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Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge
Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge is not only the most profound study of the core theological and philosophical themes of Christianity’s greatest mystic ever written. It is also the greatest exegesis of Christian non-dualism ever published.
Of all Christian mystical teachings, those of the Dominican theologian Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–c. 1328) are increasingly recognized as the most compatible with the non-dualistic traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism. Based on the author’s three decades of formal study and spiritual practice, this book offers a clear path to understanding the breadth and depth of Eckhart’s unique achievement. C.F. Kelley argues that the fundamental principle that elevates Eckhart above all other Western mystics, and links him to Eastern spiritual approaches, is his insistence that we “think principally” in divinis—that is, from within the mind or orientation of the Godhead or “Divine Knowledge” itself.
“What is here presented to the reader supersedes all former interpretations of Eckhart’s teaching. It refuses to ignore what he precisely and repeatedly says cannot be ignored, that is, his exposition of the doctrine of Divine Knowledge in terms of the highest and most essential of all possible considerations.”
—C.F. Kelley, from the Preface
Of all Christian mystical teachings, those of the Dominican theologian Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–c. 1328) are increasingly recognized as the most compatible with the non-dualistic traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism. Based on the author’s three decades of formal study and spiritual practice, this book offers a clear path to understanding the breadth and depth of Eckhart’s unique achievement. C.F. Kelley argues that the fundamental principle that elevates Eckhart above all other Western mystics, and links him to Eastern spiritual approaches, is his insistence that we “think principally” in divinis—that is, from within the mind or orientation of the Godhead or “Divine Knowledge” itself.
“What is here presented to the reader supersedes all former interpretations of Eckhart’s teaching. It refuses to ignore what he precisely and repeatedly says cannot be ignored, that is, his exposition of the doctrine of Divine Knowledge in terms of the highest and most essential of all possible considerations.”
—C.F. Kelley, from the Preface
- GenresPhilosophy
312 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 2, 2024
This is a difficult book about a profound and difficult thinker who is more talked about, loosely, than closely read. Meister Eckhart (1260 -- 1327)was a Dominican theologian widely regarded as one of the greatest Christian mystics. He was accused of heresy, and portions of his works were condemned after Eckhart's death by Pope John XXII in 1328. Eckhart wrote theological commentaries and treatises in Latin and gave sermons in the German vernacular which were transcribed by nuns and other groups of medieval religious women. Scholars have labored to determine the authenticity of the German sermons.
Eckhart's teachings are notoriously difficult to understand due to,of course, his subject matter, and to the paradoxical, obscure manner in which he expressed himself. In part Eckhart wrote in a provocative way to get his readers and hearers to think for themselves. His work has been used by people of highly diverse spiritual tendencies, including those influenced by Buddhism or other forms of Eastern thought, existentialism, idealism as well as, increasingly, traditional Catholicism. Unfortunately, it is much easier to refer to this revered thinker for a variety of doctrines than it is to read and understand him.
C.F. Kelley (1914 --2008) was a Benedictine monk at Downside Abbey in the United Kingdom who became a professor of philosophy at the University of California Berkeley. He began to study Eckhart in the 1930's and returned to him in earnest in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, Josef Quint, the scholar who prepared the standard edition of Eckhart's texts, together with the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain and Aldous Huxley asked Kelley to write a book on his understanding of Eckhart. Kelley's work, "Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge" was published in 1976 and reissued in 2008 in this edition by Dharma Cafe books with an introduction by its publisher, William Stranger.
Kelley's book is not an introduction or a watered-down study. Indeed, Kelley stresses the difficulty of Eckhart's thought and the difficulties that stand in the way of its understanding by the modern reader. Kelley finds philosophical understanding in the contemporary world increasingly externalized or abstracted. By this he means that it is focused on the human understanding or on the study of things, scientific or otherwise, separated from an understanding of God. The study is of things that are seemingly temporal, relative, and individual seen from the outside.
