The Trinity Reflected in Art. the Anagogic Structure of the “Artes” in Eckhart von Hochheim as a Model of Trinitarian Anthropology

Abstract

This text aims to contribute to the philosophical-theological foundation of a contemporary anthropology of technology. To this end, the model of a trinitarian anthropology is elaborated, as it found its specific form in the late medieval work of the Dominican Eckhart von Hochheim (d. 1328). In order to understand the basis structures of creaturely existence and the nature of the Trinity, Eckhart uses the manual arts as a heuristic tool. In the wisdom-loving use of the arts and sciences, an anagogic structure becomes recognizable in that they lead man to the knowledge of the intelligible structure of all that exists. For Eckhart, everything that exists, insofar as it exists, has a theophanic character: it refers to its intelligible ground, which gives itself away in the work of creation as the hidden One.