DiotimosReading Desk

Conscience and responsibility

Blasphemy

blasphemū; lestern; Sünden in den heiligen Geist

Blasphemy is both a charge Khunrath anticipates against himself and one he turns against contemptuous opponents.

From the book

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordBlasphemy is both a charge Khunrath anticipates against himself and one he turns against contemptuous opponents.
  • In KhunrathAt pp. 140–1412 the anticipated judgment as a blasphemer prompts his appeal to Scripture, the Fathers and contemporary theologians who explain faith through natural comparisons.
  • In this editionKeep the qualifying force of deliberate and knowing wrongdoing.
  • A reading distinctionThe doctrine of unforgiven sin is asserted in Khunrath’s prose; no separate gospel reference is printed beside it.

Meaning

Blasphemy is both a charge Khunrath anticipates against himself and one he turns against contemptuous opponents. The distinction between those situations is essential: he defends natural similitude as a legitimate Christian practice, then argues that deliberate contempt of Christ's natural effigy is itself gravely culpable.

Use in the book

At pp. 140–1412 the anticipated judgment as a blasphemer prompts his appeal to Scripture, the Fathers and contemporary theologians who explain faith through natural comparisons. The defence concerns the admissibility of that method. It does not say that every untested alchemical resemblance is immune from criticism.

In the oath discussion at pp. 148–1492, deliberate contempt of Christ and self-interested evasion of honest obligations are described as sins against the Holy Spirit. The account then applies culpability to contempt for Magnesia and ingratitude towards the preceptor. Here symbolic likeness gives the natural subject a heightened moral claim.

These severe judgments are the author's theological assertions. A historical explanation should report their role without pronouncing upon anyone's spiritual state. The p. 35 prayer for forgiveness of ignorant blasphemers also shows that Khunrath distinguishes ignorance from knowing, purposeful contempt.

Places to read

  1. 1599 p. 35 · marginForgiveness is asked for those who ignorantly blaspheme the mysteries
  2. 1599 p. 140Khunrath anticipates being condemned as a blasphemer for natural similitude
  3. 1599 p. 141Scriptural and theological precedents are offered in defence
  4. 1599 p. 148Deliberate contempt and dishonest evasion receive the strongest theological condemnation
  5. 1599 p. 149The warning is applied to Magnesia’s effigy and the preceptor

Translation in this edition

Keep the qualifying force of deliberate and knowing wrongdoing. Omitting it would transform the passage into a claim that every error or unsuccessful operation is an unforgivable sin.

Source note

The doctrine of unforgiven sin is asserted in Khunrath’s prose; no separate gospel reference is printed beside it.