1. I would like to express my thanks to Professor Michael McClymond and Revd. Dr. Alan Gregory for very helpful feedback on a first draft of this appendix.
2. For my critique of McClymond’s theological case against universal restoration, see Parry, “A Response to Michael McClymond’s Theological Critique of Universalism.”
3. The doctrines he thinks are threatened by universalism include not just eschatology, but also the doctrines of God, creation, Christology, sin, atonement, and the like. I think he is mistaken on all these counts, even if one can find examples of particular universalists—some included in this volume—who went skiing off-piste on these various doctrines.
4. Though it will surprise no one to learn that I think his arguments against my own book are unpersuasive.
5. For such a response, see Parry, “A Response to Michael McClymond’s Theological Critique of Universalism.”
6. For those interested in the details and the context, the most helpful historical analyses of Böhme and his reception I have read are Weeks, Boehme and the essays in Hessayon and Apetrei (eds.), An Introduction to Jacob Boehme. All Böhme’s works and a wealth of material about them can be accessed at Jacob Boehme Online (jacobboehmeonline.com).
7. His ideas gained devotees across Germany, France, England, Russia, and America. This was not merely among religious groups, but also in intellectual circles. Modern continental philosophy, for instance, owes him a considerable debt, not least through his influence on the likes of Hegel, Schelling, and Schopenhauer. So too, arguably, does the psychoanalysis of Freud and Jung, on which see McGrath, “Böhme’s Theology of Evil and Its Relevance for Psychoanalysis.”
8. McClymond is very helpful in summarizing the diverse reception (DR, 451–59). See also the essays in Hessayon and Apetrei, Introduction to Jacob Boehme.
9. He has been compared to the ancient Manichaeans, with their eternal cosmic dualism between good and evil. The core difference is that Böhme saw the eternal principles that give rise to good and evil as united within God.
10. I need to make clear that McClymond’s Böhme thesis is only one component in a much larger thesis in which esoteric mysticism is the inspiration behind Christian universalism.
11. Now I have no intention of outlining much of Böhme’s thinking, but McClymond’s summary is helpful in its concision and clarity (DR, 459–79). The summary that follows here draws on McClymond and on McGrath, “Böhme’s Theology of Evil.”
12. This idea was also found in the mysticism of Jewish kabbalah, which was very influential in seventeenth-century Europe. How much Böhme was influenced by Jewish mysticism is disputed.
13. Böhme further spells out the three principles into seven forms of eternal nature (the seven spirits of God), as follows:
Father
(dark principle/God’s wrath)
Spirit
(mediates)
Son
(light principle/God’s mercy)
Harshness
Fire (unites the conflicting principles of God)
Light
Bitterness
Sound
Angst
Figure
According to McGrath, “Böhme thus fuses the triadic structure of Christianity with the dark-light dualism typical of Gnosticism” (“Böhme’s Theology of Evil,” 10 in the online version). These seven forms of the eternal nature need one another to exist, but all arise from the Ungrund.
14. McClymond argues that, although Böhme was not a universalist, his theology “could easily be marshalled to support the idea of a temporary hell” (DR, 490). His evidence for this claim is the Böhmist Johann Georg Gichtel. Gichtel argued that his dead friend did not have to remain in hell on the grounds that Böhme had rejected predestinarianism, and thus nobody was predestined to hell. However, anti-predestinarianism is a very dubious basis for arguing against the idea that our fates are sealed at death—just ask an Arminian. If this was Gichtel’s argument, then it tells us more about his desire to have hope for his friend than it does about how easily Böhme’s ideas engender belief in a temporary hell. Gichtel, like Böhme, believed in eternal hell, and he came to oppose the universalism of Jane Lead and the Petersens.
15. Gregory, “No New Truths of Religion.” This essay is a helpful guide to Law’s careful appropriation and transformation of Böhme’s theology.
16. Law reads and seeks to present Böhme as an orthodox Christian. Irrespective of the merits of his interpretation as an accurate representation of Böhme, his own Böhmist Christian faith, while not without its problems, was arguably orthodox. For a helpful sympathetic explanation of Law’s later Böhmist works, and for a rebuttal of John Wesley’s critique of Law, see Gregory, Quenching Hell.
