This volume introduces what has sometimes been called "the third component of western culture". It traces the historical development of those religious traditions which have rejected a world view based on the primacy of pure rationality or doctrinal faith, emphasizing instead the importance of inner enlightenment or gnosis: a revelatory experience which was typically believed to entail an encounter with one's true self as well as with the ground of being, God.

The contributors to this book demonstrate this perspective as fundamental to a variety of interconnected traditions. In Antiquity, one finds the gnostics and hermetics; in the Middle Ages several Christian sects. The medieval Cathars can, to a certain extent, be considered part of the same tradition. Starting with the Italian humanist Renaissance, hermetic philosophy became of central importance to a new religious synthesis that can be referred to as Western Esotericism. The development of this tradition is described from Renaissance hermeticists and practitioners of spiritual alchemy to the emergence of Rosicrucianism and Christian theosophy in the seventeenth century, and from post-enlightenment aspects of Romanticism and occultism to the present-day New Age movement.

Best known today as a fine composer, the twelfth-century German abbess Hildegard of Bingen was also a religious leader and visionary, a poet, naturalist and writer of medical treatises. Despite her cloistered life she had strong, often controversial views on sex, love and marriage too - a woman astonishing in her own age, whose book of apocalyptic visions, Scivias, would alone have been enough to ensure her lasting fame. In this classic and highly praised biography - first published by Headline in 2001 - distinguished writer and journalist, Fiona Maddocks, draws on Hildegard's prolific writings to paint a portrait of her extraordinary life against the turbulent medieval background of crusade and schism, scientific discovery and cultural revolution. The great intellectual gifts and forceful character that emerge make her as fascinating as any figure in the Middle Ages. More than 800 years after her death, Pope Benedict XVI has made Hildegard a Saint and a Doctor of the Church (one of only four women). Fiona Maddocks has provided a short new preface to cover these tributes to an extraordinary and exceptional woman.

The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology provides a guide to the mystical element of Christianity as a theological phenomenon. It differs not only from psychological and anthropological studies of mysticism, but from other theological studies, such as more practical or pastorally-oriented works that examine the patterns of spiritual progress and offer counsel for deeper understanding and spiritual development. It also differs from more explicitly historical studies tracing the theological and philosophical contexts and ideas of various key figures and schools, as well as from literary studies of the linguistic tropes and expressive forms in mystical texts. None of these perspectives is absent, but the method here is more deliberately theological, working from within the fundamental interests of Christian mystical writers to the articulation of those interests in distinctively theological forms, in order, finally, to permit a critical theological engagement with them for today. Divided into four parts, the first section introduces the approach to mystical theology and offers a historical overview. Part two attends to the concrete context of sources and practices of mystical theology. Part three moves to the fundamental conceptualities of mystical thought. The final section ends with the central contributions of mystical teaching to theology and metaphysics. Students and scholars with a variety of interests will find different pathways through the Handbook.

This book concerns one of early modern England's most prolific female authors, Jane Lead (1624-1704). Well-researched and clearly written, these essays focus on aspects of Lead's thought including her attitudes towards Calvinism, mysticism, androgyny and the apocalypse, her role within the Philadelphian Society, and her transnational legacy - particularly in the German-speaking world and North America. This book suggests that Lead was far more radical than has been supposed. It argues that her religious journey had staging posts, namely an initial Calvinist obsession with sin and predestination wedded to a conventional Protestant understanding of the coming apocalypse, then the introduction of Jacob Boehme's teachings and accompanying visions of a female personification of divine wisdom and finally, the adoption of the doctrine of the universal restoration of all humanity. It locates Lead within a continuing tradition of puritan pastoral thought, showing how her personalised view of the millennium differed from most of her contemporaries and discussing her influence on Pietists and their conceptions of bodily transmutation. It also discusses strategies available to female authors and manuscript circulation as an alternative to print and examines her initial continental reception, particularly within Pietist and Spiritualist circles. Lastly, it traces her afterlife through the relationship between the Philadelphians and the French Prophets, the interest in Lead among the followers of Joanna Southcott and her successors, and the appropriation of Lead's prophecies by two twentieth century movements: Mary's City of David and the Latter Rain movement.

