ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in subsequent chapters of this book. The Fathers of the English Dominican Province translation as well as consultation with the English translation and original Latin are provided by Blackfriars. The doctrine of the Trinity plays a similar role for Eckhart, that of protecting a non-contrastive understanding of the Creator's unique distinction from creatures. Tanner's use of the word transcendence here simultaneously implies God's immanence. The God of Hebrew-Christian Scriptures creates each being immediately and continually sustains that creature throughout its existence. God's creative activity is not exactly like the creature's creative activity, because we do not create ex nihilo. A non-contrastive reading of Aquinas must presume a comparison of God's perfection or causality to our own is far from Aquinas' intent. Theology, then, has a goal more profound than describing divinity, which must remain ineffable.
