Johannes Tauler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Statue of Johannes Tauler on the outside of the Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune protestant church in Strasbourg , created by Ferdinand Riedel in 1898

Johannes Tauler (also Johan Tauweler , Johann Tauler; * around 1300 in Strasbourg ; † June 16, 1361 ibid) was a German theologian, mystic and preacher who worked primarily in Strasbourg, Basel and Cologne. He was a Dominican and belonged to the Neoplatonic movement in his order . Along with Meister Eckhart and Heinrich Seuse , he is one of the best-known representatives of late medieval German-speaking Dominican spirituality.

Just like Meister Eckhart, Tauler is convinced that God is permanently present in the “bottom” of the human soul - even if usually in a hidden way - and can therefore be reached there. According to Tauler's teaching, the prerequisite for the inner experience of God is a relentless striving for self-knowledge. Self-knowledge makes it possible to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of encountering God. The "contemplation" with which one turns away from worldly endeavors, turns to oneself and gains serenity, does not mean neglecting the tasks to be fulfilled in everyday life. Rather, active and contemplative life should form an indissoluble unit. The emphatic upgrading of everyday work, especially ordinary employment, which is seen as an integral part of spirituality, is characteristic of Tauler.

life and work

Beginning of a sermon by Tauler in a 15th century manuscript

Tauler came from a - as his own words suggest - wealthy family. The name of the family, who have lived in Strasbourg for decades, is mentioned on various occasions in contemporary documents. A Klaus Tauler, presumably Johannes Tauler's father, was a councilor.

Tauler entered the Dominican convent of his hometown. He went through the usual training course for priests of the Dominican order, i.e. a course of six to eight years, which imparted extensive philosophical and theological knowledge. This probably did not happen in Strasbourg, but in another monastery in the Dominican order of Teutonia in southern Germany. He probably met Master Eckhart in the Strasbourg Dominican Convention, who has been shown to have stayed in the city several times between 1314 and 1322/1324. After his training, Tauler was mainly active in pastoral care for women who lived in the Spirit (Dominican nuns and beguines ). For these he wrote his 80 German-language sermons, which were put together in collections at an early stage; the handwritten tradition began during his lifetime. Apart from a personal letter, these sermons are his only surviving, certainly authentic, work.

During the conflict between Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian and Pope Johannes XXII. Strasbourg decided on the emperor's side and was given the interdict by the Pope . Since the Strasbourg Dominicans obeyed the Pope's instructions and refused to continue celebrating mass for the citizens, they were expelled from the city in 1339. Tauler had probably left Strasbourg as early as 1338. Like most of his expelled confreres, he went to Basel. He stayed there at least until the Dominican Convention returned to Strasbourg (1342/43). Apparently he stayed between 1343 and 1346 partly in Basel, partly in Strasbourg and Cologne. During the time of his exile in Basel he was active in the circle of the spiritually oriented "friends of God", among whom were numerous lay people. He held popular popular sermons, which, however, in contrast to his sermons, are lost to monastic communities. The secular priest Heinrich von Nördlingen and the Dominican Margarete Ebner belonged to his circle of friends . In 1339, 1343 and 1346 he traveled to Cologne , where he pursued his preaching activity, as shown by references to Cologne customs in two sermons. By the late 1940s he was already a famous preacher. The Dominican Christine Ebner reported in 1351 about a vision in which her God revealed that Tauler was the dearest person on earth to him.

Tauler stood up for the Beguines, a community of women who did not belong to any order recognized by the Church, but who belonged to the laity, but who kept traditional religious vows (poverty, abstinence and obedience) and mostly lived an order-like, community life. The Beguines, who were often cared for by Dominicans, were exposed to papal and episcopal persecution at the time. In sermons Tauler spoke out sharply against people who despised the Beguines or brought them into disrepute by defamation.

Tauler spent his last lifetime, weakened by illness, in the garden house of the Dominican convent of St. Nikolaus am Gießen ( St. Nicolaus in undis ) in Strasbourg. After his death on June 16, 1361 he was buried in the Dominican monastery; the grave slab showing a drawing of his figure has been preserved.

Teaching

Tauler never presented his teaching systematically. It can therefore only be derived from his sermons.

