Meister Eckhart

Life

Eckhart is believed to have been born around 1260 in Hochheim in Thuringia, near Gotha and Erfurt. The title "Meister" that precedes his name is the German form of magister, denoting a master of theology. As a youth he entered the Dominican Order at Erfurt, and he later studied in Paris and Cologne.

In 1302 he became a master of theology at the University of Paris. When the Dominicans established the new Province of Saxonia in 1303, he became its first provincial, that is, the order's regional superior. From 1311 to 1313 he again taught in Paris. He then worked in Strasbourg for about ten years and moved to Cologne around 1323.

In Cologne his teaching came under challenge, and inquisitorial proceedings against him began in 1326. He submitted a defense, and in 1327 he publicly declared that he had always rejected error, and he appealed to the pope. He died around 1328, however, before a verdict was issued.

Ministry and Works

Eckhart left a body of Latin scholarly writings known as the Opus Tripartitum ("Tripartite Work"). He also left many German sermons, delivered in convents and elsewhere, along with German treatises such as the Talks of Instruction and the Book of Divine Consolation. He is credited with expounding profound theology in the vernacular at a time when Latin was the language of scholarship.

The central concepts of his thought are as follows:

• Detachment: emptying the heart by letting go of attachments and self-will
• The birth of the Son of God: the Son of God being born in the innermost ground of the soul
• Union: the soul becoming one with God

He also held that God cannot be grasped by reason or the senses.

Influence on the Korean Church

Eckhart has been introduced in Korea mainly through academic study and publishing. The principal study is The Spiritual Thought of Meister Eckhart (Benedict Press, 2003) by the religious studies scholar Keel Hee-sung, which places Eckhart in dialogue with Eastern religions such as Zen Buddhism. Books by Matthew Fox and Gerhard Wehr have also been translated into Korean. Protestant media have likewise treated him as a classic figure of Christian spirituality; one example is Chai Soo-il's series on reading the classics in the Christian publication Ecumenian. In Korean, his name is spelled both "Ekeuhareuteu" and "Ekkareuteu."

Assessment

On March 27, 1329, Pope John XXII issued the bull In agro dominico, which ruled on twenty-eight propositions drawn from Eckhart's writings. Seventeen were condemned as heretical, and eleven were judged suspect of heresy. The bull also noted that before his death Eckhart had submitted himself and his writings to the judgment of the Holy See. His defenders argue that the bold German expressions he used in his sermons were censured without being compared with his formal Latin works. In 1980 the General Chapter of the Dominican Order resolved to ask the Holy See to review the verdict.

Eckhart was largely forgotten from the mid-fifteenth century until he drew renewed attention in the nineteenth century. Some scholars hold that German mysticism's emphasis on the laity and its expression of faith in the vernacular were taken up and transformed in the writings of Martin Luther. At the same time, because there is controversy within Korean Protestantism over mystical spirituality, including contemplative prayer, assessments of Eckhart may differ according to theological position.