Meister Eckhart (Eckhart von Hochheim O.P., c.1260-c.1328) was a German theologian, philosopher, and mystic born near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia in the Holy Roman Empire. Eckhart came to prominence during the Avignon papacy, a time of increased tensions among monastic orders, diocesan clergy, the Franciscan Order, and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Preachers. In later life, Eckhart was accused of heresy, brought before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII, but it seems he died before his verdict was received. He was well known for his work with pious lay groups such as the Friends of God and was succeeded by his more circumspect disciples John Tauler and Henry Suso. Since the nineteenth century, he has received renewed attention. He has acquired a status as a great mystic within contemporary popular spirituality, as well as considerable interest from scholars situating him within the medieval scholastic and philosophical tradition.

Reiner Schürmann (1941-1993) was born to German parents in Amsterdam. He received his doctorate at the Sorbonne in 1981 and was Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Among many other awards for his scholarship and writing, he received the Distinguished University Teacher Award in 1989. He wrote a seminal work on Heidegger and, just before his death, completed the two-volume Broken Hegemonies, a study of the imposition of the universal on the singular throughout the history of philosophy. Director of the faculty of philosophy at the New School for Social Research Graduate Faculty of New York, Schürmann was the author of three notable philosophical works: Maître Eckhart et la joie errante ("Master Eckhart and the Wandering Joy", 1972), Le Principe d'anarchie, Heidegger et la question de l'agir (From Principles to Anarchy: Heidegger on Being and Acting, 1982).

David Appelbaum, PhD, treads a thin line between poetry and philosophy. A professor emeritus of philosophy at SUNY New Paltz, his work, in a series of books, focuses on the transcendent nature of ordinary things, including Everyday Spirits (SUNY, 1995). In addition, his thought shows a special interest in the performance of the speaking voice. For ten years, he was editor-in-chief of Parabola Magazine, with its concern for wisdom traditions and the search for meaning. Prof. Appelbaum's more recent books include Notes on Water: An Aqueous Phenomenolgy (Monkfish, 2017) and In His Voice: Maurice Blanchot's Affair with the Neutral (SUNY, 2015).