Two short texts about the creation of the world by Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart: comparison of approaches to the philosophical hermeneutics of the biblical myth

The article compares the interpretations of two medieval philosophers – Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart – on the first verse of the book of Genesis: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth." An attempt is made to understand to what extent Maimonides' point of view influenc...

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Main Author: Dmitry Fedchuk
Format: Article
Language:Russian
Published: St. Tikhon's Orthodox University 2025-12-01
Series:Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия
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Online Access:https://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/8619
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author Dmitry Fedchuk
author_facet Dmitry Fedchuk
author_sort Dmitry Fedchuk
collection DOAJ
description The article compares the interpretations of two medieval philosophers – Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart – on the first verse of the book of Genesis: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth." An attempt is made to understand to what extent Maimonides' point of view influenced Johann Eckhart. Maimonides claiming a philosophical justification for the creation of the world ex nihilo actually justifies with the help of reason not the logical and philosophical consistency and persuasiveness of the concept of creation but the philosophical certainty of the biblical story of creation. However, Meister Eckhart offers a variant of philosophical exegesis based to a much greater extent on logical argumentation. He is not afraid to recognize the numerical multiplicity of things in the universe which at the same time is one in its various parts since the Creator is one. The analysis shows that monotheism has a theoretical core common to Judaism and Christianity but the variants of its understanding arising as a result of the hermeneutics of the text fundamentally separate the medieval philosophy of Judaism and Western Christian scholasticism from each other.
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publishDate 2025-12-01
publisher St. Tikhon's Orthodox University
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series Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия
spelling doaj-art-99d2fb2e89274bf1832e590f4e16acb62025-08-20T03:27:10ZrusSt. Tikhon's Orthodox UniversityВестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия1991-640X2409-46922025-12-011171172944http://dx.doi.org/10.15382/sturI2025117.29-441Two short texts about the creation of the world by Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart: comparison of approaches to the philosophical hermeneutics of the biblical mythDmitry Fedchuk0Herzen University; St. Petersburg Universyty; Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy; St. Petersburg, RussiaThe article compares the interpretations of two medieval philosophers – Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart – on the first verse of the book of Genesis: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth." An attempt is made to understand to what extent Maimonides' point of view influenced Johann Eckhart. Maimonides claiming a philosophical justification for the creation of the world ex nihilo actually justifies with the help of reason not the logical and philosophical consistency and persuasiveness of the concept of creation but the philosophical certainty of the biblical story of creation. However, Meister Eckhart offers a variant of philosophical exegesis based to a much greater extent on logical argumentation. He is not afraid to recognize the numerical multiplicity of things in the universe which at the same time is one in its various parts since the Creator is one. The analysis shows that monotheism has a theoretical core common to Judaism and Christianity but the variants of its understanding arising as a result of the hermeneutics of the text fundamentally separate the medieval philosophy of Judaism and Western Christian scholasticism from each other.https://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/8619moses maimonides meister eckhart scholasticism creation logos god judaism natural theologyмоисей маймонид майстер экхарт схоластика творение логос бог иудаизм естественная теология
spellingShingle Dmitry Fedchuk
Two short texts about the creation of the world by Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart: comparison of approaches to the philosophical hermeneutics of the biblical myth
Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия
moses maimonides
meister eckhart
scholasticism
creation
logos
god
judaism
natural theology
моисей маймонид
майстер экхарт
схоластика
творение
логос
бог
иудаизм
естественная теология
title Two short texts about the creation of the world by Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart: comparison of approaches to the philosophical hermeneutics of the biblical myth
title_full Two short texts about the creation of the world by Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart: comparison of approaches to the philosophical hermeneutics of the biblical myth
title_fullStr Two short texts about the creation of the world by Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart: comparison of approaches to the philosophical hermeneutics of the biblical myth
title_full_unstemmed Two short texts about the creation of the world by Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart: comparison of approaches to the philosophical hermeneutics of the biblical myth
title_short Two short texts about the creation of the world by Moses Maimonides and Meister Eckhart: comparison of approaches to the philosophical hermeneutics of the biblical myth
title_sort two short texts about the creation of the world by moses maimonides and meister eckhart comparison of approaches to the philosophical hermeneutics of the biblical myth
topic moses maimonides
meister eckhart
scholasticism
creation
logos
god
judaism
natural theology
моисей маймонид
майстер экхарт
схоластика
творение
логос
бог
иудаизм
естественная теология
url https://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/8619
work_keys_str_mv AT dmitryfedchuk twoshorttextsaboutthecreationoftheworldbymosesmaimonidesandmeistereckhartcomparisonofapproachestothephilosophicalhermeneuticsofthebiblicalmyth