The"6'p;vHaH Theohxjif had a great effect on the in- ner religious life of (iermany at the time of the Refor- mation, and gave to it a mystic tone. It is the title of a work that was first brought under public notice by Luther, an<l published by him ( .\.l). \h\^) as "eyn edels Biichlein, von rechtem Versland was .\dam und Chris- tus sey, und wie Adam zii uiis sterlien und Christiis erste- hen soil." Since that time it has frequently been trans- lated and republished, and has been a great favorite in
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Lutheran Gerraanj'. All that is known of the author is that he was custos of the Deutsch Herreu Haus at Frank- fort, or rather across the Main at Sachsenhansen, and a member of the society of" God's Friends," Romanists of mystical principles, who disappeared from the scene at the close of the 14th century. See Friends of God. The style of the book is quite similar to that of Tauler and Suso. The book inculcates the necessity of com- pletely merging the will of man in the will of God, and of practicing the most complete self-denial and mortitt- cation of natural inclinations. It is self-will that stands as a wall of separation bet^^'een God and man ; it con- verted angels into devils, and is as the fire that never can be quenched; voluntary humiliation is its remedy. Of the high conceit and lax morals of the Brethren of the Free Spirit it speaks with much severity as the very spirit of Antichrist. Enlightenment, in which mysti- cism has always professed to initiate its votaries, is not to be attained by talk or study ; but by steady acts of self-devotion, and the practice of active virtue. Love, and no taint of self-seeking, must be the spring of all one's actions ; and he can only hope to attain perfection who renounces as unworthy all wish for earthly re- ward. The same mind must be in him which was in Christ .Jesus — self-devoting and self-sacrificing. The tone of the book shows no symptom of disrespect for the Church ; but its free application of Bible principles in a neoterizing spirit scarcely failed to prepare the way of the Reformation. In some respects it also exhibits the germ of the Reine Veriiunft of Kant. The book was always a great favorite with Luther, who freely owned himself to be under the deepest obligations to it. "Next to the Bible and St. Augustine," he says, " from no book which I have met have I learned more of what God, Christ, man, and all things are." The sound theology which pervades the work, though clothed in a some- what mj'stical garb, conveyed much light to the Re- former's mind. The fundamental thought which the book contains is thus described by Ullman : " If the creature recognise itself in the immutable Good, and as one therewith, and live and act in this knowledge, then it is itself good and perfect. But if, on the contrary, the creature revolt from that Good, it is then evil. All sin consists in apostatizing from the supreme and per- fect Good, in making self an object, and in supposing that it is something, and that we derive from it any sort of benefit, such as existence, or life, or knowledge, or ability. This the devil did, and it was by this alone he fell. His presuming that he, too, was something, and that something was his, his ' F and his ' me' and his ' my' and his ' mine,' were his apostas}^ and fall. In the self-same way Adam also fell. Eating the apple was not the cause of his fall, but his arrogating to self his ' I' and ' me' and ' mine.' But for this, even if he had eaten seven apples, he would not have fallen. Be- cause of it, however, he must have fallen although he had not tasted the one. So is it with every man, in whom the same thing is repeated a hundred times. Bat in what way may this apostasy and general fall be repaired ? The way is for man to come out of self (iso- lation as a creature) and enter into God. In order to do this two parties must concur, God and man. Man can- not do it without God, and God could not do it without man ; and therefore it behooved God to take upon him human nature and to become man, in order that man might become God. This once took place in the most perfect way in Christ, and as every man should become by grace what Christ was by nature, it ought to be repeated in every man, and in myself among the rest; for were God to be humanized in all other men, and all others to be deified in him, and were this not to take place in me, my fall would not be repaired. In that way Christ restores what was lost by Adam. B3' Adam came selfishness, and with it disobedience, all evil, and corruption. By Christ, in virtue of his pure and divine life transfusing itself into men, came the annihilation of selfishness, obedience and union with VL— E E E
God, and therein every good thing, peace, heaven, and blessedness." The Deutsche Theologie, which thus un- folded Protestant truth so clearly before the Reforma- tion, has since 16-21 been inscribed in the Romish Index of prohibited works.