Interpretation of Meister Eckhart’s mystical theology in the works of Martin Heidegger and Vladimir Lossky

The paper is devoted to the comparative analysis of the strategies of reading the apophatic theology of Meister Eckhart in the philosophy of M. Heidegger and the theology of V. N. Lossky. We analyse Heidegger’s treatment of the intentional acts that characterise the mystic’s relationship with the Godhead: letting-be (Gelassenheit), detachment (Abgeschiedenheit) and devotion (Hingabe). We highlight a number of analogies between mysticism and phenomenology in Heidegger’s reading of Eckhart. The mystic’s orientation towards the Godhead is likened to Dasein’s orientation towards nothingness. Just as the mystic is in an immediate and pre-reflexive relationship with the divine life, we are in an immediate, pre-theoretical relationship with our own facticity. Lossky, in his study of Eckhart’s negative theology, highlights the specifics of the German mystic’s understanding of the unknowability of God: God is nameless and unknowable precisely as Being. At the same time, the path of negative theology is characterised as entering into our own depths, as a transformative practice going from the external through the internal to the highest.