Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
Whew! There is a certain irony to my not posting new videos the past week or so... I've been recording constantly, but it's for a new online class. So at the same time that I've never done so much in front of a camera, I fell behind here for a bit. So I'm going to post something new momentarily that you will hopefully enjoy. My one video on Heidegger did surprisingly well... so I thought you might like seeing a really in-depth treatment of one of his essays. I don't know what's harder, Eckhart or Heidegger... both are tough when you really get down to the smallest details!
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Tomorrow's video on Heraclitus is one that I like and, I think, is important in the history of mysticism since Heraclitus was the Greek form of what was happening in the East at the same time with Lao-Tzu in China and the Buddha in India. He was also Nietzsche's favorite philosopher. So if you like Nietzsche but you're not familiar with Heraclitus, you owe it to yourself to encounter him. He's a fascinating figure.
I actually missed a video a while back because I was sick and I'm ramping up for a new prep course this summer that's online (at the same time that I'm trying to update my old content for intro and ancient, which is where the next two vids fit in).
I have a long form discussion of Meister Eckhart's Sermon 101 that I'm really looking forward to post once I get the chalkboard done for it (maybe today?). My new course is on the philosophy of technology. Since that overlaps with Heidegger and others talking about meaning in the modern world, I will have some new content about that in the near future as well!
I'm getting closer to writing an article about meaning to expand my idea of a "complete experience" that I briefly described in Paradox at Play. I knew at the time that I wanted to use that as a jumping off point for my next work. As I mentioned in the first Living without a Why video, I think Eckhart really has something important to offer us on this question. So expect more on the topics of meaning, fulfillment and nihilism in the modern world coming soon :)
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Ok, so my video today was one that I've had in the queue for some time now but always had more important things to publish. I lost my voice while I was sick and I was travelling for a week... but now I'm back. I actually lost my voice while I was trying to record an "introduction to Eckhart" video that's long overdue. I must have tried fifty takes and never got it right. Anyway, I just finished one on brain-brain interfaces, mysticism and the fragility of the self... so I hope you'll like that one for next time! I'm also approaching the paper grading season for my classes and I'm making an entirely new online class from scratch in the next month. So I'm going to try and keep up!!
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We made it.. one year on YouTube - thank you everyone! I look forward to sharing more ideas that are good to think with. š š„³
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Iām pleased to announce a new project: the C. de B. Evans translations of Eckhart as audiobooks! Iām doing this because the currently available translations of Eckhart that are freely available arenāt not always the best. While she did her translation work in 1924 and 1931 before the critical editions were available, they are generally good and useful. Just be aware that there are on occasion some pieces missing or different. Still, the first volume just became freely available in 2019 and the second volume will be out of copyright in 2026.
My plan is to release audiobooks on Tuesdays in addition to my regular videos on Fridays. Iām hoping this will grow into a useful collection that everyone can enjoy.
I tried to make them as high quality as I could, knowing that after I made the first one, the other 70 (!!) in volume one will be straightforward.
I tried to capture some of the spirit of Eckhartās voice as I understand him. I hope that this will allow some of his spirit to shine through.
Importantly, youāll notice that I kept only those pieces that were later included in the critical edition because they were determined to be authentic works by Meister Eckhart. Iām also keeping the numbering and names from the critical edition so that they are easy to find. I had to do this manually since Miss Evans did not have them labeled!
I hope you enjoy them!
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I have to say, I'm really pleased with how the analysis of Sermon 2 came out. With both Sermon 52 and Sermon 2, there was real pressure to get it right since those are such important pieces! I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss anything important... and with videos that are over an hour long, as you might imagine, those take a lot more than the ones that are ten minutes or so. I hope you enjoy it!
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Itās been a while since Iāve had time to record a detailed sermon analysis, but Iām pleased to say that I just did that this week for Sermon #2, the ālittle castleā sermon! I still have to go through the rest of the process with the chalkboard and production, but I hope to have that out this week or next. I plan on tackling his most popular sermons like that first since those are the ones that people are the most likely to encounter when taking a class on Christian mysticism or Eckhart in particular.
Iām also looking forward to expanding the āFuture of Religionā collection of videos. I have several in the queue now, but since I donāt produce a video until I feel like Iām done researching the topic, these tend to stay in line for some time. My plan is to go through and look in detail at why people reject Christianity and organized religion and what they are turning to while still identifying as āspiritual.ā The obvious one is hell - so thatās up first. Historicity and creeds (enforced belief) will follow some time after that. I know Iām going to address Bruno, Nietzsche and Heideggerā¦ but I also want to add (ironically) people like Eckhart Tolle. I suppose itās not too great a coincidence since he took the name āEckhartā because of Meister Eckhart. Nevertheless, heās someone who is resonating directly with some of the āspiritualā people I mentioned above. So it will be useful to look there as well. I also want to understand what people do and donāt like about his approach.