Popular author of eight books and abbess of the online retreat center Abbey of the Arts, Christine Valters Paintner explores how the lives and spirituality of twelve monks and mystics offer distinct patterns of thought that will guide you on the path to your true spiritual identity. In Illuminating the Way, Christine Valters Paintner takes you on a journey through your inner life accompanied by twelve great monks and mystics from the Christian tradition. Each figure invites you to discover the energy and potential of a particular archetype-the inner sage in Benedict; the inner visionary in Hildegard of Bingen; and the inner orphan in Dorothy Day. Paintner is beloved by readers for her creative practices, guided meditations, and beautiful prayers and poems, and she has included all of these elements to further explore the image associated with each mystic. Her insightful reflections on key selections of each mystic's writings will help you gain greater self-knowledge and experience a deeper encounter with God.

This is a sequel to Forman's well-received collection The Problme of Pure Consciousness (OUP, 1990). The scholars in this book put forward a hypothesis about the cause of mystical, or 'pure consciousness' experiences. All of them agree that mysticism is the result of an innate human capacity, rather than a learned, socially conditioned constructive process. The contributors look at mystical experience as it is manifested in a variety of religious and cultural settings, including Hindu Yoga, Buddhism, Sufism, and medieval Christianity.

This book is a study of the mystical nature of tradition, and the traditional nature of mysticism, and of St Symeon as both a highly personal and very traditional ecclesiastical writer. The teachings of St Symeon (949-1022) created much controversy in Byzantium and even led to a short-lived exile to Asia Minor in 1009. For the first time in modern scholarship these teachings are examined from within the tradition to which both St Symeon and Dr Alfeyev belong.

In this compelling narrative, Bernard Heyberger relates the fascinating history of Hindiyya 'Ujaymi, a highly charismatic eighteenth-century mystic of sinister repute. Heyberger makes a careful study of Hindiyya's life from earliest childhood, with a detailed picture of her formative years in the eighteenth century Christian community of Aleppo, the domestic reality of which is little known, exploring the influences she would have experienced. He leads us through her spiritual development under the direction of the Jesuits, her determination to found a new religious order, and the tragic history of its collapse in a welter of paranoia and persecution. Heyberger also reveals the tensions and complex rivalries at play around Hindiyya between Rome, the Jesuits, and Eastern tribes, which were also beset by feuds and alliances. He makes extensive use of a wide variety of sources, from Hindiyya's own writings to reports from her confessors and Roman inquisitors, to shed light upon the Hindiyya affair. 'Hindiyya, Mystic and Criminal' relates the history of a woman of inflexible power of will and great charisma, who managed to move beyond the circumscribed world of her girlhood and realise what she believed to be her destiny. It will be of great interest to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of an affair which has been long obscured by contradictory reports, or to those interested in eighteenth-century Maronite Christianity and its complex interactions with the authority of Rome.

The life and many afterlives of one of the most enduring mystical testaments ever written The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila is among the most remarkable accounts ever written of the human encounter with the divine. The Life is not really an autobiography at all, but rather a confession written for inquisitors by a nun whose raptures and mystical claims had aroused suspicion. Despite its troubled origins, the book has had a profound impact on Christian spirituality for five centuries, attracting admiration from readers as diverse as mystics, philosophers, artists, psychoanalysts, and neurologists. How did a manuscript once kept under lock and key by the Spanish Inquisition become one of the most inspiring religious books of all time? National Book Award winner Carlos Eire tells the story of this incomparable spiritual masterpiece, examining its composition and reception in the sixteenth century, the various ways its mystical teachings have been interpreted and reinterpreted across time, and its enduring influence in our own secular age. The Life became an iconic text of the Counter-Reformation, was revered in Franco's Spain, and has gone on to be read as a feminist manifesto, a literary work, and even as a secular text. But as Eire demonstrates in this vibrant and evocative book, Teresa's confession is a cry from the heart to God and an audacious portrayal of mystical theology as a search for love. Here is the essential companion to the Life, one woman's testimony to the reality of mystical experience and a timeless affirmation of the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

