Original Christianity
Christian Non-Dualism
A Commentary on Theologia Germanica
Christian Non-Dualism presents the first thirty-eight chapters of Theologia Germanica, the anonymous fourteenth-century work once known simply as The Frankfurter, with commentary by Swami Nirmalananda Giri. Written by a priest of the Teutonic Order, the source text is one of Christianity’s clearest mystical accounts of the relation between God, the creature, and the life of perfection.
Its non-dual vision is distinctly Christian. God is the one Perfect Good and the substance upon which all relative existence depends; the spiritual task is not assent to a doctrine, but transformation of the human person until self-will, possessiveness, and the creaturely “I” cease to obscure divine life.
The text returns repeatedly to surrender, humility, detachment, love of the Good for its own sake, and the conformity of human will to God. Divine union is therefore not treated as an abstraction. It is tested in motive, action, relationship, and the gradual disappearance of “me” and “mine” from spiritual life.
Swami Nirmalananda reads the Frankfurter alongside the teachings of Jesus and the Christian mystical tradition while drawing illuminating parallels with the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, Advaita, and yoga. These comparisons do not dissolve the work into generic interfaith language; they clarify an Original Christianity whose goal is direct realization and participation in the divine nature.
For readers interested in Christian mysticism, non-duality, and the practical surrender of the egoic self, this commentary offers a demanding but hopeful guide. Its question is not merely what Theologia Germanica meant in the Middle Ages, but what its vision requires of a seeker now.
A book to live with
Why Read This Book?
Encounter Theologia Germanica as a living Christian non-dual text rather than merely a medieval document.
Explore the distinction between the Perfect—God—and the relative, creaturely life that derives its being from God.
Examine self-will, surrender, humility, and freedom from “me” and “mine” as practical conditions of divine union.
See Christian mystical teaching illuminated through the Bhagavad Gita, Advaita, and yoga without losing its Original Christian character.
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From the Book
From the Book
A Christian Non-Dual Vision
The book known now as Theologia Germanica was originally called simply The Frankfurter [Der Franckforter], the author being a priest and a member of the Teutonic Order living in Frankfurt, Germany in the later fourteenth century. And that is all we know about him.
Nearly two hundred editions of Theologia Germanica were published in the Christian West between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. Naturally, it had its opponents. John Calvin wrote to his followers in Frankfurt that it is “conceived by Satan’s cunning… it contains a hidden poison which can poison the church.” In 1612, Pope Paul V placed it on the Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum where it remained. But Catholic mystics continued to read the book anyway.
Considering that there was no contact with India or Indian philosophy at the time Theologia Germanica was written, it is proof that the non-dual view of God and man can arise within any religious environment which includes mysticism and mystical theology such as that when Christianity in Europe was undivided and experiencing the spiritual character of the Age of Faith.
Certainly the Frankfurter heard the assurance of Christ: “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it” (Revelation 3:8).
I have only commented on the first thirty-eight chapters since the remaining six chapters are polemics aimed at various theological speculations current at the priest-knight’s time and are irrelevant to us at this point in time.
The translation used in this commentary is that of Susanna Winkworth.
From the BookThe Perfect and the Creature+
“That which is perfect” is a Being, who has comprehended and included all things in Himself and His own Substance, and without whom, and beside whom, there is no true Substance, and in whom all things have their Substance.
God is absolutely perfect and is the perfection of all that (truly) exists, just as God alone is the absolute good, and the goodness of all that exists according to the Lord Jesus himself: “There is none good but one, that is, God” (Matthew 19:17). But it is necessary to consider what is implied as well as what is directly stated. This is especially true in Eastern texts, and the Frankfurter is centered in the same non-dual vision as the sages of India.
For he is the Substance of all things, and is in himself unchangeable and immoveable, and changes and moves all things else.
Therefore everything that takes place is the action of God, either directly or through power borrowed or drawn from him. Consequently God is the sole Actor in the final analysis. This is why the Bhagavad Gita teaches that the man of wisdom knows that he never does anything of himself. “‘I do not do anything;’ thus thinks the steadfast knower of truth while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing, speaking, releasing, and holding, opening and closing his eyes” (5:8-9).
But “that which is in part,” or the Imperfect, is that which has its source in, or springs from the Perfect; just as a brightness or a visible appearance flows out from the sun or a candle, and appears to be somewhat, this or that. And it is called a creature; and of all these “things which are in part,” none is the Perfect. So also the Perfect is none of the things which are in part.
God is the Absolute, all else is only relative. The Frankfurter therefore always refers to relativity as “the Imperfect” because of itself it is nothing. Nevertheless all things are sacred because they draw their existence, even if only momentarily, from him who is the Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal.
From the BookLove Goodness for Its Own Sake+
Behold! in such a creature, there is no longer anything willed or loved but that which is good, because it is good, and for no other reason than that it is good, not because it is this or that, or pleases or displeases such a one, is pleasant or painful, bitter or sweet, or what not. All this is not asked about nor looked at.
God is loved because he is God. That is the sum and substance of true devotion.
And such a creature does nothing for its own sake, or in its own name, for it has quitted all Self, and Me, and Mine, and We and Ours, and the like, and these are departed.
Ego is gone and God alone remains, both as himself and the divine image in the devotee.
It no longer says, “I love myself, or this or that, or what not.” And if you were to ask Love, “What lovest you?” she would answer, “I love Goodness.” “Wherefore?” “Because it is good, and for the sake of Goodness.”
We do not love God for what he does, but for what he is.
So it is good and just and right to deem that if there were ought better than God, that must be loved better than God. And thus God loves not Himself as Himself, but as Goodness. And if there were, and He knew, ought better than God, He would love that and not Himself. Thus the Self and the Me are wholly sundered from God, and belong to Him only in so far as they are necessary for Him to be a Person.
So it is.
Behold! all that we have said must indeed come to pass in a Godlike man, or one who is truly “made a partaker of the divine nature;” for else he would not be truly such.
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