Sermons (Meister Eckhart)

by Meister Eckhart

Preface

Meister Eckhart, who has been called the “Father of German thought”, was a Dominican monk, and one of the most profound thinkers of the Middle Ages. He was born about 1260 A.D. in Thuringia, and purportedly died at Cologne 1327 A.D. although his burial site has never been discovered. In 1295 he was Prior of the Dominicans at Erfurt and Vicar-General of Thuringia. In 1300 he was sent to the University of Paris, where he studied Aristotle and the Platonists, and took the degree of Master of Arts. It is possible also that he taught at Paris. He already had a wide reputation as a philosopher, and was summoned to Rome in 1302 to assist Pope Boniface VIII. in his struggle against Philip the Fair. In 1304 he became Provincial of his order for Saxony, and in 1307 Vicar-General of Bohemia. In 1311 he was sent again to act as professor of theology in the school of Dominicans in Paris, and afterwards in Strassbourg. Everywhere his teaching and preaching left a deep mark. At Strassbourg he aroused suspicions and created enemies; his doctrine was accused of resembling that of the heretical sects of the “Beghards” and “Brothers of the Holy Spirit”. The Superior-General of the Franciscan Order had his writings submitted to a close examination by the Priors of Worms and Mayence. The history of this episode is very obscure. It appears that Eckhart was cited before the tribunal of the Inquisition at Cologne, and that he professed himself willing to withdraw anything that his writings might contain contrary to the teaching of the Church. The matter was referred to the Pope, who, in 1329, condemned certain propositions extracted from the writings of Eckhart two years after his disappearance.

The importance of Eckhart in the history of scholastic philosophy is considerable. At that period all the efforts of religious philosophy were directed to widen theology, and to effect a reconciliation between reason and faith. The fundamental idea of Eckhart’s philosophy is that of the Absolute or Abstract Unity conceived as the sole real existence. His God is the θεο αγνωστο [Theo Agnosto (Unknown God)] of the neoplatonists: He is absolutely devoid of attributes which would be a limitation of His Infinity. God is incomprehensible; in fact, with regard to our limited intelligence, God is the origin and final end of every being. How then, it may be asked, can God be a Person? The answer is, that by the eternal generation of the Son the Father becomes conscious of Himself, and the Love reflected back to the Father by the Son is the Holy Spirit. Together with the Son, God also begets the ideal forms of created things. The Absolute is thus the common background of God and the Universe. Like as the Son does, so everything born of God tends to return to Him, and to lose itself in the unity of His Being.

This theology is really Pantheism. Of the Absolute we have no cognizance but only of phenomena, but by the resolute endeavour to abstract ourselves from time and space, we can, according to Eckhart, at rare moments, attain to the Absolute by virtue of what he calls “the spark” (Funkelein) of the soul, which comes directly from God. This is really the Divine in man; to know God is to be one with the abstract Divine reality. This is the final end of all our activity, and the means of attaining thereto is complete quietism of the sensory self. Eckhart did not shrink from expressing his doctrines out to their practical and logical conclusion, for which he was severly criticised. After he was accused of heresy by the Inquisition his followers (particularly Suso, Tauler and the lay group The Friends of God) were more circumspect and careful in public. On account of his insistence on the immediacy of man’s approach to God, apart from Church institutions, he may be justly regarded as a fore-runner of the Reformation. He is believed to have been the author of the anonymous treatise, Theologia Germanica, which was a favorite of Martin Luther.

Note.—The best account of Eckhart in English is probably to be found in Vaughan’s “Hours with the Mystics”, vol. i.

Contents

• Preface
• I. The Attractive Power of God John 6:44-No one can come unto Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him
• II. The Nearness of the Kingdom Luke 21:31.—Know that the Kingdom of God is near.
• III. The Angel’s Greeting Luke 1:28—Hail, thou that art highly favoured among women, the Lord is with thee.
• IV. True Hearing Ecclesiasticus 24:30^[1]—Whoso heareth Me shall not be confounded.
• V. The Self-Communication of God John 14:23—If a man love me, he will keep my words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
• VI. Sanctification Luke 10:42—One thing is needful.
• VII. Outward and Inward Morality 1 Corinthians 15:10—The grace of God.

1. Please be aware this is not the book after Proverbs (Ecclesiastes) in the Tanak/Old Testament canon; Ecclesiasticus is a book in the Apocrypha which was included in the Septuagint a Greek translation.