«Perfect love drives out fear». Dynamics of devotion in Søren Kierkegaard and in Meister Eckhart

Between Kierkegaard and Eckhart, significant affinity exists in the way they conceive of the dynamic devotional relationship between humans and the Christian God. This paper compares Kierkegaard’s The Lily of the Field and the Bird in the Sky with Eckhart’s German sermons. The paper is not about Eckhart’s influence on Kierkegaard. Instead, it works out a structural similarity between the ways Kierkegaard and Eckhart conceive of the relationship between time and eternity, namely between the individual and the absolute insofar as this similarity can be found in their conceptions of the dynamic relationship between a devotee and God. Both thinkers conceive of the relationship between God and His devotees as overcoming transactionalism by detaching oneself from selfish plans and wishes, spiritually gathering oneself, pulled or driven by love, from outward ‹multiplicity› into inner ‹unity›. The devotees strive to become ‹nothing› or ‹silent›. In this silence ‹eternity› and ‹time› may communicate. The comparison will focus on the aim of becoming ‹one›, the plight of being ‹two›, devout communication in ‹silence›, and the connection of eternity and time in the ‹instant›. The paper closes with remarks on the place of love and fear in the devotional concepts of both Eckhart and Kierkegaard. Here, fundamental differences between the thinkers become visible, going hand in hand with striking similarities.