Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge by C. F. Kelley (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 307 thinker of peregrine identity articulate some kind of presence... , Releasement knows that things are there for nothing. Hence nothingness is as valid a title (for God), in Eckhart's ontology, as being." (p. 189) One can understand that, from the horizon of created beings, God is nonbeing . Are not, however, some nuances left undeveloped as the pleroma of nothingness in the Godhead is mentioned along with the ontic nothingness of a created, contingent being? How does the nothingness of sin and of grace-enabled apophatic spirituality enter here? It is rare to find a book on a complicated thinker which is creatively conceived, at times inspiringly written, and always intellectually challenging. A lasting question which the book raises---one which is both superficial and profound-is that of a point of translation. Is " releasement " a satisfactory English word for Gelassenheit? Overtones in English from the prefix " re- " unsettle the reader. Is not this German form of letting with a syllable of abstraction at either end best reworded as " letting-be? " The author seems to agree, for in the section on Heidegger this English translation is employed . THOMAS F. O'MEARA, 0.P. Washington, D.C. Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge. By C. F. KELLEY. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977. $18.50. As readers of this journal know, in recent years there has been a quantum leap in Eckhart scholarship in English. Meister Eckhart has always been a controversial and enigmatic figure, whose works have yielded an astonishing variety of interpretations. It is therefore not surprising to find him once again the subject of intense scrutiny and discussion. Several recent studies have modified our understanding of the fourteenth-century Dominican . Among these, C. F. Kelley's Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge attempts a sympathetic reconstruction of Eckhart's vision in terms of divine or " principial " knowledge. With this theme as his focus, Kelley uses the full range of Latin and German works to develop a systematic interpretation of Eckhart. He also lays claim to a more than historical inquiry, when he states that the book's purpose is " to introduce the reader not only to the insights of Meister Eckhart, but primarily to the doctrine of Divine Knowledge which, as expounded by him, is to be found in the Word" (p. 16). Kelley thus takes the standpoint of a believer who thinks with Eckhart on the theme of divine knowledge. Kelley claims that the Thomistic influence is decisive for Eckhart, and that Aquinas in tum must be viewed in light of the Pseudo-Dionysius's 308 BOOK REVIEWS negative theology (p. 108). Kelley therefore takes the Neoplatonic strain in Thomas as normative for Eckhart. In particular, Thomas's affirmation of " the isness of Divine Knowledge as supreme Principle " (p. 88) is central to Eckhart, and becomes the focal point for Kelley's interpretation. The foundation of being in divine knowledge is a major theme in the Parisian Questions, where Eckhart states that " God does not know because he is; rather he is because he knows, in the sense that God is unrestricted knowledge and understanding, and knowledge is the foundation of his isness" (p. 174). With this presupposition, Eckhart attempts to preach and write from within the divine intellect and its unity, prior to differentiated , individual being; he speaks not as one on the way to divine knowledge , but as one who has already arrived. Kelley thus defines " principial knowledge " as " the consideration of all things and all manifestations as it were from within the Godhead, the unconditioned principle, or tamquam in p1'incipio infinito" (p. 250). Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge is a sustained, well-documented argument for this principal mode of knowing. We may distinguish the following themes in Kelley's presentation of principial knowledge: the role of knowledge in Eckhart's anthropology; the birth of the Word in the soul; inversion and detachment. First, Eckhart distinguishes between God and the human self primarily in terms of knowledge . God's being consists in unrestricted knowledge, while man's being qua individual and creature consists in an unrestricted will to know (pp. 56-58) . Second, only the divine Word satisfies the human will to know. As...