Meister Eckhart

Meister Eckhart with a disciple, sculpture in Bad Wörishofen, Bavaria, Germany

Eckhart von Hochheim (known as Meister Eckhart, also Eckehart; * c. 1260 in Hochheim or in Tambach; † before 30 April 1328 probably in Avignon) was an influential late medieval German Catholic theologian, philosopher and mystic.

Life and work

Book of Meister Eckhart, sculpture in Bad Wörishofen, Kneippstraße

Predigerkirche und Predigerkloster Erfurt

The Meister Eckhart portal

Already as a youth, Eckhart joined the Dominican Order, in which he later attained high offices. He had a particularly strong impact as a preacher; his power of formulation impressed contemporaries and posterity. He made an important contribution to the shaping of German philosophical terminology. His main concern was the dissemination of principles for a consistently spiritual life practice in everyday life. He caused a sensation with unconventional, sometimes provocatively formulated assertions and brusque contradictions to widespread convictions. Controversial, for example, was his assertion that the "ground of the soul" (German: Seelengrund) was not created by God like all creatures, but was divine and uncreated. In the ground of the soul, the divinity was always directly present.

Eckhart is often characterised as a mystic. In recent research, however, the dominant view is that the variously defined term "mysticism" as a designation for elements of his teaching is misleading or at least in need of explanation.

The mystic, born around 1260, died around 1327 (according to Rudolf Steiner), presumably in Avignon or Cologne. Traditionally, 28 January 1328 is regarded as the date of his death.

Around 1329, Meister Eckhard was condemned in parts of his teachings as a false teacher by Pope John XXII's bull "In agro dominico".

Rudolf Steiner writes about him:

„But the Meister Eckhart wants to impress Christ's words on man: "It is of use to you that I depart from you, for if I do not depart from you, the Holy Spirit cannot become you. And he expounds these words by saying, "Rightly, as if he said, Ye have put too much joy in my present image, therefore the perfect joy of the Holy Ghost cannot become you." Eckhart means to speak of no other God than he is of whom Augustin, and the Evangelist, and Thomas speak; and yet their testimony of God is not his testimony. "Some men will look upon God with their eyes as they would look upon a cow, and will love God as they would love a cow. So they love God for outward riches and inward comforts; but these people do not love God rightly.... Simple-minded people think they should look at God as if he were standing there and they were standing here. It is not so. God and I are one in recognition." Eckhart's confessions are based on nothing other than the experience of the inner sense. And this experience shows him things in a higher light. He therefore believes that he does not need external light in order to attain the highest insights: "A master says: God became man, and the whole human race is exalted and honoured by this. We may rejoice in this, that Christ is our brother, risen by his own power above all the choirs of angels, and seated at the right hand of the Father. This Master has spoken well, but truly I do not care much. What good would it do me if I had a brother who was a rich man and I was a poor man? What good would it do me if I had a brother who was a wise man, and I were a fool? ... The heavenly Father gives birth to His only begotten Son in Himself and in me. Why in himself and in me? I am one with him; and he is not able to exclude me. In the same work the Holy Spirit receives his being and becomes of me as of God. Why? I am in God, and if the Holy Spirit does not take His essence from me, He does not take it from God. I am in no way excluded."

When Eckhart recalls Paul's word: "Put on Jesus Christ," he wants to underlay this word with the meaning: immerse yourselves in yourselves, dive down into self-contemplation: and from the depths of your being the God will shine out to you; he outshines all things to you; you have found him in yourselves; you have become one with God's being. "God became man that I might become God."“ (Lit.:GA 7, p. 40f)

