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Jakob Lorber (22 July 1800 – 23 August 1864) was a
Christian mystic
Christian mysticism is the tradition of mystical practices and mystical theology within Christianity which "concerns the preparation f the personfor, the consciousness of, and the effect of ..a direct and transformative presence of God" ...
and
visionary
A visionary, defined broadly, is one who can envision the future. For some groups, this can involve the supernatural.
The visionary state is achieved via meditation, lucid dreams, daydreams, or art. One example is Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th- ...
from the
Duchy of Styria, who promoted liberal
Universalism
Universalism is the philosophical and theological concept that some ideas have universal application or applicability.
A belief in one fundamental truth is another important tenet in universalism. The living truth is seen as more far-reaching th ...
. He referred to himself as "God's scribe". He wrote that on 15 March 1840 he began hearing an "
inner voice" from the region of his heart and thereafter transcribed what it said. By the time of his death 24 years later he had written manuscripts equivalent to more than 10,000 pages in print.
His writings were published posthumously as amounting to a "New Revelation", and the contemporary "Lorber movement" forms one of the major
neo-revelationist
''Neo-revelationism'' is a term for the beliefs of religious groups, especially Christian or Christianity-derived who claim direct revelation beyond claims of divine inspiration associated with the Christian Bible proper, but the term is also ...
sects, mostly active in
German-speaking Europe
This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the German-speaking area (german: Deutscher Sprachraum) in Europe ...
, although parts of Lorber's writings have also been translated into more than 20 languages (according to the website of the Lorber Publisher). Its adherents have not formed a sect or cult, but rather continue in their denominations.
Biography
Jakob Lorber was born in Kanischa, a small village in the
Jahring parish,
Duchy of Styria (now Kaniža pri Jarenini in
Lower Styria
Styria ( sl, Štajerska), also Slovenian Styria (''Slovenska Štajerska'') or Lower Styria (''Spodnja Štajerska''; german: Untersteiermark), is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy o ...
, Slovenia) to a peasant family, Michael Lorber and his wife Maria, née Tautscher.
He was trained as a village teacher.
A brief biography by his friend
Karl Gottfried Ritter von Leitner indicates that Lorber was an uncomplicated person.
He was observed while writing by well-educated men in the city of Graz, such as Dr.
Carl-Friedrich Zimpel, the mayor of Graz, Anton Hüttenbrenner, his brother the composer Anselm Hüttenbrenner, the poet and Secretary to the Estates Karl Gottfried von Leitner, Dr. Anton Kammerhuber, Leopold Cantily, pharmacist of Graz, and others. Too, these men verified his simple life. Lorber was open and friendly regarding his transcriptions yet found himself involved in small intrigues designed to prove that he was a fake. For instance, the wife of one of his friends was certain that Lorber had studied the material he was pretending to hear from the inner voice, but she never found the scientific books she had supposed he was hiding, eventually finding his only research material to be a single copy of the Bible.
He had musical talent and learned the violin, taking lessons from the virtuoso violinist
Paganini, and once giving a violin concert at the
La Scala Opera House in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. In 1840 –the same year he claimed to begin hearing the inner voice– Lorber was offered the position of assistant musical director at the theater in
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...
. He claimed that the inner voice, however, directed him to decline and take up a life of solitude instead. Lorber's writings reveal that the inner voice spoke freely in first person as the voice of
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
.
Prose style
Lorber's prose has been described as compelling, moving some readers to compare it with writings by other mystics such as
Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758).
Swedenborg had a ...
,
Jakob Boehme and
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...
. Lorber himself makes reference to Swedenborg, in his book ''From Hell to Heaven'' (book 2 chapter 104 verse 4) and in ''The Spiritual Sun'' (vol. 1, chap. 16).
The Great Gospel of John
In the ''Great Gospel of John'', the narrator, Jesus, explains that he is the creator of the material universe, which was designed both as a confinement of Satan, and so he could take upon himself the condition of a man. He says he did this to inspire his children who could otherwise not perceive him in his primordial form as a spirit. He gives descriptions of the eons of time involved in creating the Earth. He does so in a manner similar to the modern theory of
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
all the way up to the point several thousand years ago when Jesus placed
Adam upon the Earth, which at the time contained man-like creatures who did not have free will, being simply the most clever of the animals.
