The Heavenly Country An Anthology of Primary Sources, Poetry, and Critical Essays on Sophiology THE HEAVENLY COUNTRY An Anthology of Primary Sources, Poetry, and Critical Essays on Sophiology Edited by Michael Martin First published by Angelico Press /Sophia Perennis 2016 © Michael Martin 2016 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. For information, address: Angelico Press 4709 Briar Knoll Dr. Kettering, OH 45429 www.angelicopress.com Pbk: 978-1-62138-174-7 Cloth: 978-1-62138-175-4 Cover design: Michael Schrauzer CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction PART I: Primary Sources THE BIBLE Proverbs Canticle of Canticles (Song of Songs) The Book of Wisdom Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) JACOB BOEHME The Book of Six Great Points The Three Principles of the Divine Essence of the Eternall, Dark, Light, and Temporary World Of the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Sonne of God SOPHIOLOGY AND SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SCIENCE Robert Fludd: Mosaicall Philosophy Grounded upon the Essentiall Truth, or Eternal Sapience Thomas Vaughan: Anima Magica Abscondita Lumen de Lumine Euphrates THE PHILADELPHIAN SOCIETY John Pordage: Theologia Mystica, or The Mystic Divinitie of the Aeternal Invisibles Thomas Bromley: The Way to the Sabbath of Rest or the Soul’s Progress in the Work of the New Birth Jane Lead: A Fountain of Gardens SOPHIOLOGY AND ROMANTICISM Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Autobiography: Truth and Poetry, from My Own Life Theory of Colours Novalis (Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg): Christendom or Europe? Rudolf Steiner: Cosmic and Human Metamorphoses William Butler Yeats: The Body of the Father Christian Rosencrux RUSSIAN SOPHIOLOGY Vladimir Solovyov: Russia and the Universal Church Pavel Florensky: The Pillar and Ground of the Truth Sergei Bulgakov: Sophia, the Wisdom of God: An Outline of Sophiology Nikolai Berdyaev: Freedom and the Spirit CATHOLIC SOPHIOLOGY Hans Urs von Balthasar: The Glory of the Lord Louis Bouyer: The Seat of Wisdom Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: The Eternal Feminine Valentin Tomberg: Meditations on the Tarot PART II The Poetry of Sophia PART III Critical Essays Aaron Riches: Theotokos: Sophiology and Christological Overdetermination of the Secular Gregory Yuri Glazov: On Understanding, Wisdom, and the Son of Man Arthur Versluis: John Pordage and Sophianic Mysticism Brent Dean Robbins: New Organs of Perception: Goethean Science as a Cultural Therapeutics Robert F. Slesinski: Russian Sophiology Jennifer Newsome Martin: True and Truer Gnosis: The Revelation of the Sophianic in Hans Urs von Balthasar Bruce V. Foltz: Nature and Divine Wisdom: How (Not) to Speak of Sophia Artur Sebastian Rosman: The Catholic Imagination: A Sophiology Between Scatology and Eschatology Michael Martin: The Poetic of Sophia Notes on Contributors Dedicated to St. Edith Stein, also known as St. Teresia Benedicta of the Cross (1891 –1942), in anticipation of the seventy-fifth anniversary of her forced entrance into Eternity. Ave Crux, Spes Unica. Acknowledgments A PROJECT of this size and scope takes much in the way of coordination and cooperation and I am very grateful to all those, both in the temporal and eternal realms, who participated in its production. I am thankful, first of all, to Marygrove College for the gifts of a number of research grants without which this book might never have been completed. I am particularly appreciative for my two research assistants, Shauntay Frazier- Hall and Alejandra Villegas, who worked diligently in transcribing and formatting much of the book: no mean task. I am likewise indebted to the poets, translators, and scholars contributing new work to the collection: David Craig, Bruce Foltz, Gregory Glazov, Jennifer Newsome Martin, Daniel Polikoff, Aaron Riches, Artur Sebastian Rosman, Fr. Robert Slesinski, Lourdes Torres-Monaghan, and Arthur Versluis. And, as always, I offer my deepest appreciation to my wife, Bonnie, and my children. I am a man rich in blessings. mm Selections from the Bible are taken from the Douay-Rheims American Edition (1899). The Book of Six Great Points by Jacob Boehme, taken from Several Treatises of Jacob Behme, translated by John Sparrow (London, 1661). Selection from The Three Principles of the Divine Essence of the Eternall, Dark, Light, and Temporary World by Jacob Boehme, translated by John Sparrow (London, 1648). Jacob Boehme, Of the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Sonne of God, taken from The Fifth Book of the Authour, in Three Parts the First, Of the Becoming Man or Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Sonne of God, That Is, concerning the Virgin Mary… and How the Eternal Word Is Become Man: The Second Part Is of Christ’s Suffering, Dying, Death, and Resurrection…: The Third Part Is of The Tree of Christian Faith, translated by John Sparrow (London, 1659). John Pordage, Theologia Mystica, or The Mystic Divinitie of the Aeternal Invisibles, Viz. the Archetypous Globe, or the Original Globe, or World of All Globes, Worlds, Essences, Centers, Elements, Principles and Creations Whatsoever. A Work Never Exstant Before. By a Person of Qualitie JPMD (London, 1683).