact that where the Waldenses were most numerous, there were more beguinages; and that the occupations most frequently found among the Waldenses were also the occupations of the beguinages. In the records of the inquisition in Toulouse, 1306-1323, it is at once evident that the heresies confessed by the Waldenses coincided to a surprising degree with those charged against the Beguines. Ernst Müller {Ernst Müller (1849-1927) was a Reformed clergyman and historian.} (Berner Täufer, 65) agreed with this conclusion, when he said: "The benevolent convents of Beghards and Beguines were the nurseries of Waldensian heresy and are interwoven into Waldensian activities." Keller found in the literature of the Beghards and Beguines much that coincided with the writings of the Waldenses and the medieval religious orders related to them. It was, indeed, very likely that there was a certain contact between the Waldensian "friends of God" and the Beghards and Beguines, to whom Nikolaus of Basel (burned in Vienna in 1395) belonged. But this cannot be asserted as a fact, without further investigation. Research by Greven, van Mierlo, and Lindeboom proved that Keller attached too much importance to dubious connections with the Waldenses. The movement of the Beghards and Beguines was rather Roman Catholic and had more to do with the Franciscan Tertiaries than with the Waldenses. Keller's idea that the Moravian Anabaptists based their communities on the old beguinages was hardly well founded. He assumed that there were connections between them, and that the Anabaptists wrongly forced all of life into this antiquated form, thus degenerating into a stunted sect. Thus he considered it to have been an effect of Beguine tradition, that the Hutterites, in complete misunderstanding of the intentions of their ancestors, applied the beguinage regulations to church life, and were thus led to an exaggerated severity of church discipline, which by means of numerous disputes and divisions weakened them more than the persecutions. This can hardly have been the case. GAMEO.ORG - Beghards and Beguines // Michael D Magee - Heresy and the Free Spirit: Beghards and Béguines // Beguini: The name is of uncertain origin. Early in the thirteenth century it began to be applied, probably as a corruption of Albigenses {??}, to communities of religious women who put themselves under the direction of the Cistercian order with the desire to pursue lives of penitence and poverty. Thereafter it designated various religious groups of unconventional character, both orthodox and heretical. Beguins and Beghards in northern Europe were, by and large, orthodox, although they displayed tendencies toward mysticism and were perhaps influenced to some degree by Cathars. Beguins of southern France in the fourteenth century shared the intensely held convictions of the Spiritual Franciscans and were prosecuted as heretics. (...) Hostility between Beguins and Albigenses in the early fourteenth century is revealed by a witness before the Inquisition in 1308 or 1309 who told of the murder of quendam {a certain} beguinum. The Beguin was kidnaped and killed, the witness said, because “the said Beguin betrayed Christians, that is, heretics {Cathars (??)}, and ambushed them in order to take them captive and turn them over to inquisitors”. (WE)

