Meister Eckhart

Johannes Eckhart (1260 – 1328), also known as Eckhart von Hochheim and widely referred to as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Erfurt, in Thuringia. Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title he obtained in Paris. Near the end of his life he was tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII. Eckhart admitted his error or explained the reasoning behind all challenged articles of his writing, and was thus not burned, but he died before his trial was concluded. In his study of medieval humanism, Richard Southern includes him along with Bede and Saint Anselm as emblematic of the intellectual spirit of the late Middle Ages.R. W. Southern, Medieval Humanism. Harper & Row, 1970. pp. 19-26.

Overview

Eckhart was one of the most influential Christian Neoplatonists, and although technically a faithful Thomist (as a prominent member of the Dominican Order), Eckhart wrote on metaphysics and spiritual psychology, drawing extensively on mythic imagery. Major German philosophers have been influenced by his work.

Novel concepts Eckhart introduced into Christian metaphysics clearly deviate from the common scholastic canon: in Eckhart's vision, God is primarily fertile. Out of overabundance of love the fertile God gives birth to the Son, the Word. Clearly (aside from a rather striking metaphor of "fertility"), this is rooted in the Neoplatonic notion of "overflow" of the One that cannot hold back its abundance of Being. Eckhart had imagined the creation not as a "compulsory" overflowing (a metaphor based on a common hydrodynamic picture), but as the free act of will of the Trinitary God. Another bold assertion is Eckhart's distinction between God and Godhead (Gottheit in German). These notions had been present in the Pseudo-Dionysius's writings and John the Scot's De divisione naturae, but it was Eckhart who, with characteristic vigor and audacity, reshaped the germinal metaphors into profound images of polarity between the Unmanifest and Manifest Absolute.

Eckhart expressed himself both in learned Latin for the clergy in his tractates, and more famously in the German vernacular (at that time Middle High German) in his sermons. Because, as he said in the defense he gave at his trial, his sermons were meant to inspire in listeners the desire above all to do some good, he frequently used exaggerated language or seemed to stray from the path of orthodoxy. His unorthodox teachings made him suspicious to the Catholic Church, and he was tried for heresy in the final years of his life. He died before a verdict was reached, but considered himself a submissive child of the Church until the end.

Life

The Dominican theologian known to the world as Meister Eckhart probably was born in the village of Tambach in the Germanic region of Thuringia in approximately 1260. Bernard McGinn, in The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart, New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2001, corrects previous scholarship which had placed Eckhart’s birth in Hochheim. He was born to a noble family of landowners, but little is known about his family and early life. James M. Clark states that there is no authority for giving him the Christian name of Johannes which sometimes appears in biographical sketches. His Christian name was Eckhart; his surname was von Hochheim. James M. Clark, Meister Eckhart, New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1957, 11. McGinn also states that “von Hochheim” is a family name and does not indicate place of birth, see McGinn, 3.

Eckhart joined the Dominicans at Erfurt. The lighter studies he no doubt followed at Cologne. Later he was prior at Erfurt and provincial of Thuringia. In 1300 he was sent to Paris to lecture and take the academical degrees, and remained there till 1303. At this point he returned to Erfurt, and was made provincial for Saxony, a province which reached at that time from the Netherlands to Livonia. Complaints made against him and the provincial of Teutonia at the general chapter held in Paris in 1306 concerning irregularities among the ternaries, must have been trivial, because the general, Aymeric, appointed him in the following year his vicar-general for Bohemia with full power to set the demoralized monasteries there in order.

In 1311 Eckhart was appointed by the general chapter of Naples as teacher at Paris. Then follows a long period of which it is known only that he spent part of the time at Strasbourg. cf. Urkundenbuch der Stadt Strassburg, iii. 236. A passage in a chronicle of the year 1320, extant in manuscript (cf. Wilhelm Preger, i. 352-399), speaks of a prior Eckhart at Frankfurt who was suspected of heresy, and some have referred this to Meister Eckhart; but it is highly improbable that a man under suspicion of heresy would have been appointed teacher in one of the most famous schools of the order.

Eckhart next appears as teacher at Cologne, and the archbishop, Hermann von Virneburg, accused him of heresy before the pope. But Nicholas of Strasburg, to whom the pope had given the temporary charge of the Dominican monasteries in Germany, exonerated him. The archbishop, however, pressed his charges against Eckhart and against Nicholas before his own court. The former now denied the competency of the archiepiscopal inquisition and demanded litterce dimissorix (apostoli) for an appeal to the pope. cf. the document in Preger, i. 471; more accurately in ALKG, ii. 627 sqq.

