Introduction to Jacob Boehme

Ariel Hessayon is Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has published extensively on a variety of early modern topics: antiscripturism, book burning, communism, environmentalism, esotericism, extra-canonical texts, heresy, crypto-Jews, Judaizing, millenarianism, mysticism, prophecy, and religious radicalism.Sarah Apetrei is Departmental Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Women, Feminism and Religion in Early Enlightenment England, and is currently working on a book dealing with the place of mystical theology in seventeenth-century British religion.

• 1. Introduction: Boehme’s legacy in perspective Ariel Hessayon and Sarah Apetrei 2. Boehme’s Life and Times Ariel Hessayon 3. Radical Reformation and the Anticipation of Modernism in Jacob Boehme Andrew Weeks 4. Boehme’s Intellectual Networks and the Heterodox Milieu of his Theosophy, 1600–1624 Leigh T. I. Penman 5. Jacob Boehme’s Writings during the English Revolution and Afterwards: Their Publication, Dissemination, and Influence Ariel Hessayon 6. Did Anyone Understand Boehme? Nigel Smith 7. Jacob Boehme and the Anthropology of German Pietism Lucinda Martin 8. "No New Truths of Religion": William Law’s Appropriation of Jacob Boehme Alan Gregory 9. Böhme and German Romanticism Kristine Hannak 10. Boehme and the early English Romantics Elisabeth Jessen 11. The Russian Boehme Oliver Smith 12. Hegel’s Reception of Jacob Boehme Glenn Alexander Magee 13. H. L. Martensen on Jacob Boehme George Pattison 14. The Place of Jacob Boehme in Western Esotericism Arthur Versluis 15. Conclusion: Why Boehme Matters Today Bruce B. Janz

"This companion will prove an invaluable resource for all those engaged in research or teaching on Jacob Boehme and his readers, as historians, philosophers, literary scholars or theologians. Boehme is 'on the radar' of many researchers, but often avoided as there are relatively few aids to understanding his thought, its context and subsequent appeal. This book includes a fine spread of topics and specialists." – Cyril O’Regan, University of Notre Dame, USA