Meister Eckhart's nova et rara: his novel and unusual forms of rhetoric and the emerging modern worldview

Meister Eckharts novel and shocking forms of expression are shown to be responses to fundamental worldview changes in the conception of the individual in the late medieval world. We see this not by looking at the content of his claims, but instead by careful attention to his metaphors and other rhetorical techniques. An historical narrative of the development of the changes in the conception of the individual is provided to properly place Eckharts own rhetoric in that context. Due to his sensitivity to nonconceptuality and his emphasis on the authentic substance of metaphor, Hans Blumenbergs metaphorology is used to structure the investigation of Eckharts rhetoric. Lakoff & Johnson, William James and Erazim Kohk are also used to provide a fuller depiction of how Eckharts rhetoric works and the nonconceptual aims it has. A survey of Eckharts commentators is provided, beginning with the greatest remove from Eckhart with the inquisitorial process and moving toward the point of closest approach to Eckhart with Robert K.C. Forman and Cyprian Smith. Finally, a detailed analysis of Eckharts rhetoric is performed with special attention given to the way in which his rhetoric reveals his conception of the individual. Eckhart is revealed to be forerunner of modernity insofar as he embraced and forwarded worldview changes that would later be instrumental in giving birth to the renaissance conception of humanity and later, the modern world. This is evident in his rhetorical strategies that fit the needs of his audience even though his cosmos and orthodox mysticism are otherwise characteristically medieval.