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Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart (Johannes Eckhardt), c.1260–c.1328, German mystical theologian, b. Hochheim, near Gotha. He studied and taught in the chief Dominican schools, notably at Paris, Strasbourg, and Cologne, and held a series of offices in his order. Eckhart communicated in various ways his burning sense of God's nearness to humanity. Exhorting the Dominicans, he wrote scholarly tracts, addressed the Book of Divine Comfort to the queen of Hungary, and preached everywhere to the humble and ignorant, urging them all to seek the divine spark. His evangelical activities among the undisciplined were deemed suspect, and his election (1309) to be provincial of the German province was not confirmed. Toward the end of his life he was wrongly accused of connection with the Beghards and charged with heresy. He was upheld by his order, but the charge was pressed. Eckhart appealed to Rome. He died between 1327, when his appeal was denied, and 1329, when John XXII issued a bull condemning 17 of Eckhart's propositions as heretical. His disciples tried vainly to have this decree set aside. From Eckhart's influence there sprang up a popular mystical movement in 14th-century Germany, which included among its leaders Tauler , Suso , and various Dominicans. These were all intellectual as well as practical preachers and did not show the tendency to separate holiness and learning that characterized the mystics of the popular school of Gerard Groote . Eckhart was perhaps the first writer of speculative prose in German, and from that time German, not Latin, was the language of popular tracts.
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"Meister Eckhart." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Meister Eckhart." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Eckhart.html "Meister Eckhart." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Eckhart.html |
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Eckhart, Meister
Eckhart, Meister (c.1260–c.1328), German Dominican theologian and preacher. He lectured at Paris and was Provincial of the Dominican province of Saxony. As a Scholastic theologian, he conceived an ambitious speculative and exegetical project, the Opus Tripartitum, of which only parts survive. He was famous as a preacher. When he was accused of heretical teaching in 1326 and tried before the court of the Abp. of Cologne, he appealed to the Pope but died during the proceedings. In 1329 John XXII condemned 28 propositions as heretical or misleading, but declared that Eckhart had recanted before his death.
Eckhart teaches that we should ‘break through’ the complexities of all the particulars which confront us, to reach the simple ‘ground’ of all reality, where God and the soul are inseparably one, by abstracting from all that is ‘this’ or ‘that’, both metaphysically and ascetically. For him, ‘abstractedness’ is the highest virtue, because it produces the most intimate union with God, from which the Christian life flows as spontaneously as God's own life. |
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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Eckhart, Meister." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Eckhart, Meister." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-EckhartMeister.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Eckhart, Meister." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-EckhartMeister.html |
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Eckhart, Meister
Eckhart, Meister (c. 1260–1327). German Christian mystic. Accused of heresy in 1326, he died during the proceedings. In the 14th cent., his insistence on the reality of God's gift to humanity of himself in his son, a gift which deifies the human, sounded pantheistic; conversely, his development of seelenfünklein, the spark of the soul, achieving union with God, sounded as though the two are merged.
Despite his condemnation, his influence, largely mediated by Tauler and Henry Suso, was considerable. |
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Cite this article
JOHN BOWKER. "Eckhart, Meister." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Eckhart, Meister." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-EckhartMeister.html JOHN BOWKER. "Eckhart, Meister." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-EckhartMeister.html |
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Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart: see ECKHART, MEISTER.
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Cite this article
JOHN BOWKER. "Meister Eckhart." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Meister Eckhart." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-MeisterEckhart.html JOHN BOWKER. "Meister Eckhart." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-MeisterEckhart.html |
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