Meister Eckhart

Eckhart von Hochheim, known as Meister Eckhart, was a German Dominican priest, theologian, philosopher and mystic who lived roughly from 1260 to 1328. He is a central figure of the Rhineland mysticism, a current of speculative mysticism that took shape along the Rhine in the later Middle Ages, and his thought belongs to the scholastic tradition. He matters because his account of the relationship between the soul and God shaped later generations, and because his trial for heresy became one of the best-known of his age.

He was born in Thuringia, within the Holy Roman Empire, and little is known about his family or childhood. He joined the Order of Preachers young, at Erfurt, and studied at Cologne before earning his baccalaureate in theology at Paris around 1292-1293. The title of master that gave him the name Meister came from his teaching at the University of Paris, where he lectured on two occasions. The second stint, in 1311, was a rare honour, previously granted only to Thomas Aquinas. He held governing posts in his order, including the provincialate of Saxony, and devoted much effort to the spiritual care of the Dominican women's houses. Around 1314 he directed the studium in Strasbourg, and from 1324 the one in Cologne.

His ideas survive mainly in sermons, delivered in German and Latin, and in treatises. In them he traced how the individual soul comes to union with God, using a speculative language meant to reach lay listeners. His decision to preach in the vernacular was one of the grounds for suspicion, since his critics feared it could lead simple people astray.

Around 1325 some Dominicans and the archbishop of Cologne opened inquiries into his orthodoxy. A commission first flagged 49 propositions as suspect, then enlarged the list to 59. Eckhart defended himself, denied the competence of the tribunals and appealed to the pope. He died before the final verdict; modern scholarship suggests he probably died on 28 January 1328. In March 1329 John XXII issued the bull In agro dominico, condemning 28 propositions, some as heretical and others as suspect.

His influence passed mainly through his disciples, Johannes Tauler and Henry Suso, and through lay groups such as the Friends of God. After a long period of relative neglect, his work was studied again from the nineteenth century, first among scholars and then within contemporary popular spirituality. The Dominican Order pressed for his rehabilitation in the twentieth century, and according to some accounts the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith rehabilitated him in 1992.