Jakob Lorber

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Jakob Lorber

Jakob Lorber (born July 22, 1800 in Kanischa , Styria , Habsburg Monarchy , † August 24, 1864 in Graz ) was an Austrian writer , musician and Christian mystic . His work is assigned to private revelations in denominational specialist literature ; he called himself “God's scribe”.

Life

Lorber's birthplace

Lorber was the first son of Michael Lorber and his wife Maria geb. Tautscher, a long -established Catholic farming family, was born in the village of Kanischa, Parish Jahring, which belongs to Lower Styria and is now part of the municipality of Šentilj (St. Egidi) in Slovenia . At the age of 17 he moved to Marburg an der Drau , where he became a teaching assistant and organist . Soon afterwards he went to Sankt Johann im Saggautal , where he received Latin lessons from a chaplain . The chaplain advised Lorber to prepare for the priesthood, after which he returned to Marburg to attend high school. After completing five classes, he continued his high school studies in Graz . He earned his living there as a private tutor for singing, music (piano and violin) and drawing. In 1829 he attended the "higher pedagogical course for teachers at secondary schools" and earned a very good certificate.

After the first unsuccessful application as a teacher, Lorber gave up this plan and devoted himself entirely to music. He composed songs and concert pieces and thus came into contact with the well-known sound poet Anselm Hüttenbrenner . During this time Lorber got to know the famous violin artist Niccolò Paganini , who gave him some lessons and became a role model. He also performed with Franz Schubert .

According to the information provided by his biographer Leitner, Jakob Lorber read books by Jakob Böhme , Johann Tennhardt , Emanuel Swedenborg , Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling and Justinus Kerner in addition to the Bible .

On March 15, 1840 at 6 o'clock in the morning, Jakob Lorber, according to his own statements, heard an “inner voice” near his heart that asked him to write. From then on, he dedicated his life to this voice, which he understood as the “voice of grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” and, following its “dictation”, wrote down around 20,000 manuscript pages. He immediately resigned his post as second Kapellmeister at the Triester Hof, which he had just received and had not yet started, because hearing the voice of grace was infinitely more important to him and it would have been incompatible with the luxurious life of the court.

Lorber not only wrote himself, but also dictated individual essays and even entire books to his friends, most of them Anselm Hüttenbrenner . In addition, he sometimes worked on several works at the same time, which was documented in Hüttenbrenner's large diary-like volumes. The manuscripts are all written in one go and contain very few changes and improvements.

With the start of his writing activity Lorber was dependent on the support of his friends; among them were Graz dignitaries like the mayor Andreas Hüttenbrenner  - a brother of Anselm -, the pharmacist Leopold Cantily as well as the poet and Styrian state secretary Karl Gottfried von Leitner . This wrote about 1884 Lorber's biography. After Lorber's 60th year, his physical strength began to decline, whereby, according to his biographer Leitner, his mental strength continued to have an unimpaired effect. In 1864 he fell ill and had to stay in bed for three months. During this time, too, he dictated to his friends. He recovered briefly at the beginning of spring, but finally died on August 24, 1864 of a lung disease. Lorber was buried in the St. Leonhard Cemetery in Graz , he was a member of the Roman Catholic Church until the end.

Lorber's manuscripts were first distributed by hand by friends, because there was no possibility of printing in Austria. They were brought to Germany for publication, but there were also obstacles there: The book Die Jugend Jesu , printed in Stuttgart in 1852 , was confiscated by the official censors. His friend Johannes Busch continued to print the books, later Christoph Friedrich Landbeck (1840–1921). With the increasing distribution of Jakob Lorber's books, which only happened on a larger scale after his death, "Lorber circles of friends" were formed in various places, which ultimately led to a Lorber movement . Jakob Lorber never received a fee for the books that were published during Lorber's lifetime, the first publishers of which were Justinus Kerner and Carl-Friedrich Zimpel , followed by Johannes Busch. In total, Lorber's manuscripts - with a total volume of around 10,000 printed pages - were printed in 25 books and many smaller fonts.

