Jeremiah Hackett's edited volume on the German thinker Meister Eckhart represents a timely contribution to Eckhardian scholarship and late-medieval studies more generally, as the first English-language introductory text to this theologian. Part of Brill's series of Companions to the Christian Tradition, this text claims to be a handbook on Eckhart, presenting ‘a critical review of some of the main philosophical and theological research on Eckhart from European and American scholarship for the period 1970–2011’ (p. xxi). It serves as a valuable starting-point for students beginning to explore the theology of Eckhart, but also as a useful reference for those already well acquainted with the subject. It provides lively and engaging surveys of relevant scholarship on a variety of topics concerning Eckhart's life, theology and influence. The volume is divided into three parts. Bernard McGinn provides the introduction to the first part, which largely serves as an introduction to the life and thought of this important medieval thinker. This first section contains a thorough essay by Walter Senner op on Eckhart's life and training, and several informative chapters on his Latin works, the German works, the Opus tripartitum, Eckhart's anthropology, and on some of his influences, including Avicenna, Avicebron, Averroes and Pseudo-Dionysius. Part ii, introduced by Paul Dietrich, contains essays on Eckhart's biblical exegesis, his vernacular preaching, understanding of God, use of the thought of Moses Maimonides, and two thought-provoking essays on Eckhart's intellectual relationship with Marguerite Porete and late medieval Dominican female spirituality. The third part, introduced by Hackett himself, deals with the reception of Eckhart's thought from fourteenth-century Germany to twentieth-century philosophy.

The volume laudably seeks to situate Eckhart within his theological, philosophical, academic, geographical and historical context, discussing the importance of these different settings and influences, as well as the many manifestations of Eckhart as a theologian, philosopher and (possibly) mystic. It is for this reason that the relegation of the entry on late-medieval Dominican education to an appendix seems strange: surely an analysis of Eckhart's education and intellectual formation is essential for an understanding of his development and context, and would therefore merit a chapter within the book proper. However, regardless of its location, entries such as this are informative and helpful for understanding the thought of Eckhart in relation to the setting in which it developed.

While this book represents, overall, a valuable and engaging companion to the study of Meister Eckhart, this reviewer found the organisation of the entries difficult to navigate. While the third section is self-contained, dealing with Eckhart's intellectual reception, the division of the first two parts is obscure and inconsistent. Articles concerning Eckhart's influences, preaching, training and theological works span both parts, and essays that should seemingly be placed together find themselves asunder, such as the essay on Eckhart's Jewish and Islamic sources and another on his use of the thought of Moses Maimonides. The placing of the two articles on women's spirituality in the second section is most misleading. Lydia Wegener's essay ‘Eckhart and the world of women's spirituality in the context of the “Free Spirit” and Marguerite Porete’ offers a sensitively written and strongly revisionist argument on Eckhart's familiarity with Porete's writings, fundamentally asserting that Eckhart's knowledge of Porete is ‘more a historiographical concept than a historical fact’ (p. 441). The volume itself seems uncomfortable with such a claim, with Paul Dietrich stating in his introduction that ‘some readers will not be able to follow her [Wegener] to her final conclusion’ (p. 319). The subsequent entry, written by Jack Marler on the ethics of Marguerite Porete's The mirror of simple souls, seems more a work of apology than one reviewing relevant scholarship and primary sources. With a view to rehabilitating an article written by himself and Edmund Colledge attacked by Maria Lichtmann, the article seems peripheral to the study, focusing not on Eckhart, but on Porete, whose connections to the German theologian are relatively indiscernible. These two essays, while thought-provoking, seem to stand in isolation from much of the remainder of the volume. The latter essay, in particular, would be better served by publication in a different volume. For an introductory or reference text, such structure may prove disorienting, particularly for students just starting with the topic.

This contribution to Eckhart studies offers an extensive introduction to much of the scholarship surrounding Eckhart's development, thought and intellectual influence. It is hindered by one rather large omission: the volume's preface states that it ‘does not have as its goal the formal treatment of Eckhart as a “mystic” … [which] is a very difficult topic and it needs separate treatment’ (pp. xxi–xxii). While Hackett is certainly right to recognise the scale of this issue, its omission renders this volume – intended as a companion, as opposed to a monograph – incomplete. For those students acquainting themselves with Eckhart and the scholarship surrounding him, this volume does not provide a critical review of the main studies concerned with Eckhart's mysticism (or perhaps lack thereof), a debate that has become increasingly topical. Granted that a full treatment would clearly require more space than is available here, nevertheless, the lack of a survey of the scholarship on Eckhart's mysticism leaves the reader short-changed in the most prominent area of Eckhardian scholarship.

In spite of these structural and thematic criticisms, Hackett's work is a valuable contribution to the field of late medieval theology and will certainly serve as an excellent reference book for those studying the work of Meister Eckhart.