Universe of Platonic Thought 2025

33rd International Conference “The Universe of Platonic Thought: Platonism and Literary Forms of Philosophy” (Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities, St Petersburg)

Evgeniy Bykov; Novosibirsk State University (Novosibirsk, Russia), Postgraduate; Institute of Philosophy and Law of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk, Russia), Associate Research Fellow

Reason and Sensibility in the Sermons of Meister Eckhart

In this study, we demonstrate how the Dominican preacher and mystic Meister Eckhart sought to philosophically comprehend religious experience. This process was directly connected to the Dominican Order's struggle against mystical movements that had spread throughout the Rhineland during the Late Middle Ages. In his teachings, Eckhart turned to the Platonic tradition, particularly the idea of elevating rational knowledge above sensory perception, which led him to distinguish between two modes of mystical knowledge: sensory and rational. He called for detachment from external images of things and even from divine love, including ecstatic visions of transcendent being, urging instead a turn inward toward the rational depths of one’s own soul, thereby attaining knowledge of the divine in its purity. Thus, Eckhart finds in self-knowledge a more stable and immutable path to the direct knowledge of God, which, in turn, gives rise to his remarkable mystical sermons in the German language.

Keywords: Meister Eckhart, Middle Ages, mysticism, reason, sense

In the 13th and 14th centuries, the activities of the Dominican Order were directed toward combating heresies that had spread throughout the Rhine region. Many laypeople turned to the contemplation of the divine through sensual images by their own efforts—that is, outside the framework of ecclesiastical hierarchy. The involvement of the Dominican preacher Meister Eckhart in this process remains highly ambiguous [McGinn, 2003]. On the one hand, his preaching aimed at eradicating these heretical views; on the other, he subjected the mystical worldview of the Rhenish sects to philosophical reflection in order to incorporate them into Catholic orthodoxy. To this end, Eckhart engaged not only with the widely known philosophical traditions of the Middle Ages (such as Thomism and Arabic Peripateticism), but also with the Platonic distinction between the sensual and the rational. In Eckhart’s teachings, we can discern two opposing paths of mystical knowledge: the sensual and the rational.

Sensual mystical knowledge presupposes the contemplation of God in which the soul passively perceives the triune divine being. This mode of perception is expressed through emotionally charged visions, filled with a sense of loving attraction and spiritual awe before the transcendent. Particularly important is the understanding of love as a dynamic relationship within the Trinity, whereby the individual becomes drawn into the flow of divine love between the hypostases and thereby participates in divine being. However, Eckhart warns his listeners against relying on the sensual perception of God in mystical visions. It may be inferred that this caution stems from the transitory nature of such a form of knowledge. The soul of the visionary briefly dissolves into the Trinity, experiencing ecstasy, but soon returns from this state of union and enters into a «dark night».

In his treatise «On Detachment», Eckhart writes about divine love and detachment: «Teachers extol love, as does Saint Paul, who says: “Whatever great deeds I might undertake, if I do not have love, I am nothing”. But I place detachment above all love. First, because the best aspect of love is that it compels me to love God, whereas detachment compels God to love me. It is far more noble that I draw God to myself than that I am drawn to God» [Eckhart, 2010, p. 74].

Rational mystical knowledge, in contrast, presupposes detachment from all that is external and sensual. One must attain spiritual poverty, which entails overcoming even divine love. For Eckhart, detachment is superior to love precisely because it enables the soul to descend into its own inner depths. At its core, the soul is rational. Thus, in transcending the sensual images of external things as well as representations of the transcendent world, the soul simultaneously comes to apprehend its rational foundation—through which it can grasp the forms of all things, and even the inner nature of God. This is possible because the soul’s innermost essence is identical to the divine essence. Hence, the human being is always rooted in the rational divine nature. By detaching itself from everything sensual—even from God as an object—the soul comes to directly apprehend all created things in their indistinct unity and perceives God in a more profound way. In this sense, self-knowledge enables the individual to attain a more stable and immutable form of mystical knowledge, encompassing both the totality of being and the divine essence itself.

In Sermon 7 «You will have mercy on the people who are in You» Eckhart speaks of the superiority of rational knowledge over sensual perception: «The best teachers affirm that reason purifies us of all that is external and perceives God naked, as pure being abiding in itself… Love perceives God under a veil, beneath a covering. But reason does not act in this way; reason grasps God as He is known in it. Yet even reason will never comprehend Him in the sea of His unfathomable depth» [Eckhart, 2010, p. 111].

Thus, in Eckhart’s mysticism we find a philosophical distinction between the sensual and the rational, which serves as a foundation for legitimizing religious experience. He overcomes the mystical worldview of the Rhenish heretical movements, which were characterized by fluctuating visionary images. At the same time, however, he diverges from Thomistic theology and its Aristotelian contemplative model—namely, the path to God through created things. Instead, Eckhart turns to the Platonic tradition as it was received in the medieval context. Above all, through the works of Augustine and Proclus, he adopts the aspiration to know God through self-knowledge—a path that requires the liberation of the soul from all that is sensual and material.

References

1. Meister Eckhart. Treatises. Sermons. Edited by M. Yu. Reutin. Moscow: Nauka, 2010.

2. McGinn, Bernard. The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart: The Man from Whom God Hid Nothing. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2003.