Meister Eckhart: Master of mystics
Richard Woods
Continuum £17.99
(978-1-4411-3442-4)
Church Times Bookshop £16.20

JULIAN OF NORWICH is a scene-setting book. Frykholm has thought­fully researched the time and place of Julian’s life (1373, East Anglia), and has woven this into a story of Julian herself.

I was taken with her descriptions of parish life at this time, of the bustling life of Norwich and of the nearness of plague and death. The book is also well laid out, with illus­trations of roof bosses from Nor­wich Cathedral giving breathing spaces in the text. But this “bio­graphy” is necessarily an imagined one, since so little is known of Julian’s life.

Perhaps inevitably, Frykholm’s picture of Julian and mine (from reading Revelations of Divine Love) were incompatible, and there is insufficient reason to favour one over the other. Also, from the title, I had hoped that this book would provoke me into contemplation, either through going back to Julian’s texts or re-engaging directly with God. But this book is too tidy for that: it leaves no questions and no gaps where the mystery of God might be glimpsed. I did find it a good read, but “contemplative bio­graphy” seems to claim too much.

Far more is known of Eckhart’s life and work, but this does not make his theology easy to interpret. In Meister Eckhart, Richard Woods (drawing on his own and others’ scholarship) explores influences on Eckhart and some themes for today’s readers. In early chapters, Woods traces con­nec­tions between Eckhart’s thought and that of medieval women mys­tics, and he investigates Eckhart’s approach to creation.

For me, this highlighted the dis­tance between the late 13th century and the 21st. I feared Woods would make simple connections with recent thinking; but he carefully did not. Indeed, he eventually acknow­ledges the problem in relating con­temporary concerns for the body and the environment to Eckhart’s writings, because of Eckhart’s teach­ing against “matter”.

This teaching stems from Eck­hart’s Neo-Platonist heritage, which Woods also explores, arguing that Eckhart is indebted to Aquinas and Augustine, and therefore more orthodox than Eckhart’s formal (Roman Catholic) status as a heretic would suggest. I found this clearly explained and thought-provoking, encouraging me to return to Eck­hart’s writings.

I also looked for themes in Woods’s book with more direct pastoral relevance. After all, Eck-hart had been not only a theologian but also a Dominican Vicar-General, with oversight of women’s convents; many of his surviving writings were sermons or for in­struction. I found that some of the themes that Woods identifies do show potential for practical applica­tion, particularly Eckhart on con­templation (chapter 8) and on suffering and healing (chapter 11). For example, Woods argues that Eckhart, drawing on Aquinas, saw action as an outward expression of contemplation. This gives grounds for integrating action and contem­plation in practice rather than as­suming that they are mutually ex­clusive.

Woods also sees Eckhart advo­cating acceptance of suffering rather than fearing it or fleeing from it. This challenges contemporary hopes for lives free of pain and suffering, and can give theological ground for handling pain. Indeed, Woods cites his late colleague Ursula Fleming who also taught pain management: “Most of what I know and teach about pain con-trol comes from the study of Eck­hart.”

Practical applications such as these are not the focus of this book, but, for those prepared to grapple with the complex thinking of Eckhart, Meister Eckhart opens avenues for exploration, both in theory and for practice.

Dr Anne Spalding is a member of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis, and lives in Suffolk.