Meister Eckhart provides a Neoplatonic framework for such claims. In his commentary on the Prologue to the Gospel of John, Eckhart draws out his understanding of the self-birth of the Godhead, the external emanation of all things from the divine source, and the return of all things to God. Playing on the double meaning of the Latin term principium, Eckhart argues that the opening of the Gospel (‘In principio’) refers both to the temporal beginning of all things and to their source or principle. For Eckhart, following The Book of Causes and other Neoplatonic sources, that which ‘is produced or proceeds from any thing is precontained in it’ and ‘it is preexistent in it as a seed in its principle’. Moreover, that which proceeds not only pre-exists in its source, but also remains in its source ‘just as it was in the beginning before it came to be’. All created things, then, have their principle in an other and that principle remains in the other. All of creation has both a virtual and a formal aspect – it therefore has both coeternal and temporal relations to the divine. The grounds for the return of all things to their divine source lies here, for all things have their principle in the divine and, insofar as they remain uncreated with that divine ground, eternally participate in the self-birth of the Godhead and of all creation.
Excerpts from Amy Hollywood’s, Mysticism and Transcendence (Meister Eckhart Site)
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