'All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well' Julian of Norwich is one of the most celebrated figures of the English Middle Ages. She is esteemed as one of the subtlest writers and profoundest thinkers of the period for her account of the revelations that she experienced in 1373. Julian lived as an anchoress in Norwich, and after recovering from a serious illness she described the visions that had come to her during her suffering. She conceived of a loving and compassionate God, merciful and forgiving, and believed in our ability to reach self-knowledge through sin. She wrote of God as our mother, and embraced strikingly independent theological opinions. This new translation conveys the poise and serenity of Julian's prose style to the modern reader. It includes both the short and long texts, written twenty years apart, through which Julian developed her ideas. In his introduction Barry Windeatt considers Julian's astonishingly positive vision of humanity and its potential for spiritual transformation. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This remarkable book shows the seminal Western mystic Meister Eckhart as the great teacher of the birth of God in the soul. It is at once an exposition of Eckhart's mysticism -- perhaps the best in English -- and also an exemplary work of contemporary philosophy.

Schurmann shows us that Eckhart is our contemporary. Writing from experience, he describes the threefold movement of detachment, releasement, and "dehiscence" (splitting open) that leads to the experience of "living without a why" in which all things are in God and which is sheer joy. Going beyond that, he describes the transformational force of approaching the Godhead, the God beyond God.

In 1902 Steiner wrote Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity, showing the evolutionary development from the ancient mysteries, through the great Greek philosophers, to the events portrayed in the gospels. Steiner saw the Christ event as the turning point in the world's spiritual history -- an incarnation whose significance he saw as transcending all religions. Charles Kovacs brings his deep knowledge of esoteric writings, mythology and Steiner's lectures to give more background and to show how the way for Christianity was prepared in the ancient pre-Christian mysteries of Egypt and Greece. He discusses the symbolic and real events of the gospels, as well as looking at some of the understandings and disputes of the early Christians. The book is illustrated with Kovacs' own colour paintings.

The Counter-Reformation saw an upsurge of feminine religious enthusiasm without parallel since medieval times. Inspired by new translations of the lives of the saints, devout women all over Catholic Europe sought to imitate these "athletes of Christ" through extremes of self-abnegation, physical mortification and devotion. Just as in the Middle Ages, women's piety expressed itself especially in mystical experiences manifested in such phenomena as visions, revelations, voices, stigmata and ecstasies. This book offers a comprehensive look at this Golden Age of women's mysticism as it flourished in 16th- and 17th-century Spain, where it almost took on the character of a mass movement. For his study Haliczer draws on 15 cases brought by the Inquisition against women accused of "feigned sanctity" and on 30 biographies and autobiographies of women mystics. By examining their lives, Haliczer seeks to understand the forces that caused these individuals to choose a life of self-abnegation and ecstatic worship. Overall, he shows how mysticism provided women with a way to transcend, rather than to disrupt, the control of the male-dominated Church.

This classic is made newly accessible with the addition of commentary to both aid in understanding the text and to illuminate Teresa of Avila's impressive spiritual lessons. Questions help readers to understand themselves and to reflect on the impact of her insights to their own lives. Readers will recognize the intrinsic worth of Teresa of Avila's teaching and see it as a viable way of understanding the interior life and deepening one's awareness of God. Classics with Commentary, a series in the Christian Classics line devoted to rediscovering classic Christian literature, mines the depths of the rich tradition of Christian spirituality. Critical translations accompanied by timely and accessible commentary and probing questions revitalize these works for another generation of spiritual pilgrims.

