with regard to the human soul.12 In Tauler’s sermons, the ground often spatially describes the location of the gemuete, which is only imprecisely translated as mind, since it designates the mind’s natural dependence upon and desire to return to God. Paul Wyser concludes that “dieses Streben ist eben doch das Gemüt selber, nicht nur eine Kraft: es ist der Menschengeist, der Seelengrund mit seiner Neigung zu sich selbst [this striving is the gemuete itself and not only a faculty: it is the human spirit, the ground of the soul with its inclination towards itself].”13 Bernard McGinn accordingly translates gemuete as “essential inclination” and defines the ground for Tauler as the “place” of God’s reflection in the human soul.14 Although McGinn’s translation is more accurate, it becomes unwieldy with frequent use. I will translate gemuete as “mind,” with acknowledgment of this term’s shortcomings.
Whether the ground represents the divine font itself or the place within the human soul where it may be sought, both Tauler and Seuse set access to the ground as the goal of contemplative practice. One may achieve this through a process of self-divestment which they both call Gelassenheit. Derived from the verb lassen, to leave or let go, Gelassenheit entails letting go of the world and worldly concerns in order to access the ground. Nevertheless, perfect contemplation neither entails nor permits quietism, but rather orients a person’s works to the will of God. As Amy Hollywood argues in her analysis of Eckhart’s sermon 86 on Mary and Martha, “the highest contemplation is compatible with, and in fact brings about, a state of heightened activity.”15 Virtuous practice is also an important component of spiritual perfection for both Tauler and Seuse, but unlike Eckhart, who offers no concrete prescriptions, the later friars promote specific devotional programs in order to foster Gelassenheit.16 As we shall see, the Dominican forma vitae represents a central component of their programs. However, since their understandings of the ground differ, their conceptions of Gelassenheit and the methods of achieving it differ, as well. Although both urge surrendering the will to God in Gelassenheit, Seuse prioritizes the path of suffering in imitation of Christ, whereas the Virgin Mary’s obedience proves more emblematic of Tauler’s approach.
Of the works included in Seuse’s Exemplar, the Vita and the Little Book of Truth contain the most extensive discussions of Gelassenheit.17 The Vita constitutes the life narrative and spiritual progression of an anonymous protagonist called simply “ein diener der ewigen wisheit [a Servant of Eternal Wisdom],”18 who nevertheless represents Seuse, if not with precise historical accuracy.19 The work is divided into two books, the first of which narrates the Servant’s own spiritual journey, while the second, beginning in chapter 33, recounts the path of his spiritual daughter, Elsbeth Stagel of the Töss convent, who is explicitly named.20 Walter Blank has pointed out that these two books are each further divided into two sections. The first half of book one recounts Seuse’s path as a “beginner,” after which a conversion experience in chapter 19 allows him to advance to intermediate status on the path to perfection. At the beginning of the second book, Stagel is introduced, having already completed the path of the beginner. Seeking Seuse’s mentorship marks her transition to the intermediate step. The genre shift from life narrative to dialogical treatise in chapter 46 marks the moment of Stagel’s achievement of spiritual perfection, confirmed by Seuse in a vision after her death.21 In these later chapters, Seuse himself occasionally seems to taste this perfection as he continues to grow through his relationship with Stagel.
Throughout the Exemplar Seuse delights in playing with the word Gelassenheit in its various grammatical forms and realms of meaning. Whether in spite of or because of this, he does not represent Gelassenheit as something one could discursively or intellectually grasp, but rather, as Susanne Bernhardt argues, “als praktisches Wissen, das es nachzuvollziehen gilt [as practical knowledge that one must understand by doing].”22 For Seuse, Gelassenheit and its attendant practices link the philosophical-theological concept of the ground of the soul to the concerns of practical theology. Seuse does not rest at providing a theoretical description of the human soul, but further presents a devotional program, illustrated in the three stages of the Vita. Each of the three stages of spiritual progression entails particular exercises which gradually reveal new levels of meaning corresponding to new forms of imitatio Christi.
The first stage involves developing the appropriate attitude toward one’s own body. The Servant practices severe self-castigation in many ways similar to those used by Elsbeth von Oye, a sister from the convent of Oetenbach whose life is recounted in their sisterbook. For example, he explicitly compares himself to the tortured Christ while flagellating himself with a thorny scourge.23 This practice, however, must be surpassed, because in choosing to inflict such discipline on himself, Seuse still follows his own will rather than God’s.24 Similar to many accounts in the sisterbooks, the transition to the intermediate stage entails ceasing self-castigation in order to accept suffering inflicted by “wolfish people.”25 Gelassenheit at this stage is understood in the sense of humility and patience or equanimity in the face of adversity, which Richard Kieckhefer has identified as one of the characteristic virtues of fourteenth-century holiness.26 This advanced stage entails not literal imitation of Christ’s acts or suffering but creative imitation of his virtue in all events and experiences.27
The final, highest stage of Gelassenheit paradoxically incorporates both the sense of trust in God, that is, leaving oneself in God’s hands, and that of abandonment, the feeling of having been left by God. Bernhardt demonstrates this multiplicity of the meanings of Gelassenheit and Seuse’s practical understanding in an analysis of Seuse’s lament over being accused of having impregnated a woman.28 Noting that the term lassen-gelassen-gelassenheit permeates the passage, she shows that it is used even within the same sentence to mean both his abandonment by God and entrusting his troubles to God. In this semantically charged outcry, Seuse wears himself out and finally grasps true Gelassenheit when he stills himself, accepts his lot, and cites Christ: fiat voluntas tua.29 As Bernhardt summarizes, “Gelassenheit wird semantisch entfaltet im Spektrum Gleichmut—Gottvertrauen—Gottverlassenheit sowie mit Geduld und natürlich mit Leiden in Beziehung gesetzt [Gelassenheit semantically unfolds along the spectrum: equanimity—trust in God—abandonment by God and is placed in relation to patience and, naturally, suffering].”30 This coincidence of meanings must also be at work in the compressed statement in the Little Book of Eternal Wisdom: “Ein gelazenheit ob aller gelazenheit ist gelazen sin in gelazenheit [the greatest self-abnegation of all is being patient/humble/trusting when abandoned].”31 Imitation of Christ in Gelassenheit does not necessarily entail physical suffering, but rather the patient acceptance of the will of God in whatever suffering is sent.
Seuse offers a deeper discussion of Gelassenheit in the Little Book of Truth, which recounts a philosophical dialogue between a disciple and the personified figure of Truth as she coaches him in the true spiritual way.32 The work begins more or less at the same point as the conversion of the Servant in chapter 19 of the Vita. The disciple has long practiced the forms of asceticism common to beginners but knows that he is missing something, for he remains “ungeübt in sin selbs nehsten gelazenheit [unpracticed in his own innermost Gelassenheit].”33 Gelassenheit, as Truth explains in Chapter 4, entails sich lassen, abnegation of the self.34 However, Seuse intentionally softens Eckhart’s philosophy of essential unity in the ground whereby the soul loses or destroys its created nature in order to be “one only one” with God.35 Truth clarifies that Gelassenheit does not entail total annihilation of the self and indistinct union with God.36 On the contrary, each person has five kinds of “self,” and only the last is at issue. Each person possesses a being self, which stones also have; growing, which humans share with plants; feeling, which animals enjoy; human nature, which all humans share; and finally, individual personhood.37 The middle three selves are identifiable as Aristotle’s nutritive,
