Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense

The thought of Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327), Dominican philosopher and spiritual master, is among the most daring and difficult in the history of Western mysticism.

Thoroughly grounded in the Scholastic method of his day and steadfastly loyal to the Church, Eckhart’s love of speculation, paradox, and the apophatic way, nevertheless, resulted in the controversial condemnation of certain of his teachings by papal bull in 1329. His doctrines of detachment, the return of the soul to God, and the birth of the Son in the soul have continued to perplex his critics and nourish his disciples through the ages.

This volume, based on the critical Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft edition of Eckhart’s works, represents the first time that his technical Latin writings and more popular German sermons and treatises have appeared together in English.