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Meister Eckhart's Conception of Union with God

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Richard Kieckhefer
Richard Kieckhefer
Affiliation:
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60201
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Extract

Although Meister Eckhart himself might have been puzzled by the term, he is traditionally known as a mystic. The designation surely does apply, in the sense that Eckhart sought and recommended a kind of union between the soul and God. But as soon as one proceeds to analyze the precise nature of that union, difficulties abound. In recent literature it has become clear that the Christian mystical tradition has employed various distinct concepts of union with God, and scholars have inquired what sort of union one or another mystic sought. This effort has been made, for example, in studies of John Tauler and The Cloud of Unknowing. In examining these and other mystics, particularly those of the Western medieval tradition, scholars have asked whether they viewed union with God as a momentary experience or as an ongoing way of life, and whether they saw this union as continuous and compatible with ordinary religious experience and knowledge or as discontinuous and incompatible. The present article will attempt to answer such questions in regard to Meister Eckhart, in hopes of clarifying an aspect of his thought which, though fundamental, is most commonly approached only tangentially in the literature.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 71 , Issue 3-4 , October 1978 , pp. 203 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1978

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References

1 On this matter see Fischer, H., “Zur Frage nach der Mystik in den Werken Meister Eckharts,” in La Mystique rhénane (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1963) 109–32Google Scholar.

2 Among the best and most interesting studies of this motif in Tauler are Ozment, Steven E., Homo Spiritualis: A Comparative Study of the Anthropology of Johannes Tauler, Jean Gerson and Martin Luther (1509–16) in the Context of their Theological Thought (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1969) esp. 35–46Google Scholar, and Wrede, Gösta, Unio mystica: Probleme der Erfahrung bei Johannes Tauler (Uppsala: Universitet; Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell [distr.], 1974)Google Scholar. On The Cloud, see Johnston, William, The Mysticism of the Cloud of Unknowing: A Modern Interpretation (2d ed.; St. Meinrad, Ind.: Abbey, 1975)Google Scholar.

3 Scholastic theologians analyzing mystical experience sometimes distinguished between “habitual” and “actual” union; see Ioseph a Sancto, Spiritu, Cursus theologiae mysticoscholasticae, ed. a S. Paulo, Anastasius (5 vols.; Bruges/Rome: Beyaert, 1924–33), 4. 231–39Google Scholar, and Denifle, Heinrich Seuse, Die deutschen Mystiker des 14. Jahrhunderts: Beitrag zur Deutung ihrer Lehre, ed. Spiess, Otwin (Fribourg: Paulusverlag, 1951) 192Google Scholar. The terms here employed, though, are chosen in part to avoid the implications of the scholastic distinction between actus and habitus. The word “ecstasy” can, of course, be used in a broad sense for everyday experiences of intense joy, but it is used here (as are Eckhart's own corresponding terms: see below, sec. IV, and esp. n. 47) in a narrower sense, referring to extraordinary spiritual experiences.

4 On the notion of habitual union as a kind of background experience that leads to ecstasy, see Wrede, Unio mystica, 203–71.

5 While the notion was known in the fourteenth century, it received greater attention in following centuries. Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross, for example, elaborated the concept of unitive life or “spiritual marriage”; see Peers, E. Allison, Studies of the Spanish Mystics (3 vols.; 2d ed., London: S.P.C.K., 1951–60) 1. 149–52Google Scholar, 210–16.

6 This distinction is more useful for analyzing Eckhart than that between “introvertive” and “extrovertive”; on the latter distinction see esp. Stace, W. T., Mysticism and Philosophy (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960)Google Scholar. Nonabstractive union need not be either exclusively introvertive nor exclusively extrovertive, but may entail awareness of God's presence (to use the formulation of Christian mystics, not that of Stace) both in the soul and in nature.

7 The Life of Saint Thomas Aquinas: Biographical Documents, trans, and ed. Foster, Kenelm (London: Longmans; Baltimore: Helicon, 1959) 130 (cf. 57, 107)Google Scholar; Armstrong, Edward A., St. Francis, Nature Mystic: The Derivation and Significance of the Nature Stories in the Franciscan Legend (Berkeley, Los Angeles, & London: University of California, 1973)Google Scholar.

