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Representing both the contemplative and scholastic traditions, the mystics in these studies often found their solutions to ultimate questions in radically different ways. Some of them, such as Eckhart, Aquinas, and Cusa, may already be familiar, and here the reader will benefit from a new approach and summary of extensive research. Others, such as Smaragdus and several of the women mystics, are little known even to specialists. Finally, and unusually for a study of European mysticism, the influence of Spanish Kabbalists is discussed in relation to the Zohar and two figures from the mystical school of Safed, Cordovero and Luria.
Though the essays focus on individuals, the cultural and social implications of their lives and work are never ignored, for the mystic way did not exist separately from the rest of medieval life; it functioned as an integral part of the whole, influencing the development of Christian and Jewish religions in both their internal and external forms. -- from publisher
Table of Contents: Introduction by Paul E. Szarmach
I. Augustine by Eugene TeSelle
II. Smaragdus by Jean Leclercq
III. Neoplatonism and the Mysticism of William of St. Thierry by Thomsd Michael Tomasic
IV. St. Bernard, the Canticle of Canticles, and Mystical Poetry by James I. Wimsatt
V. The Zohar: Jewish Mysticism in Medieval Spain by Arthur Green
VI. Mystic on Campus: Friar Thomas by James A. Weisheipl
VII. The Medieval Continental Women Mystics: An Introduction by Valerie M. Lagorio
VIII. Julian of Norwich: Writer and Mystic by Ritamary Bradley
IX. Margery Kempe by Maureen Fries
X. Meister Eckhart: An Introduction by Bernard McGinn
XI. John Tauler by Richard Kieckhefer
XII. The Cloud of Unknowing by John P. H. Clark
XIII. Nicholas of Cusa's The Vision of God by Clyde Lee Miller
XIV. Jewish Mysticism in the Sixteenth Century by David Biale
FY1996 /
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The European Middle Ages bequeathed to the world a legacy of spiritual and intellectual brilliance that has shaped many of the ideals, preconceptions, and institutions we now take for granted. An Introduction to the Medieval Mystics of Europe examines this phenomenon in vivid and scholarly accounts of the lives and achievements of those men and women whose genius most inspired their own and subsequent ages. These great mystics explored and consciously realized the relationship between human life and unconditioned transcendence. Representing both the contemplative and scholastic traditions, the mystics in these studies often found their solutions to ultimate questions in radically different ways. Some of them, such as Eckhart, Aquinas, and Cusa, may already be familiar, and here the reader will benefit from a new approach and summary of extensive research. Others, such as Smaragdus and several of the women mystics, are little known even to specialists. Finally, and unusually for a study of European mysticism, the influence of Spanish Kabbalists is discussed in relation to the Zohar and two figures from the mystical school of Safed, Cordovero and Luria. Though the essays focus on individuals, the cultural and social implications of their lives and work are never ignored, for the mystic way did not exist separately from the rest of medieval life; it functioned as an integral part of the whole, influencing the development of Christian and Jewish religions in both their internal and external forms.… (more)