William Johnston writes that "the Christian mystic is one who lives in the Christ-mystery and is transformed by it." Making the distinction between Christian mysticism and other mystic experiences, Johnston locates Christian mysticism in the Scriptures-in meditation on the Word of God. "For God who spoke of old interruptedly converses with the Bride of His beloved Son; and the Holy Spirit. . . leads unto all truth those who believe and makes the word of God dwell abundantly in them." The Wounded Stag examines the Old and New Testaments, the Christian mystical tradition, the Eucharist and mystical prayer, and explains how these can lead to the resolution of the conflicts within our hearts. Without inner peace, Johnston offers, we cannot hope for peace in our world. As it discusses the social implications of Christian mysticism, Johnston's book carries this very important message for our world today.

The Inner Eye of Love offers a contemporary theology of mysticism that locates it at the very center of authentic religious experience. It provides as well a practical guide for meditation even as it maps out the oceanic experience toward which meditation points. Johnston begins with the mystical tradition itself, its roots and origins, its appearance and significance in the Gospels, the letters of Paul, and the early Church. He explains what mysticism is and is not, and how it is inextricably bound up with love. It is at the level of mysticism, he maintains, that the two traditions of East and West can at last understand one another and begin to work together to heal a broken world. The Inner Eye of Love escorts the reader through the stages of the mystical journey, from initial call to final enlightenment. Johnston compares and contrasts the Oriental and Christian experience, continually revealing new points of commonality The much discussed "dark night of the soul" is seen here in a positive way, as an emptying preliminary to the overbrimming of the soul with the knowledge and love of God. Finally, the author considers the often misunderstood relation between mysticism and practical action.

This book is a study of the human weaknesses that separate us from God and it is one of the most subtle and fascinating works ever written on the relationship of various sins to their corresponding virtues. This is the first complete translation of this important medieval visionary work.

Fully-annotated edition of English mystic Margery Kempe's life and divine revelations [dated 1436-8]. [This edition previously published by Longman.] The Book of Margery Kempe, the earliest surviving autobiography in English (dated 1436-8), is a unique account of the extraordinary life, travels and revelations of a fifteenth-century Norfolk housewife and mother, pilgrim,prophet and visionary; it is one of the most compelling and significant English texts of the middle ages. This volume presents the original text in accessible form for modern readers, with on-page glossing and a glossary of common words. It is accompanied by on-page annotation of and commentary on the Book, bringing together scholarship on Kempe and setting her life in the social, political and spiritual context of her time. An introduction provides information on and context for the further interpretation of the text, and the volume is completed by a chronology of Kempe's life. [This edition previously published by Longman.] Professor BARRY WINDEATT is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Is the Christian mystical tradition a relic of another time, shaped by celibates for celibates, unable to engage meaningfully with people of our time who embrace their corporeality and sexuality as crucial aspects of their journey towards union with God? This book reflects in serious theological depth and detail on the spiritual and sexual journeys of gay men of mature and committed Christian faith, employing the Christian mystical tradition as the lens and the interlocutor in this process. This study examines the major themes and stages of the mystical tradition as outlined by Evelyn Underhill, but also including more recent work by Ruth Burrows, Thomas Merton and Constance Fitzgerald. Using methods of qualitative research, it then considers the texts of in-depth interviews conducted with men, most of whom are theologians or spiritual leaders with a deep Catholic faith, and all of whom are openly, self-affirmingly gay. Finally, it employs Ricoeur's hermeneutical theory to engage in a creative theological conversation between the traditional mystical stages and themes and these men's lives, as described in their interviews. This is a unique study that brings together ancient spirituality with contemporary lived religion. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of religious studies, theology, Christian mysticism and spirituality, and queer studies. It will be of particular interest to those teach spiritual direction and to all who seek new ways to engage with the spiritual lives of LGBTIQ+ people.

