Global InformationThe Way to Divine Knowledge information
The Way to Divine Knowledge was written by William Law (1686–1761) as preparatory to a new edition of the Works of Jacob Behmen and the "Right Use of Them". The first edition of The Way to Divine Knowledge was printed in 1752 by the London printer and novelist Samuel Richardson, who very much admired William Law and had been involved in printing Law's earlier books. It was published in London by the distinguished booksellers William Innys and John Richardson (not related to Samuel Richardson).[1] It was preceded by The Spirit of Prayer (part I, 1749, and part II, 1750) and followed by The Spirit of Love (part I, 1752, and part II, 1754).
The Way to Divine Knowledge was partly written by William Law as a defence against accusations of Enthusiasm by his opponents, but it was also written in order to assist Law's contemporary readers to a better understanding of the works of Jakob Boehme (1575–1624), a German philosopher and Christian mystic within the Lutheran tradition. The reading of Boehme's works had deeply moved William Law.[2] [3] The German editions of Boehme's works appeared between 1612 and 1624, the year of his death, and the sixth year into the Thirty Years' War, an extremely destructive conflict in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, which had initially been a war between various Catholic and Protestant states, but which was actually rather a war fought for political superiority. It was ended by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
The English translations of Boehme's works by John Sparrow and John Ellistone appeared between 1645 and 1662 during the upheaval of the English Civil War (1642–1651) and the trial and execution of King Charles I. Even though Law appreciated the quality of the seventeenth-century English translations, he had taught himself the German language in order to be able to read Boehme in the original language. Law himself lived in the Age of Enlightenment centering on reason in which there were many controversies between Catholics and Protestants, Deists, Socinians, Arians etc. which caused conflicts that worried Law, who as a pacifist rejected all wars and every form of violence.
Some people very much admired Law's "mystical" writings, such as his contemporaries Samuel Richardson, George Cheyne and John Byrom, and even the Methodist Charles Wesley appreciated his works, whereas some people such as William Warburton and the Methodist John Wesley, the brother of Charles Wesley, deeply disliked Law's "mystical" works. John Byrom, who greatly admired William Law, wrote a poem on the Way to Divine Knowledge, which was called "A Dialogue between Rusticus, Theophilus, and Academicus, on the Nature, Power, and Use of Human Learning in Matters of Religion, from Mr. Law's Way to Divine Knowledge". This poem was published in 1773 in Byrom's collected works Miscellaneous Poems.[4] All of Law's books were collected by John Byrom as can be found in the catalogue of his library.[5] William Wilberforce (1759–1833), the politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to stop the slave trade, was deeply touched by reading William Law books. Another admirer was John Henry Overton (1835–1903), the English cleric and church historian who published in 1878 The English Church in the Eighteenth Century. In 1881 Overton published William Law, Nonjuror and Mystic. In the twentieth century Stephen Hobhouse (1881–1961), the prominent English peace activist and distinguished religious writer, and Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), the English writer and philosopher, among many others greatly admired Law's writings, especially the mystically inclined works.
- ^ Gerda J.Joling-van der Sar, The Spiritual Side of Samuel Richardson, Mysticism, Behmenism and Millenarianism in an Eighteenth-Century English Novelist, 2003, pp 118–120.
- ^ Gerda J.Joling-van der Sar, The Spiritual Side of Samuel Richardson, Mysticism, Behmenism and Millenarianism in an Eighteenth-Century English Novelist, 2003, pp 142 ff.
- ^ Andrew Weeks, Boehme, An Intellectual Biography of the Seventeenth-Century Philosopher and Mystic, New York, 1991.
- ^ Miscellaneous Poems, Vol. II, p. 88.
- ^ A Catalogue of the Library of the Late John Byrom. https://archive.org/details/acataloguelibra00roddgoog/page/n139