Customer Reviews

The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart: The Man from Whom God Hid Nothing (Edward Cadbury Lectures)

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This book represents one of those only too rare marriages of high scholarship and unambiguous clarity. While the concepts discussed are often difficult, Bernard McGinn's explanations and discussions regarding them are easily followed. The reader has to contend only with his own limitations in dealing with subtle and abstract subject matter. Bernard McGinn's fine scholarship and great skills of communication serve him well in discussing, for example, Eckhart's use of the multifaceted word "ground" in terms of its relationship to God and the soul in a way that reveals and sets apart the radical nature of Eckhart's preaching. Of course Professor McGinn does equally well with other aspects of the great Meister's spirituality such as his teachings on the "Eternal Birth" and his "metaphysics of flow". Often a work of this genre is too erudite to be readily accessible. This book is unique in that it is eminently scholarly with absolutely no compromise to its accessibility. Or we could we say, it is unique in that it is eminently accessible with no compromise to its erudtion. Either way we might say it, Professor McGinn shows an uncommon gift for which serious students and more casual readers alike will be grateful. At the ripe old age of 61 years, this is the first book this reviewer has read whose impact led him to actually send an email of gratitude to its author! For those who seek a better understanding of Meister Eckart, this book is simply indispensable.

Bernard McGinn's new book comes as no surprise: as usual it is an excellent, scholarly presentation of the subject at hand, and with Eckhart as the subject, the reader is in good hands with McGinn. This books started off as a continuation of McGinn's history of Western mysticism, but ended up being a monograph on Eckhart. Mcginn's familiarity with the sources, his use of both the Latin and German works of Eckhart, and his detailed knowledge of the secondary literature in German, French, and English will make this the standard English-language reference book on Eckhart's mystical philosophy for years to come. Any serious student of Western mysticism should alerted that this is an important work. My only regret is that McGinn does not deal with the Eckhart-beguine connection much at all. Perhaps when this book is revised and condensed to form part of the next volume in his history of mysticism series, this aspect will be also be considered.

But no Eckhart! Based on the title, I was surprised to find that the book is all analysis, with no intact samples of Meister Eckhart's writing at all.

I believe that the main quality of Eckhart's writing is, as the author states, his use of the language. We don't get that here, as everything is paraphrased, or chopped into very small quotes by the author.

It is like facing a wall, and listening to someone tell us about a sunset, or, more exactly, perhaps, listening to someone describe Rumi's poetry without giving us any.

The power, the ooomph, the emotional and spiritual impact of Eckhart has been pulverized into an endless series of philosophical arguments.

This seems to me to miss the point in a major way.

To experience Eckhart, read Eckhart. "Wandering Joy" delivers admirably.

If you've already experienced Eckhart, and you want a more in-depth "scholarly" analysis, read this book by Bernard McGinn.

This is a fresh and indepth interpretation of Eckhart's mysticism, written by the one of the leading authorities on him. For Eckhart studies this book stands alone, and will surley set the standard in years to come. It is scholarly, so it is perhaps not for the casual reader. However, for anyone really seriously interested in Eckhart this book cannot be ignored. Highly recommended!

If you want to understand better Eckhart's theological and philosophical context, life, avoid misunderstanding the man and his thought, and if you desire to grasp Eckhart's place within the continuum of Christian theology and mysticism - this book is a must-read. It is not difficult to comprehend, and offers nuanced explanations of all of Eckhart's central dialectics and themes.

If one were to make the mistake of relying exclusively on Eckhart's sermons to understand his overall message, it would be very easy to either get confused or construct a distorted whole. Luckily for us non-scholars (and for scholars too), McGinn utilizes his years of Eckhart study (which translates into hours and hours of pouring over his writings in the original Latin and Middle High German) to offer this clear and readily digestible book which will give the layman an overall understanding of Eckhart's system of logic, crucial to making sense of his particular points, in a matter of weeks. What a service!

McGinn, also the author of the famous 'History of Christian Mysticism', gives a good scholarly overview and analysis of Eckhart's mystical ideas.

McGinn studies Eckhart using the idea of the 'ground', the term Eckhart uses in many sermons to describe the intimate union of God with the human intellect or soul. He also explores Eckhart's ideas about God and the Godhead, the 'overflow' of God into the Trinity, God's creation of all things in the eternal 'now', the historical context of his thought and trial for heresy, and also his intellectual influences.

In my view McGinn falls a bit short in some places (he tends to skim over some important aspects of the master too quickly, perhaps due to constraints in relation to time) but overall this is probably the best critical study of Eckhart currently available. As a careful critical scholar McGinn doesn't go overboard or read into Eckhart his pet theological ideas (as many tend to do with this polyvalent thinker) and emphasizes the importance of understanding Eckhart as the teacher and preacher. This work is an essential purchase for any student of Eckhart's thought.

Meister Eckhart, for those who know only his name and his association with mystical thought, probably think of him in the same category as Julian of Norwich or Theresa of Avila. He was about as much different from Julian of Norwich, and still be in the church, as you could imagine. Eckhart was first and foremost a theologian, possibly among the best in the last centuries before the Reformation, in the generation just after Thomas Aquinas. And yet, just as his work is not overladen with mysterium tremendum (that was a 20th century invention) it is not highly structured, reading much like an infantryman's drill manual. It is also not abstruse in the direction of the great logicians such as Peter Abelard and William of Occam.

For the reviewer who complained that there were none of Eckhart's own words here, I recommend he consult a good book of Eckhart's sermons, and give Professor McGinn all the room he needs to expain Eckhart's work, and that is no mean feat. Eckhart shared with many Christian AND Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages the notion that there is nothing accurate we can say about God. The closest we can come is to imagine him as "nothing". That was Eckhart's interpretation of Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, where he went blind. His experience of God was to see nothing.

As other reviewers noted, in spite of this elusive position, McGinn, a leading expert on Medieval spirituality, does a fine job of explaining Eckhart's ideas. If I were to fault him on anything, it would be that McGinn dives us little from works which have not yet been translated into English, such as Eckhart's commentary on the Gospel of John. I have read no other expositions on Eckhart, but I would be hard pressed to see how they could improve, except by covering writings McGinn does not touch.