An important addition to the Classics of Western Spirituality (TM) series is this volume of the writings of Nil Sorsky (+1508), an influential spiritual writer whose major contribution to Eastern Christianity was his bringing to ancient Russia the spirituality of the early Fathers and Mothers of the Desert. This is called the hesychasm spirituality of the heart, which finds the perfection of the human person in union with God through continuous prayer. This first-time translation from Russian into English of Nil's complete writings includes: The Tradition, The Rule, his letters (only four of which have actually been attributed to him) and his last will and testament. The Tradition is his earliest attempt to give his disciples a written but very simplified rule of skete monasticism, which he practiced on Mt. Athos. The Rule is an extended ascetical treatise on what Nil calls "mental activity" or, in today's terms, perpetual or continuous prayer. An informative introduction examines the significance of Nil's spirituality and places it within the historical setting of 15th century Russia.

The question of the 'structure' of the human person is central to many mystical authors in the Christian tradition. This book focuses on the specific anthropology of a series of key authors in the mystical tradition in the medieval and early modern Low Countries. Their view is fundamentally different from the anthropology that has commonly been accepted since the rise of Modernity. This book explores the most important mystical authors and texts from the Low Countries including: William of Saint-Thierry, Hadewijch, Pseudo-Hadewijch, John of Ruusbroec, Jan van Leeuwen, Hendrik Herp, and the Arnhem Mystical Sermons. The most important aspects of mystical anthropology are discussed: the spiritual nature of the soul, the inner-most being of the soul, the faculties, the senses, and crucial metaphors which were used to explain the relationship of God and the human person. Two contributions explicitly connect the anthropology of the mystics to contemporary thought. This book offers a solid and yet accessible overview for those interested in theology, philosophy, history, and medieval literature.

The first translation into English of the complete correspondence of the remarkable twelfth-century Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), this study consists of nearly four hundred letters, in four projected volumes. Addressed to some of the most notable people of the day, as well as to some of humble status, the correspondence reveals the saint in ways her more famous works leave obscure: as determined reformer, as castigating seer, as theoretical musician, as patient adviser, as exorcist. Sometimes diffident and restrained, sometimes thunderously imperious, her letters are indispensable to understanding fully this luminary of medieval philosophy, poetry, and music. In addition, they provide a fascinating glimpse at life in tumultuous twelfth-century Germany, beset with schism and political unrest. This first volume includes ninety letters to the highest ranking prelates in Hildegard's world--popes, archbishops, and bishops. Three following volumes will be divided according to the rank of the addressees.

In the popular mind, the mystic is seen as the supreme solitary. This image, if accurate, would make the mystical quest marginal in an era when much theology has emphasized socially responsible praxis. Against the popular image, Mary Frohlich develops a theological model -- based on the writings of Bernard Lonergan and the "self-psychology" of Heinz Kohut -- that both respects mysticism's irreducible character and shows how it concretely transforms people and systems. She then applies this model to an interpretation of a classic expression of spiritual transformation, the Interior Castle of the sixteenth-century mystic Teresa of Avila.

Words and Wonderings is a celebration of gratitude, kindness, mindfulness, truth and the love of beauty through the gifts and giftedness of poets, artists, musicians, gardeners, bakers and many more, who discover their creativity in communion with others. Through conversations and connections Joy Mead explores the true meaning of community - beyond the jargon of 'community cohesion' and the 'Big Society'. But what matters most and is central to this book is wonder - be it at the sunrise or the food on our plates, the intricacy of a grain of wheat or the diversity of people, bread baked and broken, gardens, orchards, kitchens, poetry, painting, music - or simply being a part of the way good communities make themselves and value their distinctiveness. The words of this book all begin a process towards what can't be told but can be shared, towards recovering that sense of wonder at our earth and one another, which is what justifies our being alive.

The Christian mystics open our eyes to a world beyond this one, to the world of the spirit and of God, of whom they had a direct knowledge and experience, obtained chiefly through prayer, meditation and contemplation. The purpose of this book is to introduce the general reader to the fifteenth century English mystic, Margery Kempe of Lynn in Norfolk, as seen against her religious, social and historical background, with chapters on her spiritual and devotional life, her home town of Lynn, her encounters with the clergy, her vow of chastity, her pilgrimages, her trials for heresy and her conformity to the customs, faith and doctrines of the church of her day.