Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Böhme: Theosophy, Hagiography, Literature by Paola Mayer

Interest in German Romanticism has been revitalised in recent years by new post-structural, interdisciplinary, and intertextual perspectives. However until now this renewed interest has not led to a re-examination of Jakob Bohme's formative influence on Jena Romanticism. In "Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Bohme", Paola Mayer radically revises previous views, arguing that the relationship between Bohme and the Jena Romantics should be understood as appropriation rather than influence. This reversal of perspective leads to the recognition that Romanticism's interaction with Bohme was not passive but polemical, selective, and predatory. Not only was there not an influence, there was not even a Bohme, since his name and aspects of the writings were adapted to promote ideas wholly unrelated to any historical person or body of thought that might have been Bohme. These appropriations fall into two main groups: those pertaining to the name Bohme or a life assigned to it, and those involving concepts or images from the mystic's oeuvre. The first group constituted an attempt to co-opt the aura of sanctity attached to portrayals of the poet-prophet in order to invest Romantic Poesie with the sacral standing of religion. The second group, exemplified by Friedrich Schlegel and Friedrich Schelling, involved the borrowing and radical redefinition of a few concepts and images from Bohme's work in the hope of bridging the gap between the abstract first principle of idealism and the personal God that became an emotional necessity for both thinkers. "Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Bohme" treats the Romantic reception of Bohme as a striking example of how the past is appropriated and rewritten in the service of self-affirmation. Analysing the need and the techniques for this self-affirmation sheds light on the nature of the self to be affirmed and on the content and underlying motivation of the Romantic program.

Review:

"There has been frequent comment on the importance of Böhme in the development of romantic thought in Germany, and there have indeed been studies on that influence with regard to individual romantic authors. [Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Böhme is] the first comprehensive study of that influence as it regards the Jena romantics taken together." James McGlathery, Department of Germanic Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana. "[Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Böhme is] significant not only because the story of Böhme's influence will henceforth have to be told differently, but also because we will have to think differently about some of the strategies of the Jena Romantics and the way their philosophies developed … the patience and the acumen with which [Mayer] plowed through Böhme's and Schelling's obscurities are as admirable as the clarity of her explications." Hans Eichner, Professor Emeritus of University of Toronto.