In the inheritance file, which is in the Styrian regional archive , it is noted that the musician bequeathed his violin, a piano and several pictures and clothes to his “natural daughter Maria Hochegger”. However, the correctness of this information is doubted by some Lorber friends for various reasons. The biographer Leitner as well as other contemporary witnesses and documents that have been made public so far do not report anything about a natural or adopted daughter. Even today living descendants of the Lorbers family know nothing about a daughter of Jakob Lorber, only Landbeck mentions a "so-called daughter of Lorbers" in his autobiography, who sold Lorber's manuscript of the Great Gospel Johannes for 2000 guilders to a Viennese Lorber friend.

Teaching

Lorber published an extensive work in 25 volumes in which he a. a. to Jacob Boehme and Emanuel Swedenborg oriented. He describes a cosmological system that was not created by God out of nothing , but rather emerged in the sense of an emanation from the fullness of his spiritual powers. Its world bodies (planets, suns, stars, moons, etc.) came into being through Lucifer's fall, who freely decided against God's order and fell into self-love. The celestial bodies are understood as organic living beings: The earth has a funnel-shaped mouth at the North Pole , which is connected by a gastrointestinal tract with an excretory organ at the South Pole .

Like the stars, people are also in need of redemption, but they can reach perfection on earth by observing the double commandment of love as well as through baptism and the Lord's Supper , which Lorber understands as memorial and love feast. This happens through union with the “spark of God's spirit”. The development of man to perfection continues in a series of reincarnations and finally in the hereafter . Thus ultimately all people would be saved in the sense of an all-out solution through this perfection of a chosen number. God is understood as the infinite spirit, primordial force and primordial ground of all being, which is essentially shaped in his primordial power center, as the most perfect spiritual primeval man. Jesus Christ is understood as the ( incarnated ) spiritual human primal power center of God, wrapped in the garment of matter , in order to instruct all spirits of infinity and to redeem the fallen from their judgment and to lead them back into the father house. The time of Christ's return is said to be about 2000 years after his ministry in Palestine (around AD 30); At one point, however, Lorber mentions an earlier point in time, namely around 1920; accordingly Christ should have said the following at the time:

"If one will count 1000, 800 and almost 90 years after this My Presence, there will be almost no more war on this earth, and at this time My personal arrival on this earth will also take place ..."

The Trinity of God and the doctrine of justification by faith refused Lorber.

Lorber himself understood his new revelations as the word of God . What he knows he only knows from God through a special, undeserved grace. Because of this claim, Lorber was of the opinion that he possessed the most extensive knowledge. Among his followers, Lorber's writings are considered "equal to the Bible". According to Kurt Eggenstein, Lorber's new revelation is a message of salvation that explains and supplements the Gospel , since Jesus could only tell the people of that time little about the secrets of creation and his apostles were also difficult to understand. Lorber's writings also contain numerous statements and concepts from quantum physics and warnings about modern risks such as climate change , air pollution and deforestation .

reception

Ever since Jakob Lorber's writings were published - some of them already during his lifetime - there has been a controversy about how they should be classified. The proportion, type and quality of the divine inspiration conveyed through the auditory impression is controversial even among Lorber friends. The attitude of the critics is just as controversial.

Followers and sympathizers

The writer and biographer Jakob Lorbers, Karl Gottfried Ritter von Leitner , was a long-time friend and eyewitness who was convinced of the authenticity of Jakob Lorber's calling and listed various examples of this in his Lorber biography. He writes: “Lorber did not go through life lonely and joyless; because he had followers from the best families. They also guarded him in his divine letter and strictly examined him, which was especially good for the descendants. For now no one is allowed to say that the words which have become handsome works are not of divine origin. (…) Ms. Großheim in particular was not gullible, which is why she checked Lorber's desk drawer and box carefully and strictly to see if he had books or writings available. But he had no resources. His only book that he always had at hand was the Bible. "

Adolf Josef Lanz (pseudonym Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels ) referred to Lorber for the development of his racial-occult doctrine (" Ariosophy ") and wrote about this a. a. a representation in four booklets.

