Douglas Hedley

Bild, Bildung and the ‘romance of the soul’: Reflections upon the image of Meister Eckhart

Abstract In this article, the Bild or image of the sculptor used by Plotinus and adapted by his Christian follower Meister Eckhart forms the basis of a reflection on the religious or otherworldly dimension in ethics (as opposed to a reductionist or functionalist conception of ethics with its focus on human happiness in the sense of worldly success) and on the relationship of esthetics, morality, and religion. The image of the sculptor who chips away at his sculpture exemplifies the relationship of the individual to its divine archetype. Such knowledge involves transformation of the knower, a turning back of the image to the archetype, a shaping of the self that emerges from recognition of its true identity and vocation. This constitutes the dynamic dimension of Bildung in Eckhart as educere, a leading forth from attachment to particular things (ent-bilden) and a purification and reformation of the self according to its true image (Bild). The turning back is thereby a turning within to the supreme Good, the nobility and the purity of the Divine nature, which is the origin of the true self and its intrinsic dignity as image of its transcendent source.

Censuring the Teutonic Philosopher?: Henry More’s Ambivalent Appraisal of Jacob Böhme

This essay examines Henry More’s engagement with Jacob Bohme and compares the sympathetic critique of Bohme with More’s much more negative evaluation of Spinoza. More directs his criticism of Bohme at the similarities between Spinoza and Bohme: their materialism and confusion of God and world. The present essay suggests, however, that the perception of shared Platonism informs More’s more favourable approach to the Silesian. The problem of what “Platonism” means in this context is thus also addressed. Bohme’s writings were valued by More because of a shared metaphysics that rejected both radical dualism and pantheism, and the Platonic theology of the goodness of God and the freedom of man, together with the rejection of predestination. Spinoza, on the other hand, is rejected because of his radical determinism, his denial of any substantial distinction between good and evil, and the transcendent being of the divine.

Gods and giants: Cudworth’s platonic metaphysics and his ancient theology

ABSTRACT The Cambridge Platonists are modern thinkers and the context of seventeenth-century Cambridge science is an inalienable and decisive part of their thought. Cudworth’s interest in ancient theology, however, seems to conflict with the progressive aspect of his philosophy. The problem of the nature, however, of this ‘Platonism’ is unavoidable. Even in his complex and recondite ancient theology Cudworth is motivated by philosophical considerations, and his legacy among philosophers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries should not be overlooked. In particular we will draw on the scholarship of the German Egyptologist Jan Assmann in order to reassess the significance of Cudworth’s theory of religion for later philosophical developments.