Relationship with authorities

Tauler's teaching is independent, but he often appeals to authorities, above all to church fathers like Augustine and Gregory the Great , but also to pagan philosophers like Plato and Aristotle . Of the medieval monk theologians, he particularly values Bernhard von Clairvaux and the Victorians Hugo von St. Viktor and Richard von St. Viktor . For him, the Neoplatonic oriented theologian Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita and the late antique non-Christian Neoplatonist Proklos and Meister Eckhart, whom he mentions only once, play a prominent role . In dealing with authorities of all kinds, he places great emphasis on the difference between "Les (e) master", learned theologians who know a lot but hardly put it into practice, and "Leb (e) master", who live by example themselves. His judgment on the reading masters is very unfavorable.

Soul teaching

Tauler's aim is to open the way for his audience to union with God. This experience, which is called unio mystica in Latin theological terminology , is what Tauler, who only writes in German, describes as "breakthrough" or "crossing". He is convinced that it is possible for everyone. His thinking always revolves around the prerequisites and the course of this event. The conceptual framework is provided by a trichotomic division of the soul : Tauler is of the opinion that human beings are tripartite with regard to their psychological characteristics and inclinations, "as if formed from three people". He distinguishes three “things” (aspects) in man: the outer man, the inner man and the third, the “supreme inner” man, who forms the core of the personality, while the other two are called “lower man”. The outer, sensual human being “clings to nature, in flesh and blood”. It is controlled by animal, bodily desire; whoever follows this inclination "remains in the senses with the creatures and in the created things". The inner man has “natural reason ” and is therefore able to act in accordance with reason, but his thoughts can never end up in God's “solitude”. Tauler describes the third (uppermost and innermost) person as "reason" (of the person, spirit or soul) and often also as "mind" (not in the modern sense of this term). He is “pure, unmixed soul substance” and as such is godly and godlike (godlike, godlike) . Tauler teaches that only the “ground” is the bearer of the ability to achieve unity with God, because this event surpasses the natural powers of the senses and reason. In the "ground" God is always present, even if often not in a noticeable way. Since the three instances of the soul are of different quality, they feel differently; There is a conflict between them because they strive for different, sometimes contradicting goals. Therefore, the two lower people, whom Tauler compares with a donkey (sensual person) and a servant (rational person), are to be subjected to the rule of the highest person.

The way to union with God

For Tauler, walking on the spiritual path begins with "turning back" (kêr) , to which he constantly calls. It should have an external effect on ethical behavior and thus improve the relationship with other people. First and foremost, however, he portrays it as a turning to oneself. As a "retreat" (inkêr) , it is a movement directed inwards, into the soul's own "ground". This movement is accompanied by a process of self-knowledge, which Tauler attaches great importance to, since self-knowledge ultimately leads to knowledge of God.

On the way, Tauler distinguishes three “degrees” (attainable attitudes or ways of life). He calls the lowest degree “jubilation”, “a great, effective joy”. This first degree arises from the perception of the “delicious signs of love” of God in nature, the “miracles of heaven and earth”, and from contemplation of the gifts that man himself has received. Whoever looks at this “with true love is so overwhelmed by inner joy that the weak body cannot hold the joy”. Tauler emphatically warns against distracting the “children of God” who are in this state from putting obstacles in their way or assigning them “rough exercises”; thereby ruin oneself.

According to Tauler's remarks, when a person reaches the second degree, he is “no longer a child”, but rather “has become a man” and as such tolerates hard food. This phase is characterized by distress and suffering (separated) . Here God takes everything from man, what he has given him before, and leaves him entirely to himself, so that this person “knows nothing about God” and “does not know whether he has ever been on the right path, whether there is a God for him or not ”. In this state, the person concerned experiences his existence as hell, and everything that can be said to him “no longer comforts him than a stone”.

The second stage serves to prepare the transition (“breakthrough”, “crossing”) to the third, on which man is relieved of all need and recognizes the truth. By attaining “the most truest knowledge of his own nothingness” (his nothingness), he is “deified” and “one with God”; his humble sinking into nothingness is at the same time an ascent, because “here height and depth are one and the same”. Man is a "created abyss", God an "uncreated abyss"; the two call each other, as Tauler puts it in reference to Ps 42.8  EU , they meet each other, and then one abyss flows into the other abyss, "the created nothing sinks into the uncreated nothing".

