Christopher David Shaw holds a DPhil in Theology and Religion from the University of Oxford. His main academic interests are in medieval mystical theology, classical German philosophy and the philosophy of religion, modern religious thought, secular theology, and pedagogy.

CONTENTS: Introduction: On the Hermeneutic Application of Eckhart's Mystical Ontology - The Hermeneutic Method (Hans-Georg Gadamer): Interpreting Eckhartian Mysticism and The Fusion of Horizons - Mysticism as a Modern Category of Theology - Contemporary Theological Interpretations of Eckhartian Mysticism - On Mysticism and Ontology in Post-Kantian Thought: Landmarks of the Modern Philosophical Horizon - Theology, Mysticism, and the Problem of Secularity: Alternative Approaches - Engaging Eckhartian Mysticism in a Secular Context - Conclusion: Eckhartian Mystical Ontology and the Contemporary Moment - Appendix: Being is God: Toward a Secular Understanding of a Divine Ontological Principle.

This new study offers a serious and long-overdue examination of the unstable bifurcation between theology and secularity. Rather than understanding these two formative elements of culture to be in a constant state of opposition, the author chooses an alternative path toward their reconciliation. In this way, a constructive relationship is developed between secular and theological ideas wherein they symbiotically challenge one another in such a way as to create new and/or re-examined opportunities for thinking about God, the world, and, indeed, the self.

The book first of all embarks upon a hermeneutical reading of Meister Eckhart's defining statement that «Being is God» and ultimately arrives (via Kant, Hegel, Gadamer, Henry, and others) at a mystically informed understanding of God's presence both in the world and in the «heart and mind» of the human experience - an understanding that defies conventional categories and static cultural identities. It is an important study of the history, the present, and the future of religious thought, presenting a hopeful image of unity and love in a world that has been for too long divided by difference.