This has been in my Book Pile for quite some time. So long, I can't quite remember when it first arrived, probably eighteen months ago. However, I found myself reticent to tackle it, in case it was really theologically too much for me. As it turned out, it was. I got halfway and skipped a whole chapter exploring the difference between God 'boiling over' and God 'boiling through' and I just thought- 'You know, this is not a distinction that has bothered me before, and I'm not going to start now.'
The book has been full of similarly detailed, and no doubt thorough, expositions of what Eckhardt's philosophic/mystical writings were supposedly about. Early on, I got the feeling, that perhaps I really should have bought a book with a selection of his teachings, rather than an academic commentary by a confirmed Eckhardt geek like McGinn. Nothing against the guy, he must know what he is on about, I presume. Had I read some Eckhardt cold beforehand, I'd know whether this book was genuinely further enlightening, or not. For most of the time I was struggling to sustain following his analysis,arguments and explanations. In these sorts of conditions, the quote from Eckhardt's writings I tended to find more lucid than the academic explanation, which merely, to my untrained eyes, succeeded in muddying the water further.
I suspect that this may be anothewr serious case of my further cultivating an antipathy towards Christian theology. This often reads as a series of assertions about the nature of Jesus and God, which are either true and I'm just a bit too thick to fully grasp why that is so, or they are actually preposterous claims that no amount of convoluted exegesis is going to convince me otherwise. If I had a phenomenally clever mind I'd know which it was. It may come down to the specificity of theological language.
Over the years I've been willing to push the envelope of my intellectual limitations a fair way beyond it's comfort zone. Quite often to obtain the general gist, even if the precise detail still escapes me. But I have come to recognise when I've reached the actual limit of my ability to follow and comprehend what the heck someone is trying to communicate. As my brain cells get deeper fried in lard. Yes, it is humbling, to have to say I don't know what this guy is rambling at such length about. But this too, is good for me.
This may be theological wank or the most profound thing I've never understood. If only I had the sort of brain that could systematically deconstruct things, then I'd be able to explain in very lucid refined terms, why it is all wank. And I'd feel much better, or at least less prone to self justification. Instead of using the increased volume of dismissive curses as my expression of how wrong it is. As it is, I have to trust my gut intuition, which may of course be merely dyspeptic indigestion.
CARROT REVIEW - 3/8
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