Eckhart von Hochheim, commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in Thuringia.
Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris. Coming into prominence during the decadent Avignon Papacy and a time of increased tensions between the Franciscans and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Preacher Friars, he was brought up on charges later in life before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition. Tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII, his "Defence" is famous for his reasoned arguments to all challenged articles of his writing and his refutation of heretical intent. He purportedly died before his verdict was received, although no record of his death or burial site has ever been discovered.
Meister Eckhart is sometimes (erroneously) referred to as "Johannes Eckhart", although Eckhart was his given name and von Hochheim was his surname.
"Perhaps no mystic in the history of Christianity has been more influential and more controversial than the Dominican Meister Eckart. Few, if any, mystics have been as challenging to modern day readers and as resistant to agreed-upon interpretation." —Bernard McGinn, The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart
Despite the drawbacks of his divorce from Eckhart's context that leads to minor ambiguities serving his own ideological ends, O'Connell-Walshe has produced what is and shall remain the definitive collection of Eckhart's vernacular works in his three-volume Sermons and Treatises (Sermons and Treatises, Sermons and Treatises) collection. It is the best one can get next to reading the sermons in the original Middle High German, and is a must-have resource for any scholar of Western Christian Mysticism or of Western Christianity in general.