The Life, Select Sermons and Treatises

The importance of Eckhart in the history of scholastic philosophy is considerable. At that period all the efforts of religious philosophy were directed to widen theology, and to effect reconciliation between reasons and faith. The fundamental idea of Eckhart’s philosophy is that of the Absolute or Abstract Unity conceived as the sole real existence. His God is the agnostic of the Neo-Platonist: He is absolutely devoid of attributes, which would be a limitation of His Infinity. God is incomprehensible, in fact, with regard to our limited intelligence, God is the origin and end of every being. Of the Absolute we have no cognizance but only of phenomena, but by the resolute endeavor to abstract ourselves from time and space, we can, according to Eckhart, at rare moments, attain to the Absolute by virtue of what he calls the spark (Funkelein) of the soul, which comes direct from God? This is really God acting in man, to know God is to be one with God. This is the the means of attaining to there is completeness.