Meister Eckhart: Thought and Language

Library Journal

Tobin's book on Eckhart contributes to the current surge of interest in medieval spirituality. The author explores the relationship between the Dominican mystic's language and the religious views he sought to convey. Eckhart's scholastic contemporaries created logical systems and stated their conclusions in summas in an effort to establish the objective existence of God. By contrast, Eckhart employed poetic and metaphoric devices, commensurate with the more subjective and open-ended view he espoused. Because words are doomed to inadequacy when trying to express the nature of God, said Eckhart, we can only speak analogically. A careful, scholarly work, Tobin's book is essential for anyone seeking to understand Eckhart and the tradition of medieval mysticism. Murray L. Wagner, Bethany Theological Seminary, Oak Brook, Ill.