'The Rose Cross' deals with the interaction between two movements of thought in eighteenth-century Germany: the philosophy of the Enlightenment, and the complex of ideas known as Rosicrucian. Dating from the early seventeenth century and drawing on Pietism, Freemasonry, Kabbalah and alchemy, the Rosicrucianism movement enjoyed a revival in Germany during the eighteenth century. Historians have often depicted this neo-Rosicrucianism as a Counter-Enlightenment force. Dr. McIntosh argues rather that it was part of a "third force", which allied itself sometimes with the Enlightenment, sometimes with the Counter-Enlightenment. This book is the first in-depth, comprehensive study of the German Rosicrucian revival and in particular of the order known as the Golden and Rosy Cross ('Gold und Rosenkreuz'). Drawing on hitherto unpublished material, Dr. McIntosh shows how the order exerted a significant influence on the cultural, political and religious life of its age.
Author(s): Christopher McIntosh
Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 29
Publisher: E. J. Brill
Year: 1992
Language: English
Pages: 218
City: Leiden
Preface vii
Introduction 1
1. The Enlightenment, the 'Aufklärung' and Their Opponents 7
2. Rosicrucianism from Its Origins to the Early 18th Century 23
3. The Masonic Phase 39
4. The World of the Initiate 59
5. The Alchemy of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz 75
6. The Polemical Stance of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz 91
7. A Rosicrucian on the Prussian Throne 113
8. The 'Aufklärung' Reaction and the Decline of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz 133
9. Rosicrucianism in Poland and Russia 147
10. The Asiatic Brethren 161
11. Conclusion 179
A Note on Sources 185
Bibliography 189
Index 195
Illustrations 201
