Abstract

According to most Eckhart scholars, this famous sermon on spiritual poverty demands a radical break with ordinary life to make possible a union with God that generally lies beyond the limits of creatures. In my view, on the contrary, Eckhart uses the idea of spiritual poverty to proclaim the eternal identity of God and the soul. Eckhart vividly shows that the soul, involved in this identity, must paradoxically be both divine and created, both eternal and temporal.