In studying Eckhart, for Kelley, a total redirection of effort must take place. Eckhart studies the divine and transcendent -- God in his "isness" which includes everything that temporally exists as individuals under the outlook of eternity. A difficult thought indeed. More, in approaching divine knowledge, one does not look in from the outside because divine knowledge is all-inclusive. Divine knowledge unlike human knowledge is nondual. There is no distinction between subject and object and no separation between God on the outside and a human being trying to think about God. The human mind approaching God becomes part of God although the converse claim (that God becomes part of man) is false. Kelley denies the attribution of "mystic" commonly given to Eckhart because a mystic attempts, as an initial matter to bridge the separation between God and himself through contemplation. For Kelley, Eckhart is a metaphysician who attempts to study Divine Knowlege principially, through intellection and the highest use of reason.
In Part I of his book, called "Preparatory Considerations", Kelley explains the difficulties surrounding the study of Eckhart, stressing that the study is not for the dilletante or for the philsophically uninformed. Kelley argues that Eckhart's thought is unsystematic but remains closer than ordinarily realized to the teachings of Aquinas. Kelley himself was a traditional Catholic thinker and he so sees Eckhart, arguing that the condemnation of 1329 was ill-founded and mistaken. Part II of the Book, "the Doctrine" consists of Kelley's exposition of six themes in Eckhart all of which stress the need to redirect one's perspective from individual things to transcendence to understand Eckhart and to understand life. Kelley explores the relationship between God and the human self, the word, the primal distinction between isness and thatness, which leads to the teaching of nonduality, the inversion (from individual things to God), the five veils of God, and finally Eckhart's teachings on detachment, which often are compared to Buddhist teachings.
Kelley's exposition is difficult in the extreme but rewarding and worth the effort. The teaching of nonduality is important to many current approaches to spirituality, and Kelley shows how this teaching fits in a Christian context. Kelley's Eckhart is nothing if not traditionally Catholic. Yet much can be learned by the reader not sharing Kelley's strong Catholic commitment.
Besides its inherent difficulty, there are some problems with Kelley's study. The first is in its polemically dogmatic character. Kelley is dismissive of views of Eckhart that differ from his own perspective. He is also unduly hostile to other forms of thought, whether secular thought or other forms of religious thought, and is all-too-eager to brush them aside as ill-informed or as showing no knowledge of philosophy. This dogmatism is troubling and casts some doubt on the narrowness of his reading of Eckhart.
The second problem with the book is probably also in part
Eckhart's. The spirituality of this book is deep and sincere, but it is also dizzying and abstract. Eckhart spoke and wrote, at a minimum, to move his listeners beyond platitude and convention. Following the spiritual path set out in Kelley's book, at any rate, is something for the very few. There is a passion for God and for ultimates that people may share in varying degrees, with those with a secular orientation feeling it very little. Eckhart was criticized during his lifetime for making spirituality too difficult and too much beyond the ken of ordinary people. Whether or not that is a fair criticism of Eckhart, I think it is a fair criticism of Kelley. Many people attempt simple, good, and informed human lives, religious or secular, without striving for the confusingly clouded heights set out in this study.
Most people find the writers who can best speak to them. Those readers interested in exploring Eckhart for themselves may want to read the two-volume set in the "Classics of Western Spirituality" series published by Paulist Press or the studies by Bernard McGinn. Readers who want to know Eckhart yet more deeply may then turn to this important book by Kelley.
Robin Friedman
Eckhart's teachings are notoriously difficult to understand due to,of course, his subject matter, and to the paradoxical, obscure manner in which he expressed himself. In part Eckhart wrote in a provocative way to get his readers and hearers to think for themselves. His work has been used by people of highly diverse spiritual tendencies, including those influenced by Buddhism or other forms of Eastern thought, existentialism, idealism as well as, increasingly, traditional Catholicism. Unfortunately, it is much easier to refer to this revered thinker for a variety of doctrines than it is to read and understand him.
C.F. Kelley (1914 --2008) was a Benedictine monk at Downside Abbey in the United Kingdom who became a professor of philosophy at the University of California Berkeley. He began to study Eckhart in the 1930's and returned to him in earnest in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, Josef Quint, the scholar who prepared the standard edition of Eckhart's texts, together with the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain and Aldous Huxley asked Kelley to write a book on his understanding of Eckhart. Kelley's work, "Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge" was published in 1976 and reissued in 2008 in this edition by Dharma Cafe books with an introduction by its publisher, William Stranger.
