Meister Eckhart: Philosopher of Christianity (original) (raw)
Related papers
Meister Eckhart: Philosopher of Christianity (Kurt Flasch)
2015
One must speak wholly diff erently of the grounds of being of things and the knowledge of them, diff erently also of the things outside in nature. Likewise, it is to be spoken diff erently of substance and diff erently of accident. Those who fail to consider this will often fall into error. -Meister Eckhart, In Ioh., LW 3, n. 514, 445
in Büchner, Ch. (ed.), Verschieden- im Einssein. Eine interdisziplinäre Untersuchung zu Meister Eckharts Verständnis von Wirklichkeit, Peeters, Leuven, 2018 (Eckhart : Texts and Studies 7), p. 237-261.
Procession from the Good and conversion towards the Good in Eckhart's German sermons, delivered on the first Sunday after Trinity Sunday, constitute a figure of contradictory simultaneity. Both procession and conversion happens in complete reciprocity. And yet, in the conversion the continuity is disrupted depending on whether the principle is considered as the Good or the One. As opposed to the conversion to the Good, the return to the One implies a return to the principle independent of its function as principle, i.e. independent of its relation to that which proceeds from it. The principle as the Good and the principle as the One do not correspond in this respect. How should we return to the One, when it is precisely absolute and indefinite, i.e. neither this nor that? Meister Eckhart does not follow the path of the Plotinian extasis. He refers to 1Jn 4:16 ('God is love and whoever is in love is in God and God is in him') to describe the path of love. The analogical conversion of the Good in creatures to the uncreated Good is interrupted by the One. But the Johannine path to be at one with the other allows us to resolve the contradiction put forward by the simultaneity of the return to the Good and to the One. A non-contradictory simultaneity occurs in the conception of totality without parts. This kind of unity is what is unique to love.
The article presents Eckhart’s contradictory ideas on God and man. After sketching some theories that are trying to explain the inconsistencies in Eckhart and after showing their deficiencies, the article is trying to suggest a conception that seems to be the best suited for the right understanding of the mystic. This conception assumes that the main tendency of his axiological as well as intellectual endeavors was to find a salvific power. It is believed that the ascertaining of the fact of the ambivalent nature of power, which will be analyzed in the context of the ideas of Nietzsche and the phenomenology of religion, can bring us to a more adequate understanding of Eckhart’s inconsistencies. Eckhart’s contradictions come from the fact that power is what exists as well as from (self)overcoming of what exists and if one looks for the salvific power, one can desire to have both sorts of power. That desire can be easily led to accept intellectual inconsistencies.
Eberhard Jüngel -a translator's personal reflections
This paper is mainly addressed to those with an interest in serious theology, but who for various reasons find approaching a complex German text too daunting. It consists of just a very few of my reflections on my own interactions with the work of the theologian Eberhard Jüngel, whose final monograph I translated into English. It is followed by a much edited report of a visit I paid to him ten years ago. I am making no attempt here to evaluate his thought in any detail.
THE COMPLETE MYSTICAL WORKS OF MEISTER ECKHART
THE COMPLETE MYSTICAL WORKS OF MEISTER ECKHART, 1979
Foreword produced a Middle High German reader (1974), an edition of Der Ackermann aus Bohmen (1951, 1982), the revised fourth edition of Joseph Wright's primer of Middle High German (1951), and an Introduction to Scandinavian Languages (London: Deutsch, 1965). 10. Not all of these appear to have been published. Among the most notable of those that did appear in print is Th e Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dfgha Nakaya (London: Wisdom Publications, 1987). Wa lshe also wrote a brief introduction entitled Buddhism fo r To day (London: Allen & Unwin, 1962). 11. Some of Wa lshe's essays on Buddhism, including one entitled "Buddhism and Meister Eckhart," are available in Contemplations: Essays by M. O'C. Wa lshe (n.p.: Amaravati Publications, n.d.). This volume includes a brief biography that has been helpful in composing these remarks. 12. See below p. 3. 13. See below p. xxvi. 14. See below p. xxix. 15. Wa lshe was wrong in following Pfeiffer's order for these four sermons. The critical edition in DW IV shows that they need to be read in the order of W 1, 2, 4, 3 (i.e., Q 101, 102, 103, 104). For more on this sermon treatise, see Bernard McGinn, Th e Mystical Th ought of Meister Eckhart: The Man fr om Whom God Hid Nothing (New York: Crossroad, 2001), chap. 4. 16. See below pp. 591-594. 17. The five sermons Wa lshe did not translate from Pfeiffer, but that are now judged authentic are Pf. 26 (=Q 106), Pf. 44 (=Q 110), Pf. 51 (=Q 100), Pf. 53 (=Q 107), and Pf. 108 (=Q 108). 18. Although Wa lshe knew the Paradisus collection, intensive investigation in recent decades has shown how important the collection is for understanding Eck hart's sermonic corpus. For brief comments in English and an access to the literature,