Meister Eckhart (1260 -1329) was a controversial philosopher, mystic, feminist, preacher, theologian, poet, and administrator — a true Renaissance figure before the Renaissance. The Catholic Church had a rough time with this multi-talented man and labeled him a heretic. Matthew Fox, the author of 30 books who has popularized creation-centered spirituality in our time, finds great spirit and spunk in Eckhart's writings. He collected some of his favorite passages and put them together in Meditations With Meister Eckhart.
In this new imaginative resource, Fox shows how this thirteenth-century visionary speaks to the ideas, ideals, and challenges of our times. To demonstrate how, the author puts Eckhart's mysticism in dialogue with other contemporary views. These juxtapositions reveal the depth and relevance of Eckhart's mysticism. His ecumenical spirituality animates our conscience and consciousness and opens the doors to sacred activism.
Beginning with a chapter "The God of Awe, Wonder, Radical Amazement, and Justice," Fox brings Meister Eckhart together with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. In the final thirteenth chapter, "Warriors for a Deeper Education," he puts the thirteenth century polymath in dialogue with Theodore Richards, M.C. Richards, and Lily Yeh. Some other themes covered are:
• The Christ of the Cosmos (Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry)
• The Apophatic Divinity (Buddhism via Thich Nhat Hanh)
• The Divine Feminine ( Adrienne Rich)
• Liberated and Liberating Sisters (Dorothee Soelle, Julian of Norwich and others)
• The Historical Jesus (Marcus Borg, Bruce Chilton, and John Dominic Crossan)
• Psychotherapry and the "unio Mystica" (Otto Rank)
• Wisdom of Hinduism (Ananda Coomaraswamy and Father Bede Griffiths)
• Sufism (Rumi, Hafiz, Ibn El-Arabi, and Avicenna)
• Indigenous Wisdom and Shamanism (Black Elk and others)
• Warriors for Ecological and Economic Justice (David Korten, Howard Thurman, and others)
Putting us in the hands of Meister Eckhart, Matthew Fox hopes that we will see all the wild possibilities in Deep Ecumenism (or Interspirituality), Deep Ecology, Deep Economics, and Deep Education. Similar to Thomas Merton, this mystical prophet is a lifeboat in treacherous waters, offering us passage to new lands.