Kelley's book is not an introduction or a watered-down study. Indeed, Kelley stresses the difficulty of Eckhart's thought and the difficulties that stand in the way of its understanding by the modern reader. Kelley finds philosophical understanding in the contemporary world increasingly externalized or abstracted. By this he means that it is focused on the human understanding or on the study of things, scientific or otherwise, separated from an understanding of God. The study is of things that are seemingly temporal, relative, and individual seen from the outside.
In studying Eckhart, for Kelley, a total redirection of effort must take place. Eckhart studies the divine and transcendent -- God in his "isness" which includes everything that temporally exists as individuals under the outlook of eternity. A difficult thought indeed. More, in approaching divine knowledge, one does not look in from the outside because divine knowledge is all-inclusive. Divine knowledge unlike human knowledge is nondual. There is no distinction between subject and object and no separation between God on the outside and a human being trying to think about God. The human mind approaching God becomes part of God although the converse claim (that God becomes part of man) is false. Kelley denies the attribution of "mystic" commonly given to Eckhart because a mystic attempts, as an initial matter to bridge the separation between God and himself through contemplation. For Kelley, Eckhart is a metaphysician who attempts to study Divine Knowlege principially, through intellection and the highest use of reason.
In Part I of his book, called "Preparatory Considerations", Kelley explains the difficulties surrounding the study of Eckhart, stressing that the study is not for the dilletante or for the philsophically uninformed. Kelley argues that Eckhart's thought is unsystematic but remains closer than ordinarily realized to the teachings of Aquinas. Kelley himself was a traditional Catholic thinker and he so sees Eckhart, arguing that the condemnation of 1329 was ill-founded and mistaken. Part II of the Book, "the Doctrine" consists of Kelley's exposition of six themes in Eckhart all of which stress the need to redirect one's perspective from individual things to transcendence to understand Eckhart and to understand life. Kelley explores the relationship between God and the human self, the word, the primal distinction between isness and thatness, which leads to the teaching of nonduality, the inversion (from individual things to God), the five veils of God, and finally Eckhart's teachings on detachment, which often are compared to Buddhist teachings.
Kelley's exposition is difficult in the extreme but rewarding and worth the effort. The teaching of nonduality is important to many current approaches to spirituality, and Kelley shows how this teaching fits in a Christian context. Kelley's Eckhart is nothing if not traditionally Catholic. Yet much can be learned by the reader not sharing Kelley's strong Catholic commitment.
Besides its inherent difficulty, there are some problems with Kelley's study. The first is in its polemically dogmatic character. Kelley is dismissive of views of Eckhart that differ from his own perspective. He is also unduly hostile to other forms of thought, whether secular thought or other forms of religious thought, and is all-too-eager to brush them aside as ill-informed or as showing no knowledge of philosophy. This dogmatism is troubling and casts some doubt on the narrowness of his reading of Eckhart.
The second problem with the book is probably also in part
Eckhart's. The spirituality of this book is deep and sincere, but it is also dizzying and abstract. Eckhart spoke and wrote, at a minimum, to move his listeners beyond platitude and convention. Following the spiritual path set out in Kelley's book, at any rate, is something for the very few. There is a passion for God and for ultimates that people may share in varying degrees, with those with a secular orientation feeling it very little. Eckhart was criticized during his lifetime for making spirituality too difficult and too much beyond the ken of ordinary people. Whether or not that is a fair criticism of Eckhart, I think it is a fair criticism of Kelley. Many people attempt simple, good, and informed human lives, religious or secular, without striving for the confusingly clouded heights set out in this study.
Most people find the writers who can best speak to them. Those readers interested in exploring Eckhart for themselves may want to read the two-volume set in the "Classics of Western Spirituality" series published by Paulist Press or the studies by Bernard McGinn. Readers who want to know Eckhart yet more deeply may then turn to this important book by Kelley.
Robin Friedman
March 31, 2020
excellent exposition of Eckhart's metaphysical doctrin
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews