Abstract
We refer to Eckhart (1260–1328) today as “Meister” due to the originality of his thought and because he was professor at Paris and later teacher in Cologne at the Studium generale. He was also a popular preacher and an influential Christian mystic, and for his followers he was ‘the man, to whom God hid nothing.’ These aspects reflect different activities: as “magister Aychardus” he gave lectures to students and fellow Dominicans; as “bruder Egghard” he was the spiritual leader of nuns for whom it was not necessary either to know Latin, or to study philosophy. How did he manage to communicate his mystical teachings to such different audiences?
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- 1.
Cf. Muessig, Carolyn (ed.): Preacher, Sermon and Audience in the Middle Ages . Leiden–Boston-Köln, 2002, Brill Publishing, 41–63.
- 2.
Eckhart, Meister: Die lateinischen Werke. Volume 1. Liber Parabolarum Genesis. Translated by Konrad Weiss, Stuttgart-Berlin, 1964, Kohlhammer Verlag, 447.
- 3.
Lakoff, George-Johnson, Mark: Metaphors we Live by. Chicago and London, 1980, University of Chicago Press; Kövecses, Zoltán: Metaphor. A Ppractical Introduction. Oxford, 2010, Oxford University Press.
- 4.
Cf. Funk, Robert W.: Language, Hermeneutic, and Word of God. New York,1966, Harper & Row, 133.
- 5.
Stein, Robert: The Genre of the Parables. In Longenecker, Richard (ed.): The Challenge of Jesus’ Parables. Grand Rapids, Michigan-Cambridge, U.K. 2001, W. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 34–35.
- 6.
Knowles, Michael: “Everyone Who Hears These Words of Mine.” Parables on Discipleship. In Longenecker, Richard (ed.): The Challenge of Jesus’ Parables. Grand Rapids, Michigan-Cambridge, U.K. 2001, W. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 286.
- 7.
Aristotle , Works. Ross, William D. (ed.): Volume 11. Poetics. Oxford, 1924, Clarendon Press, 3339–40.
- 8.
Aristotle , Works. Ross, William D. (ed.): Volume 11. Rhetorics. Oxford, 1924, Clarendon Press, 3265–3267, 3269–70, 3280–81.
- 9.
Cf. Hasselhof, G.: Dicit Rabbi Moyses: Studien zum Bild von Moses Maimonides im lateinischen Westen vom 13. bis zum 15. Jahrhundert, Würzburg, 2004, 205–214; Schwartz, Yossef: “Zwischen Einheitsmetaphysik und Einheitshermeneutik: Eckharts Maimonides-Lekture und das Datierungsproblem des Opus tripartitum.” In Speer, Andreas–Wegener, Lydia (ed.): Meister Eckhart in Erfurt. Berlin-New York, 2005, Walter de Gruyter, 259–283.
- 10.
Maimonides , Moses: The Guide for the Perplexed. New York, 1904, DOVER Publications, 6.
- 11.
Maimonides , ibid., 2, 4–5.
- 12.
Hosea 12:10 “I have also spoken in similes by the Prophets”, Ezekiel 17:2 “Put forth a riddle and speak a parable ”, Ezekiel 21:5 “Does He not speak parables?”
- 13.
Cf. McArthur, Harvey K., and Johnston, Robert M. They Also Taught in Parables. Rabbinic Parables from the First Centuries of the Christian Era. Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1990.
- 14.
Eckhart, Meister: Die lateinischen Werke. Volume 1. Liber Parabolarum Genesis. Translated by Konrad Weiss, Stuttgart-Berlin, 1964, Kohlhammer Verlag, 447. Eckhart may be agreed with Origen who calls the sensible interpretation of the Bible ‘the letter’ and the intelligible interpretation ‘the spirit.’
- 15.
Numbers of sermons refer to Eckhart, Meister, Die deutschen Werke. Volume 1–4. Predigten, Stuttgart, 1958–2009, Kohlhammer Verlag.
- 16.
“Diu schal muoz enzwei sın, sol der kerne her uzkomen” (Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 13, In DW I, 212) “wiltu den kernen haben, so muostu die schalen brechen” (Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 51, In DW II, 473.) Cf. Eckhart, Liber Parabolarum Genesis. In LW I, 447.
