These articles may have led
the Pope believe that Eckhart taught the identification of man with God.
Yet, they are so clear, even if one doesn’t know their context and all of
Eckhart’s thought, that to deny them is equal to denying
deification.
All of these articles are
about the difference between similarity and union. Similarity does not save;
only the union.
What is the meaning of
deification? Eckhart’s answer is that 1) Christ did not become like a
man: He became a man; 2) the incarnation is not necessary or useful to
Him, but to man; 3) what humanity needs, is not this or that thing or power, but
the deity, the initial and forever deepening union with the infinite God;
the Fall is the loss of this union; 4) a union means that nothing remains
divided from the deity; Christ received and healed the whole of what a
man is.
