Eckhart von Hochheim, known as Meister Eckhart, was born around 1260 in Tambach, in Thuringia, and died around 1328, probably in Avignon, before 30 April 1328, the date of a papal document that already mentions him as deceased. He entered the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans), studied in Cologne and Paris, and obtained the title of magister, whence the name “Meister.” He held the Dominican chair of theology in Paris in two periods (1302–1303 and 1311–1313), served as provincial of Saxony from 1303 and as vicar general of Bohemia, and worked as a preacher and spiritual director in Strasbourg and Cologne.

Eckhart wrote in Latin and in Middle High German. In Latin he planned a vast Opus tripartitum, which remained incomplete, along with biblical commentaries and the Parisian Questions. In German he left sermons, the Book of Divine Consolation, and treatises such as the Talks of Instruction (Reden der underscheidunge) and On Detachment (Von abegescheidenheit), which made themes of scholasticism and Neoplatonism accessible to preaching and lay spirituality. His doctrine combines the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great with the Neoplatonic tradition and the negative theology of Pseudo-Dionysius.

Among his themes are the birth of the Word in the soul; the “ground of the soul,” the point at which the human being touches the divine; the distinction between God as Trinity and the Godhead, an undifferentiated and ineffable ground; and detachment (Abgeschiedenheit), a disposition of inner freedom with regard to images, wills, and things. In 1326 heresy proceedings were opened against him in Cologne; Eckhart appealed to the pope and, according to the records of the trial, declared that he submitted his works to the judgment of the Church. On 27 March 1329, Pope John XXII issued the bull In agro dominico, which condemned 28 propositions drawn from his writings, 17 as heretical and 11 as suspect of heresy or rash.

Key Concepts

  • Birth of God in the soul (Gottesgeburt) — the Son is continually begotten in the ground of the soul that opens itself to God.
  • Ground of the soul (Seelengrund) — the innermost instance of the human being, where there is an essential closeness to the divine.
  • Godhead (Gottheit) — the divine ground prior to the distinction of the Trinitarian persons, beyond any name.
  • Detachment (Abgeschiedenheit) — inner freedom with regard to creatures and one’s own will, the condition for union with God.
  • Releasement (Gelassenheit) — self-surrender and letting-be, a theme that marked later reception.
  • Analogy and negative theology — the articulation between Thomistic discourse on being and the Dionysian negation.
  • Intellect and being — in the Parisian Questions, the thesis that divine perfection is understanding rather than being.

Influenced by

  • Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great
  • Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
  • Augustine of Hippo
  • Neoplatonism, especially Proclus through the Liber de causis
  • Maimonides

Influenced

  • Johannes Tauler and Heinrich Seuse (Henry Suso), his Dominican disciples
  • Nicholas of Cusa, a reader of Eckhart
  • Martin Heidegger, who took up the concept of Gelassenheit in a work of 1959
  • Rhineland mysticism and the modern reception of German mysticism

Works

Opus tripartitum (unfinished); Parisian Questions; Reden der underscheidunge; Buch der göttlichen Tröstung; Von abegescheidenheit; German Sermons.

See also

Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, Nicholas of Cusa, Plotinus, Martin Heidegger