* Brethren of the Free Spirit [anti-clerical, antinomian pantheists; Братья и сёстры свободного духа] (XIII-XV). {De. Brüder und Schwestern des freien Geistes, Fr. Libre-Esprit, En. Brethren of the Free Spirit} The Brethren of the Free Spirit were adherents of a loose set of beliefs deemed heretical by the Catholic Church but held (or at least believed to be held) by some Christians, especially in the Low Countries, Germany, France, Bohemia and northern Italy between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. The movement was first identified in the late thirteenth century. It was not a single movement or school of thought, and it caused great unease among Church leaders at the time. Adherents were also called Free Spirits. The set of errors condemned in the bull Ad nostrum at the Council of Vienne (1311–12) has often been used by historians to typify the core beliefs, though there was great variation during the period over how the heresy was defined, and there is great debate over how far the individuals and groups accused of holding the beliefs (including Marguerite Porete, beguines, beghards, and Meister Eckhart) actually held the views attributed to them. // The Brethren of the Free Spirit, a lay Christian movement, flourished in northern Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. [E24] // The Brethren of the Free Spirit, a lay Christian movement, flourished in northern Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. Antinomian and individualist in their outlook, the Brethren came into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, and Pope Clement V declared them heretical at the Council of Vienne (1311–1312). They were consequently persecuted by the temporal and spiritual authorities of the time. The Brethren flourished at a time of great trauma in Western Europe. This was the time of the conflict between the Avignon Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor, the rise of the Cathars and subsequent Crusade against them, the beginnings of the Inquisition, the fall of the Knights Templar, and strife within the Catholic Church. All these elements lent to the appeal of the Brethren's individualistic and millenarian approach to Christianity and the Bible. In this time of crisis within the Christian Church and society as a whole, there was a strong sense that the end of the world was coming and thus Man's spirituality and salvation became more and more important. Defining the doctrine of the Brethren of the Free Spirit is a complex undertaking. Central to their belief seem to be three fundamental ideas: 1) That God is incarnate/immanent in everything. Sometimes described as a form of pantheism, the idea is similar to the neo-Platonic view that God is both immanent and transcendent. For the Brethren this meant that God was present in creation and in humanity. At the time of the Free Spirit movement it was viewed as heretical by the Western Church, which argued that God was exclusively transcendent and not present in Creation at all. 2) That history was divided into three periods, each corresponding to a different aspect of the Trinity {Fiore}. The first, the Age of the Father, corresponded with the era of the Old Testament (Abraham, Moses and the Prophets etc). The second, the Age of the Son, corresponded to the coming and ministry of Christ and the first millennium or so of Christianity. The last and final era was the Age of the Holy Spirit or the Paraclete as it is described in the New Testament, when God would become manifest in Man. 3) That through a direct experience of God in which the Holy Spirit flourishes in the individual soul Man could achieve a union with God which meant that he could no longer sin. Individuals who had achieved this state of being were called "the Spiritualised", having received the "indwelling" of the Holy Spirit through uniting with love as described in the book of Acts. Such individuals saw themselves as having evolved beyond ordinary states of good and evil (duality), replacing notions of faith and hope (beliefs in things which might be) with the positive light of knowledge (Gnosis, or direct knowledge of God). These fundamental elements of the movement meant that they rejected the validity or even the need for the Church in favor of an individual approach to God. Like the Cathars, they therefore rejected the sacraments as well. Some saw the Church as the active enemy of God, describing the Church as the Anti-Christ, again something they had in common with the earlier sect. They also rejected the secular authorities, citing Christ's injunction forbidding oaths and preached an egalitarian approach to Christianity that did not recognise distinctions of gender. Some have seen them as proto-anarchists in their refusal to acknowledge hierarchies of any kind. Whatever the case, few of their views could be expected to endear themselves either to the Church or the feudal authorities who ruled the regions in which they flourished. // The Brethren of the Free Spirit were adherents of a loose set of beliefs deemed heretical by the Catholic Church but held (or at least believed to be held) by some Christians, especially in the Low Countries, Germany, France, Bohemia and northern Italy between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. The movement was first identified in the late thirteenth century. It was not a single movement or school of thought, and it caused great unease among Church leaders at the time. Adherents were also called Free Spirits. The set of errors condemned in the bull Ad nostrum at the Council of Vienne (1311–12) has often been used by historians to typify the core beliefs, though there was great variation during the period over how the heresy was defined, and there is great debate over how far the individuals and groups accused of holding the beliefs (including Marguerite Porete, beguines, beghards, and Meister Eckhart) actually held the views attributed to them. The