Joseph Milne

Meister Eckhart and the Virtues

An aspect of Eckhart that appears ambiguous is his approach to the virtues and the place of virtue in the souls ascent to God. This raises the question of Eckharts understanding of the will and the precedence of the intellect over the will. This in turn raises the question of Eckharts understanding of the relation of the ‘good’ and the ‘true’. The following discussion will attempt to throw some light on these questions.

From Letter to Spirit: Eckhart and the Medieval Tradition of Biblical Exegesis

The aim of this paper is to situate Eckharts exegetical approach to Scripture in the wider context of medieval biblical interpretation, especially with reference to his vernacular sermons that belong more to the Dominican preaching tradition than to the more systematic biblical commentary tradition. Through an exploration of the contemplative approaches of Hugh of St Victor and St Bernard of Clairvaux to biblical exegesis, links will be suggested with Eckharts approach, suggesting it has roots in the allegorical tradition reaching back to the early Church Fathers.

The Desire for God, the Ordering Principle of Nature

Abstract This essay is an enquiry into the relation of the medieval understanding of creation and the mystical knowledge of God. Drawing upon the theology and epistemology of Aquinas and Meister Eckhart, a distinction is made between the medieval notion of ‘truth’ and the modern empirical notion of truth. It is proposed that this difference involves a quite distinct contrast in orientation towards reality or nature and a different understanding of the proper end of the act of knowing. From this it will be argued that the inherent desire in all things to unite with God is the ordering principle of nature, and that it is this ordering principle that opens the way to mystical knowledge of God and of the creation.

Mystical Aspects of Christian Cosmology

Abstract Through an exploration of medieval Christian cosmology it is argued that an aspect of Christian mysticism emerges which has been submerged by modern materialist cosmology. There is thus a disparity between the ‘inner’ aspect of mystical experience and the ‘outer’ conception of nature and the universe. Through this disparity ‘religion’ has been relegated to the interior life and the cosmos to secular understanding. Attempts to reconcile the medieval mystical vision of creation with modern cosmological theories are demonstrated to necessarily fail.