Selected Writings: Meister Eckhart (Penguin Classics)
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Composed during a critical time in the evolution of European intellectual life, the works of Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327) are some of the most powerful medieval attempts to achieve a synthesis between ancient Greek thought and the Christian faith. Writing with great rhetorical brilliance, Eckhart combines the neoplatonic concept of oneness - the idea that the ultimate principle of the universe is single and undivided - with his Christian belief in the Trinity, and considers the struggle to describe a perfect God through the imperfect medium of language. Fusing philosophy and religion with vivid originality and metaphysical passion, these works have intrigued and inspired philosophers and theologians from Hegel to Heidegger and beyond.
About the Author
Johannes Eckhart, commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was born near Gotha in eastern Germany around 1260. He had an illustrious career in the Dominican Order, teaching all over Europe including Saxony, Bohemia and Paris. He is one of the great speculative mystics of Western Europe, who sougth to reconcile traditional Christian belief with transcendental metaphysics. He was accused of heretical teaching in his lifetime, but is seen today as a foremost exponent of Christian philosophical theology. He died in 1327/8.
Oliver Davies is senior lecturer in theology at the University of Wales, Lampeter.
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True and perfect obedience is a virtue above all virtues, and there is no work, however great it may be, that can take place or be performed without this virtue, and even the very least of works, whether it be saying or listening to Mass, praying, meditating, or whatever you can think of, is more usefully done when it is performed in true obedience.1 Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
True and perfect obedience is a virtue above all virtues, and there is no work, however great it may be, that can take place or be performed without this virtue, and even the very least of works, whether it be saying or listening to Mass, praying, meditating, or whatever you can think of, is more usefully done when it is performed in true obedience.1 Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Eckhart is a thoroughly challenging writer on several counts. For one thing, some of his arguments are very complex and subtle. Moreover, as he says himself several times in this book, he cannot be understood by anyone who hasn't renounced human and earthly attachments to become one with God. Since few modern readers (or medieval) will have done this, then we must take much of what he says on faith. Maybe the issue of faith is another sense in which Eckhart is tough going, at least for readers who don't share his Christian belief framework. But then Eckhart uses Christian language in an almost metaphorical way.
Even you only tackled the opening section of this book, the Talks of Instruction, it would be money well spent. The next section, the Book of Divine Consolation, has some much denser passages, as does the shorter On The Noble Man. The German and Latin sermons which follow are in smaller and more digestible pieces.
He is a rewarding author to read. He can convey a sense of "oneness" that few other writers can and his thoughts on the nature of time and timelessness are mind-boggling at the same time as they seem to offer huge solace and a glimpse of a much better way of living.
Even you only tackled the opening section of this book, the Talks of Instruction, it would be money well spent. The next section, the Book of Divine Consolation, has some much denser passages, as does the shorter On The Noble Man. The German and Latin sermons which follow are in smaller and more digestible pieces.
He is a rewarding author to read. He can convey a sense of "oneness" that few other writers can and his thoughts on the nature of time and timelessness are mind-boggling at the same time as they seem to offer huge solace and a glimpse of a much better way of living.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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12 reviews
95 of 97 people found the following review helpful
The best single volume I have seen
12 Jun 2001
Format:Paperback
There are a lot of Meister Eckart books around, but this is the best I have seen. The introduction is especially illuminating. Oliver Davies dispenses with scholastic writings and materials related to the heresy charges, focusing, chronologically, on instructional works and sermons. The Meister Eckhart that emerges from these pages is one who, while taking good works and devotional practices for granted, is so immersed in the Christianized, Neo-Platonic inner life, that he appears, at times, totally unorthodox, at other times, wholly traditional. Reading him is a mind altering experience not to be missed. The translations are very good, and puzzling passages are annotated. References to ancient authors are likewise noted. As a side issue, several of the sermons contain glimpses of medieval scientific theory.
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Fairly good selection of Eckhart's works
13 Oct 2006
Format:Paperback
This edition of Meister Eckhart capitalises on the strengths of Penguin books; slim volumes which are fairly inexpensive and contain reasonably good scholarly introductions and notes. This edition contains the German Dominican mystic's German sermons, including several ones which deal with key Eckhartian themes, such as the distinction between 'God' and the 'Godhead', the birth of the Word in the soul, and others.
While not as good as the Paulist Press editions of Eckhart's works, this version serves as a very useful introduction to this great mystic's thoughts and sermons.
While not as good as the Paulist Press editions of Eckhart's works, this version serves as a very useful introduction to this great mystic's thoughts and sermons.
38 of 40 people found the following review helpful
"Love essentially resides in the will alone, so that whoever has more will, has more of love."
5 July 2008
Format:Paperback
I have not read anything by Eckhart before I read this selection by Oliver Davies for Penguin. I have since read by many that the Paulist Press collections are considered to be a better grouping. This does not surprise me, the primary purpose of the Penguins being a good introduction for the many people rather than designed to appeal to the scholar or expert. I found it a good first encounter, and there does not seem to be any criticism that the Davies is either misleading in what it collects or poor in terms of translation.
This edition is broken into five main sections: The Talks of Instruction, The Book of Divine Consolation, On the Noble Man, Selected German Sermons, and Selected Latin Sermons. It also is published with an introduction by Davies to the major themes in Eckhart's thought, a note on selection and translation, a select bibliography (which I appreciated, and which seemed very helpful), and a Register of Eckhart's German sermons. The notes to the main text are included at the end of the book. I continue to wish to see notes in situ rather than at the end but I am apparently in the minority with this view.
As a lay reader (by which I mean that I am neither religious scholar nor historian) I was reading the book for my own enlightenment and edification. I was most struck by Eckhart's ideas of the relationship between the soul and God, his view of time and timelessness, and the quiet repetition of the notion that a relationship to the Good comes from within rather than without. He rejects the importance of forms of worship and insists on an interior acceptance of self-love as a necessary precondition to the love of God and others. As callow as it seems to say, I found the book helpful. It kept me reading and thinking and I often experienced it as personally very moving. I particularly engaged with the selections from The Book of Divine Consolation.
I would recommend both Eckhart in general and this edition in particular. I may myself circle back at some point to pick up the more complete editions. But this should be seen as credit to Penguin in providing the sufficient introductory experience rather than an expression of lack.
This edition is broken into five main sections: The Talks of Instruction, The Book of Divine Consolation, On the Noble Man, Selected German Sermons, and Selected Latin Sermons. It also is published with an introduction by Davies to the major themes in Eckhart's thought, a note on selection and translation, a select bibliography (which I appreciated, and which seemed very helpful), and a Register of Eckhart's German sermons. The notes to the main text are included at the end of the book. I continue to wish to see notes in situ rather than at the end but I am apparently in the minority with this view.
As a lay reader (by which I mean that I am neither religious scholar nor historian) I was reading the book for my own enlightenment and edification. I was most struck by Eckhart's ideas of the relationship between the soul and God, his view of time and timelessness, and the quiet repetition of the notion that a relationship to the Good comes from within rather than without. He rejects the importance of forms of worship and insists on an interior acceptance of self-love as a necessary precondition to the love of God and others. As callow as it seems to say, I found the book helpful. It kept me reading and thinking and I often experienced it as personally very moving. I particularly engaged with the selections from The Book of Divine Consolation.
I would recommend both Eckhart in general and this edition in particular. I may myself circle back at some point to pick up the more complete editions. But this should be seen as credit to Penguin in providing the sufficient introductory experience rather than an expression of lack.
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