Johannes Tauler (c. 1300 –
15
June 1361) was a
German mystic theologian.
Life
He was
born about the year 1300 in Strasbourg
, and was educated at the Dominican convent in that city, where
Meister Eckhart, who greatly
influenced him, was professor of theology (1312-1320) in the
monastery school. From Strasbourg he went to the Dominican
college of Cologne, and perhaps to St James's College, Paris
, ultimately
returning to Strasbourg. In 1324 Strasbourg, along with
other cities, was placed under a papal
interdict, and so all
Dominican friars left the city. Tauler went to Basel. The legend
that he stayed in Strasbourg and continued to perform religious
services for the people is probably due to the desire of the
Sixteenth century Reformers to enroll the famous preachers of the
Middle Ages among their
forerunners.
From 1338
to 1339 Tauler was in Basel
, then the
headquarters of the "Friends of God",
and was brought into intimate relations with the members of that
pious mystical fellowship. Tauler worked with the Friends of
God, and it was with them that he taught his belief that the state
of the soul was affected more by a personal relationship with God
than by external practices. (Cairns 243) In this way, he was more
of a proselytizer than his counterpart, Eckhart. Yet Strasbourg
still remained his headquarters. The
Black
Death came there in 1348, and it is said that when the city was
deserted by all who could leave it, Tauler remained at his post,
encouraging his terror-stricken fellow-citizens with sermons and
personal visits. His correspondence with distinguished members of
the
Gottesfreunde, especially with
Margaretha Ebner, and the fame of
his preaching and other work in Strasbourg, made him known
throughout a wide circle. He died in 1361.
Tauler was one of several notable
Christian universalists in the
Middle Ages, along with
Amalric of
Bena,
John of Ruysbroeck, and
Julian of Norwich. He taught that
"All beings exist through the same birth as the Son, and therefore
shall they all come again to their original, that is, God the
Father."
The well-known story of Tauler's conversion and discipline by
"
The Friend of God
from the Oberland" cannot be regarded as historical. Tauler was
famous for his sermons, which were considered among the noblest in
the
German language -- not as
emotional as
Henry Suso's, nor as
speculative as Eckhart's, but rather intensely practical, and
touching on all sides the deeper problems of the moral and
spiritual life.
Work
Tauler's
sermons were printed first in Leipzig
in 1498,
reprinted in 1508 at Augsburg, and then again with additions from
Eckhart and others at Basel (1521 and 1522), at Halberstadt (1523),
at Cologne (1543), and in Lisbon
(1551).
A Latin translation was printed first at Cologne in 1548 and 1553.
There are
modern editions by Julius Hamberger
(Frankfurt
, 1864) and Ferdinand Vetter (Berlin, 1910,
reprinted Dublin/Zürich, 1968;). R. H. Hutton published Tauler's
Sermons for
Festivals under the title of
The Inner Way.
- Denifle, Dis Buck von geistlicher Armuth (Strassburg,
1877);
- Carl Schmidt,
Johann Tauler von Strassburg (Hamburg
,
1841);
- S. Winkworth, Tauler's Life and Sermons
(London
, 1857);
- R. A. Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, 3rd ed., vol.
i. pp. 214-307;
- Wilhelm Preger's Gesch. der
deutschen Mystik im Mittelalter, vol. iii;
- W. R. Inge, Christian Mysticism;
- R. M. Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion (1909).
- Gnädinger, Louise: Johannes Tauler. Lebenswelt und mystische
Lehre. München, 1993.
References
- " Apocatastasis". New Schaff-Herzog
Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. I.
- " Johann Tauler". at Tentmaker.org.
Accessed Dec. 5, 2007.
- Online im Digitalen Mittelhochdeutschen Textarchiv
(mhgta)
- Cairns, Earle. Christianity Through the Centuries. 3rd
ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.
Literature
- Eck, Suzanne: Gott in uns. Hinführung zu Johannes
Tauler. Übersetzt von Viktor Hofstetter OP und Hildegard
Stoffels (Dominikanische Quellen und Zeugnisse Bd. 8). Leipzig
2006.
- Gnädinger, Louise: Johannes Tauler. Lebenswelt und
mystische Lehre. München 1993.
- Hamburger, Jeffrey F.: D.Verschiedenartigen Bücher der
Menschheit. Johannes Tauler über d. "Scivias" H.s v.B. Trier
2005 (=Mitt. u. Verz. aus d. Bibl. d. Bischöfl. Priesterseminars zu
Trier; 20).
- Leppin, Volker: Artikel „Tauler Johannes“ , in:
Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Bd. 32, Berlin/ New York 2001, S.
745-748.
- Mayer, Johannes G.: Die "Vulgata"-Fassung der Predigten
Johannes Taulers. Würzburg 1999 (Texte und Wissen. 1).
- Mösch, Caroline F.: "Daz disiu geburt geschehe".
Meister Eckharts Predigtzyklus von d. ewigen Geburt u.
Johannes Taulers Predigten zum Weihnachtsfestkreis.
Fribourg 2006.
- Otto, Henrik: Vor- und frühreformatorische
Tauler-Rezeption. Quellen und Forschungen zur
Reformationsgeschichte Bd. 75 Gütersloh 2003.
- Sturlese, Loris: Tauler im Kontext. Die
philosophischen Voraussetzungen des "Seelengrundes" in der Lehre
des deutschen Neuplatonikers Berthold von Moosburg. In: PBB
109 (1987), S. 390-426.
- Theißen, J.: Tauler und die Liturgie. In: Deutsche
Mystik im abendländischen Zusammenhang. Hg. v. W. Haug und W.
Schneider-Lastin, Tübingen 2000, S. 409-423.
- Weigand, Rudolf Kilian: Predigen und Sammeln. Die
Predigtanordnung in frühen Tauler-Handschriften. In: Studien
zur deutschen Sprache und Literatur. FS Konrad Kunze. Hg. von
Werner Williams-Krapp. Hamburg 2004, S. 114-155.
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