Why the divine could be called an abyss
For Meister Eckhart, the image pointed to a limit in human knowing, not a hidden place in the universe. The divine absolute could not be contained by the ideas people use to describe ordinary things. Calling it an “abyss” emphasized that no concept, image, or name could measure it.
This way of speaking belongs to apophatic theology: an approach that describes God by stressing what cannot be said or understood. Its “darkness” is the mind’s inability to see the divine clearly, not proof of evil or emptiness. The language makes the distance between human thought and the absolute feel almost physical.
What the image asks of the seeker
Eckhart’s abyss also suggests a spiritual discipline. If familiar pictures of God are only partial, a seeker must loosen their grip on those pictures—and on the assumption that the mind can master the divine. In Eckhart’s preaching, this kind of inward letting-go is tied to the possibility of encountering God at the deepest level of the soul.
That is why the image can feel both frightening and inviting. It removes the reassurance of a fully graspable answer, but it also makes room for a relationship with the divine that does not depend on having explained it. The abyss is not a pit to fall into; it is a way of describing what remains beyond the reach of explanation.
