Living Garment of God

Living Garment of God or Living Nature, is a metaphor coined by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Faust Part One.[1] This phrase indicates that nature is a garment, or vesture, with which God invests himself so as to reveal and impart Himself to man.

Concept

The conceptualization of the living garment of God is distinguished from the Baruch Spinoza's notion of the natural world, which viewed God as identical with nature.[2] The Faustian concept cites an Earth Spirit that creates all things that transpire in the temporal world and that these constitute the living garment of the Godhead.[2] This suggests that God wears the garment but he does not create it.[2]

Interpretations

Other authors also used the metaphor. For example, Thomas Carlyle drew from Goethe's idea and wrote about "the living garment of God" in his work, Sartor Resartus.[3] He supported the view that God is not nature, which he described as the garment as well as "God-written Apocalypse".[4] Carlyle, in his contemplation, was able to develop his so-called "philosophy of clothes", which treats all things visible - including heaven, Earth, and nature - as symbols or vestures and that they are bound to fade.[5]

The British physicist Oliver Lodge also likened the metaphor to his notion of the ether, which he said is an omnipresent medium and a primary instrument of the mind.[3] For Lodge, the ether - within the scheme of physics - is key to achieving the goal of unity with God.[6]

References

Hastings, Thomas John (2015). Seeing All Things Whole: The Scientific Mysticism and Art of Kagawa Toyohiko (1888–1960). Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 90. ISBN 9781498204088.
Seung, T. K. (2006). Goethe, Nietzsche, and Wagner: Their Spinozan Epics of Love and Power. Oxford: Lexington Books. pp. 12–13. ISBN 9780739111277.
Navarro, Jaume (2018). Ether and Modernity: The recalcitrance of an epistemic object in the early twentieth century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 41. ISBN 9780198797258.
Larkin, Henry (1970). Carlyle and the Open Secret of His Life. New York: Haskell House Publishers Ltd. p. 354.
Ziolkowski, Eric (2011). The Literary Kierkegaard. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. p. 215. ISBN 9780810127821.
Johnson, George M. (2015). Mourning and Mysticism in First World War Literature and Beyond: Grappling with Ghosts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 84. ISBN 9781349673476.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "Garment of God, Living". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.

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[1] Hastings, Thomas John (2015). Seeing All Things Whole: The Scientific Mysticism and Art of Kagawa Toyohiko (1888–1960). Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 90. ISBN 9781498204088.

[:0-2] Seung, T. K. (2006). Goethe, Nietzsche, and Wagner: Their Spinozan Epics of Love and Power. Oxford: Lexington Books. pp. 12–13. ISBN 9780739111277.

[:1-3] Navarro, Jaume (2018). Ether and Modernity: The recalcitrance of an epistemic object in the early twentieth century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 41. ISBN 9780198797258.

[4] Larkin, Henry (1970). Carlyle and the Open Secret of His Life. New York: Haskell House Publishers Ltd. p. 354.

[5] Ziolkowski, Eric (2011). The Literary Kierkegaard. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. p. 215. ISBN 9780810127821.

[6] Johnson, George M. (2015). Mourning and Mysticism in First World War Literature and Beyond: Grappling with Ghosts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 84. ISBN 9781349673476.