meaning of the term has in more recent times been extended to apply to the beliefs of other Christian individuals and groups, active both before and after the core period of the late Middle Ages. Origins. The set of beliefs ascribed to the Free Spirits is first to be found in a text called the Compilatio de novo spiritu put together by Albert the Great {Albertus Magnus (before 1200-1280), German philosopher and theologian} in the 1270s, concerning a group of persons investigated in the Swabian Ries area of Germany. The themes which occur in these documents, and which would emerge again in subsequent investigations, included: 1) Autotheism – in other words, a belief that the perfected soul and God are indistinguishably one. This was often expressed through the language of indistinction or annihilation. This belief would be heretical because it would undermine the necessary distinction between fallen created being and creator. 2) Denial of the necessity of Christ, the church and its sacraments for salvation – such that austerity and reliance on the Holy Spirit was believed to be sufficient for salvation. They believed that they could communicate directly with God and did not need the Catholic Church for intercession. 3) Use of the language of erotic union with Christ. 4) Antinomian statements ("Nothing is a sin except what is thought to be a sin"). Critics of the Free Spirit interpreted their beliefs to mean that they considered themselves to be incapable of sin and above the moral conduct of the Church. Verses such as Galatians 5:18 ("Those who are driven or led by the Spirit of God are no longer under the law") were seen as foundational to such beliefs. 5) Anticlerical sentiment. During the late thirteenth century, such concerns increasingly became applied to the various unregulated religious groups such as beguines and beghards, who had greatly increased in number in the preceding decades. Concerns over such sentiments then began to occur elsewhere, especially during the 1300s, and especially in Italy. Partly motivated by such concerns, in 1308 Pope Clement V summoned a general council, which met at Vienne from October 1311 to May 1312. In particular, it had to engage with the report from the Paris inquisition (1308–1310) into the beguine Marguerite Porete’s The Mirror of Simple Souls (Porete’s writing, which had become well read through France, had been condemned in 1310 as heresy, and Porete had been burned at the stake). It was the Council of Vienne which first associated these various beliefs with the idea of the 'Free Spirit'. Fourteenth and fifteenth century. During subsequent centuries, there was great fear of the Heresy of the Free Spirit, and many individuals and groups were accused of it. In particular, beguine and beghard groups came under suspicion. John of Dirpheim, Bishop of Strasbourg from 1306 to 1328, was a particularly fervent opponent of heresy. Another person accused, by Bishop John's colleague Henry of Virneburg, Bishop of Cologne, was Meister Eckhart, a German Dominican, who lived during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. In 1326, Eckhart was charged by the Pope for teaching heresy. He rigorously denied and defended against that charge until he disappeared from public life. Eckhart may have been familiar with the work of Marguerite Porete through his proximity to theologians involved in her trial, such as Berengar of Landora and William of Poitiers. More broadly, as a result of his prominence and through the statements of his used in the bull In agro Dominico he came to be recognised by the later mystical tradition as the "father" of the Free Spirit. This is seen particularly in the writings of Jan van Ruusbroec and his followers. During the late fourteenth century, western Germany became a particularly important area for pursuing the heresy. An example of one person executed is the wandering preacher Nicholas of Basel, who was executed sometime between 1393 and 1397. Another known case was the execution of Löffler, who admitted adherence to the movement, in Bern. False beliefs about the annihilation of the will were virulently attacked by the late fourteenth century Theologia Deutsch. In the early fifteenth century, Jean Gerson accused Jan van Ruusbroec of misdescribing the nature of union with God in a way that placed him in the company of the 'Free Spirit' heretics. By the early fifteenth century, the Catholic Church in Germany viewed heresy as a serious threat. It became a leading topic for discussion at the Council of Basel in 1431. Johannes Nider, a Dominican reformer who attended the council, became concerned that beliefs of the Free Spirit heresy, and other heresies, were mixed with elements of witchcraft. In his 1434 work, Formicarius, Nider combined the Free Spirit heresy with witchcraft in his condemnation of false teachings. Formicarius also became a model for Malleus maleficarum, a later work by Heinrich Kramer in 1486. By the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the Church's efforts to eradicate heresy and witchcraft resulted in heresy trials and the parallel civil authorities conducting witch burnings. Similarities to other Christian beliefs. Fears over sets of beliefs similar to the Heresy of the Free Spirit have recurred at various points in Christian history. Fears over esotericism and antinomianism, such as were detected in the Heresy of the Free Spirit, may be detected in the early Church's response to Gnosticism. Fears of suspect forms of prayer were particularly apparent in reactions to the fourth and fifth century Messalianism. What was perhaps novel in the fears of the Heresy of the Free Spirit was the fear of the notion of personal annihilation. This was a new idea to the mystical tradition, but was also seen as the root of many of the other dangers that were perceived in mystics in the late medieval period. Similarities may also be detected with seventeenth-century quietism.

