Book description
Composed during a critical time in the evolution of European
intellectual life, the works of Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327) are some
of the most powerful medieval attempts to achieve a synthesis between
ancient Greek thought and the Christian faith. Writing with great
rhetorical brilliance, Eckhart combines the neoplatonic concept of
oneness - the idea that the ultimate principle of the universe is single
and undivided - with his Christian belief in the Trinity, and considers
the struggle to describe a perfect God through the imperfect medium of
language. Fusing philosophy and religion with vivid originality and
metaphysical passion, these works have intrigued and inspired
philosophers and theologians from Hegel to Heidegger and beyond.
Johannes Eckhart, commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was born near
Gotha in eastern Germany around 1260. He had an illustrious career in
the Dominican Order, teaching all over Europe including Saxony,
Bohemia and Paris. He is one of the great speculative mystics of
Western Europe, who sougth to reconcile traditional Christian belief
with transcendental metaphysics. He was accused of heretical teaching
in his lifetime, but is seen today as a foremost exponent of Christian
philosophical theology. He died in 1327/8.
Oliver Davies is senior lecturer in theology at the University of
Wales, Lampeter.
