The Appeal of German Mysticism to Religious Dissenters in Sixteenth-Century Germany: Mystical Books and the Life Stories of Their Readers

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay discusses the relationship between the reception of mystical texts and the life stories of their readers: What circumstances motivated individuals or groups to seek out mystical literature? How did these texts impact their readers’ future life trajectories? Well-researched examples are found in the early years of the Wittenberg Reformation. Luther discovered the texts of German mysticism, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt reflected the need for detachment from religious, social and family ties using the category of Gelassenheit. Social homelessness was not only a problem of Protestant dissenters, but also for Catholic minorities. For example, Wilhelm Listemann, Benedictine prior in Thuringia, had to go into exile when his monastery was secularized in 1525. In this situation he acquired the sermons of Johannes Tauler. A long term effect of the religious schism was the formation of new alliances between Protestant and Catholic dissenters discovering mystical literature as a common ecumenical resource.