Logos and Revelation: Ibn 'Arabi, Meister Eckhart, and Mystical Hermeneutics

Introduction

1 Introduction What Is the “Mystical” in the Middle Ages? If one looks closely at the works and thought of at least two very prominent and influential mystical writers in Islam and Christianity , Muhyaddin Ibn ‘Arabi and Meister Eckhart, one does not find “mysticism” understood as a noun, i.e., a system of thought or practiceseparatefromorparalleltothereligioustraditionstowhichitbe longs ,butinsteadonefindsa“mystical”wayormodeofappropriating these traditions. From its root meaning in the Greek, the “mystical ” is the hidden or inner sense of Scripture. Thus, for both Ibn ‘Arabi and Meister Eckhart, the inner or “mystical” sense is the sense that is universally applicable to the inner life of each and every soul. This is the way in which both Ibn ‘Arabi and Meister Eckhart understood the mystical, to the degree that they were conscious of having a “mystical” approach at all. As far as we can tell, both were simply trying to develop a deeper and living appropriation of their faith as conveyed to them by their revealed scriptures . For both the Sufi and the Christian mystic, the mystical is not something outside or alongside the revealed text and its exegetical tradition, but is a development and deepening of that tradition . The mystical is none other than the uncovering, indeed recovery , of the inner, original sense of Scripture such that the soul may come to subsist in and think and act out of that inner, original sense, which is nothing other than the divine Word or Logos itself. To uncover the inner sense of the revealed Word is 2 Introduction to allow God to unite with the soul and transform it in its very substance . Mystical reflection is therefore always embodied in a specific religious tradition and that tradition is formed and maintained by the revealed text and its interpretation. “Mysticism” does not float disembodied in any “pure experience” of a purely personal, subjective nature. If there is a common core or universal referent to mystical thought and experience, it lies not in any natural realm, but in the transcendent. If one is to find a common core to mystical thought and experience, it can only be found in and through the religious traditions that give life to it, and not outside of them. Mystical reflection cannot dispense with revelation and religious tradition for the simple reason that it recognizes that God cannot be captured in a concept or set of concepts. This will be the assertion that I shall attempt to argue throughout this book. In short, what Ibn ‘Arabi and Meister Eckhart are doing, as mystical writers, is thinking back, not to being as such, but to the primal revelation of being. What they both assert is that prior to any concept we might have of “being” is the revelation of being, its “presencing” to us. As Eckhart puts it, the Gospel of John does not say, “In the beginning was being,” but rather , “In the beginning was the Word (Logos).” “Being” or “existence” as such cannot be captured by our finite minds, but rather our finite minds must be captured by it, conformed to it. Hence, for both Ibn ‘Arabi and Eckhart , revelation as such becomes the main datum of their thinking. This does not mean that they dispense with a science of being or a metaphysics ; rather, it means that, in order for us to have a proper understanding of being or existence, in order to be conformed to pure being or existence, we must be open completely to its revealed character. This is not a retreat into irrationalism. To the contrary, it is a recognition that all creatures, insofar as they exist, are intelligible and, when the mind is conformed to them, all creatures are causes of truth. Norris Clarke expresses this insight of medieval thought well when he says: Being itself is for intelligence. Its ultimate meaning and fulfillment require that it be brought into the light of consciousness, that it be unveiled, i.e., revealed ( = remove the veil: revelation) to mind. This unveiling of being to mind is truth, expressed beautifully by the Greek word for truth (aletheia = the unveiled). Thus, the fundamental intellectual vocation of every mind-endowed being, and hence of human beings as the only intellectual beings we know of in our material cos- Introduction 3 mos, is to unveil being, bring it into the light of consciousness and speak it out in a logos, or meaningful word.1 And, as Fr...