Tauler regards creation, the emergence of the world from God, as emanation (outpouring), redemption as a return to the origin: “The same thing that man is now in his nature, he was from the beginning in God in unsaturation, one with him being being (being being with im) . And as long as a person does not return to this state of lack of images (purity) , with which he flowed out of the origin, out of the imperfect into the natural, he will never get back into God. "

Various metaphors that Tauler uses in this context indicate that for him the union with God is experienced as a complete one that leads to indistinguishability; he speaks of the water droplets that are lost in the sea or mixed with wine. Other statements from him, however, show that regardless of such subjective experience, the person's personality always remains objectively intact. Tauler's teaching is not to be understood pantheistically .

In order to illustrate the difficulties that God-seekers encounter on the way, Tauler compares in the eleventh sermon the fate of a man who thirsts for God with that of a deer that is hunted by dogs. First, he is haunted by his "strong, great, gross ailments," the seven main vices that correspond to large dogs. If he has successfully defended himself against them, for example by smashing the head of a dog that has bitten into him, in a tree, small dogs come and pinch him. These are small distractions, "company or amusement or human kindness" that he considers relatively harmless. Since he does not recognize their danger, they are "often much more harmful than the great temptations". When the deer has finally overcome all dogs, it comes to the water (God), where it can quench its thirst.

For Tauler and for Meister Eckhart, one of the main prerequisites for mastering this path completely is detachment from everything. It leads to “singleness” and “serenity”. By this he understands not only external poverty in the sense of a renunciation of personal property and worldly desires, but also comprehensive spiritual poverty or emptiness, which also includes renouncing the right to own salvation and bliss.

Active and peaceful life

Like Meister Eckhart, Tauler rejects a separation between active and contemplative life and a disdain for the active way of life. Since the "reversal" he called for is an inner-soul process, he does not consider an outward turning away from the ordinary activities of bourgeois everyday life to be necessary. Rather, he praises uneducated laypeople (non-clergy) without theological knowledge who perform their secular tasks and do hard work, and is strongly opposed to their devaluation by some clerics . In general, Tauler emphasizes the ethical and spiritual value of work, including ordinary employment. Individuals should follow God's “call” and choose their active or contemplative way of life according to their disposition and ability. For Tauler, the opposition between the two forms of life only appears to exist; in reality they form a unity that results from being one with God; Once this oneness is reached, God himself works everything in man and therefore also determines when a work is to be done and when the time is for contemplation. According to this point of view, the external activity does not affect the spiritual life, and the serene person prefers neither one nor the other, but both are equally welcome to him. No activity is in itself inferior to another.

Conception of God

When explaining his conception of God, Tauler uses expressions from literature on negative theology , an approach that played an important role in the (new) Platonically influenced theological tradition and was especially developed by Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita and Meister Eckhart. It is a criticism of positive determinations of the divine as inadequate and their replacement by negative statements that are supposed to hold on to what God is not by negating positive determinations that are regarded as inadequate. Tauler, for example, with reference to Pseudo-Dionysius, uses the term divine “darkness”, which goes back to the biblical description of God's covering. In doing so, he deviates from the usual positive imagery in which God is associated with light and darkness with evil. Tauler also describes God as the "uncreated nothing" (uncreated nút) . Other terms that he uses when making statements about God are "depth" and "abyss". In his view, God is nameless ("unnamed").

In addition, Tauler also makes affirmative statements about God; so he calls him an “uncreated light” and “the good” and speaks of his “wisdom”. Against the background of negative theology, these terms turn out to be metaphors that are only intended to indicate what is meant after any claim to be able to give an appropriate description has been rejected.

Aftermath

Title page of the first edition of a collection of Tauler's sermons (1498)

Tauler's teaching had an enormous impact in the late Middle Ages and early modern times. This was due to the fact that, unlike Meister Eckhart, who often had the same or similar views as he, he was never suspected of heresy in the Middle Ages . His great reputation in the late Middle Ages is shown, among other things, in the fact that various writings by other authors were ascribed to him. Sermons, tracts and letters were among these "Pseudo-Tauleriana" that shaped the image of him for posterity. In the early modern period, a work by an unknown author, the book of spiritual (or: spiritual ) poverty , which Daniel Sudermann attributed to Tauler, was widely distributed . Sudermann printed it in 1621 under the title Doctors Johan Taulers Following the Poor Life of Christ . Directly or indirectly inspired by Tauler's sermons, the original version of the song Es geht ein Schiff, laden (Evangelical Hymnal No. 8), which was therefore ascribed to him.

