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On the 30 March 1992 Damian Byrne, the former Master of the Dominican Order, wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger:
The Order of St. Dominic has obviously a very direct interest in Meister Eckhart’s life, works and reputation. This is why the General Chapter of 1980 welcomed one petition concerning the great theologian and mystic. It originated in Great Britain from a group of Dominican laity and friends of the Order in that country headed by the late Mrs. Ursula Fleming who founded the association, Friends of Meister Eckhart.
If today the fundamental innocence and theological integrity of Meister Eckhart are generally acknowledged, both within and outside the Dominican Order, this is due in no small measure to the efforts of people like Ursula. Today, when we read Eckhart’s work it is not with an inquisitorial gaze or scrutiny—rather, we ourselves feel we are under his gaze, his quiet scrutiny. Eckhart comes towards us almost as if he were one of our own contemporaries and as a master among them. We do not put him to the test, rather his words—ancient words, yet eloquently new in their serenity and freshness—probe and test us.
Needless to say there are still many difficulties that remain. But our questions today—my own questions at any rate—are not those bom of suspicion or fear, rather they are the questions of one interested reader, even a sort of disciple, who finds himself gripped and fascinated by what Eckhart is saying, but also sometimes confused and even bewildered by the extraordinary depth and range and daring of the master’s teaching.
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- Copyright © 1993 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
This article was originally delivered as a paper at the Eckhart Society Conference, Plater College, Oxford, 28 August 1992.
1 See ‘Relatio de statu ordinis’, appendix 1 in Acta capituli generalis electivi Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum (Rome 1992), p. 207Google Scholar.
2 Sermon 4, in Sermons and Treatises, trans. M. O'C. Walshe, vol. 1, London 1979, p. 40. (Sermon 59 in Josef Quint's modern German version, Deutsche Predigten und Trakiate [DP] 1963.)
3 Ibid. p. 41.
4 Ibid. p. 43.
5 Quoted in Blakney, R. B., Meister Eckhart (New York 1941) p. 93Google Scholar.
6 Sermon 87, Walshe, vol. 2, p. 268 (sermon 52 in critical edition Die deutschen Werke{DW], ed. J. Quint 1936 ff.)
7 Sermon 21, Blakney, p. 193 (DW 29).
8 Sermon 56, Walshe, pp. 81–2 (DP 26).
9 Ibid. p. 82.
10 Ibid. p. 82.
11 Sermon 4, Walshe, p. 43 (DP 59).
12 Sermon 71 in McGinn, Bernard, Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher (New York 1986) p. 323Google Scholar (DW 71).
13 Sermon 96, Walshe, p. 332 (DW 83).
14 Sermon 62, Walshe, p. 115 (DW 82).
15 Sermon 71, McGinn, p. 323 (DW 71).
16 Statement by a reviewer in The Nation (‘Curé de campagne’) quoted byButler, C. in Western Mysticism (New York 1966), p. 123Google Scholar.
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21 Ibid. p. 9.
22 Sermon 71, McGinn, p. 320 (DW 71).
23 The Cloud of Unknowing, ed. Johnston, W. (New York 1973). pp. 48–9Google Scholar.
24 Quoted in Balthasar, H. U. von, The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, vol. 1, (Edinburgh 1982), p. 425CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The reference von Balthasar gives to F. Pfeiffer, ed, (1857), II, p. 597 would seem to be mistaken.
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26 A Christmas Carol (London 1946), p. 68Google Scholar.
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28 Ibid. pp. 42–3.
29 Ibid. p. 44. The word helpfully translated in this passage as ‘void’ is ‘itel’ in Middle High German and apart from this one instance is used nowhere else by Meister Eckhart. It belongs to a group of words which express different kinds or stales of emptiness or nothingness. See Pfeiffer, vol. 2, p.28,11.16 ff. (DW 104 in the forthcoming critical edition, ed. G. Steer).
30 The Silence of God (New York 1989), p. 162Google Scholar.
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35 Sermon 4, Walshe, p. 43; DP 59. See also sermon 3, Walshe, p. 33 (Pfeiffer 3).
36 Sermon 1, McGinn, p. 242 (DW 1).
37 Ibid. p. 242.
38 The Complete Poems (London 1970), no. 288, p. 133Google Scholar.
39 Serron 83 in McGinn, B., Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defence (New York 1981), p. 208 (DW 83)Google Scholar.
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42 John Donne, Sermon XXIV in XXVI Sermons, p. 324, D‐E, quoted in White, H. C., The Metaphysical Poets: A Study in Religious Experience (London 1956), p. 117Google Scholar.
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47 Ibid. p. 44.
48 See also in this context sermon 2, Walshe, p. 20 (DP 58): ‘God needs and must have a vacant, free and unencumbered soul, containing nothing but Himself alone, and which looks to nothing and nobody but Him. As to this, Christ says: Whoever loves anything but me, whoever loves father and mother or many other things is not worthy of me… If your eye wanted to see all things and your ear to hear all things and your heart to remember all things, then indeed your soul would be dissipated in all these things.’
49 Sermon 4, Walshe, p. 44 (DP 59).
50 Sermon 42, Walshe, p. 294 (DW 69).
51 Ibid. p. 294.
52 On Eckhart's general philosophical background see Libera, A. de, Introduction à la mystique rhénane d'Albert le Grand à Maître Eckhart (Paris 1984)Google Scholar.
53 Sermon 6, Walshe, p. 61 (DW 1).
54 Sermon 5, Walshe, p. 49 (DW 65).
55 Sermon VI, McGinn, Meister Eckhart, Teacher and Preacher, p. 213 (sermon VI in critical edition Die lateinischen Werke [LW], 1936ff.).
56 Sermon 83, McGinn, Meister Eckhart: Essential Sermons…, p. 208 (DW 83).
57 A phrase used by Barth, K. in Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Oxford 1977), p. 33Google Scholar.
58 Ibid. pp. 260–1.
59 Seimon 14(b), Walshe, p. 127 (DW 16b).
60 The Book of ‘Benedictus ’: The Book of Divine Consolation in McGinn, Meister Eckhart: Essential Sermons… p. 220.
61 Ibid.
62 The Book of ‘Benedictus’: On Detachment in McGinn Meister Eckhart: Essential Sermons… p. 286.
63 Ibid.
64 Sermon 71, McGinn, Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher, p. 323 (DW71).
65 Sermon 14, McGinn, Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher, p. 272 (DW 14).
66 Sermon 22 in McGinn, Meister Eckhart: Essential Sermons… p. 195 (DW 22).
67 ibid.
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