Copyright
by
Jacob Ivan Eidt
2004
The Dissertation Committee for Jacob Ivan Eidt Certifies that this is the
approved version of the following dissertation:
Deus Absconditus: Gnosticism, the Secularization Process, and
Philosophical Modernity in the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke
Committee:
Lars Gustafsson, Supervisor
Kirsten Belgum, Co-Supervisor
Lynn Wilkinson
Herbert Hochberg
Nina Berman
Deus Absconditus: Gnosticism, the Secularization Process, and
Philosophical Modernity in the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke
by
Jacob Ivan Eidt, B.A., M.A.
Dissertation
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of
The University of Texas at Austin
in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
The University of Texas at Austin
May 2004
Dedication/Dedicatoria
Para Doña Jacoba Leiva de Rodriguez Fonseca. Por ella yo sueño
con los angelitos.
To my parents Jacob and Amanda for all of their love, support,
encouragement and faith, without which I would not have gone far.
And to Father Thomas J. Lalor, Dr. James Ronald Bartlett, and Dr.
Joachim Pfeiffer for their inspiration and their example.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to Dr. Lars Gustafsson for
his guidance and instruction, his poetic insight and most of all for his friendship.
I would also like to thank the members of my committee Dr. Kirsten Belgum for
her careful editing and constructive criticism as well as for her encouragement
and engagement, Dr. Nina Berman for her help and interest in my research
especially from so far away, Dr. Herbert Hochberg for his interdisciplinary
openness and his patience in dealing with philosophical questions and literature,
and Dr. Lynn Wilkinson for offering a comparativist view so central to my work.
I would also like to thank Laura Sager for her patience, support, love and
encouragement, which helped me more than she probably