Thomas Noack, pastor of the New Church (Swedenborg) , has written several accounts of Lorber and highlights parallels with Swedenborg.

In a popular book, the economist Ernst Friedrich Schumacher presents Lorber alongside Edgar Cayce and Therese Neumann as a case "in which the higher possibilities of man manifested"; his writings contained "many strange things", but also thoughts that anticipated physical developments and could not be rationally explained.

Reviews of Protestant theologians

The book Die Sekten der Gegenwart by Paul Scheurlen, published in 1930, dedicated one of 22 chapters to the Neu-Salems-Gesellschaft (Lorber followers) - an indication that this community was perceived as influential at the time. Scheurlen won from Lorber the image of “a pure personality”, and he found “pearls of deep piety” in his writings, for example in the “description of divine love”. But he also pointed out that e.g. B. Lorber's "astronomical communications are outdated by science in essential points", saw in Lorber a strong speculative interest "in knowledge of God and the world" and regretted: "The essence of the evangelical faith is not recognized."

The Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen (EZW) primarily criticizes the claim that the New Revelation was dictated by Jesus Christ himself. In her brochures she cites psychological factors as an explanation for the new revelation and refers, among other things, to Stettler-Schär (see below).

Andreas Fincke, Protestant theologian and former employee of the EZW, states that the work contains statements that represent Lorber's views and the zeitgeist of the time rather than those of Jesus of Nazareth.

“Jakob Lorber's 'New Revelations' reflect not only the time of the 19th century, but also the level of knowledge and the spiritual world of their author. (...) Lorber's texts are - in the best sense of the word - pious poetry, but they are not a dictate of God. "

In his standard work Seher, Rübler, Enthusiasten , Kurt Hutten assessed the “new revelations” by Emanuel Swedenborg and Lorber. Hutten emphasized that both “had their place in the Enlightenment ” and described the drastic changes at that time in the observation of nature and the cosmos. While people used to look up and, so to speak, suspect the throne of God in heaven, they now felt like inhabitants of a small sphere in a huge universe - the view to heaven, especially with a telescope, made them aware of the infinite expanse of the universe, and they felt a dark emptiness instead of the earlier security. In view of this changed worldview, Swedenborg's and Lorber's world designs were a help in finding an intellectually comprehensible path from nature to the supernatural - according to Hutten, who assessed the two as "enlightened from heaven" who opened up "liberating horizons" for their readers. But Lorber's understanding of inspiration is also problematic for Hutten : If Lorber claims that his texts were literally dictated to him by Christ, then this claim is called into question by the errors contained therein. Hutten referred to Lorber's false statements about the origin of the New Testament canon , about "central suns" circled by numerous stars, strong exaggerations in numerical data or untrustworthy alleged sayings of Jesus (about " corn kernels ", which were unknown in Palestine at the time).

The evangelical handbook Religious Communities and Weltanschauungen describes Lorber's extensive work as "diffuse and unsystematic". Lorber left an extensive work in which he sketched a comprehensive spiritual- monistic worldview . His cosmology postulates a purely spiritual "primordial creation" through the primordial thought sparks of God understood in the Gnostic sense. According to Lorber, the material world is the result of a solidification of the originally living spiritual world, in which the human souls who have fallen with Lucifer now decide from complete freedom of will whether or not they choose the path of their purification and connection with their “pure divine spirit spark”. His Christology describes Jesus Christ as God incarnate, who as a model of the body and soul man consistently came to the end of the path of purification and thus achieved complete union with the spark of God's Spirit through spiritual rebirth . His eschatology is based on the fact that many human souls do not achieve rebirth in this worldly life - even with possible reincarnations on earth or in other material worlds - but would develop further in worlds beyond . Lorber postulates the ultimate goal of universal reconciliation . In addition to God's grace, “human achievement is emphasized”.

