Ferdinand van Ingen: Jacob Böhme in seiner Zeit

The goal of this work by the well-known German philologist and Böhme expert van Ingen is to expand and/or replace the image of the visionary and »miracle man« Jacob Böhme (1575–1624), which in principle can be traced back to his contemporary Franckenberg. A similar goal applies to the picture painted in the works of Hans Grunsky (1984) and Siegfried Wollgast (1988), which has been the definitive portrayal up to now and almost all of which is seen from the perspective of the history of philosophy. The author expands and replaces this with a panorama of church history, focusing on the after-effects of the Reformation in Silesia (Schwenckfeld, Weigel u.a.) and dealing with individual aspects of the discussion at that time (heaven, sin, evil). In doing so, he is able to draw the reader’s attention to contexts which shed light on Böhme’s character and the work he did in his time with reference to religious trends which deviated from Luther, the result of which is a sharper profile of Böhme.