8 Schürmann, Reiner, Meisler Eckhart, Mystic and Philosopher: Translations with Commentary (Bloomington/London: Indiana University, 1978) 15Google Scholar; cf. 23. See also Kelley, C. F., Meisler Eckhart on Divine Knowledge (New Haven/London: Yale, 1977) 2–3Google Scholar and 112, again with little evidence.

9 Kunisch, Hermann, “Offenbarung und Gehorsam: Versuch über Eckharts religiöse Persönlichkeit,” in Nix, Udo M. and Öchslin, Raphael, eds., Meister Eckhart der Prediger: Festschrift zum Eckhart-Gedenkjahr (Freiburg: Herder, 1960) 117–18Google Scholar and 129; Clark, James M., Meister Eckhart: An Introduction to the Study of his Works, with an Anthology of his Sermons (London: Nelson, 1957) 175Google Scholar and n. 2. Ozment, Steven E. (Mysticism and Dissent: Religious Ideology and Social Protest in the Sixteenth Century [New Haven/London: Yale, 1973] 13)Google Scholar describes the religious experience mentioned in Eckhart as momentary. Leff, Gordon (The Dissolution of the Medieval Outlook: An Essay on the Intellectual and Spiritual Change in the Fourteenth Century [New York: Harper & Row, 1976] 125)Google Scholar states that for Eckhart “awareness of self of any kind was to be rejected; even the recoil of sadness following the moment of ecstasy.” And such examples could readily be multiplied.

10 Ancelet-Hustache, Jeanne, Master Eckhart and the Rhineland Mystics (New York: Harper & Row; London: Longmans, 1956) 61–64Google Scholar.

11 Wentzlaff-Eggebert, Friedrich-Wilhelm, Deutsche Mystik zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit: Einheit und Wandlung ihrer Erscheinungsformen (3d ed.; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1969) 12–19 and 88–102CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Mieth, Dietmar, Die Einheit von vita activa und vita contemplativa in den deutschen Prediglen und Traktaten Meister Eckharts und bei Johannes Tauler: Untersuchungen zur Struktur des christlichen Lebens (Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1969) 119–233Google Scholar.

13 The sources are Eckhart, Meister, Die deutschen Werke (ed. Quint, Josef et al. ; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1958- )Google Scholar, cited as “DW”; Eckhart, Meister, Die lateinischen Werke (ed. Weiss, Konrad et al. ; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1956- )Google Scholar, cited as “LW”; and Pfeiffer, Franz, ed., Deutsche Mystiker des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts (2d ed.; 2 vols.; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1906)Google Scholar, cited as “P.” Translations are my own, though I have consulted those of Quint, Josef (Meister Eckhart: Deutsche Predigten und Traktate [4th ed.; Munich: Carl Hanser, 1977])Google Scholar, James M. Clark (as above, n.6), and Clark, James M. and Skinner, John V. (Meister Eckhart: Selected Treatises and Sermons [London: Faber & Faber, 1958])Google Scholar.

14 On the history of interpretations of Mary and Martha, see Butler, Cuthbert, Western Mysticism (London: Constable, 1922) 200–202, 214–15, 218–20Google Scholar.

15 The text is obscure, and not surprisingly there has been confusion in its interpretation; see, e.g., Oberman, Heiko A., “Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Mysticism,” CH 30 (1961) 280Google Scholar, n. 21. As is clear from Mieth's exposition, the text here in question (“Maria was e Martha, ê si Mâria würde …”) means simply that Mary had to grow into the active life of Martha before she could fulfill her own religious calling.

16 The insertion of “also” follows DW 3. 597.

17 Final judgment on the authenticity of many of the writings has not been passed, and in the interim it is safest to base one's conclusions on those works that are generally accepted (i.e., those in DW and in Quint's separate translation). In any event, the present article cannot consider more than a sampling of quotations even from the manifestly genuine works, but the interpretations here suggested can readily be applied to other passages, whether from accepted or from dubious writings.

18 On the motif in Augustine, see Grabowski, Stanislaus J., The All-Present God: A Study in St. Augustine (St. Louis/London: Herder, 1954)Google Scholar, and TeSelle, Eugene, Augustine the Theologian (New York: Herder & Herder, 1970) 155Google Scholar.

