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Date Posted: 07:56:31 05/20/06 Sat
Author: Anon - 2 Apr 2006
Subject: Meister Eckhart

Johannes Eckhart was one of the greatest of Christian mystics. He was born at Hochheim in Thringen, Germany, in 1260, and entered the Dominican order when he was 15. Later he occupied several high posts in the order in Germany. Eckhart also taught theology at the Universities of Paris and Cologne.

In 1326 Eckhart was formally charged with heresy by the archbishop of Cologne, Heinrich von Virneburg - who also prosecuted the Brethren of the Free Spirit in Cologne around this same time. The charge appears to have been considered proven. In 1329, shortly after Eckhart's death, Pope John XXII published a bull condemning 28 propositions from Eckhart's works. Eckhart is said to have retracted the errors. He claimed that he may have erred, but he was not a heretic. Probably his eminence protected him, for others who put forward similar views were indeed burned along with their works.

By the standards of medieval Christianity, Eckhart was indeed a heretic. He stressed the unity of God and the capacity of the individual soul to become one with God during life. He said that the human soul was superior to the angels. And he spoke of passing beyond God to a `simple ground,' a `still desert,' without any distinctions, out of which all things were created - a conception strikingly similar to the Tao of Lao Tzu.

Although he talks at times of God being in all things, Eckhart is never talking about glorifying the creation - modern theologians who cite him as a precursor of `creation spirituality' misrepresent him. Eckhart believes it is necessary to detach oneself from all sensible things, from all creatures and from the self, before the soul can be united with God. The God that is in all things has nothing to do with created matter: it is soul and thought.

http://members.aol.com/Heraklit1/eckhart.htm

Meister Eckhart

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