Everything about Meister Eckhart totally explained
Meister Eckhart O.P. (c.
1260–c.
1328), is the most common formula used to refer to
Eckhart von Hochheim, a
German theologian,
philosopher and
mystic, born near
Erfurt, in
Thuringia.
Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title
Magister in theologia he obtained in
Paris. Coming into prominence during the decadent
Avignon Papacy and a time of increased tensions between the
Franciscans and Eckhart's
Dominican Order of Preacher Friars, he was brought up on charges later in life before the local Franciscan-led
Inquisition. Tried as a
heretic by
Pope John XXII, his "Defence" is famous for his reasoned arguments to all challenged articles of his writing and his refutation of heretical intent. He purportedly died before his verdict was received, although no record of his death or burial site has ever been discovered. Well known for his work with pious lay groups such as the
Friends of God and succeeded by his more circumspect disciples of
John Tauler and
Henry Suso, he's gained a large following in recent years. In his study of
medieval humanism,
Richard Southern includes him along with
Saint Bede the Venerable and
Saint Anselm as emblematic of the intellectual spirit of the
Middle Ages.
Overview
Eckhart was one of the most influential 14th c. 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 and was notable for his sermons communicating the metaphorical content of the gospels to laymen and clergy alike. 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 in all of us. Clearly (aside from a rather striking metaphor of "fertility"), this is rooted in the Neoplatonic notion of "overflow" of the One that can't 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
triune nature of Deity (refer
Trinitarianism). Another bold assertion is Eckhart's distinction between God and
Godhead (
Gottheit in German). These notions had been present in
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. (This may interestingly be paralleled with Hinduism's
Brahma Nirguna and
Brahma Saguna, or, God without form and God with form) One of his most intriguing sermons on the "highest virtue of disinterest," unique in Christian theology both then and now, conforms to the Buddhist concept of detachment and more contemporarily,
Kant's "disinterestedness." Meister Eckhart's
Abgeschiedenheit was also admired by
Alexei Losev in that contemplative ascent (reunion with meaning) is bound with resignation/detachment from the world. The difference is that truth/meaning in the phenomenological sense wasn't the only result, as expressed in Eckhart's practical guide "for those who have ears to hear", but creation itself. He both understood and sought to communicate the practicalities of spiritual (psychological) perfection and the consequences in real terms.
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 defence he gave at his trial, his sermons were meant to inspire in listeners the desire above all to do some good, he frequently used unusual language or seemed to stray from the path of orthodoxy. His unorthodox teachings made him suspicious to the Roman Catholic Church during the tension filled years of the Avignon Papacy, and he was tried for heresy in the final years of his life. We do know that he disappeared from the public arena before the papal verdict, and is suspected by some of continuing his ministry in anonymity. However there's no single medieval source giving evidence of this suspicion.
He is also considered by some to have been the inspirational "layman" referred to in Johannes Tauler and Rulman Mershwin's later writings in Strasbourg where he's known to have spent time (although it's doubtful that he authored the simplistic "Book of the Nine Rocks" published by Mershwin and attributed to the layman knight from the north). On the other hand most scholars consider the "layman" to be a pure fiction invented by Rulman Mershwin to hide his authorship because of the intimidating tactics of the Inquisition at the time.
It has also been suspected that his practical communication of the mystical path is behind the influential 14th c. "anonymous"
Theologia Germanica which was disseminated after his disappearance. According to the medieval introduction of the document, its author was an unnamed member of the Teutonian Order of Knights living in Frankfurt.
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. He was born to a noble family of landowners, but little is known about his family and early life except that he attended the University of Paris. (Christianity through the Centuries, Cairns) James M. Clark states that there's 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.
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 of Piacenza, 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's known only that he spent part of the time at
Strasbourg. 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. It is unusual that a man under suspicion of heresy would have been appointed teacher in one of the most famous schools of the order, but Eckhart's distinctive expository style could well have already been under scrutiny by his Franciscan detractors.
Eckhart next appears as teacher at Cologne, where the archbishop, Hermann von Virneburg, eventually accuses 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, promptly exonerates him. The archbishop, however, further pressed his charges against Eckhart and against Nicholas before his own court, forcing them to deny the competency of the archepiscopal
inquisition and demanded
litterce dimissorix (apostoli) for an appeal to the pope.
On February 13, 1327, he stated in his protest, which was read publicly, that he'd 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's no information, except that
Pope John XXII issued a bull (
In agro dominico), March 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's stated that Eckhart recanted before his death everything which he'd falsely taught, by subjecting himself and his writing to the decision of the
Apostolic See. By this is no doubt meant the statement of February 13, 1327, and it may be inferred that Eckhart's death, concerning which no information or burial site 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. The lay group,
Friends of God, followers of Eckhart, existed in communities across the region and carried on his ideas under the leadership of such priests as John Tauler and Henry Suso. (Christianity through the Centuries, Cairns)
Works and doctrines
Inquisition's continuing concerns over heretical movements throughout Europe. With the move of the Papacy from Rome to Avignon and the tension between the second Avignon Pope John XXII and
Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV who battled for power, Eckhart as a preaching friar attempted to guide his flock, as well as monks and nuns under his jurisdiction with practical sermons on spiritual/psychological transformation and New Testament metaphorical content related to the creative power inherent in disinterest (or detachment).
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. In one sermon, Eckhart gives the following summary of his message:
» "
When I preach, I usually speak of detachment and say that a man should be empty of self and all things; and secondly, that he should be reconstructed in the simple good that God is; and thirdly, that he should consider the great aristocracy which God has set up in the soul, such that by means of it man may wonderfully attain to God; and fourthly, of the purity of the divine nature."
Eckhart today
Eckhart's status in the contemporary Church is uncertain. The Dominican Order 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.
The
19th century philosopher
Schopenhauer compared Eckhart's views to the teachings of
Indian,
Christian, and
Islamic mystics and
ascetics:
If we turn from the forms, produced by external circumstances, and go to the root of things, we'll find that Sakyamuni and Meister Eckhart teach the same thing; only that the former dared to express his ideas plainly and positively, whereas Eckhart is obliged to clothe them in the garment of the Christian myth, and to adapt his expressions thereto. |
In
1891,
Karl Eugen Neumann, who translated large parts of the
Tripitaka, found parallels between Eckhart and
Buddhism.
Shizuteru Ueda, a third generation
Kyoto School philosopher and scholar in medieval philosophy showed similarities between Eckhart's
soteriology and
zen buddhism in an article ("Eckhardt um zen am problem", 1989). In the 20th century, Eckhart's thoughts were compared to Eastern mystics by both
Rudolf Otto and
D.T. Suzuki, among other scholars. Interestingly, one of the pioneer translators of Eckhart's writings to English,
Maurice O'Connell Walshe, was also an accomplished translator of Buddhist scriptures such as the
Digha Nikaya.
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" isn't relevant because this mysticism (in Eckhart's context) is penetrated by the spirit of the
University, in which it occurred. Eckhart has also influenced contemporary theologians, such as
Matthew Fox, who draws heavily on Eckhart for his own theology and whose "Breakthrough" presents an alternative and substantially different view of the nature and significance of Eckhart's thinking from that taken in earlier sections of this article. The notable humanistic psychoanalyst and philosopher Erich Fromm was another scholar who brought renewed attention in the west to Eckhart's writings, drawing upon many of the latters themes in his large corpus of work.
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