Drawing on the latest European Research on Meister Eckhart since 1970, the volume provides a comprehensive rereading of the Life, Works, Career, Trial of Meister Eckhart. Central Philosophical ideas and sources with an account of his preaching, teaching and the reception of his work from the 14th to the 21st century.

Drawing on the latest European Research on Meister Eckhart since 1970, the volume provides a comprehensive rereading of the Life, Works, Career, Trial of Meister Eckhart. Central Philosophical ideas and sources with an account of his preaching, teaching and the reception of his work from the 14th to the 21st century.

The thought of Meister Eckhart — the Dominican theologian, the preacher, the master of language, the mystic — exudes a remarkable fascination on the modern mind, not the least due to its characteristic interplay of scholastic-academic and vernacular terminology. This volume presents the only book-length study in English of Meister Eckhart the philosopher within the tradition in which his thought is embedded and from which it draws its authority. It shows that even as Eckhart may be justly regarded as a medieval precursor of a modern philosophy of subjectivity, the novelty and continuity of his thought can only be understood in its relation to that of Albert the Great, Aristotle, Dionysius Pseudo-Areopagita, the Liber de causis and the Neoplatonic heritage, Theodoric of Freiberg and Thomas Aquinas as well as Eckhart of Gründig, Jakob of Metz and Johannes Picardi of Lichtenberg. At its center lies the return of the soul, through its detachment from everything corporeal, manifold and temporal, into its ground or spark — into that “something” in the soul where, according to Eckhart, “the ground of God is my ground and my ground is God's ground”. The present translation not only revises the German-language original to take account of recent debates in Eckhart-scholarship, it moreover makes accessible to the non-specialist all Latin and Middle High German material, much of it previously not available in any translation at all. Meister Eckhart: Dominikanischer Theologe, Prediger, Sprachgenie, Mystiker — sein Denken fasziniert den modernen Menschen nicht zuletzt wegen der einprägsamen Wechselwirkung von scholastisch-akademischer Terminologie und deutscher Mundart. Der vorliegende Band ist die einzige englischsprachige Monographie über Meister Eckhart als Philosophen, die ihn im Zusammenhang der ihn maîgeblich bedingenden philosophischen Tradition interpretiert. Auch wenn Eckhart zurecht als Vordenker der modernen Subjektivität gilt, kann man ihn nur im bezug auf Albert den Groîen, Aristoteles, Dionysius Pseudo-Areopagita, den Liber de causis und die neuplatonische Tradition, Dietrich von Freiberg und Thomas von Aquin sowie Eckhart von Gründig, Jakob von Metz und Johannes Picardi von Lichtenberg adäquat verstehen. Im Mittelpunkt dieser Studie steht die Rückkehr der Seele — durch ihre Abgeschiedenheit vom Körperlichen, vom Mannigfaltigen und vom Zeitlichen — in ihren Grund bzw. in den Funken der Seele, wo nach Eckhart “gotes grunt mîn grunt und mîn grunt gotes grunt” ist. Der vorliegende Band revidiert nicht nur die deutschsprachige Original-Studie im Hinblick auf Debatten in der neueren Eckhart-Forschung: Auch dem Nicht-Spezialisten werden sämtliche lateinische und mittelhochdeutsche Quellen durch die Übersetzung ins Englische zugänglich gemacht.

"Bargains in books are rare today, but one would be hard put to find in American publishing anything superior to these in content and format." The Parish Visitor Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher edited by Bernard McGinn with the collaboration of Frank Tobin and Elvira Borgstadt preface by Kenneth Northcott "When this temple is thus free of all obstacles, namely, possessiveness and ignorance, then it sparkles so beautifully and shines so purely and bright above everything that God created and through everything that God created that no one can be compared to it in brightness but the uncreated God alone...If the soul of a man still living in time were standing on the same level as the highest angel, this person could reach immeasurable higher in his free capability above the angel in ever 'now', new beyond number, that is, and beyond manner and above the manner of the angels and any created intellect." Meister Eckhart (c.1260-1327) Here are the texts that illustrate the diversity of one of the most enigmatic and influential mystics of the Western Christian tradition. Eckhart the teacher is represented by the Commentary on Exodus and by selections from six other commentaries, including the Commentary on Wisdom 7:14, the Commentary on Ecclesiasticus 24:29, and the Commentary on John 14:8. Eckhart's ministry as a preacher was an equally important part of the man, and thus his sermons, from both the Latin and the Middle High German manuscripts, are included. What emerges is a comprehensive picture of the works of this great speculative theologian. Together with Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries and Treatises, this work form the most extensive corpus of Eckhart's writings in English. +

The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism is a multi-authored interdisciplinary guide to the study of Christian mysticism, with an emphasis on the 3rd through the 17th centuries. Written by leading authorities and younger scholars from a range of disciplines, the volume both provides a clear introduction to the Christian mystical life and articulates a bold new approach to the study of mysticism.

The Soul as Virgin Wife presents the first book-length study to give a detailed account of the theological and mystical teachings written by women themselves, especially by those known as beguines, which have been especially neglected. Hollywood explicates the difference between the erotic and imagistic mysticism, arguing that Mechthild, Porete, and Eckhart challenge the sexual ideologies prevalent in their culture and claim a union without distinction between the soul and the divine. The beguines' emphasis in the later Middle Ages on spiritual poverty has long been recognized as an important influence on subsequent German and Flemish mystical writers, in particular the great German Dominican preacher and apophatic theologian Meister Eckhart. In The Soul as Virgin Wife, Amy Hollywood presents the first book-length study to give a detailed textual account of these debts. Through an analysis of Magdeburg's The Flowing Light of the Godhead, Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls, and the Latin commentaries and vernacular sermons of Eckhart, Hollywood uncovers the intricate web of influence and divergence between the beguinal spiritualities and Eckhart.

Eckhart von Hochheim O.P., commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia in the Holy Roman Empire. Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris. Coming into prominence during the Avignon Papacy and a time of increased tensions between the Franciscans and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Friars Preachers, he was brought up on charges later in life before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition.