Product Description

Explores the life, teaching and influence of the great German Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart, the greatest preacher of his time. Now recognized as both orthodox and the creative source of a stream of mystical theology and spirituality that enlivened Europe for centuries, Eckhart remains one of the most controversial figures of the Middle Ages. Richard Woods is a Dominican priest who has taught in universities for thirty-seven years in both the United States and England. He also edited a journal of spirituality (Spirituality Today) and has been Adjunct Associate Professor in Psychiatry at Loyola University Medical School in Chicago since 1981.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3015721 in Books
• Published on: 1990-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 246 pages

Customer Reviews

Competent introduction to a man centuries ahead of his age
This proficient book clarifies Eckhart's style of writing, bringing out the radical implications of his life in a clear way. Basically, Eckhart's understanding of God and spirit was simply too direct for any intervening hierarchy of godly officials to bear. For example the book shows how Eckhart was one of the few medieval male religious leaders to appreciate the movement of independent female religious communities, which was labeled "the Beguines". Most of these women were poor naturally, not because of any ideology of "holy poverty". But many observers felt that their ordinary poverty was controversial. Not only did the Beguines' lifestyle seem to challenge the wealth of established orders, it also suggested a collapse of the wall between religious vocation and life in the secular world. And here we meet a realization almost forgotten since St. Paul. If self-reliance was really the most moral way of life, were not ordinary lay Christians potentially closer to God than "the religious"?

Eckhart saw the Beguines' challenge clearly. For him they were living contradictions to the whole notion that the world and the flesh must be left behind for a religious life. By their actions these women suggested that loving the secular world was more holy than seeking to escape it. Eckhart admired the Beguines. He saw them as direct explorers of Christ's path, seeking to cultivate love through their everyday encounters with others. (p. 84). Quite naturally Eckhart wanted to protect and support them. He wanted their energy for his own Dominican Order, and persuaded its leaders to adopt several Beguine houses as Dominican convents.

This is only one of Eckhart's many insights which Woods explores, showing how the church came to "condemn" him, and why his cause prevailed in the end.