The collection of sermons spread mainly in the monasteries that were involved in the religious reform efforts of the 15th century. At least 178 manuscripts have been preserved. The first prints appeared in Leipzig in 1498 and in Augsburg in 1508; they already contained spurious sermons alongside the authentic ones.

The extent of Tauler's influence on Martin Luther and the extent to which he can be regarded as a forerunner of the Reformation are traditionally controversial . The denominational character of this dispute has long stood in the way of an impartial clarification of the facts. Luther wrote marginal notes in his copy of the Augsburg Tauler edition. He mentioned the Dominican in his commentary on the Romans in 1516 and later quoted him frequently. The Theologia deutsch , which he valued and published, was a summary of Tauler's teaching. This setting of the course led to Tauler's great popularity in the evangelical areas, where the collection of his sermons was one of the most popular edification books up to the 19th century, especially in pietistic circles; Only in the romantic period was his influence surpassed by the master Eckhart. Among the Reformation personalities appreciated the Tauler, were in the 16th century Thomas Müntzer , Sebastian Franck and Michael Neander , the 1581 one Tauleri Theologia Bernhardi et published in the 17th century Johann Arndt , who in his popular devotional book Four books from true Christianity numerous Texts from the Basel Tauler edition cited, Jakob Böhme , Philipp Jacob Spener and Ahasverus Fritsch , who put together sayings and rules of life Tauler in a work entitled Pietas Tauleriana ("Taulersche Piety", 1676).

Title page of the Basel Tauler edition from 1522 with a border by Hans Holbein

The appeal of Reformation theologians to Tauler made him appear suspicious to some Catholics during the Reformation. Luther's prominent Catholic opponent Johannes Eck even accused Tauler of heresy in 1523 in his work De purgatorio contra Ludderum (“On the purgatory against Luther”). The Benedictine abbot Louis de Blois opposed this in 1553 in a defensive pamphlet (Apologia pro Thaulero) . The fourth general of the Jesuits , Everard Mercurian , who officiated from 1573 to 1580, forbade Tauler reading in his order. Works that were sometimes wrongly ascribed to Tauler were put on the index in the 16th century .

Catholic editions competed with the Protestant Tauler editions, including the one from Basel (1521 and 1522), edited by the Carthusian Georg Carpentarius, but with a foreword by a Lutheran, and the one from Cologne (1543), which dates back to the Jesuit Petrus Canisius . Canisius added an extensive collection of texts that did not come from Tauler, but were from now on counted among his important works; the inauthenticity was not recognized until 1841. The Carthusian Laurentius Surius published a Latin translation in Cologne in 1548, which, in addition to the authentic sermons, not only contained the inauthentic material brought in by Canisius, but also additional additions by Surius. Thanks to the translation into Latin, Tauler also became known outside of the German-speaking world. He was particularly valued by Paul von Kreuz , who founded the Passionist Order in the 18th century . Therefore, Tauler's influence was and remained relatively strong among the Passionists.

In the novel tetralogy November 1918 by Alfred Doblin Tauler appears repeatedly one of the main characters, Dr. Friedrich Becker, and leads him on his way to faith.

Tauler's day of remembrance in the Evangelical Name Calendar is the day of his death, June 16.

