Leseprobe

13 T he Life of the P hi l o s ophe r Jacob B öhme 3 Title page in: Gregor Richter, Judicium Gregorii Richteri Gorlicii , Bautzen 1624, Oberlausitzische Bibliothek der Wissen­ schaften, LV 75. 35,9 the intuition he experienced against the dark forces that want to silence him. The city authorities, though, did not intervene harshly against him. The confiscation of the manu- script and the warning not to write again were the only significant measures taken. For six years, Böhme appears to have obeyed the interdiction. When the Thirty Years’ War broke out in 1618, he began writing his second book, A Description of the Three Principles of Divine Essence ( Beschreibung der drei Principien Göttliches Wesens ). Böhme views war as yet another sign of the Devil at work in the world, and thus it is plausible that he resumed his writing endeavors prompted by the need to communicate his message in times of darkness. It is in any case evident that from 1618 onwards he was particularly concerned to spread his philosophy through an intense phase of writing. Between 1618 and the year of his death, 1624, Böhme wrote indefatigably, producing in total around 30 works. Yet, he insisted that the entire con- tent of his philosophy was already in the first book, Morgenröte or Aurora , and that all subsequent ones were mere attempts at expanding and clarifying the same core knowledge. Despite this, the books range greatly in terms of literary form as well as in terms of focus: they include a lengthy work devoted to the