On Feb. 13, 1327, he stated in his protest, which was read publicly, that he had always detested everything wrong, and should anything of the kind be found in his writings, he now retracts. Of the further progress of the case there is no information, except that Pope John XXII issued a bull (In agro dominico), Mar. 27, 1329, in which a series of statements from Eckhart is characterized as heretical; another as suspected of heresy (the bull is given complete in ALKG, ii. 636-640). At the close it is stated that Eckhart recanted before his death everything which he had falsely taught, by subjecting himself and his writing to the decision of the apostolic see. By this is no doubt meant the statement of Feb. 13, 1327; and it may be inferred that Eckhart's death, concerning which no information exists, took place shortly after that event.

In 1328 the general chapter of the order at Toulouse decided to proceed against preachers who "endeavor to preach subtle things which not only do (not) advance morals, but easily lead the people into error." Eckhart's disciples were admonished to be more cautious, but nevertheless they cherished the memory of their master.

Works and doctrines

Main article: Doctrines of Meister Eckhart

Although he was an accomplished academic theologian, Eckhart's best-remembered works are his sermons in the vernacular. Southern claims that the popularity of these sermons is connected to the growth of urban populations which were increasingly dissatisfied with the complexities of contemporary Christian worship.

The central theme of Eckhart's German sermons is the presence of God in the individual soul, and the dignity of the soul of the just man. Although he elaborated on this theme, he rarely departed from it.

Eckhart today

Eckhart's status in the contemporary Church is uncertain. The Dominican Order has pressed in the last decade of the 20th century for his full rehabilitation and confirmation of his theological orthodoxy; the late Pope John Paul II voiced favorable opinion on this initiative, but the affair is still confined to the corridors of the Vatican.

In 1844, Schopenhauer showed that Eckhart's thoughts were equivalent to the teachings of Indian, Christian, and Mohammedan mystics, Quietists, and ascetics.

After contrasting the eudemonism of Protestant Christianity with original Christianity and other religions, Schopenhauer wrote:

In 1891 Karl Eugen Neumann, who translated large parts of the Tipitaka, found parallels between Eckhart and Buddhism. In the 20th century Eckhart's thoughts have been compared to Eastern mystics by both Rudolf Otto and D.T. Suzuki, among other scholars.

More recently, although most scholars accept that Eckhart's work is divided into philosophical and theological, Kurt Flasch and other interpreters see Eckhart strictly as a philosopher. Flasch argues that the opposition between "mystic" and "scholastic" is not relevant because this mysticism (in Eckhart's context) is penetrated by the spirit of the University, in which it occurred. Matthew Fox draws heavily on Eckhart for his theology.

Bibliography

Notes

Sources

Meister Eckhart: Die deutschen und lateinischen Werke. Herausgegeben im Auftrage der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft. Stuttgart and Berlin: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 11 Vols., 1936.
Josef Quint, ed. and trans. Meister Eckehart: Deutsche Predigten und Traktate, Munich: Carl Hanser, 1955.
Josef Quint, ed., Textbuch zur Mystik des deutschen Mittelalters: Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Heinrich Seuse, Halle/Saale: M. Niemeyer, 1952.
Augustine Daniels, O.S.B., ed., "Eine lateinische Rechtfertigungsschrift des Meister Eckharts," Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, 23, 5 (Münster, 1923): 1 - 4, 12 - 13, 34 - 35, 65 - 66.
Franz Jostes, ed., Meister Eckhart und seine Jünger: Ungedruckte zur Geschichte der deutschen Mystik, De Gruyter, 1972 (Series: Deutsche Neudrucke Texte des Mittelalters).
Thomas Kaepelli, O.P., "Kurze Mitteilungen über mittelalterliche Dominikanerschriftsteller," Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 10, (1940), pp. 293 - 94.
Thomas Kaepelli, O.P., Scriptores ordinis Praedicatorum medii aevi. Vol. I (A-F). Rome, 1970.
M.H. Laurent, "Autour du procés de Maître Eckhart. Les documents des Archives Vaticanes," Divus Thomas (Piacenza) 39 (1936), pp. 331 - 48, 430 - 47.
Franz Pelster, S.J., ed., Articuli contra Fratrem Aychardum Alamannum, Vat. lat. 3899, f. 123r - 130v, in "Ein Gutachten aus dem Eckehart-Prozess in Avignon," Aus der Geistewelt des Mittelalters, Festgabe Martin Grabmann, Beiträge Supplement 3, Munster, 1935, pp. 1099 - 1124.
Gabriel Théry, O.P., "Édition critique des piéces relatives au procés d'Eckhart continues dans le manuscrit 33b de la Bibliothèque de Soest," Archives d'histoire littéraire et doctrinal du moyen âge, 1 (1926), pp. 129 - 268.