Works - Editions and Translations

Critical complete edition

• Meister Eckhart: Die deutschen und lateinischen Werke. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart (The Middle High German works comprise five volumes and were completed in 2016. The Latin works comprise six volumes and were completed in 2022)
  • Die deutschen Werke (Middle High German text with translation into modern German)
    • Band 1: Predigten. Ed. by Josef Quint, 1958 (reprint 1986), ISBN 3-17-061210-7 (Predigten 1–24)
    • Band 2: Predigten. Ed. by Josef Quint, 1971 (reprint 1988), ISBN 3-17-071183-0 (Predigten 25–59)
    • Band 3: Predigten. Ed. by Josef Quint, 1976 (reprint 1999), ISBN 3-17-002740-9 (Predigten 60–86)
    • Band 4/1: Predigten. Ed. by Georg Steer, 2003, ISBN 3-17-007593-4 (Predigten 87–105)
    • Band 4/2: Predigten. Ed. by Georg Steer, 2003 ff. (published so far: 1.–2. Lieferung, 2003: Predigten 106–110)
    • Band 5: Meister Eckharts Traktate. Ed. by Josef Quint, 1963 (reprint 1987), ISBN 3-17-071075-3 (Traktate: 1. Liber „Benedictus“ [I. Daz buoch der gœtlîchen trœstunge, II. Von dem edeln menschen]; 2. Die rede der underscheidunge; 3. Von abegescheidenheit)
  • Die lateinischen Werke (Latin text with German translation)
    • Band 1, Hauptteil 1: Magistri Echardi prologi, expositio libri Genesis, liber parabolarum Genesis. Ed. by Konrad Weiß, 1964 (reprint 1988), ISBN 3-17-071082-6.
    • Band 1, Hauptteil 2: Magistri Echardi prologi in opus tripartitum et expositio libri Genesis secundum recensionem Cod. Oxoniensis Bodleiani Laud misc. 222 (L). Liber parabolarum Genesis, editio altera. Ed. by Loris Sturlese, 1987 ff. (published so far: Lieferungen 1–9)
    • Band 2: Magistri Echardi expositio libri Exodi, sermones et lectiones super Ecclesiastici cap. 24, expositio libri Sapientiae, expositio Cantici Canticorum cap. 1,6. Ed. by Heribert Fischer, Josef Koch, Konrad Weiß, 1992, ISBN 3-17-001084-0.
    • Band 3: Magistri Echardi expositio sancti evangelii secundum Iohannem. Ed. by Karl Christ u. a., 1994, ISBN 3-17-001085-9.
    • Band 4: Magistri Echardi sermones. Ed. by Ernst Benz u. a., 1956 (reprint 1987), ISBN 3-17-061207-7.
    • Band 5: Magistri Echardi opera Parisiensia. Tractatus super oratione dominica. Responsio ad articulos sibi impositos de scriptis et dictis suis. Acta Echardiana. Ed. by Bernhard Geyer, Loris Sturlese u. a., 2006, ISBN 3-17-001086-7.
    • Band 6: Indices, Ed. by Loris Sturlese/Markus Vinzent, 2022, ISBN 978-3-17-028588-0.

Modern editions and translations

• Meister Eckhart: Die deutschen und lateinischen Werke. Herausgegeben im Auftrage der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft. Stuttgart and Berlin: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 11 Vols., 1936–2022. (This is the critical edition of Meister Eckhart's works. The Latin works comprise six volumes and were completed in 2022. The Middle High German works comprise five volumes and were completed in 2016).
• Meister Eckhart, the German Works: 64 Homilies for the Liturgical Year. I. De Tempore: Introduction, Translation and Notes,
• Meister Eckhart, The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense, trans. and ed. by Bernard McGinn and Edmund Colledge, New York: Paulist Press and London: SPCK, 1981. Re-published in paperback without notes and a foreword by John O’Donohue as Meister Eckhart, Selections from His Essential Writings, (New York, 2005).
• Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher, trans. and ed. by Bernard McGinn and Frank Tobin, New York and London: Paulist Press/SPCK, 1987.
• C. de B. Evans, Meister Eckhart by Franz Pfeiffer, 2 vols., London: Watkins, 1924 and 1931.
• Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation, trans. Raymond B. Blakney, New York: Harper and Row, 1941, Template:ISBN (a translation of many of the works, including treatises, 28 sermons, and Defense).
• Otto Karrer Meister Eckhart Speaks The Philosophical Library, Inc. New York, 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/London: Faber & Faber, 1958.)
• Armand Maurer, ed., Master Eckhart: Parisian Questions and Prologues, Toronto, Canada: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1974.
• Meister Eckhart, Sermons and Treatises, trans. by M. O'C. Walshe, 3 vols., (London: Watkins, 1979–1981; later printed at Longmead, Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books, 1979–1990). Now published as The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, trans. and ed. by Maurice O'C Walshe, rev. by Bernard McGinn (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2009).
• Matthew Fox, Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart's Creation Spirituality in New Translation (Garden City, New York, 1980).
• Meister Eckhart: Selected Writings, ed. and trans. by Oliver Davies, London: Penguin, 1994.
• Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart: Meditations for the Restless Soul, by Jon M. Sweeney and Mark S. Burrows, Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads, 2017.

See also

• Meister Eckhart - Article in the English Wikipedia

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age. Translated by Karl E. Zimmer. SteinerBooks 1980, CW 7, ISBN 0-8334-0758-8 rsarchive
• Rudolf Steiner, Norman Macbeth (Editor), Owen Barfield (Introduction), Maria St Goar (Translator): The Origins of Natural Science. CW 326. SteinerBooks 1985. ISBN 978-0880101400 rsarchive

German

• Meister Eckehart: Predigten, Manfred-Pawlak-Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching (1963)
• Rudolf Steiner: Die Mystik im Aufgange des neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens, GA 7, TB-Ausgabe, Dornach 1977, p. 39 - 52
• Rudolf Steiner: Der Entstehungsmoment der Naturwissenschaft in der Weltgeschichte und ihre seitherige Entwickelung, GA 326 (1977), ISBN 3-7274-3260-8 Template:Vorträge

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.