Meister Eckhart - Dangerous mystic: Meister Eckharts path to the God within

ALBERT THE GREAT: aka Albertus Magnus; ca. 120080, a Dominican and the greatest German philosopher of his day

AVERROS: aka Ibn Rushd; 112698; Aristotelian philosopher from Muslim Andalusia

AVICENNA: aka Ibn Sn; 9801037; influential Islamic philosopher from Persia

BEATIFIC VISION: In Christian theology, the face-to-face experience of God; highly disputed whether possible before death

BEGUINE: A member of a community of religious women who do not take formal vows

DIETRICH OF FREIBERG: ca. 1250ca. 1310; Dominican scholar and administrator, also mentor of Eckhart

DISPUTATIO: A formal scholastic debate on a specific theological question

DIVINE BIRTH: aka the eternal birth; according to Eckhart, the direct experience of divine essence in the soul

DIVINE SPARK: According to Eckhart, the piece of divine essence found in every soul

DOMINICANS: aka the Order of Preachers, a religious order founded by Dominic de Guzmn in 1215

ERFURT: Thuringian city and home to Eckhart for most of his life

ESSENCE: In scholastic philosophy, the necessary or defining properties of a thing

FRANCISCANS: aka the Order of Friars Minor, a religious order founded by Francis of Assisi in 1209

FRIENDS OF GOD: Fourteenth-century Rhineland followers of Eckharts mystical teachings

HEINRICH OF VIRNEBURG: 12451332; archbishop of Cologne from 1304 on

INTELLECT: In scholastic terms, the power for conceptual thought, located in the soul

JOHN XXII: Born Jacques Duz; reigned as pope in Avignon 131634

LATERAN IV: Universal church council convened by Pope Innocent III in 1215

LETTING-GO-NESS: Translation of gelzenheit, the necessary precondition to the divine birth

MAIMONIDES: aka Moses ben Maimon; 11351204; Sephardic Jewish philosopher from Cordova

MARGUERITE OF PORETE: Beguine author of The Mirror of Simple Souls; burned as a heretic in 1310

MECHTILD OF MAGDEBURG: ca. 120892; beguine and author of mystical Flowing Light of Divinity

MENDICANT: aka friar, a member of one of the begging orders of Franciscans or Dominicans

MYSTIC: An individual who has directly experienced the divine or ultimate reality

OPUS TRIPARTITUM: The three-volume theological summa planned by Eckhart but never completed

PHILIP THE FAIR: aka Philip IV, reigned as king of France 12851314

PRIORY: A mendicant or monastic house, headed by an elected prior

PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS: Anonymous Christian theologian of the late fifth and early sixth centuries; a major source of medieval mystical thought

ST. JACQUES: The Dominican priory in the Latin quarter of Paris

SCHOLASTIC: A schoolman trained at a university, typically in philosophy or theology

SENTENCES: The influential four-volume theological handbook compiled by Peter Lombard (ca. 10961160)

SPECIES: The scholastic definition of any kind of cognitive representation of a group

SUMMA: A summing up of theological knowledge in one work

HEINRICH SUSO: aka Heinrich Seus; ca. 12951360; a prominent Eckhart disciple

TALKS OF INSTRUCTION: Excerpts from Eckharts discussions with Dominican novices during the years 129498

JOHANNES TAULER: 130061; a prominent Eckhart disciple

TERTIARY: A layman or laywoman who attaches to a religious order without taking permanent vows

THOMAS AQUINAS: aka the Angelic Doctor; 122574; supremely influential Dominican theologian, canonized in 1323

THURINGIA: Landgraviate in central Germany; during Eckharts lifetime ruled by the Wettin dynasty of Meissen

UNIVERSAL: A common concept, like a Platonic form, whose reality scholastics debate

UNIVOCITY: Among scholastics, a property of words whose meanings are identical; an essential component of scientific theology

VIA NEGATIVA: The theological method of knowing God by what He is not