Psychological evaluations

Antoinette Stettler-Schär diagnosed in her medical dissertation ( Jakob Lorber. Zur Psychopathologie eines Sektenstifters , 1966) a chronic paranoid schizophrenia with manic-depressive components in a prepsychotic self-insecure, fearful, neurotic and self -assertive-hysteriform personality.

The Catholic religious educator and religious psychologist Bernhard Grom contradicted this diagnosis (in an edition of the EZW -tex 2003) and noted that psychotically disturbed people are not able to perform like Lorber. Inspirational experiences, auditions and visions could be symptoms of psychological disorders (schizophrenia), but would also occur outside of this pathological context, namely in stressful situations and the search for spiritual orientation. Grom assigns the new revelation to this search for spiritual orientation and suspects a self-induced hallucination .

Works

Handwriting Jakob Lorber

The Lorber literature includes 25 works, some of which are very extensive, which were written by Lorber in 24 years according to the “inner dictation”. The manuscripts are kept by Lorber-Verlag in Bietigheim . Here are the 18 titles listed that Lorber-Verlag calls "major works".

Works related to the Bible

Works on creation

Works about the afterlife

Anthologies

literature

Writings of followers of Lorber's teaching

  • Kurt Eggenstein: The prophet Jakob Lorber proclaims impending catastrophes and true Christianity . Lorber, Bietigheim 1975; Pandion, Bad Kreuznach 12. A. 1997, ISBN 3-922929-75-3 .
  • Karl Gottfried von Leitner: Jakob Lorber. A picture of life after many years of personal interaction . Neu-Salem, Bietigheim, 1930; 6. A. ibid. 1994, ISBN 3-87495-043-3 . copy
  • Karl Gottfried von Leitner (Ed.): Jakob Lorber. Letters, certificates and pictures from his life . Neu-Salem, Bietigheim 1931; Letters
  • Walter Lutz: The basic questions of life in the light of Jakob Lorber's message ; Neu-Salem, Bietigheim 1930; Zluhan, Bietigheim 5th A. 2005, ISBN 3-87495-113-8 .
  • Walter Lutz: New revelation at the rise of the third millennium. A teaching and reference work of the New Revelation given by Jakob Lorber. 3 volumes. Lorber, Bietigheim 1969, ISBN 3-87495-068-9 .
  • Frank Mehnert: Lorber's spiritual gift to Christianity. In: Matthias Pöhlmann (ed.): "I still have a lot to say to you ..." God's messengers - prophets - newly revealed . Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions, EZW -tex 169, Berlin 2003, ISSN  0085-0357 , pp. 21–30.
  • Ralf Schuchardt: The Bible alone? The refutation of a Christian legend . Turm, Bietigheim 1997, ISBN 3-7999-0249-X .
  • Rainer Uhlmann: This is how the Lord spoke to me. Introduction to the prophetic work of Jakob Lorber . Lorber, Bietigheim 1987, ISBN 3-87495-159-6 .