19 On the translation, see Clark and Skinner, Meister Eckhart, 58, n.3.

20 Much has been written on this topic; see esp. Lossky, Vladimir, Théologie négative et connaissance de Dieu chez Maître Eckhart (Paris; J. Vrin, 1957) 298–320Google Scholar.

21 The text from Augustine is Enarratio in ps. LXXIV, n. 9.

22 Théry, G., ed., “Édition critique des pièces relatives au procès d' Eckhart contenues dans le manuscrit 33b de la Bibliothèque de Soest,” Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 1 (1926–27) 205, 206–7, 208, 218, 236, 247–48Google Scholar.

23 Caputo, John D., “Fundamental Themes in Meister Eckhart's Mysticism,” The Thomist 42 (1978) 205–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Caputo gives a lucid exposition of Eckhart's teaching and its Thomist background.

24 See also Théry, “Édition critique,” esp. 167–68, and Ashley, Benedict M., “Three Strands in the Thought of Eckhart the Scholastic Theologian,” The Thomist 42 (1978) 229–30Google Scholar. The notion of uncreated grace has been revived in recent theology. Rahner, Karl (Theological Investigations 1 [Baltimore: Helicon; London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1961] 319–46)Google Scholar cites medieval texts and scholarship as a point of departure for his own theological developments. Baum, Gregory (Man Becoming: God in Secular Language [New York: Herder & Herder, 1970] esp. 183–84)Google Scholar employs the same notion, though with less concern for medieval precedents.

25 Kertz, Karl G., “Meister Eckhart's Teaching on the Birth of the Divine Word in the Soul,” Traditio 15 (1959) esp. 333–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kertz shows effectively that Eckhart's teaching is orthodox in intention. See also Caputo, “Fundamental Themes,” 217–24.

26 For explication, see Théry, “Édition critique,” 178, 199–200. For some of the implications, see Caputo, “Fundamental Themes,” 222–23.

27 Denifle, Die deutschen Mystiker, 135–36. Denifle exonerates Eckhart on this point, though not on others. For the history of the notion, see Lot-Borodine, M., “La doctrine de la ‘déification' dans l'Eglise grecque jusqu'au XIe siècle,” RHR 105 (1932) 5–43, 106 (1932) 525–74, 107 (1933) 8–55Google Scholar.

28 While “insightful” may not be quite satisfactory (other translators use “spiritual”), it does convey the notion that there is a mode of apprehension or awareness, even if it is not discursive or (in a technical sense) rational. Eckhart also says in this passage that genuine possession of God “liget an dem gemüete.” On the gemüete, see Schürmann, Meister Eckhart, 145–46, and Ozment, Homo Spiritualis, 15–21. Like the scholastic mens, it is a fundamental power of the soul, which works upon the other powers—which is why I suggest here that the consciousness in question is a property of the soul generally, since the gemüete serves to orient the entire soul.

29 C. F. Kelley's thesis (in Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge) must be understood in the light of these considerations: it is surely true that Eckhart wants his listener or reader to see all things from a viewpoint of perfect detachment (in his more radical formulation: only as they exist in God's mind), but the “knowledge” referred to here is an orientation of the entire soul rather than an activity of intellect alone. Kelley himself makes this point in various contexts.

30 See Caputo, “Fundamental Themes,” esp. 222.

31 On this Augustinian motif, see DW 1. 404–5, and n. 49 below.

32 For various statements regarding eternity (in the various senses of the term), see DW 1.72, 171; 2. 219, 231, 232, 306, 309. The moral implications of withdrawal from space and time are especially clear in DW 5. 11.

33 Hence the conclusion given in Clark (Meister Eckhart) 175, n. 2, is unsubstantiated. The text—”Sô diu sêle der zît und der stat ledic ist…”—does not necessarily have the temporal significance that Clark gives it in his translation; the first clause can have conditional force.

34 This passage contradicts those in which Eckhart speaks of the soul as the only locus of the birth. Thus, his use of images has again shifted.

35 See Lerner, Robert E., “The Image of Mixed Liquids in Late Medieval Mystical Thought,” CH 40 (1971) 397–411Google Scholar.

36 For a further example, see DW 3. 22–27, where Eckhart multiplies striking images to express one simple insight regarding the moral perfection that occurs in (and not after) union with God.

