Parisian Questions and Prologues

Eckhart has long been an enigma to historians of western thought. In his own day he was accused of heresy and shortly after his death twenty-eight of his theses were condemned as unorthodox. Some contemporaries regarded him as a sympathizer with the Brethren of the Freed Spirit, who were harshly persecuted for their pantheistic and antinomian doctrines. He has been considered the father of German mysticism, the enemy of Christian orthodoxy, the persecuted champion of truths higher than Christianity, a spokesman for the enlightenment, and even a forerunner of Luther and German idealism. At the same time it has been recognized that he inspired, and was held in reverence by, such thoroughly orthodox spiritual writers as Tauler, Ruysbroeck, Suso, and Nicholas of Cusa. Today, M D Knowles can write that of his radical traditionalism and orthodoxy there is no longer any doubt. (from the Introduction)