Overview representations

Theological inquiries

  • Andreas Fincke: Jesus Christ in the work of Jakob Lorber. Investigations into the image of Jesus and the Christology of a “new revelation” . Diss. Theol. Hall 1992.
  • Andreas Fincke: Jakob Lorber - the "clerk of God". In: Matthias Pöhlmann (ed.): "I still have a lot to say to you ..." God's messengers - prophets - newly revealed . Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen, EZW -tex 169, Berlin 2003, ISSN  0085-0357 , pp. 31–45.
  • Jürgen Hennig: New Revelation of Jakob Lorber. In: Bibel und Gemeinde 1993/1, pp. 52–67.
  • Rudi Holzhauer: Brief information about Jacob Lorber, God's clerk. In: Bibel und Gemeinde 1985/4, pp. 438–444.
  • Thomas Noack: The seer and the clerk of God: Emanuel Swedenborg and Jakob Lorber in comparison . Constance 2004. (pdf; 1.1 MB)
  • Matthias Pöhlmann: Lorber Movement: Through knowledge of the beyond to salvation? (Series Apologetic Topics 4) Friedrich Bahn Verlag, Konstanz 1994, ISBN 3-7621-7704-X .
  • Matthias Pöhlmann: Divine healing magnetism in the northern Black Forest? The Inner Church of Love / Lorber Institute. In: Materialdienst der EZW 63/8 (2000), pp. 273–280.
  • Matthias Pöhlmann: Lorber movement - new developments. In: Materialdienst der EZW 61/4 (1998), pp. 122–124.
  • Matthias Pöhlmann: From “God's clerk” to “God's instrument”. "Inner Word" and New Revelation in the tradition of Jakob Lorber. In: Matthias Pöhlmann (ed.): "I still have a lot to say to you ..." God's messengers - prophets - newly revealed . Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions, EZW -tex 169, Berlin 2003, ISSN  0085-0357 , pp. 46–60.

Sociological and psychological research

  • Reinhard Rinnerthaler : On the communication structure of special religious communities using the example of the Jakob Lorber movement . Dissertation University of Salzburg 1992.
  • Antoinette Stettler-Schär: Jakob Lorber. On the psychopathology of a sect founder . Diss. Med. Bern 1966.

Web links

Wikiquote: Jakob Lorber  - Quotes
Lorber's primary texts
Websites of laurel societies, laurel friends and followers
Websites of critics of Lorber and the Lorber movement

