Meister Eckhart

Few theologians have accomplished the feat of integrating the classical concept of henosis with Christianity, but Eckhart made it through with his impressive oratory skills and an acute skepticism towards the doctrines and claims set forth by the church, which earned him the title of heretic among the many disparaging accusations the church attempted to denigrate him with on the cusp of his death. Eckhart zealously retraces the steps of the early medieval Pseudo-Dyonisus and John Scous show more Eriugena but takes apophatic theology to the extremes, negating multiplicity, reality and above all time itself, which is the foremost agent responsible for our distraction based on earthly attachments. His chief aim is to attain a clear vision of God through the total negation of the surrounding universe and the removal of the numerous thoughts which hinder our individual intellects from visualizing the simple, undivided and all-embracing nature of God, and he cites both his pagan and Christian predecessors to get his point across. It shouldn't really come as a shock that his sermons caused controversy in an age where the church held sway over the social apparatus, because Eckhart goes as far as to deny the utility of prayers (in his treatise on detachment) and encourage spiritual divorce even from the God whose existence the scholastics persistently strove to define through crude empirical evidence. Needless to say, after his death the church continued to defame the German theologian, sought to suppress his followers and sweep his teachings under the rug, but in the end did not manage to eradicate the heresy. The depth of Eckhart's theology does not favor any particular established religion, but his sermons are a cornerstone of modern Neoplatonism and Christian Mysticism. show less

The Talks of Instruction that Eckhart gave to his student monks around 1300 are about how to be a Christian, and are just as practical and relevant in the 21st century. Don't be concerned about following a particular way, as all good ways are of God. If you stop worrying about yourself and your life, God will enter in by the space that is left, and fill it. Develop the habit of seeing God in all things, for "whoever truly possesses God in the right way, possesses him in all places: on the show more street, in any company, as well as in a church or a remote place." If I had to have only one spiritual guide beside the Bible, this is it: robust, genial, authoritative, humane. show less

This slim volume distills some provocative sermons by Meister Eckhart. Less of a commentary on the content of the work, my reading of the text slanted more to the devotional and ruminating on the divine mystery that Eckhart pushes the reader to confront.

The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart will be most appreciated by those with some Eckhart exposure wanting more, and wanting the best, clearest, most complete translation available.

Eckhart's work falls into three basic categories, Sermon's given in German to his local flock, monks and nuns in his care, and pious lay groups which are considered his most mystical work, along with several written treaties for his novices, and finally his Latin theological works which are considered show more the most difficult to understand were to become his Opus, but remained incomplete at the time of his death.

This volume contains 110 of Eckhart's sermons as well as the four treaties that most scholars trace to him directly.

This quote is from Sermon Fifty-Six, page 293, and also appears in the dvd Preacher of the Wayless Way:

"I take a bowl of water and put a mirror in it and set it under the disc of the sun. The sun sends forth its light-rays both from the disc and from the sun's depth, yet suffers no diminution. The reflection of the mirror in the sun is a sun, and yet it is what it is. So it is with God. God is in the soul with His nature, with His being and with His Godhead, and yet she is what she is. God becomes when all creatures say 'God' -- then God comes to be. show less