- 258 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Middle English Mystics
About This Book
Originally published as an English translation in 1981, The Middle English Mystics is a crucial contribution to the study of the literature of English mysticism. This book surveys and analyses the language of metaphor in the writings of such mystics as Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, and in such anonymous works as The Cloud of Unknowing and the Ancrene Wisse. The main emphasis of this comparative and stylistic study is not theological but rather the means by which theological concepts are communicated through language. The book sets the English mystics in perspective by establishing their place in the European mystical movement of the Middle Ages. It shows how intricate the relationship between English, and continental mysticism really is. The book suggests that there is clear links between English and German female mysticism, yet the mysticism is in the main due not so much to specific influences as to the common background of Christian theology and mysticism.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Original Title Page
- Original Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- I The public for mystical literature in England
- II The interrelation between continental and English mysticism
- III The Song of Songs and metaphors for love in English mysticism
- IV Metaphors for the preparation for the unio mystica
- V Metaphors for the way of the soul to God
- VI Metaphors for speaking about God in English mysticism
- VII Technical terms for the mystical union and for ecstasy
- VIII The experience of God as a spiritual sense perception
- IX The metaphorical complex of having God
- X The mystical experience of God as rest, sleep, death and complete absorption of the self
- XI The image of God in the soul, mystical deification and union in the ground of the soul
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Middle English word index
- Index of names and titles