All heretical
demonstrations were rooted in a vague realisation of this contrast. But
Eckhart accomplished the unparalleled deed of once more building a
bridge between the soul and the deity; of relegating to the background
all the ineradicable historical misrepresentations or, if there was no
alternative, of unhesitatingly proclaiming them as erroneous, or
interpreting them symbolically. "St. Paul's words," he says, for
instance, "are nothing but the words of Paul; it is not true that he
spoke them in a state of grace." He did not regard the Scriptures as the
bourne of truth, but as subsequent proof of the directly experienced
truth of the divine event. With this conception Christianity had reached
its highest stage. Henceforth the origin of all truths and values was no
longer sought in doctrine and authority, but in the soul of man; God was
neither to be found in the heavens nor in history, but in the soul; the
soul must become divine and creative; it had found its task: the
recreation of the world.
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