Concept
Christian theosophy
Overview
Christian theosophy, also known as Boehmian theosophy and theosophy, refers to a range of positions within Christianity that 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 philosophies.
Theosophy is considered part of Western esotericism, which believes that hidden knowledge or wisdom from the ancient past offers a path to illumination 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 founding of Christian theosophy is usually attributed to the German philosopher Jakob Böhme. Jewish Kabbalah was also formative for Christian theosophy.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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In the Christian Religion dogmas are called mysteries. They are that which man knows about the Nature of God. Neither is there anything mysterious in this; it is known by all those who are partakers in that Religion, and these are thus distinguished from the followers of other Religions. Hence mystery here signifies nothing unknown, since all Christians are in the secret. Mysteries are in their nature speculative…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Christian theosophy is.
With what is here called faith or immediate knowledge must also be identified inspiration, the heart's revelations, the truths implanted in man by nature, and also in particular, healthy reason or Common Sense, as it is called. All these forms agree in adopting as their leading principle the immediacy, or self-evident way, in which a fact or body of truths is presented in consciousness. 84.] This immediate knowledge…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Logic of Hegel
States what Christian theosophy is.
"Christendom," the Christian state, a Christian country, a Christian world) from becoming Christians. And then the suggestion is made to one to continue untouched and unchanged this delusion and, rather, to furnish a new presentation of the teachings of Christ.[6] This has been suggested; and, in a certain sense, it is altogether fitting. Just because one lives in a delusion (not to speak even of being interested in…
Søren Kierkegaard, Selections from the Writings of Kierkegaard
Close in meaning to Christian theosophy; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Christian theosophy
Related ideas
- Encyclopédie
- Antoine Faivre
- Christian Kabbalah
- Abrahamic religions
- Robert Fludd
- Paracelsus
- Helena Blavatsky
- Kabbalah
- Pietism
- Hermeticism
- Astrology
- Nature
- Origen
- Neoplatonism
- Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
- Renaissance
- Salvation
- Theology
- Henry More
- Jan Baptist van Helmont
- Church Fathers
- Gymnosophists
- Three Books of Occult Philosophy
- Jakob Böhme
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of French philosophy.