Meister Eckhart's Christ and Medieval Biblical Exegesis

Abstract

This article explores how Meister Eckhart's understanding of Christ is necessarily connected to his approach to biblical exegesis. So much so that it is argued that the two cannot be separated. The article begins by broadly outlining modern historical and literal approaches to biblical exegesis shared by both faith-based and rational accounts of Christianity. I then discuss why Eckhart's hermeneutics differ radically from these modern interpretations, before elucidating the nature and scope of his spiritual interpretation of scripture. Developing this further I demonstrate how, for Eckhart, Christ is found in and through the spiritual sense of scripture, so that the scriptures are not merely about Christ but are the source in which to find him as him. The significance and implications of this are then examined and Eckhart's interpretation of Christ established.