In a comprehensive manner the ''Great Gospel of John'' continually emphasizes the importance of
free will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...
. In this book,
heaven and
hell are presented as conditions already within us, expressed according to whether we live in harmony or contrary to God's divine order. The ''Great Gospel of John'' also states that the
gospels of
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
and
Matthew were written at the time of the events they chronicle; for instance, Lorber writes that Jesus specifically told Matthew to take notes during the
Sermon on the Mount.
Such an account seems at first contrary to the current consensus of biblical scholarship which typically places the authorship of Matthew some years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that of John even later. However, in the ''Great Gospel of John'' the narrator explains how this happened. He claims that there were many writers who described him, including several authors named Matthew, who all wrote similarly over a period of many years.
Paul's epistle to the Laodiceans
Lorber claimed to have heard by the inner voice, in 1844, the "lost" letter Paul wrote to the assembly of the Laodiceans, as referred to in
Colossians
The Epistle to the Colossians is the twelfth book of the New Testament. It was written, according to the text, by Paul the Apostle and Timothy, and addressed to the church in Colossae, a small Phrygian city near Laodicea and approximately f ...
4:16
Several texts purporting to be the "lost" letter survive, notably one brief text preserved in medieval
Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
manuscripts, attested from the 6th century. Another candidate is attributed to
Marcion
Marcion of Sinope (; grc, Μαρκίων ; ) was an early Christian theologian in early Christianity. Marcion preached that God had sent Jesus Christ who was an entirely new, alien god, distinct from the vengeful God of Israel who had created ...
, listed in the
Muratorian fragment
The Muratorian fragment, also known as the Muratorian Canon (Latin: ), is a copy of perhaps the oldest known list of most of the books of the New Testament. The fragment, consisting of 85 lines, is a 7th-century Latin manuscript bound in a 7th- o ...
. Marcion's text is lost, and the Vulgate text is widely recognized as
pseudepigraphical
Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...
, and was decreed uncanonical by the
Council of Florence of 1439–43. There is no resemblance between the letters produced by Lorber via the inner voice and the original manuscripts that survived. Publisher of this Lorber manuscript claims that the letter's being lost reflects the falling away of the Church from true Christianity.
Reception
Publication
Lorber posthumously attracted a following, and his writings were published and frequently reprinted, mostly with ''Lorber & Turm'', a dedicated publisher based in
Bietigheim-Bissingen
Bietigheim-Bissingen (locally: ''Biedge-Bissenge'') is the second-largest town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with 42,515 inhabitants in 2007. It is situated on the river Enz and the river Metter, close to its conflu ...
, Germany.
The original manuscripts and copies of some of the manuscripts by close friends of Lorber are still preserved in the archives of the ''Lorber & Turm'' publisher.
The German philosopher
E.F. Schumacher refers to the New Revelation (NR) in his book "A Guide for the Perplexed" as follows: "They (the books of the NR) contain many strange things which are unacceptable to modern mentality, but at the same time contain such plethora of high wisdom and insight that it would be difficult to find anything more impressive in the whole of world literature. Lorber's books, at the same time, are full of statements on scientific matters which flatly contradicted the sciences of his time and anticipated a great deal of modern physics and astronomy... There is no rational explanation for the range, profundity and precision of their contents."
Lorber's work is divided into several books which, in aggregate, are called the ''New Revelation''.
His ''Great Gospel of John'' was published in ten volumes and frequently reprinted, the 8th edition dating to 1996.
The ''Gospel of Jacob'' appeared in a 12th edition in 2006.
Lorber's works have partially been translated into English, appearing with ''Merkur Publishing''.
Adherents
Lorber and his friends were members of the Roman Catholic Church, and Lorber's revelations asked them not to leave the church, but to convince it of the genuinely divine nature of the "New Revelation" by leading exemplary lives. However, the First Vatican Council of 1869/1870 placed Lorber's writings on the
Index of Forbidden Books
The ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum'' ("List of Prohibited Books") was a list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former Dicastery of the Roman Curia), and Catholics were forbidde ...
.
Occultist
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
Leopold Engel
Leopold Engel was a German writer and occultist.