Translations and commentaries

Meister Eckhart, The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense, trans. and ed. by Bernard McGinn and Edmund Colledge, New York: Paulist Press, 1981.
Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher, trans. and ed. by Bernard McGinn and Frank Tobin, New York and London: Paulist Press / SPCK, 1987.
Meister Eckhart, Sermons and Treatises, trans. by M. O'C. Walshe, 3 vols., Longmead, Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books, 1987.
James Midgely Clark, Meister Eckhart: An Introduction to the Study of His Works with an Anthology of His Sermons, Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson, 1957.
James M. Clark and John V. Skinner, eds. and trans., Treatises and Sermons of Meister Eckhart, New York: Octagon Books, 1983. (Reprint of Harper and Row ed., 1958.)
Meister Eckhart: Selected Writings, ed. and trans. by Oliver Davies, London: Penguin, 1994.
C. de B. Evans, Meister Eckhart by Franz Pfeiffer, 2 vols., London: Watkins, 1924 and 1931.
Ursula Fleming, Meister Eckhart: The Man from whom God Hid Nothing, Leominster, Herefordshire: Gracewing, 1995.
Matthew Fox, O.P., ed., Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart's Creation Spirituality in New Translation, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980.
Armand Maurer, ed., Master Eckhart: Parisian Questions and Prologues, Toronto, Canada: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1974.
Reiner Schürmann, Meister Eckhart: Mystic and Philosopher, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.
Shizuteru Ueda, Die Gottesgeburt in der Seele und der Durchbruch zur Gottheit. Die mystische Anthropologie Meister Eckharts und ihre Konfrontation mit der Mystik des Zen-Buddhismus, Gütersloh: Mohn, 1965.

Supplementary

Eckardus Theutonicus, homo doctus et sanctus, Fribourg: University of Fribourg, 1993.
Jeanne Ancelet-Hustache, Master Eckhart and the Rhineland Mystics, New York and London: Harper and Row/ Longmans, 1957.
James M. Clark, The Great German Mystics, New York: Russell and Russell, 1970 (reprint of Basil Blackwell edition, Oxford: 1949.)
James M. Clark, trans., Henry Suso: Little Book of Eternal Wisdom and Little Book of Truth, London: Faber, 1953.
Oliver Davies, God Within: The Mystical Tradition of Northern Europe, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1988.
Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart: Mystical Theologian, London: SPCK, 1991.
Robert K. Forman, Meister Eckhart: Mystic as Theologian, Rockport, Mass. / Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books, 1991.
Gundolf Gieraths, O.P., '"Life in Abundance: Meister Eckhart and the German Dominican Mystics of the 14th Century", Spirituality Today Supplement, Autumn, 1986.
Amy Hollywood, The Soul as Virgin Wife: Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart, Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1996.
Rufus Jones, The Flowering of Mysticism in the Fourteenth Century, New York: Hafner Publishing Co., 1971 (facsimile of 1939 ed.).
Bernard McGinn, "Eckhart's Condemnation Reconsidered" in The Thomist, vol. 44, 1980.
Bernard McGinn, ed., Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete, New York: Continuum, 1994.
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. II, ISBN 486-21762-0
Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox: Spiritual Life as Taught by Meister Eckhart, New York: Paulist Press, 1988.
Frank Tobin, Meister Eckhart: Thought and Language, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.
Denys Turner, The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Winfried Trusen, Der Prozess gegen Meister Eckhart, Fribourg: University of Fribourg, 1988.
Andrew Weeks, German Mysticism from Hildegard of Bingen to Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Literary and Intellectual History, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.
Richard Woods, O.P., Eckhart's Way, Wilmington, DE: Glazier, 1986 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991).
Richard Woods, O.P., Meister Eckhart: The Gospel of Peace and Justice, Tape Cassette Program, Chicago: Center for Religion & Society, 1993.

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