Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th CenturiesJones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Religion
Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries
Jones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Mysticism; Reformers
He first appears in the group of Balthasar Huebmaier's followers and at
this period he had evidently allied himself with the Anabaptist
movement, which gathered into itself many young men of the time who
were eager for a new and more spiritual type of Christianity. Huebmaier
mentions Entfelder in 1527 as pastor at Ewanzig, a small town in
Moravia, where, as he himself later says, he diligently taught his
little flock the things which concerned their inner life. In the
eventful years of 1520-1530 he was in Strasbourg in company with
Buenderlin,[13] and in this latter year he published his first book,
with the title: _Von den manigfaltigen in Glauben Zerspaltungen dise
jar erstanden_. ("On the many Separations which have this year arisen
in Belief.") A second book, which is also dated 1530, bears the title:
Von waren Gotseligkayt, etc. ("On true Salvation.") He wrote also a
third book, which appeared in 1533 under the title: _Von Gottes und
Christi Jesu unseres Herren Erkandtnuss_, etc. ("On the Knowledge of
God and Jesus Christ our Lord.")
His style is simpler than that of Buenderlin. He appears more as a man
of the people; he is fond of vigorous, graphic figures of speech taken
from the life of the common people, much in the manner of Luther, and
he breathes forth in all three books a spirit of deep and saintly life.
His fundamental idea of the Universe is like that of Buenderlin. The
visible and invisible creation, in all its degrees and stages, is the
outgoing and unfolding of God, who in His Essence and Godhead is one,
indivisible and incomprehensible. But as He is essentially and
eternally Good, He _expresses_ Himself in revelation, and goes out of
Unity into differentiation and multiplicity; but the entire spiritual
movement of the universe is back again toward the fundamental Unity,
for Divine Unity is both the Alpha and the Omega of the {41} deeper
inner world. His main interest is, however, not philosophical and
speculative; his mind focuses always on the practical matters of a true
and saintly life. Like his teacher, Buenderlin, his whole view of life
and salvation is mystical; everything which concerns religion occurs in
the realm of the soul and is the outcome of direct relations between
the human spirit and the Divine Spirit. In every age, and in every
land, the inner Word of God, the Voice of the Spirit speaking within,
clarifying the mind and training the spiritual perceptions by a
progressive experience, has made for itself a chosen people and has
gathered out of the world a little inner circle of those who know the
Truth because it was formed within themselves. This "inner circle of
those who know" is the true Church: "The Church is a chosen, saved,
purified, sanctified group in whom God dwells, upon whom the Holy Ghost
was poured out His gifts and with whom Christ the Lord shares His
offices and His mission."[14]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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