Early life
Engel was born in St Petersburg, Russia. His father was Karl Dietrich Engel (1824–1913), a violinist who in 1846 became Konzertmeister (leader) of the orchestra of the Imperial Russi ...
was one of Lorber's followers, and also wrote an 11th volume, claiming to be a follow up to Lorber's
The Great Gospel of John
The ''Great Gospel of John'' (in the original German published as ''Das große Evangelium Johannis '' or ''Großes Evangelium Johannes'') is a neo-revelationist text by Jakob Lorber, extending to about 5,500 pages in print, published in ten vol ...
close to 30 years after Lorber's death.
There is a movement of adherents of Lorber's writings (''Lorber-Bewegung, Lorberianer, Lorber-Gesellschaften''), mostly active in
German-speaking Europe
This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the German-speaking area (german: Deutscher Sprachraum) in Europe ...
. There is no organizational structure beyond small regional circles, While there is no accurate estimate of the total number of adherents, it likely exceeds 100,000 worldwide.
Status in the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message
In one of the sacred books of all the three factions of the
Church of Christ with the Elijah Message,
Word of the Lord Brought to Mankind by an Angel, Lorber is named as one of the servants of God from the German speaking area.
Criticism
One main point of criticism of Lorber's works was the use of the first person as if the writings were dictated by Jesus Christ himself.
[Himmelsgaben Band 2, 8. Februar 1844][Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen, ''Ich habe euch noch viel zu sagen …”, p. 21][Dr. Reinhard Rinnerthaler: ''Zur Kommunikationsstruktur religiöser Sondergemeinschaften am Beispiel der Jakob-Lorber-Bewegung''. p. 82]
Some statements can be considered anti-semitic,
and Lorber was in fact noted by the anti-semitic proponents of "
Ariosophy
Armanism and Ariosophy are esoteric ideological systems that were developed largely by Guido von List and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels respectively, in Austria between 1890 and 1930. The term 'Ariosophy', which means the wisdom of the Aryans, was i ...
" racial mysticism during the 1920, e.g. by
Lanz von Liebenfels
Lanz may refer to:
Places
* Lanz, Brandenburg, a municipality in Brandenburg, Germany
* a village in the municipality Störnstein in Bavaria, Germany
* Lanz, German name from Lomnice, a village in Sokolov District, Czech Republic
* Lanz Peak ...
, who in 1926 published on Jakob Lorber as "the greatest ariosophic medium of the modern era" (''das grösste ariosophische Medium der Neuzeit'') Then again it is said in the books of Lorber, that salvation comes to all men from the Jews, and that one should in all truth return to Judaism and that the God of the Jews is the only true, eternal God. It is also said to be the will of God or Jesus that all men should be friends, whether they are Jews or gentiles.
Kurt Hutten, former chairman of the ''Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen'' (EZW, an
apologetic
Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...
institution of the
Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany (german: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United (e.g. Prussian Union) Protestant regional churches and denominations in German ...
) has identified Swedenborg and Lorber as recipients of equally valid
private revelation
Private revelation is, in Christian theology, a message from God which can come in a variety of types.
Roman Catholic theology
According to the '' Catechism of the Catholic Church'', public revelation was complete in New Testament times, but d ...
. Official statements of the EZW are more skeptical, assuming psychological explanations for Lorber's revelations. EZW points to a 1966
Berne
Bern () or Berne; in other Swiss languages, gsw, Bärn ; frp, Bèrna ; it, Berna ; rm, Berna is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city" (in german: Bundesstadt, link=no, french: ville fédérale ...
dissertation by Antoinette Stettler-Schär which diagnosed Lorber with
paranoid schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...
. This diagnosis has been dismissed by Bernhard Grom, who diagnoses self-induced
hallucination
A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinati ...
. Andreas Finke, vice-chairman of the EZW, concludes that the content of Lorber's revelations reflect both the period during which they were written down and the knowledge of their author, identifying them as "pious poetry in the best sense of the term, but not divine dictation."
