Gender in Mystical and Occult Thought
Behmenism and its Development in England

An evaluation of the intellectual legacy in England of the ideas of Jacob Boehme (1575–1624).

Brian J. Gibbons (Author)

9780521480789, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 February 1996

264 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.56 kg

"Dr. Gibbons' welcome study returns to an area of religious and cultural history that was popular in the early part of this century: the voluminous mystical writings of Jacob Boehme, and the story of their profound impact on English religious and intellectual life from the point of their translation into English during the Civil War and Interregnum years down to their role in nineteenth-century theosophy. Gibbons adds significant new dimensions and achieves a distinctive overview.... The result is a study that offers the best detailed account in English of Boehme's life and works, and, where the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries are concerned, the most searching analysis yet of Boehme's influence. The reader moves through a series of concisely written chapters...leading into the best and most original sections...." Nigel Smith, Albion

This is the first comprehensive account of the development of the ideas on gender of Jacob Boehme (1575–1624) among his English followers, tracing the changes in gender and sexuality in such esoteric traditions as alchemy, hermeticism and the Cabala. The book argues that Behmenist thought in these areas is a neglected aspect of the revision in the moral status of women during the early modern period, contributing significantly to the rise of the Romantic notion of womanhood and 'Victorian' sexual ideology. It deals with English Behmenism from its reception during the Interregnum through to its impact upon William Blake and the Swedenborgians in the eighteenth century. The book also strongly challenges received opinions on the relationship of Behmenism to the English radical tradition.

1. Introduction
2. Gender, sexuality and power in early modern England
3. Gender in mystical and occult thought
4. Gender in the works of Jacob Boehme
5. The reception of Behmenism in England
6. Behmenism and the Interregnum spiritualists
7. The female embassy
8. Conservative Behmenism
9. Wider Behmenist influences in the eighteenth century
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]