Meister Eckhart

Johannes Eckhart (1260-1328), also known as Eckhart von Hochheim and widely refered 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.

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, from Hegel to Heidegger, have been influenced by his work.

Related Topics:
Neoplatonist - Thomist - Dominican Order - Metaphysics - Psychology - Hegel - Heidegger

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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.

Related Topics:
Scholastic - God - Son - Word - Hydrodynamic - Trinitary - Godhead - Pseudo-Dionysius - John the Scot

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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. His thoughts reach heights and depths that seem uniquely his. His manner of expression is at once simple yet abstract and bold enough to prompt him to be tried for heresy in his last years. He died before a verdict was reached, but considered himself a submissive child of the Church until the end.

Related Topics:
Learned Latin - Middle High German - Heresy - Church

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~