Theologian Thursday: Meister Eckhart (1260-c1327)


Meister Eckhart (AKA Johannes Eckhart, AKA Eckhart von Hochheim) was a teacher, preacher, mystic, and member of the Dominican order of friars.

Much of the focus of his available works is on the uniting of the human soul with God. He believed that within the souls of all people lies a "little spark" of the divine, and ultimate bliss occurs in the realization of uniting (or perhaps reuniting) the soul with its creator.

Though certainly not the only thinker to do this, Eckhart interestingly dealt with his work in both the Latin of academics and scholars and the Middle High German of the laity, as he inhabited both spheres himself.

He was tried as a heretic and, though he retracted all his "false teaching" and made a declaration of orthodoxy, Pope John XXVII excommunicated him in 1329 (which may or may not have been posthumously). His works only really survived within small monastic communities and through references in the sermons of others.

What you should read:
  • The German Sermons (I've only read a couple, but they are quite good)
  • Sister Catherine
    • The Sister Catherine treatise was apparently not actually written by Eckhart, but by a disciple of his and circulated under his name. However, I still feel that it is appropriate to include it among "his" works, because it does display his thinking and it has traditionally been associated with his corpus of work. 

Ratings:
(To read more about my Theologian Rating System, click HERE)
Gender Equality:
The "Sister Catherine" dialogue exhibits a great deal of support for women's spirituality and female autonomy. The piece describes a woman speaking with a priest, and ultimately shows the woman to have a better grasp of the truth of God than the priest and she ends up teaching him.
Environmental Sensibility:
Eckhart believed in a certain level of pantheism, asserting that all creation is immanent in God, perhaps stemming from a kind of Platonic thought. Therefore, he had a high regard for nature, animals, and the environment.
Heretical Tendencies:
Eckhart's mysticism has gotten him in a lot of trouble with a lot of people throughout the centuries. His work and thought--especially the "Sister Catherine" treatise--has been associated with the Brethren of the Free Spirit (though whether it is antinomian in nature is debatable). His pantheism is also not seen as orthodox. And, you know, he was excommunicated.
General Badassery:
Though radical in many ideas, as a whole his life seems to be fairly nondescript.







 Lastly, a (fairly well-known, I think) quote:
“If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.”

ALA12: Recap



062112ALA

Just a quick recap of ALA Annual in Anaheim, for posterity and to prove I was actually there.

Highlights, in no particular order:
  1. I met David Weinberger! It was exciting, and I was awkward, and he signed a copy of his new book for me. I'm very happy about this. Looking forward to reading it. Also, his speaker session was pretty great. I especially liked his analysis of Reddit.
  2. Disneyland was the most un-crowded ever. We were there for only like two hours, three maybe, and we just walked on a bunch of rides (including Thunder Mountain, my fave) and saw the fireworks.
  3. Sessions on distance education librarianship and embedded librarianship. I took soooo many notes. Really helpful and inspiring for some of my short-term goals.
  4. The Philosophical, Religious, and Theological Discussion Group. There were ten people there, including me and another recent MLIS grad who also has his MA in theology from Fuller. It was really cool being in a small-group setting with people who actually do what I'd love to do some day. Plus they were super nice.
  5. Learning about Duke Divinity School's digitization project for American Methodism and churches in North Carolina. Super super interesting, and I got to talk to the guy who's heading it up (or was... I guess he got a job somewhere else). He's also involved in the ATLA's online open access journal, which he encouraged me to look into and think about submitting content for.
  6. Hanging out with my iSchool cohort friends. THE BEST. I'm so glad I had people there to spend time with (and split the cost of a hotel room with!). I had an awesome time in the company of these smart and wonderful people!
Overall, the experience was overwhelming and tiring, but so informative and inspiring. I doubt I'll be able to make it to Chicago for next year's conference, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to go to this one, since it was so close to home.  It gave me an insight into librarian culture and got me excited to be in the field all over again!

June Wrap-Up

Well, I failed at the photo a day. Once I got to ALA (which I will be doing a post on next week... it's still digesting), it all went out the window. To make up for it, here are some random photos I've taken in the last week:









OK, anyway, here's a wrap up from the month of June (which went by SO FAST, I might add).

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Theologian Thursday: Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

(Image from here)

Thomas Aquinas is easily one of the most important and influential figures in Western Catholic thought. He had many characteristic roles--writer, friar, philosopher, priest--and each facet of his life contributed greatly to the formation of Western Christianity.

Aquinas did much of his study at the University of Naples, where he became entrenched in studying the philosophy of Aristotle with the guidance of Albert the Great, who is said to be the first scholar in the Middle Ages to shine a light on Aristotle and apply his thought to the Church. In my opinion, a lot of the more problematic and destructive ideas in current (and historical) Christian thought and practice--like patriarchy, soul/body dualism, "proofs" for God--can be traced back to Aristotle through Thomas Aquinas... so I'm not a big fan. He also subscribed to double predestination via Augustine.

Aquinas also became part of the burgeoning Dominican order of friars while at Naples. This order was devoted especially to active study and teaching, in contrast to other orders, which were focused on a contemplative life.

Because he was a philosopher, and believed the existence of God could be proved through reason, he studied natural theology--which is based on reason and experience--as a means by which to prove God's existence. His natural theology influenced his cosmological and teleological arguments for God (which were also influenced by Aristotle, of course) as well as his other "Five Ways".

There's really no way to outline Aquinas's insanely extensive work. But I encourage you to check out his article in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy if you're interested to know more. I also recommend the book The Thought of Thomas Aquinas by Brian Davies. I've used it in pretty much everything I've ever written about Aquinas (including this blog post).

Oh! And one more fun fact! When he was in school, his fellow students called him "Dumb Ox" because he was big and quiet. Ha! (Sidenote: this is why last summer Curtis and I named our tomato plant Thomas... we were hoping that it would produce big fat tomatoes!)

What You Should Read:
Ratings:
(To read more about my rating system, click HERE.)

Gender Equality:
He loved Aristotle; Aristotle hated women. There you have it.
Environmental Sensibility:
Although he had issues with the ontological argument for God ("God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived"), Aquinas still had a sense of God's greatness as the "unmoved mover" and causation of Creation, and so, since creation emanates from the First Principle, and is good, we can learn things about God from it.
Heretical Tendencies:
I feel guilty even giving him one star. Aquinas actually advocated and approved of persecution and execution of heretics. So he definitely was not one. And his work is still the basis for pretty much all orthodox thought.
General Badassery:
He's just so smart. And he wrote so stinkin much. ALSO, he's one of the "flying saints," which means he could levitate. Supposedly. Hahaha.

A quote:
"Love takes up where knowledge leaves off."