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Bonum Non Est in Deo: on the Indistinction of the One and the Exclusion of the Good in Meister Eckhart

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Bonum Non Est in Deo: on the Indistinction of the One and the Exclusion of the Good in Meister Eckhart BONUM NON EST IN DEO: ON THE INDISTINCTION OF THE ONE AND THE EXCLUSION OF THE GOOD IN MEISTER ECKHART by Evan King Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia August 2012 © Copyright by Evan King, 2012 DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance a thesis entitled “BONUM NON EST IN DEO: ON THE INDISTINCTION OF THE ONE AND THE EXCLUSION OF THE GOOD IN MEISTER ECKHART” by Evan King in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Dated: 24 August 2012 Supervisor: _________________________________ Readers: _________________________________ _________________________________ ii DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DATE: 24 August 2012 AUTHOR: Evan King TITLE: BONUM NON EST IN DEO: ON THE INDISTINCTION OF THE ONE AND THE EXCLUSION OF THE GOOD IN MEISTER ECKHART DEPARTMENT OR SCHOOL: Department of Classics DEGREE: MA CONVOCATION: October YEAR: 2012 Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or institutions. I understand that my thesis will be electronically available to the public. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author’s written permission. The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material appearing in the thesis (other than the brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged. _______________________________ Signature of Author iii For the ladies iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………..…….....vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED..……………………………………..……………….…..vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………........ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….....1 CHAPTER TWO: DIALECTICAL METAPHYSICS IN THE TRIPARTITE OPUS……….……...22 2.1: Efficient Causality and Intrinsic Denomination…………………………..…25 2.2: Essence and Existence in Creatures................................................................. 32 2.3: Formal Causation and Extrinsic Denomination……………………………..42 2.4: Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...44 CHAPTER THREE: FROM THE COMMON TO THE INDISTINCT…………………………..46 3.1: Ipsum intelligere est fundamentum ipsius esse………………………………..63 3.1.1: Quaestiones parisienses I and II…………………………………………68 3.1.2: Trinitarian Theology in Eckhart’s Time……………..…………………80 3.1.3: The Constitution of Relations…………………………………………...86 3.2: Negatio negationis…………………………………………………..………….95 3.3: Conclusion…………………………………..……….………………………..101 CHAPTER FOUR: ISTICHEIT, PROVIDENCE AND IUSTITIA………………..…………...106 4.1: The Dual Aspects of Ratio: Form and Idea...…….……………..…………..109 4.2: Essence as Intentio and the Divine Ideas.…….……………………..………116 4.2.1: Quidditative Knowledge of God…………………………………….....119 4.2.2: Ens conceptionale in Dietrich of Freiberg....………………………….127 4.3: Providence and the homo divinus in Meister Eckhart………..…………...133 4.3.1: Justice and the Divine Infinity…………………………………………143 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION…….…………………………………………………...150 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………….156 v ABSTRACT Meister Eckhart exhibits an unprecedented confidence in the transcendental way of thought in medieval philosophy. Eckhart, unlike his predecessors, identifies being as such (ens commune) and God, allowing the most primary determinations metaphysics – ‘being,’ ‘one,’ ‘true,’ ‘good,’ – to function as both metaphysical and theological first principles. Eckhart placed them at the head of his projected Tripartite Opus, a vast work of quaestiones and commentaries whose intelligibility, he insists, requires the prior foundation of a supposed series of a thousand axioms. The table of contents remains, the opus propositionum does not. This thesis argues that what enables Eckhart to pursue the direct application of the transcendentals to the divine also makes it unrealizable. His determination of unity is twofold: as (i) indivisibility, and the standard transcendental conception of unity as a negation of the given positive content of being (ens); as (ii) indistinction, comprehending both the negation of otherness which produces the indivisible and the otherness that is negated. There is an inherent tension between Peripatetic metaphysics and Procline henology. Consequently, the Good is devalued when the Procline One appears within the transcendental perspective. Metaphysics, theology and, a fortiori for Eckhart, ethics, take no consideration of Goodness. I show how this tension gives rise to Eckhart’s association of the divine essence with the Neoplatonic One, while the Peripatetic One and the