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl Gottfried Ritter v. Leitner: Jakob Lorber ; Bietigheim: Neu-Salem, 1930, p. 7.
  2. ^ Leitner: Jakob Lorber. P. 9 f.
  3. ^ Leitner: Jakob Lorber. Pp. 10-12.
  4. ^ Leitner: Jakob Lorber. P. 12 f.
  5. ^ Fritz Enke: The original manuscript collection of the Neu-Salems-Gesellschaft. In: The word. 6/1928, p. 137.
  6. ↑ Karl Gottfried Ritter v. Leitner: Jakob Lorber, the Styrian theosophist. from chapter "The clerk of God"
  7. ^ Leitner: Jakob Lorber. P. 34; At the beginning of the copy it is stated that Lorber's biography was recorded by Leitner, who was born in November 1800 at the age of 84.
  8. ↑ Lorber biography of Leitner, section end of life
  9. ^ Leitner: Jakob Lorber. Pp. 19-21.
  10. ↑ Hutten: Seer. 1982, pp. 584f.
  11. ^ Leitner: Jakob Lorber. P. 44 f.
  12. ↑ Christoph Friedrich Landbeck: The truth seeker - with history of the new Salems light. Neu-Salems-Verlag, Bietigheim undated [foreword from 1920].
  13. ^ Leitner: Jakob Lorber. P. 14 f.
  14. ↑ Landbeck: Truth Seeker , p. 38.
  15. ↑ Johannes Madey: Jakob Lorber . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 6 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1997, Sp. 1049 . ; Jean-François Mayer: Lorber, Jakob. In: Wouter J. Hanegraaff u. a. (Ed.): Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism . Brill, Leiden-Boston 2006, pp. 699-701, here 700f.
  16. ^ Oswald Eggenberger : Lorber movement. In: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon . Volume 3, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1992, Sp. 185.
  17. ↑ Hutten: Seer. 1982, pp. 586f, 607.
  18. ↑ Jakob Lorber: The natural earth . 1847, Chapter 7 ( online , accessed July 22, 2012); see. Reinhard Rinnerthaler: On the communication structure of special religious communities using the example of the Jakob Lorber movement . University of Salzburg, 1992, pp. 82-92.
  19. ^ Oswald Eggenberger: Lorber movement. In: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon. Volume 3, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1992, Sp. 185.
  20. ↑ Valerie Hanus:  Lorber, Jakob. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 163 ( digitized version ).
  21. ↑ Walter Lutz: Grundgedanken ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / jakob-lorber.at
  22. ↑ Therefore there is also a website of Lorber supporters, which refers particularly to the time around 2030: http://jesus2030.de/cms/
  23. ↑ Lorber: Great Gospel Volume VI, chap. 76, 10 ( each a big change after almost 2000 years ); Volume VIII, 185, 10 ( nearly 1890 years after Christ's presence ); quoted in Hutten: seer. 1982, p. 603.
  24. ^ Oswald Eggenberger: Lorber movement. In: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon. Volume 3, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1992, Sp. 185.
  25. ↑ To a very weak person. - November 4, 1840 , Heavenly Gifts Volume 1, November 4, 1840
  26. Jump up ↑ Spiritual Sun, Volume 2, Chapter 123, paragraphs 11-12
  27. ↑ a b Eggenberger, p. 180.
  28. ↑ Kurt Eggenstein: The Prophet Jakob Lorber ; Pandion Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-922929-75-3 .
  29. ↑ Lorber Movement, through knowledge of the hereafter for salvation? P. 19.
  30. ↑ Biography of Jakob Lorber , verbatim copy of the little book Jakob Lorber. 3. Edition. Neu-Salems-Verlag, 1930.
  31. ↑ See Adolf Josef Lanz (pseudonym Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels): Jakob Lorber, the largest ariosophical medium of the modern age. 4 parts (= Ariosophical Library - Library for Ariogermanic Self-Knowledge, Volume 7-10). Verlag Herbert Reichstein, Düsseldorf-Unterrath 1926. (1. The course of life and the mysteries of the earthly world (19 pages), 2. The mysteries of the planetary world (25 pages), 3. The mysteries of the macrocosmic world (18 pages) , 4. The mysteries of the microcosmic world (28 pages). In addition: Armin Mohler : The Conservative Revolution in Germany 1918–1933. A manual. Originally Stocker-Verlag, 1949, edited by Karlheinz Weißmann : Ares-Verlag , Graz / Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-902475-02-1 , p. 407.
  32. ↑ Thomas Noack: The seer and the clerk of God: Emanuel Swedenborg and Jakob Lorber in comparison : Foreword ( Memento of the original from February 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.1 MB). Self-published, Zurich 2004. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.orah.ch
  33. ^ EF Schumacher: A Guide for the perplexed. Abacus, London 1978, 106.
  34. ↑ Paul Scheurlen: The sects of the present and newer worldview structures. Quell-Verlag, Stuttgart 1930, 4th edition, pp. 305-312.
  35. ↑ Matthias Pöhlmann: "I still have a lot to tell you ...". P. 21.
  36. ↑ Matthias Pöhlmann: "I still have a lot to tell you ...". P. 44.
  37. ↑ Fincke: Jesus Christ in the work of Jakob Lorber. P. 162 ff.
  38. ↑ Kurt Hutten: seers, brooders, enthusiasts. 12th edition. Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-7918-2130-X , pp. 606–619: “Revelations? Or what else? "
  39. ↑ Handbook of Religious Communities and Weltanschauungen , Mohn, Gütersloh 2000 5 , p. 217.
  40. ^ Antoinette Stettler-Schär: Jakob Lorber. On the psychopathology of a sect founder . Diss. Med. Bern 1966 (56 pages).
  41. ↑ Bernhard Grom SJ: "Revelation Experiences - Channeling: Religious Psychological Perspectives. A broad spectrum of forms of revelation ”, in: In: Matthias Pöhlmann (Ed.): “ I still have a lot to say to you ... ”Messenger of God - Prophet - New Revelator . Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions, EZW -tex 169, Berlin 2003, ISSN  0085-0357 , p. 10.
personal data
SURNAME Lorber, Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer, musician and Christian mystic
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH Kanisha
DATE OF DEATH August 24, 1864
Place of death Graz