* Bridget of Sweden [Бригитта Шведская] (c 1303-1373). Bridget of Sweden; born as Birgitta Birgersdotter, also Birgitta of Vadstena, or Saint Birgitta (Swedish: heliga Birgitta), was a mystic and saint, and founder of the Bridgettines nuns and monks after the death of her husband of twenty years. Outside Sweden, she was also known as the Princess of Nericia and was the mother of Catherine of Vadstena. (Though normally named as Bridget of Sweden, she was not a member of Swedish royalty.) She is one of the six patron saints of Europe, together with Benedict of Nursia, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Catherine of Siena and Edith Stein {Edith Stein was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She is canonized as a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church; she is also one of six co-patron saints of Europe. Died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz concentration camp on 9 August 1942.}. Бригитта Шведская. Бриги́тта Шведская, Биргитта (швед. Birgitta; 1303, Финста[d], Стокгольм — 23 июля 1373, Рим) — мистик и католическая святая, основательница ордена бригитток, покровительница Европы.

* Friends of God [Друзья Бога] (XIV). The Friends of God (German: Gottesfreunde; or gotesvriunde) was a medieval mystical group of both ecclesiastical and lay persons within the Catholic Church (though it nearly became a separate sect) and a center of German mysticism. It was founded between 1339 and 1343 during the Avignon Papacy of the Western Schism, a time of great turmoil for the Catholic Church. The Friends of God were originally centered in Basel, Switzerland and were also fairly important in Strasbourg and Cologne. Some late-nineteenth century writers made large claims for the movement, seeing it both as influential in fourteenth-century mysticism and as a precursor of the Protestant Reformation. Modern studies of the movement, however, have emphasised the derivative and often second-rate character of its mystical literature, and its limited impact on medieval literature in Germany. (...) The movement grew out of the preaching and teaching of Meister Eckhart, and especially his Dominican spiritual heirs, the preacher John Tauler and the writer Henry Suso. An influence on the Friends of God, although remaining in the background, was the secular priest Henry of Nördlingen, from the Bavarian Oberland, who met Tauler and Suso in Basel in 1339. Henry had a great deal of interaction with other Bavarian and German mystics and introduced the Friends of God to The Flowing Light of the Deity by Mechthild of Magdeburg. (...) The Friends of God, as led by Tauler and Suso, sought a mystical path in line with established Catholic doctrine, following Thomas Aquinas. Rulman Merswin, under the guidance of The Friend of God from the Oberland, wanted to purify the Church. This stress on reform brought The Friends of God into conflict with the Church and not long after Merswin’s death in 1382, they were condemned. After Merswin's death, some sources claim that Nicholas of Basel became the leader. He was eventually burned at the stake with two of his followers for heresy at Vienna around 1395. The relationship of Nicholas of Basel to the Friends of God is unclear as he was condemned as a Beghard. Another prominent member, Martin of Mainz, a follower of Nicholas of Basel, was also burned for heresy in 1393. Texts. A number of mystical texts are associated with The Friends of God, most notably the Theologia Germanica and the Book of the Nine Rocks. Many of the works were attributed to The Friend of God from the Oberland, although probably written by Rulman Merswin himself. // Друзья Бога. Друзья Бога (немецкий: Gottesfreunde ; или gotesvriunde ) - средневековая мистическая группа как церковных, так и мирян в католической церкви (хотя чуть не стала отдельной сектой) и центром немецкого мистицизма . Он был основан между 1339 и 1343 годами во время Авиньонского папства и Западного раскола , во время великих потрясений для католической церкви. Первоначально «Друзья Бога» были сосредоточены в Базеле , Швейцарии , а также играли важную роль в Страсбурге и Кельне . Некоторые писатели конца девятнадцатого века широко заявляли об этом движении, считая его влиятельным в мистицизме четырнадцатого века и предшественником протестантской Реформации . Современные исследования движения, однако, подчеркивают производный и часто второстепенный характер его мистической литературы и его ограниченное влияние на средневековую литературу в Германии. 360Wiki - Друзья Бога - Friends of God

