Jacob Böhme (also known in older English editions as Jacob Behmen), known in his lifetime as the Philosophus Teutonicus, remains one of the most penetrating voices of Christian mysticism. Writing in his native German rather than in learned Latin, this Lutheran thinker sought to articulate the inner workings of the divine life within the human soul.
In Of Heaven and Hell, these realities are not treated as distant realms but as inward states-conditions of light and darkness unfolding within the depths of the spirit. For Böhme, heaven and hell are revealed wherever the will turns toward or away from the divine ground. His language, at once symbolic and experiential, traces the drama of freedom, suffering, regeneration, and union with God.
His influence extended far beyond his own century, shaping currents of German religious philosophy and drawing the attention of figures such as Hegel.
Included here is The Life of Jacob Behmen, the Teutonic Theosopher, preserving the historical form of his name and offering insight into the life and struggles of a thinker whose writings stirred both admiration and opposition.
Review :
According to Hegel, Böhme is "the first German philosopher".
-Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy from 1825-6
"Whatever our personal opinion may be regarding the value of J. Boehme's doctrine, it must be acknowledged that a thinker who exercised so profound an influence upon such diverse figures as Newton, Milton, Bengel, Oetinger, Gichtel, Labadie, Leibniz, Hamann, Swedenborg, W. Blake, Herder, Goethe, Fichte, Schelling, Novalis, Saint-Martin, Ch. Secrétan, not to mention the Quakers and other religious movements, deserves a place of honor in the history of Western thought."
-Héring, Jean. Review of La Philosophie de Jacob Boehme, by Alexandre Koyré. Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuses 11, nos. 4-5 (July-October 1931): 449-451.
