Jacob Boehme

Mysterium Magnum Jacob Boehme

Mysterium Magnum is a magnum opus, a two-volume exposition of the book of Genesis. One of the masterpieces of Christian mysticism, it shows how the remote events of Genesis are living realities. The forces emanated from God "In the Beginning" are still present, moving and acting upon us and all things. Its theme is breath-taking. Boehme had nothing to do with allegorical, tropological and analogical meanings. His doctrine of the three principles gave him, he believed, his key to unlock the creation story of Genesis. Boehme's book is a tour de force because each character, incident, figure or event in fact had three meanings in each of Boehme's three worlds. Yet this is not all. Here is allegory on a grand scale. Here nature philosophy becomes also a philosophy of history; the order of creation became also the order of salvation. The whole scheme is so astounding that, as Schopenhauer remarked, one can withhold neither admiration nor tears.