[''Jakob Lorbers "Neuoffenbarungen" spiegeln nicht nur die Zeit des 19. Jahrhunderts wider, sondern auch den Kenntnisstand und die geistige Welt ihres Verfassers. (…) Lorbers Texte sind – im besten Sinne des Wortes – fromme Dichtung, aber sie sind kein Diktat Gottes.'' EZW, ed. Pöhlmann (2003), p. 44]
Bibliography
*''Das grosse Evangelium Johannis'' (''
The Great Gospel of John
The ''Great Gospel of John'' (in the original German published as ''Das große Evangelium Johannis '' or ''Großes Evangelium Johannes'') is a neo-revelationist text by Jakob Lorber, extending to about 5,500 pages in print, published in ten vol ...
''), first edition 1871, 10 volumes, Lorber-Verlag, 1996 reprint: ff.
**"condensed version" in English, Zluhan Verlag (1985), .
*''Die Haushaltung Gottes '' (''The Household of God''), 3 vols., Lorber-Verlag, 5th ed. (1981), .
** English translation: Zluhan Verlag (1995) .
*''Die geistige Sonne'', 2 vols., Lorber-Verlag, 9th ed. (1996), .
*''Die natürliche Sonne'' Bietigheim Württemberg, Neu-Salems-Verlag (1928)
*''Die Heilkraft des Sonnenlichtes'', Lorber-Verlag, 2006 reprint: .
*''Jenseits der Schwelle: Sterbeszenen'', Lorber-Verlag, 2004 reprint (9th ed.): .
*''Die Jugend Jesu. Das
Jakobus-Evangelium'', 12th ed. (1996), .
*''Die Fliege: Einblicke in die Wunder der Schöpfung '', Zluhan Verlag, 7th ed. (2000), .
*''Bischof Martin: Die Entwicklung einer Seele im Jenseits '', 3rd ed. (2003), .
*''Die drei Tage im Tempel '', Zluhan Verlag, 10th ed. (1995), .
*''Naturgeheimnisse: Das Naturgeschehen und sein geistiger Hintergrund '', Lorber-Verlag, 3rd ed. (1994), .
*''Die Wiederkunft Christi: Ein Entwicklungsbild der Menschheit '', Zluhan Verlag, 5th ed. (2000), .
*''
Paulus' Brief an die Gemeinde in Laodizea'', Zluhan Verlag; 6th ed. (1993), .
*''Briefwechsel Jesu mit
Abgarus Ukkama von Edessa'', .
*''Der Saturn: Darstellung dieses Planeten samt Ring und Monden und seiner Lebewesen'', Lorber-Verlag, 4th ed. (2009), .
*''Erde und Mond'', Zluhan Verlag, 2000 reprint of 4th ed. (1953), .
*''Der Großglockner: Ein Evangelium der Berge'', Zluhan Verlag, 7th ed. (2009), .
* Ritter von Leitner:''Jakob Lorber, der Steiermärkische Theosoph''
* Junge Michael:''Dokumentation um Jakob Lorber''. Books on Demand GmbH, 2004,
* Hutten Kurt:''Seher – Grübler – Enthusiasten. Das Buch der traditionellen Sekten und religiösen Sonderbewegungen''. Quell Verlag, Stuttgart 1997,
* Pöhlmann Matthias (ed.):'' "Ich habe euch noch viel zu sagen ...": Gottesboten – Propheten – Neuoffenbarer''. EZW-Texte 169. Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen, Berlin 2003, ISSN 0085-0357
* Obst Helmut:''Apostel und Propheten der Neuzeit''. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2000, , , 233–264
* Gassmann Lothar:''Kleines Sekten-Handbuch''Mago-Bucher, 2005, , 92–95
* Stettler Antoinette-Schär:''Jakob Lorber: Sektenstifters eines Psychopathologie zur''. Dissertation an der Medizinischen Fakultät der Universität Bern, 1966
Johanna Böhm: ''Eine kritische Durchsicht''.
References
External links
*
Lorber's works in Englishat the Internet Archive
God's Scribe includes web versions and e-books of Lorber's work.
The New Revelation of Jesus Christ through Jakob Lorber and Gottfried Mayerhofer*
ttp://www.jakob-lorber.cc/ Jakob Lorber Online Search Databasebr>
Lorber-weblinks*
ttp://www.zyworld.com/lorber/JL_English.htm The Great Gospel of John Vol. 1–10 in English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lorber, Jakob
1800 births
1864 deaths
19th-century Christian mystics
Roman Catholic mystics
Enlightenment philosophers
Austrian Christians