Philosophy and Knowledge of God according to Meister Eckhart

Abdolalinejad, Mohammad Mahdi; Monfared, Mahdi

doi:10.22096/ek.2022.531536.1371

Philosophy and Knowledge of God according to Meister Eckhart

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Mohammad Mahdi Abdolalinejad ¹

Mahdi Monfared ²

¹ Ph.D. student in Comparative Philosophy, Qom University, Qom

² Associate Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Qom University, Qom, Iran.

10.22096/ek.2022.531536.1371

Abstract

It is well known that Eckhart avoided calling God "existence" to the end. This issue -which many of his commentators considers it insignificant -should be considered important; because it can be the key to a comprehensive understanding of his thought, especially his theory of knowledge of God. Eckhart knows very well that if God is a kind of "existence", he is the subject of philosophy. Therefore the philosophy includes everything, and this leads to the dogmatism of philosophers. Eckhart philosophically objects to the dogmatism of philosophy in his time by calling God as something beyond "existence". According to Eckhart, God's freedom from existence is not only negative, but on the positive side, Eckhart seeks to introduce the idea of a god that is more compatible with the God of the Bible. Therefore, he uses words such as love, knowledge, detachment, logos, etc. to introduce God. Finally, by giving a mystical interpretation of the Bible, he considers mysticism to be the only way to know the God of Bible. This article is an attempt to shed light on Eckhart's transition from philosophy to mysticism for the knowledge of God.

Keywords

God

Philosophy

dogmatism

detachment

mysticism

Meister Eckhart

Abdolalinejad, Mohammadmahdi, & Ahmad Fazeli. “The Place of Illeity: How God is Described by Emmanuel Levinas.” Philosophical Meditations 10, no.24 (1399): 179-205. [In Persian]

Almond, Ian. “Negative Theology, Derrida and the Critique of Presence: A Poststructuralist Reading of Meister Eckhart.” in The Heythrop Journal, No. 11, (2002): 150-165.

Eckhart, Master. Parisian Questions and Prologues. Trans: Armand a. Maurer, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1974.

Eckhart, Meister. Meister Eckhart, Teacher & preacher. Ed. Bernard Mcginn. New York: Paulist Press, 1968.

Eckhart, Meister. Meister Eckhart. ed. Clark & Skinner. London: Faber & Faber, 1958.

Eckhart, Meister. Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation. Trans. by R. B. Blakney. New York: Harper & Row publishers, 1941.

Eckhart, Meister. Meister Eckhart: Selected Writings. ed & trans. Oliver Davies. London: Penguin, 1994.

Eckhart, Meister. Meister Eckhart's Sermons. trans: Mojtaba Eatemadinia, Tehran: Ansou, 1397. [In Persian]

Eckhart, Meister. The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, ed & trans. Maurice O’C Walshe. New York: The Crossroad, 2009.

Enders, Markus. “Meister Eckhart’s Understanding of God.” In A Companion to Meister Eckhart, 359-388. Leiden: Brill, 2013.

Gilson, Etienne. History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Trans. Reza Gandomi. Tehran: Samt, 1395. [In Persian]

Hackett, Jeremiah & Hart Weed, Jennifer. “From Aquinas to Eckhart on Creation, Creature, and Analogy.” In A Companion to Meister Eckhart, 205-236. Leiden: Brill, 2013.

Ilkhani, Mohammad. “Detachment in Johannes Eckhartus' Mysticism.” Book of the Month of Literature and Philosophy, No.72 (2003): 22-33. [In Persian]

Ilkhani, Mohammad. History of the middle Ages. Tehran: Samt, 1393. [In Persian]

Send comment about this article

Name *

Enter Name.

Email Address *

Enter a valid email address.

Affiliation *

Enter a vaid affiliation.

Comments *

Enter comments (At leaset 10 words)

Security Code *