Text editions ( Middle High German )

A critical text edition on a broad handwritten basis does not exist. Be used:

  • Ferdinand Vetter (Ed.): Tauler's sermons . Weidmann, Dublin / Zurich 1968 (unaltered reprint of the Berlin 1910 edition; online )
  • Adolphe L. Corin (Ed.): Sermons de J. Tauler et autres écrits mystiques . 2 volumes, Vaillant-Carmanne, Liège 1924–1929

Translations

  • Johannes Tauler: Sermons , transmitted and edited by Georg Hofmann, Freiburg i. Br. 1961, reprint in two volumes, 3rd edition, Johannes-Verlag, Einsiedeln 1979 (translated into modern German)
  • Johannes Tauler: Sermons. Experience of God and Path into the World , ed. and translated by Louise Gnädinger, Olten 1983 (selection, translation into modern German)
  • Johannes Tauler: Sermons . In: Winfried Zeller, Bernd Jaspert (eds.): Heinrich Seuse, Johannes Tauler: Mystische Schriften . Diederichs, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-424-00924-5 , pp. 153–306 (selection, translation into modern German)
  • Johann Tauler: Sermons. Transferred in selection and introduced by Leopold Naumann . Frankfurt a. M., Insel Verlag 1980 (Vol. XII of the facsimile edition of: Der Dom. Books of German Mysticism , Leipzig 1923)
  • Jean Tauler: Sermons , ed. Jean-Pierre Jossua, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris 1991, ISBN 978-2-204-04257-4 (complete French translation)

literature

Reception:

  • Volker Leppin: The Foreign Reformation. Luther's mystical roots. CH Beck, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-69081-5 , pp. 22-39.
  • Henrik Otto: Pre-Reformation and Early Reformation Tauler Reception. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2003, ISBN 3-579-01648-2 .

Web links

Commons : Johannes Tauler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Johannes Tauler  - Quotes

Remarks

  1. ^ Louise Gnädinger: Johannes Tauler , Munich 1993, p. 91 f.
  2. ^ Tauler, Sermon 3 (Hofmann, p. 28) and Sermon 65 (Vetter) = 59 (Hofmann).
  3. ^ Tauler, Sermon 3 (Hofmann p. 28) and Sermon 37 (Hofmann p. 277, Vetter p. 146).
  4. ↑ Tauler, Sermon 59 (Hofmann p. 458 f.) = 65 (Vetter p. 357 f.).
  5. ↑ Tauler, Sermon 40 (Hofmann p. 303 f.) = 39 (Vetter p. 159 f.).
  6. ↑ Tauler, Sermon 40 (Hofmann p. 304 f.) = 39 (Vetter p. 161).
  7. ↑ Tauler, Sermon 40 (Hofmann p. 305f.) = 39 (Vetter p. 161f.).
  8. ^ Tauler, Sermon 41 (Hofmann p. 314 f., Vetter p. 175 f.); Sermon 44 (Hofmann p. 336 f.) = 61 (Vetter p. 331). The psalm passage in the Vulgate reads : abyssus ad abyssum invocat in voce cataractarum tuarum .
  9. ↑ Tauler, Sermon 44 (Hofmann p. 337) = 61 (Vetter p. 331 f.).
  10. ^ Louise Gnädinger: Johannes Tauler , Munich 1993, pp. 98-102, 310f.
  11. ^ Gösta Wrede: Unio mystica , Stockholm 1974, pp. 108–111.
  12. ↑ See Louise Gnädinger: Johannes Tauler , Munich 1993, p. 395 f. See Helmer Ringgren: ḥāša k . In: Johannes Botterweck , Helmer Ringgren (Hrsg.): Theological dictionary to the Old Testament , Volume 3, Stuttgart 1982, Sp. 261–277, here: 269.
  13. ↑ 53 manuscripts are described in the Marburg manuscript census.
  14. ↑ See Gösta Wrede: Unio mystica , Stockholm 1974, pp. 29–34; Henrik Otto: Pre-Reformation and Early Reformation Tauler Reception , Gütersloh 2003, pp. 211–214.
  15. ↑ See Johannes Ficker: On Luther's remarks in Tauler's Sermones (Augsburg 1508) . In: Theological Studies and Criticisms 107, 1936, pp. 46–64; Henrik Otto: Pre- Reformation and Early Reformation Tauler Reception , Gütersloh 2003, pp. 183–211.
  16. ↑ Henrik Otto: Pre-Reformation and Early Reformation Tauler Reception , Gütersloh 2003, p. 178.
  17. ^ Henrik Otto: Vorreformatorische Tauler Reception , Gütersloh 2003, pp. 254–264.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 17, 2009 .
personal data
SURNAME Tauler, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and preacher
DATE OF BIRTH around 1300
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1361
Place of death Strasbourg