ABSTRACT
The confessional debates of the sixteenth century also greatly expanded another branch of esoteric discourse, namely Christian theosophy. Criticism of the institutional Catholic Church and an emphasis on the 'original' Christian gospel was linked to claims of knowledge that fostered a pietistic and spiritualistic interiority peculiar to esotericism and mysticism. In the seventeenth century the Count Palatine Christian August von Sulzbach pursued a religious policy oriented towards integration rather than confrontation. All representatives of early modern esotericism were influenced by the Jewish Kabbalah to a greater or lesser degree. Whereas medieval Christians tried to distinguish a 'white' healing magic from a 'black' harmful magic, the Renaissance invoked the idea of magia naturalis to evade Christian censure. Agrippa of Nettesheim and Paracelsus deserve special mention in relation to magia naturalis and medicine, for they demonstrate how closely related Hermeticism, nature-philosophy and science were in the early modern period. Paracelsus was one of the greatest doctors and nature-philosophers of the German Renaissance.