Any other suggestions of people and ideas I should add to the list?
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We made it - 1000 subs and 5000 hours! Thank you everyone! We have a video coming next on Eckhartās āmitewurkerā passages and Giordano Bruno (because Eckhart just wasnāt close enough to heresy.. Bruno was actually burned at the stake!).
I have several more videos brewing on the future of religion as well, which will have its own playlist soon. I also have a video on truth (aletheia) that Iām particularly excited about since thatās a new piece of research. As it turns out, Eckhartās talk of truth is intimately wrapped up with the metaphorical of forgetting.
If you have a particular topic youād like to see a video about, let me know in the comments. I have Sermon 105 in the queue because someone requested it. Iād be happy to see about adding other things as well.
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I just finished the translation of Meister Eckhartās Latin Sermon II,1! That oneās longer than the first Latin sermon that I released the analysis video for recently. His Latin texts are theologically dense. So the challenge in analyzing those will be to address the theological details with depth but also with clarity and simplicityā¦ thatās the goal at least! Medieval theology is not known for its simplicity :)
I had the benefit (?) of Sermo II,1 already having been translated by Clark & Skinner. The bookās been out of print for a long time and itās probably hard to find. That said, itās always interesting to dive into translating a new work. You quickly uncover all sorts of decisions that the other translator made that could have easily been different. The really tough part is the portion toward the end dealing with the relation between the persons of the trinity. The Latin is actually somewhat ambiguous and the point heās making is not at all obvious, which makes it hard to translate. When I encountered that during my Middle High German translation efforts for Paradox at Play, I then went through a long process of researching each word and the dialect of that particular piece to see if there was some spelling eccentricity or other detail that could easily be missed. Here, Iām offering these Latin translations with the caveat that they may not be perfect and as a community we may want to improve upon them before they are published. Iām going to try and avoid any big problems with translation, but all this is to say that I welcome any suggestions you might have!
Iām planning on doing the audiobook version of Sermo II,1 first this time since itās a traditional sermon. That will give me a little time to work on the analysis. Of course, I have several videos in front of that one about various topics on Eckhart in combination with other philosophers that I think youāll really enjoy. Tomorrow is the first video where Iām discussing part of the Book of Divine Consolation, which is such a beautiful piece of writing, and still so relevant for us today.Ā
I hope you enjoy the material and find it good to think with!
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I've been so happy to see how well the Kierkegaard video has been received! I'm glad that you all are enjoying the beginnings of that project. I've long been interested in what a living, breathing, viable form of religion can look like for us today. Especially for us in the West, Eckhart has a lot to offer. Beginning with Kierkegaard, I think we can sketch out other elements that also obviously just "work" for people - things that "resonate" with us like a good piece of music. I can't say why I love Chopin, but it's interesting that I do and it points in the direction of finding other composers that I like. If Eckhart and Kierkegaard just "work" for people today (in creating a "living mythology" a la Joseph Campbell or "live option" as with William James), then who else should we look at?
I'm definitely doing Nietzsche and I have a number of 20th c. people in mind as well. I love the suggestions I've gotten so far. I'll definitely look in more detail at Heidegger (I'll be covering him in class this semester, so that's convenient) and those who followed and commented on him like Merleau Ponty. I'm also interested in literary figures insofar as they have created things that simply "work" for people. Most notably, I have James Joyce in mind, but there are many others. It may make sense to begin with Goethe....
For now, I have a few more videos that are being produced to kick off the Meister Eckhart Latin Translation project (MELT). The audiobook and analysis of Latin sermon 1 are next up. I think you'll really enjoy the analysis of that one, even if the sermon itself is a rather brief collection of notes Eckhart made to himself.
I plan on continuing in order with the Latin sermons, interspersing those among the other videos on Eckhart and other topics in philosophy as I move forward. I plan on doing what Peter Adamson did with his podcast. I'll make the translations and analyses available to you for free on here. Then I'll collect them all together once I get to sermon 54 and have a complete set of the Latin sermons translated, polish things up and find a publisher to turn them all into a book. That way, I'm still writing books, but also making the translations available to as many people as possible! If that works well and you all like it, then I could easily foresee continuing that project for a long time to come with other untranslated works (most of his Latin works are untranslated in English).
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Meister Eckhartās ideas and translations.. and other philosophical ideas that are good to think with!
I'm Dr. Clint Johnson of Georgia Tech (all opinions are my own) and I've taught philosophy for nearly twenty years now.
I'm the author of Paradox at Play: Metaphor in Meister Eckhart's Sermons_, a book from Catholic University of America Press, released in February 2023 (Amazon links are affiliate links) :
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