17 My thanks to Alan Gregory for this alternative suggestion. Email 8 Nov 2018.
18. Gregory, “No New Truths in Religion,” 147. He continues, addressing one of McClymond’s key concerns with Böhme: “Consequently, the most striking thing about Law’s Behemism is the absence of almost everything that the Romantics and German Idealists were to admire in Boehme, most specifically his exposition of the ‘living God’ in developmental, narrative terms.”
19. Lead, Revelation, 25.
20. Hessayon, “Jacob Boehme’s Writings,” 86.
21. An example from McClymond: Jewish kabbalah had the notion of a cycle of world ages lasting fifty thousand years, a number derived from the biblical idea of the Year of Jubilee (Lev 25) multiplied by 1,000—7 x 7,000 years + 1,000 years for the climactic Jubilee itself (DR, 174–75). We find this fifty-thousand-year period in both Johann Petersen and (as tentative speculation) in Elhanan Winchester (DR, 5–6) when pondering the duration of hell. It is certainly possible that their speculations derive ultimately from a Jewish esoteric source. However, even if they did, (a) it is peripheral to their universalism and (b) it is a harmless speculation as far as questions of orthodoxy go.
22. Letter to Morgan Llwyd in Wrexham. National Library of Wales, MS 11438 D, letter 68. Quoted in Hessayon, “Jacob Boehme’s Writings,” 84.
23. McClymond also mentions as evidence of Winchester’s Böhmism a disapproving comment from John Murray that Winchester “is full of Mr [William] Law” (DR, 594n69). This comment, however, relates to no more than Winchester’s belief that people could go to a temporary hell—something Murray vehemently rejected. It is not a complaint that Winchester is unduly influenced by Böhme’s theology. After all, Böhme believed in an eternal hell.
24. It is important to note that McClymond’s case for his Böhme’s thesis is not restricted to the English-speaking world, which I have largely focused on above, but takes in France (536–58), Germany (509–16, 609–84), and Russia (558–63, 685–747) too. A brief word about that is needed. The general arguments I make in the main text above apply in these cases too. France: Böhme’s thought influenced Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin (1743–1803), who inherited an esoteric-inspired (but non-Böhmist) version of universalism from Martines de Pasqually (1727?–74), which he then modified under the influence of Swedenborg and Böhme. It was Böhme’s work that inspired him to move away from outward rituals to inner reality. McClymond’s account is fascinating, and I have no disputes with it. But what it does not show is that Böhme’s ideas contributed in any direct way to Saint-Martin’s universalism. They served more to nuance and refine the wider framework and spirituality within which his existing esoteric universalism was understood. Germany: McClymond’s impressive chapter surve
ys Kant, Julius Möller, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Schelling, and Paul Tillich. However, Kant and Hegel never addressed the issue of universal salvation (though Hegel was influenced by Böhme); Möller was definitely not a universalist; and Schleiermacher was a universalist, but not under Böhme’s influence. Thus, only Schelling and Tillich fall into the category of universalists with Böhmist influences, and in both cases the caveats in the main text apply. Russia: Along with German idealism, Böhme and other strands of esotericism and occultism exerted a considerable influence among Russian churchmen and intellectuals. The first thing to say is that most of them did not thereby become universalists, and given the widespread influence of Böhme, that in itself is suggestive. The thinkers McClymond singles out for close attention are Vladimir Solovyov, Nikolai Berdyaev, and Sergius Bulgakov. The first two were clearly indebted to Böhme, and their writings certainly contained strong universalist impulses (though some ambiguity remains in both of them)—the latter is clear about his universalism, but is much less indebted to Böhme. Bulgakov’s universalism is explored through patristic sources, so it seems better to look there for its foundation, even if esotericism played a role (perhaps indirectly, via Solovyov?) in shaping his controversial Sophiology.
25. I should add that, when McClymond picks out universalist books for special concentration, he does pay careful attention to their content. So the criticism in the main text needs to be tempered by that important qualification.
26. DR, 593n64.
27. Speaking for myself, I think that while both studies have many merits and are worthy of attention, they are also riddled with problems, both exegetical and theological.
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