37 See Denifle, Die deutschen Mystiker, esp. 150–225, and Lerner, Robert E., The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages (Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California, 1972) esp. 182–86Google Scholar (Lerner prefers “autotheism” to “pantheism”). For the history of the question whether Eckhart was heretical—a question that most scholars now answer in the negative—see Degenhardt, Ingeborg, Studien zum Wandel des Eckhartbildes (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1967)Google Scholar.

38 The mystics frequently stressed a sense of moral duty that followed from mystical experience. See Petry, Ray C., “Social Responsibility and the Late Medieval Mystics,” CH 21 (1952) 3–19Google Scholar, and my “Mysticism and Social Consciousness in the Fourteenth Century,” University of Ottawa Quarterly 48 (1978) 179–86Google Scholar.

39 Ozment (Homo Spiritualis, 41–44) argues that whether the deification is by grace or by nature, the result is the same: i.e., qualitative identity of man with God. But it might be argued in response that the deification in question here occurs not only by grace but with respect to that which grace affects, i.e., the moral character of a person. On this point see Denifle, Die deutschen Mystiker, 151–80. Denifle's arguments are made in defense of Tauler and Suso, but they apply just as well to passages from Eckhart such as the one at hand. And while the polemical context of Denifle's book now seems antiquated, his conclusions must still be taken seriously.

40 See the exposition below of a pertinent passage from the sermon Qui mihi ministrat (DW 2. 614–17); see also n. 41 below.

41 Note that it is specifically reflective knowledge that is not strictly a condition (but merely an inevitable concomitant) of beatitude. Thus, the present passage does not contradict DW 3. 141–42, where Eckhart makes knowledge of God's presence the condition for blessedness.

42 The notion of the “angelic life” had long been linked with the monastic or contemplative ideal; see the literature listed in Constable, Giles, Medieval Monasticism: A Select Bibliography (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1976) 153CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 The images used here thus correspond to the “three ways” of the sermon Intravit Jesus in quoddam castellum (DW 3. 486–87).

44 There is similar ambiguity in Bernard of Clairvaux's use of the metaphor of water in wine; see 5. Bernardi Opera 3 (ed. Leclercq, Jean and Rochais, H. M.; Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1963) 142–44Google Scholar, 153. The passage on p. 153 reserves the experience for the afterlife, but the text on pp. 142–44 exclaims how splendid it would be to enjoy it for only a moment during one's life (a purely hypothetical situation?).

45 Eckhart himself did make similar use of the motif, in LW 5.93–94. Fox, Matthew (e.g., “Meister Eckhart and Karl Marx: The Mystic as Political Theologian,” Listening: Journal of Religion and Culture 13 [1978] 235)Google Scholar speaks of Eckhart's “realized eschatology,” though the parallel with the realized eschatology of the New Testament seems to be loose.

46 Note again the allusion (implicit this time) to the Augustinian triad of corporeal, spiritual (or imaginary), and intellectual perception.

47 Eckhart does not appear to have distinguished between ecstasy and rapture, and in one passage, following Thomas Aquinas, he explicitly equated the phenomena (LW 4. 203).

48 The experiment was apparently attempted on occasion, with results different from what Eckhart expected. At times the experimenters resorted to needle-pricks and other forms of abuse. See esp. Raymond of Capua, The Life of St. Catherine of Siena, trans. Lamb, George (New York: P. J. Kenedy, 1960) 366, n. 1Google Scholar. Eckhart might have dismissed such counter-examples (and the findings of modern psychology) as pertaining to something other than what he had in mind. But his statements on the topic are so undeveloped that it is difficult to conjecture how he would respond.

49 References to Augustine are given in DW 1. 404, n. 1.

50 The Cloud of Unknowing, trans. Clifton Wolters (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961) 105–6, 114–17Google ScholarPubMed.

51 See above, n. 44.

52 S. Bernardi Opera 2 (ed. Jean Leclercq et al.; Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1958) 242–43Google Scholar.

53 On these passages from LW, see Clark, Meister Eckhart, 92–93. The other texts cited (LW 3. 40, 214–16; 4. 81, 152) do not evidently refer to ecstatic expericence.

54 Regarding the audience, see Grundmann, Herbert, “Die geschichtlichen Grundlagen der deutschen Mystik,” Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 27 (1953) 48–76Google Scholar.