- 17.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 3, In DW I, 49–50.
- 18.
Aristotle : De anima, 404b.
- 19.
Exod. 22:5, 9:23, Cf. Maimonides , Moses: The Guide for the Perplexed, XXII–XXIII.
- 20.
Maimonides , ibid., LIII., LVI.
- 21.
“totus autem mons Sinai fumabat eo quod descendisset Dominus super eum in igne et ascenderet fumus ex eo quasi de fornace eratque mons omnis terribilis.” <http://vulgate.org/ot/exodus_19.htm> Other examples of God’s presence as fire: Exod 19:18, 24:17; Deut 4:11–36, 5:4–26.
- 22.
Ex. 14:19; Num. 11:1, 3; Judges. 13:20; 1 Kings 18:38; 2 Kings 1:10, 2:11; Isa. 6:4; Ezek.1:4.
- 23.
“erat autem species gloriae Domini quasi ignis ardens super verticem montis.” <http://vulgate.org/ot/exodus_24.htm>
- 24.
“Dominus autem praecedebat eos ad ostendendam viam per diem in columna nubis et per noctem in columna ignis ut dux esset itineris utroque tempore.” <http://vulgate.org/ot/exodus_13.htm>
- 25.
Cf. Psalm 65:10: “quoniam probasti nos Deus igne nos examinasti sicut examinatur argentum” <http://vulgate.org/ot/psalms_65.htm>
- 26.
Cf. Dan 12:10: “eligentur et dealbabuntur et quasi ignis probabuntur multi.” <http://vulgate.org/ot/daniel_12.htm>
- 27.
Cf. Psalm 11:7: “eloquia Domini eloquia munda argentum igne probatum separatum a terra colatum septuplum” <http://vulgate.org/ot/psalms_11.htm>
- 28.
Cf. Matthew 3:11: “ego quidem vos baptizo in aqua in paenitentiam, qui autem post me venturus est fortior me est cuius non sum dignus calciamenta portare, ipse vos baptizabit in Spiritu Sancto et igni” <http://vulgate.org/nt/gospel/matthew_3.htm>, cf. Luke 3, 16.
- 29.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 29, In DW II, 86.
- 30.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 60, In DW III, 25–26.
- 31.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 22, In DW I, Quint 22, 380–381.
- 32.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 48, In DW II, Quint 48, 419–420.
- 33.
Augustine , The Confessions. Translated by A. C. Outler, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1968, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 59.
- 34.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 37, In DW II, Quint 37, 211.
- 35.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 76, In DW III, 315–316.
- 36.
Cf. Plato : Epistle VII. In: Plato in 12 Volumes. Translated by R.G. Bury, London, 1966, Harvard University Press, 341c–d.
- 37.
Eckhart, Meister, Die deutschen Werke. Volume 5. Traktaten, Stuttgart, 1963, Kohlhammer Verlag, 111.
- 38.
Origen: Contra Celsum. Translated by Chadwick, Henry, Cambridge, 1953, Cambridge University Press, 272, 384.
- 39.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 82, In DW III, 425–426, Quint 68, 140–141.
- 40.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 20a, In DW I, 331. Cf. Augustine , The city of God. Book, 22.24.
- 41.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 17, In DW I, p.283-284, Predigt 2, In DW I, 39–40.
- 42.
Cf. Maimonides , op. cit., 73–75.
- 43.
Eckhart, Meister: Rede der underscheidunge. In DW V, p. 264–266. Predigt 10, In DW I, 337.
- 44.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 45, In DW II, 368–369.
- 45.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 20a, In DW I, 193, Predigt 20b, 197–198, Predigt 81, In DW III, 401.
- 46.
Eckhart, Meister: Predigt 82, In DW III, 427.
- 47.
Eckhart, Meister: Daz buoch der goetlichen troestunge. In DW V, 31–32.
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Bányai, F. (2017). The Experience of God in the Mystical Language of Meister Eckhart. In: Vassányi, M., Sepsi, E., Daróczi, A. (eds) The Immediacy of Mystical Experience in the European Tradition. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45069-8_6
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