* Theologia Germanica [Немецкая теология] (XIV/XV). Theologia Germanica, also known as Theologia Deutsch or Teutsch, or as Der Franckforter, is a mystical treatise believed to have been written in the later 14th century by an anonymous author. According to the introduction of the Theologia the author was a priest and a member of the Teutonic Order living in Frankfurt, Germany. The Theologia was written during the disruptive reign of the Avignon Papacy (1309–78), when many clerics were forbidden to perform Catholic rites because of the power struggle between the Pope and Holy Roman Emperor. Lay groups of pious individuals, like the Friends of God, became prominent during this time, and the author is usually associated with the Friends of God.[citation needed] The Theologia Germanica survives today in only eight manuscripts, all from the second half of the fifteenth century, suggesting that it was not widely disseminated before it came to the attention of Martin Luther.[citation needed] // «НЕМЕЦКАЯ ТЕОЛОГИЯ» (DeutscheTheologie, Theologia deutsch, Theologia Germanica) – анонимный доминиканский трактат кон. 14 – нач. 15 в., написанный под сильным влиянием идей Экхарта и Таулера и, по всей видимости, задуманный как обобщение традиции немецких аскетико-мистических сочинений. В качестве его возможного автора (вероятно, принадлежавшего к обществу «Друзей Божьих») называется гейдельбергский профессор теологии Иоанн Франкфуртский, или «Франкфуртец» (Johannes de Francfordia, Der Frankfurter). Название сочинению дано М.Лютером, впервые осуществившим его печатное издание. Согласно учению автора «Немецкой теологии», все вещи истекают от Бога, являясь Его сиянием и имея в Нем свою сущность. При этом Бог с необходимостью должен изливать Себя вовне, т.е. в Свои творения. Человеческая душа содержит как истинный свет божественной благодати, являющийся причиной истинной любви – любви к Богу, так и обманный естественный свет – причину любви ложной, или самолюбия. Т.к. добро есть результат проявления исключительно первого вида любви, следствием всякого собственного воления может быть только грех. Отсюда послушание Богу имеет своей конечной целью единение человека с Творцом. Это мистическое возвращение осуществляется в процессе последовательного прохождения трех необходимых этапов: 1) раскаяние в грехах; 2) уничтожение {annihilation} человеком собственного я, для того чтобы место, принадлежавшее его самости, заняло в нем Я Бога и посредством него действовала одна лишь божественная воля; и 3) созерцание в снизошедшем свете благодати тайн Божества при возрастании любви человека к Богу до силы и чистоты той любви, что Бог питает к Себе Самому. Слившись с Богом, человек возвышается над нормами права, разума и морали и более не нуждается в них, ибо сам Дух Божий руководит его мыслями и поступками. Однако при этом ему не следует пренебрегать внешними законами, т.к. это было бы проявлением его духовной гордыни. Издания: 1. Eyn deutsch Theologia. Das ist eyn edles Buchleyn von rechtem Vorstand was Adam und Christus sey und wie Adam yn uns sterben und Christus ersteen sall, ed. M.Luther, [s. 1.], 1516 (repr. 1963). Электронная библиотека Института философии РАН - «НЕМЕЦКАЯ ТЕОЛОГИЯ»

* Blutfreunden [Blood Friends; Ru ??] (XVI). Justus Menius (1499 – 1558) was a German Lutheran pastor and Protestant reformer whose name is Latinized from Jost or Just (i.e. Jodocus) Menig. "Von den Blutfreunden aus der Widertauff" Erfurt 1551 // Very soon Erfurt and Magdeburg were clear of heretical Beghards (...) as late as 1551 a sect called the Blood Friends, which showed all the essential characteristics of the Free Spirit, was discovered within thirty miles of Erfurt. // Sexualität als Sakrament - Am Beispiel der Sekte der Blutsfreunde. [E29]

* Ranters [anti-clerical pantheists; Рантеры] (XVII). The Ranters were one of a number of nonconformist dissenting groups that emerged around the time of the English Commonwealth (1649–1660). They were largely common people, and there is plenty of evidence that the movement was widespread throughout England, though they were not organised and had no leader. Ranters were regarded as heretical by the established Church and seem to have been regarded by the government as a threat to social order. They denied the authority of churches, of scripture, of the current ministry and of services, instead calling on men to listen to the divine within them. In many ways they resemble the 14th century Brethren of the Free Spirit. Their central idea was pantheistic, that God is essentially in every creature. Many Ranters seem to have rejected a belief in individual immortality and in a personal God. They embraced antinomianism and believed that Christians are freed by grace from the necessity of obeying Mosaic Law, rejecting the very notion of obedience, thus making the government view them as a great threat. The Ranters revived the Brethren of the Free Spirit's amoralism and "stressed the desire to surpass the human condition and become godlike". They held "that a believer is free from all traditional restraints, that sin is a product only of the imagination, and that private ownership of property is wrong". [E31]

* Christian theosophy [Boehmian theosophy; Христианская теософия] (XVII). Christian theosophy, also known as Boehmian theosophy and theosophy, refers to a range of positions within Christianity which focus on the attainment of direct, unmediated knowledge of the nature of divinity and the origin and purpose of the universe. They have been characterized as mystical philosophies. Theosophy is considered part of Western esotericism, which believes that hidden knowledge or wisdom from the ancient past offers a path to enlightenment and salvation. While general theosophy concerns the universal aspects of diverse, esoteric traditions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, Christian theosophy is limited to Jewish and Christian elements. The foundation of Christian theosophy is usually attributed to the German philosopher Jakob Böhme. Jewish Kabbalah was also formative for Christian theosophy from Böhme on. In 1875, the term theosophy was adopted and revived by the Theosophical Society, an esoteric organization which spawned a spiritual movement also called Theosophy. In the twentieth century, theosophy became the object of study for various scholars of Western esotericism. Христианская теософия. Христианская теосо́фия (др.-греч. «божественная мудрость») — мистическое богопознание, учение XVI—XVIII веков появившиеся в среде протестантизма. Христианская теософия как понятие уходит корнями в гностицизм и неоплатонизм. Парацельс предполагал, что теософия включает в себя не только мистический опыт созерцания божества, но и раскрытие тайн природы и совершение чудес (тауматургию).

* Quietism [Квиетизм] (XVII). Quietism is the name given (especially in Roman Catholic theology) to a set of Christian beliefs that rose in popularity in France, Italy, and Spain during the late 1670s and 1680s, particularly associated with the writings of Miguel de Molinos (and subsequently François Malaval and Madame Guyon), and which were condemned as heresy by Pope Innocent XI in the papal bull Coelestis Pastor of 1687. The "Quietist" heresy was seen to consist of wrongly elevating "contemplation" over "meditation", intellectual stillness over vocal prayer, and interior passivity over pious action in an account of mystical prayer, spiritual growth and union with God (one in which, the accusation ran, there existed the possibility of achieving a sinless state and union with the Christian Godhead). Since the late seventeenth century, "Quietism" has functioned (especially within Roman Catholic theology, though also to an extent within Protestant theology), as the shorthand for accounts which are perceived to fall foul of the same theological errors, and thus to be heretical. As such, the term has come to be applied to beliefs far outside its original context. The term quietism was not used until the 17th century, so some writers have dubbed the expression of such errors before this era as "pre-quietism".

