The book presents a holistic view of the teachings of the greatest Christian mystic and prophet of the German Reformation, Jacob Böhme (1575-1624). It was the "Teutonic philosopher," as contemporaries called Böhme, who, according to Hegel, was the forerunner of a new principle of idealism in the history of philosophy - in contrast to the principle of empiricism of the English thinker Francis Bacon (1561-1626), as well as the principle of philosophical method rationalism Frenchman Rene Descartes (1596-1650). "Jacob Böhme," says Hegel, "was the first German philosopher, his philosophy has a truly German character."