Spiritual Sermons and Discourses

Meister Eckhart is a famous medieval German theologian and philosopher, one of the greatest Christian mystics who taught about the presence of God in everything that exists. The author’s sermons and treatises have largely survived in the students’ notes. The main theme of his reflections is that Divinity is an impersonal absolute that stands behind God the Creator. Divinity is incomprehensible and inexpressible; it is "the full purity of divine essence," where there is no movement. Through self-knowledge, Divinity becomes God. God is eternal being and eternal life. According to Eckhart, a person is able to know God because in the human soul there is a "divine spark," a part of Divinity. With one’s will subdued, a person should passively surrender to God. Then the soul, detached from everything, will rise to Divinity and, in mystical ecstasy, severing itself from the earthly, will merge with the divine. Bliss depends on a person’s inner self-activity.