transcendental “true” function as the explanans of the Trinitarian intellectual self-return. This, in turn, gives rise to the constitutive function of the imago dei, and every imago as such, within that self-relation. Ultimately, this produces a standpoint wherein every essence, only as idea, contains the divine uniform infinity. vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED LW Die lateinischen Werke, hrsg. im Auftrage der Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1936-). Tabula Tabula prologorum LW I Prol. gen. Prologus generalis in opus tripartitum Prol. op. prop. Prologus in opus propositionum In Gen. Expositio Libri Genesis In Gen. II Liber parabolarum Genesis In Exod. Expositio Libri Exodi LW II In Ecc. Sermones et Lectiones super Ecclesiastici In Sap. Expositio Libri Sapientiae In Ioh. Expositio sancti Evangelii secundum Iohannem LW III Sermo Sermones LW IV Quaest. paris. I Utrum in deo sit idem esse et intelligere LW V Quaest. paris. II Utrum intelligere angeli sit suum esse Quaest. paris. V Utrum in corpore Christi morientis in cruce remanserint formae elementorum Proc. Col. Processus Coloniensis DW Die deutschen werke, hrsg. von J. Quint (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1936-). OLME I L'Oeuvre latine de Maître Eckhart, vol. I, Commentaire de la Genèse précédé des Prologues, texte latin, introduction, traduction et notes par F. Brunner, A. de Libera, É. Wéber, É. Zum Brunn (Paris: Cerf, 1984). OLME VI L'Oeuvre latine de Maître Eckhart, vol. VI, Commentaire sur le Prologue de Jean, texte latin, avant-propos, traduction et notes par vii A. de Libera, É. Wéber, É. Zum Brunn (Paris: Cerf, 1989). Essential Eckhart The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense, trans. E. Colledge, B. McGinn (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1981). BA Bibliothèque Augustinienne viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Over the past 5 years, Dr. Wayne Hankey’s seminars and his guidance have constantly shaped my studies and given them purpose. Regarding his role as supervisor of this thesis, I must thank Dr. Hankey for that which his teaching has always ministered: the conversion of Life into Thought. For their comments and corrections, I am very grateful to Drs. Eli Diamond and Michael Fournier. Drs. Alexander Treiger and Neil Robertson also gave suggestions very early on that were beacons for me as I worked. What errors remain are entirely my own. Without the support and fellowship of Elizabeth Curry, Benjamin Manson, Colin Nicolle and Daniel Watson during my writing months, this thesis would lack what virtue it now has. Similarly, I extend my gratitude to the Rev. Canon Peter Harris and the parishioners St. Peter’s Cathedral in Charlottetown for their hospitality shown to me this past summer. I also thank the watchful Donna Edwards for keeping me on track, time and again. For their ministry and teaching which, to mention but one gift, kept me grounded within the community at King’s for years now, I thank the Rev. Drs. Thomas Curran and Canon Gary Thorne. The support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada enabled my graduate studies, allowing me to remain where living water is poured upon the shades. ix 1 Chapter One: Introduction Theology and Metaphysics: the Method of the Principium Every good and perfection, indeed the very being of a creature, is from without, from another, not in the creature itself nor in any part of itself, nor even from something in 1 which it inheres formally. Meister Eckhart's theological-philosophical method and his understanding of the soul mutually inform one another. The aim of this introduction is to outline their correlation. In so doing, I situate myself within an approach to Eckhart's work, exemplified in the scholarship of Kurt Flasch, Alain de Libera and Loris Sturlese, that refuses to acknowledge any distinction between his “scholastic” Latin writings and the so-called “mystical” standpoint of his vernacular sermons and treatises.2 A one-sided emphasis, either way, betrays the anachronisms of our time, attempting to understand Eckhart (rarely) as an exemplar of the scholastic rationalism or, worse, the irrational and, finally – and worst of all because it is so near the truth – as a thinker of “paradox”. Breathing a sigh of relief, we can now agree with Flasch that “the decades of discussion concerning the concept of mysticism are behind us”.3 Aside from those who knew Eckhart personally, and those like Nicholas of Strasbourg who, once summoned by Pope John XXII as the external “visitor” for the inquisition of Eckhart was eventually charged with “obstructing” the proceedings when he found no fault with the Preacher,4 the Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (+1464) stands alone as the
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