Benedikt Brunner: Tod und Vergänglichkeit bei Meister Eckhart und Johannes Tauler
Death and transience are current themes in Meister Eckhart and Johannes Tauler. The article shows how the two authors addressed these themes in their vernacular sermons and argues for pastoral concerns in these mystical theologians. Medieval theologians considered death and the inevitable end of life as one of the key elements of a Christian anthropology. Human contingency and the limitedness of man’s existence have grave implications for a theological anthropology, they also challenge pastoral care and formation. The mystics on the Upper Rhine included this concern in their work. In the spark of his soul, or in the ground of his soul, man is given a place »between time and eternity«. Such insight allowed the authors to characterize the mystical union with God as a consoling foretaste of eternal life.
Keywords: Meister Eckhart – Tauler – death – dying – pastoral theology