Meister Eckhart: Philosopher of Christianity
Kurt Flasch
Abstract
This book offers a reappraisal of the life and legacy of Meister Eckhart, the medieval German theologian, philosopher, and alleged mystic who was active during the Avignon Papacy of the fourteenth century and posthumously condemned as a heretic by Pope John XXII. Disputing his subject's frequent characterization as a hero of a modern, syncretic spirituality, the book attempts to free Eckhart from the “Mystical Flood” by inviting his readers to think along with Eckhart in a careful rereading of his Latin and German works. The text makes a powerful case for Eckhart's position as an important phi ... More
This book offers a reappraisal of the life and legacy of Meister Eckhart, the medieval German theologian, philosopher, and alleged mystic who was active during the Avignon Papacy of the fourteenth century and posthumously condemned as a heretic by Pope John XXII. Disputing his subject's frequent characterization as a hero of a modern, syncretic spirituality, the book attempts to free Eckhart from the “Mystical Flood” by inviting his readers to think along with Eckhart in a careful rereading of his Latin and German works. The text makes a powerful case for Eckhart's position as an important philosopher of the time rather than a mystic and casts new light on an important figure of the Middle Ages whose ideas attracted considerable attention from such diverse modern thinkers as Arthur Schopenhauer, Swami Vivekananda, D. T. Suzuki, Erich Fromm, and Jacques Derrida.
Keywords:
mystic,
Meister Eckhart,
Avignon Papacy,
Pope John XXII,
Mystical Flood,
Latin,
Middle Ages,
Arthur Schopenhauer,
Erich Fromm,
Jacques Derrida
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780300204865 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: May 2016 |
DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300204865.001.0001 |