* Armella Nicolas [maid, mystic, visions; "св. Армелла"] (1606-1671). Armella Nicolas was a serving-maid who lived in France in the 17th century, who came to be held in high veneration in the Catholic church. She could not read or write, but told friends of her spiritual experiences, including sister Jeanne de la Nativite, who wrote down her experiences. Armella Nicolas’s “First Vision” Account // Popularly known as "La bonne Armelle", a saintly French serving-maid held in high veneration among the people, though never canonized by the Church, b. at Campeneac in Brittanny, 9 September, 1606, of poor peasants, George Nicolas and Francisca Neant; d. 24 October, 1671. Catholic Online - Armella Nicolas

* Miguel de Molinos [mystic; Мигель де Молинос] (1628-1697). Miguel de Molinos (1628-1697) Spanish mystic, the chief representative of the religious revival known as Quietism.

* François Malaval [religious poet; Франсуа Малавал] (1627-1719) French poet and religious writer, blind from early childhood. He published devotional works close to Quietism, and quasi-mystical Poésies spirituelles (1671)

* Madame Guyon [mystic; мадам Гийон] (1648-1717) Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon was a French mystic and was accused of advocating Quietism, although she never called herself a Quietist.

* Veronica Giuliani [nun, mystic, visions; Вероника Джулиани] (1660-1727). Veronica Giuliani (also "Veronica de Julianis") was an Italian Capuchin Poor Clares nun and mystic. She was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839. Джулиани, Вероника. Вероника Джулиани (итал. Veronica Giuliani; 27 декабря 1660, Меркателло-суль-Метауро, Марке — 9 июля 1727, Читта-ди-Кастелло, Умбрия) — святая Римско-Католической Церкви, монахиня, визионерка.

* Maria Domenica Lazzeri [mystic, stigmata; Доминика Лаззари] (1815–1848). Maria Domenica Lazzeri also known as la Meneghina was an Italian mystic. The cause for her beatification was started in 1943. Maria Domenica Lazzeri was born May 16, 1815 in Capriana, Italy. She is known as “L'addolorata di Capriana” (“The Woman of Pain of Capriana”). As of 1833 she became bedridden most of her life. According to her physician she ate nothing for the last 14 years of her life except for receiving Holy Communion. She died April 4, 1848. Her cause was formally reopened in 1995, and she is currently styled Servant of God. // File:Maria Domenica Lazzari, a girl who received the stigmata. // Доминика Лаззари. Стигматы. В 1837 г. в Милане в сборнике «Аннали универсали ди медичина», том 84, был опубликован доклад д-ра Деи Клоке о девочке, обследованной им тремя годами ранее, у которой после травматического шока развилась повышенная болевая чувствительность (гиперестезия). Все ее чувства были обострены настолько, что она постоянно испытывала боль, ее слепил дневной свет и оглушали звуки. До конца жизни (она умерла в 1848 г.) девочка была прикована к постели. В год выхода в свет сборника Деи Клоке был вновь вызван в местечко Каприана, расположенное в Итальянских Альпах, чтобы еще раз осмотреть эту девочку, Доменику Лаззари, у которой появились стигматы. (...) У Доменики, как и у многих других стигматиков, кровь шла каждую пятницу. Одиннадцать лет она страдала от болезненных стигматов, и за это время никто не заметил никаких признаков обмана. Напротив, у всех, кто ее видел, возникало впечатление, что она испытывает тяжелые страдания. Состояние гиперестезии продолжалось. Однажды лорд Шрэзбери увидел, что ее лицо покрыто кровью, струившейся со лба из проколов, как будто бы сделанных невидимым терновым венцом. Он писал, что ей не мыли лицо, потому что она не переносила ни воды, ни прикосновения полотенца, и что кровь исчезала как бы «сама собой». ВикиЧтение - Мичелл Джон - Феномены книги чудес