Bild, Bildung and the ‘romance of the soul’: Reflections upon the image of Meister Eckhart

Abstract

In this article, the Bild or image of the sculptor used by Plotinus and adapted by his Christian follower Meister Eckhart forms the basis of a reflection on the religious or otherworldly dimension in ethics (as opposed to a reductionist or functionalist conception of ethics with its focus on human happiness in the sense of worldly success) and on the relationship of esthetics, morality, and religion. The image of the sculptor who chips away at his sculpture exemplifies the relationship of the individual to its divine archetype. Such knowledge involves transformation of the knower, a turning back of the image to the archetype, a shaping of the self that emerges from recognition of its true identity and vocation. This constitutes the dynamic dimension of Bildung in Eckhart as educere, a leading forth from attachment to particular things (ent-bilden) and a purification and reformation of the self according to its true image (Bild). The turning back is thereby a turning within to the supreme Good, the nobility and the purity of the Divine nature, which is the origin of the true self and its intrinsic dignity as image of its transcendent source.