In this first volume of the highly-acclaimed Presence of God series, Bernard McGinn explores the origins of Christian mysticism, from early Jewish apocalyptic writings to pre-Christian Greek contemplative thought; the New Testament witnesses; early Greek Patristic thought; and the contribution of early monastic practice. In Part 2, McGinn discusses Western Christian mysticism proper, with special attention to Augustine of Hippo. Of special interest is the now-influential appendix, which reviews various theoretical approaches to mysticism.

Merton defines Christian mysticism, especially as expressed by the Spanish Carmelite St. John of the Cross, and he offers the contemplative experience as an answer to the irreligion and barbarism of our times. "For those...curious about mysticism...this is an excellent book" (Catholic World).

These pages capture a thousand years of medieval women's visionary writing, from late antiquity to the 15th century. Written by hermits, recluses, wives, mothers, wandering teachers, founders of religious communities, and reformers, the selections reveal how medieval women felt about their lives, the kind of education they received, how they perceived the religion of their time, and why ascetic life attracted them.

Light on Fire is the soulful exploration of one woman's journey to awakening and becoming a modern-day Christian mystic. It's a compassionate guide that will support others on the path to awakening by offering new insights and practical guidance on how to reconnect with our innate spirituality. In her search to understand her own spontaneous awakening, Aedamar discovered that awakening is a natural life process from which we have become estranged. In beautifully poetic language, and through accessible philosophy, Aedamar shares how and why we are designed to wake up, and to experience Divine Union, in the ordinary course of life. Waking up is what is now needed to heal ourselves and the deeply rooted traumas of Western society. Light on Fire concludes with 'The Path of Gold', Aedamar's seven-stage guide to awakening that offers a model for rediscovering Divine Love in everyday life. It helps us to reconnect with our spiritual wisdom, which is critical as we enter a new era that uniquely calls us to mysticism and to love.

The words of Saint Teresa of vila speak to the heart so directly that even four hundred years after her death she seems like our contemporary. Few people have ever written of the spiritual path with such immediacy, down-to-earth wisdom, and humor. Mother Tessa Bielecki has brought together here short selections from Teresa's collected works-including The Way of Perfection, The Interior Castle, her autobiography, poetry, meditations, and letters-to create a living portrait of Teresa and her exuberant spirituality. Teresa's striving for divine union was inseparable from her passionate involvement in the hardships and joys of the everyday-which makes her an eminently worthy model for modern people who seek to integrate spirituality and the rest of life.

The present volume contains the procectings of a conference of" Writing and the Mystical Experience in the Religions of the Book" held at the Sorbonne in 1994. Though this theme is examined within the Christian and Islamic traditions, most of the contributions touch on this phenomenon in Jewish mysticism in the various stages of its historical development from the Midrash an d Merkabah right down to Luryanis Qabbalah and appear a lang site. Theoretical and methodoligical essays phenomenological studies of particular rituals connected with the mystical experience both in the Jewish and non-Jewish context. Of particular significance are the articles dealing with comparative aspects between Christian, Jewish and Muslim rituals such as baptism or the visitation of tombs.