ABSTRACT
The revival of philosophical interest in Meister Eckhart in the first half of the nineteenth century is connected to a series of personalities that were of considerable importance for the development of Søren Kierkegaard’s thinking. Franz von Baader, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Hans Lassen Martensen were among those philosophers who drew the attention of their contemporaries to the heritage of the German mystic and triggered a wide public discussion that led to an ever more complete picture of Meister Eckhart. Although Kierkegaard did not take an active part in this discussion, he was a first-hand witness to the “arrival” of Meister Eckhart to Denmark in the form of Martensen’s lectures and dissertation. Since Kierkegaard’s interest in the Middle Ages concerned also medieval mysticism, it is important to examine how the rediscovery of Eckhart affected his views.1
