Meister Eckhart and the accusations of heresy made against him by the church and his responce to them

Meister Eckhart vs . the Church

Introduction "It is God 's nature to be without a nature . To think of His goodness , or wisdom , or power is to hide the essence of Him " - So said the 13th-century Dominican monk , university professor , and revolutionary spiritual master , Meister Eckhart . Towards the end of his life , the Vatican had charged him with heresy . Today , Meister Eckhart is considered by scholars and seekers alike to be one of the greatest mystics within the whole of Christian tradition , if not the greatest Yet during his own time

and life , he continually kept his church and religion astir because of his often blunt , theologically incorrect pronouncements . This was only to be expected , though . For Meister Eckhart was not just brilliant , he was a Isaac Newton of mysticism , while the Catholic church was a benighted place steeped in rigid dogma and empty theology . The conflict was inevitable

That such a radical genius as Meister Eckhart (1260 - 1328 ) was ever born on this earth and was part of humanity is in itself a great wonder He was an original thinker and a mind without an equal . But the fact that he was even allowed to live and teach in an age when the autocratic Medieval Church reigned supreme is nothing less than astounding . Meister Eckhart was not excommunicated , nor was he , though inconclusively tried for heresy , ever declared to be a heretic during his lifetime . It is inconceivable how the Church could tolerate even one word from this man whose thinking was so utterly divergent from its own . John 's gospel says , The Light shineth in the darkness , but the darkness knoweth it not ' Most fortunately , the Church did not sooner realize what a towering beacon of light Meister Eckhart really was , or else it would have tried harder to quench that light and restore the familiar comfortable darkness

The Mystical Context of Fourteenth Century Germany

Although Eckhart was one of the profoundest of original thinkers , by no means was he an isolated instance of mystical flowering in the Church-dominated Medieval Europe . On the contrary , Germany of that epoch was rife with mysticism . The fourteenth century in Germany was actually known as the "century of heresy " Virtually no centers of higher learning existed in Germany until the fourteenth century , and therefore it was necessary for German thinkers to go to Italy and France to be educated . Thus , among other things , the mystic traditions of Hermetic and Neoplatonic philosophies - which had spread into France and Italy through Arabic Spain - gradually found their way into Germany . In those dark ages , the writings of Greek and Roman cultures were preserved in Arabic translations , which had been significantly responsible for initiating the Age of Renaissance in Europe in the mid 14th century . The Rhineland was already becoming a haven for freethinkers and mystics . In fact , the region had earlier produced indigenous but powerful mysticism in the form of so-called Frauenmystik (Women Mystics , which most prominently included the figure of Hildegard of Bingen...