Medieval Bibliography #7: Meister Eckhart & Medieval Mysticism

1. MEISTER ECKHART & THE RHINELAND MYSTICS: TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

Meister Eckhart (c.1260-1327) was a German Dominican and one of the most controversial and influential mystics of the Christian tradition. His writings--especially his vernacular sermons--join together brilliant paradoxes, striking imagery, and provocative claims with all the subtleties of medieval scholasticism. At the end of his career, his orthodoxy was challenged. He defended himself at a heresy trial held at the court of the Avignon pope, John XXII, who posthumously condemned certain of Eckhart's propositions but exonerated Eckhart himself. Eckhart's ideas would be carefully reworked and developed by his Dominican successors, Johannes Tauler (1300-1361) and Heinrich Suso (c.1295-1366).

Texts: For a critical edition of the Middle High German works of Meister Eckhart, see Josef Quint and Georg Steer, eds., Meister Eckhart: Die deutschen und lateinischen Werke heraugegeben im Auftrag der deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft. Die deutschen Werke, 5 vol. (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1958- ). For Eckhart's Latin works, see Josef Koch et al., ed., Meister Eckhart: Die deutschen und lateinischen Werke. Die lateinischen Werke, 5 vol. (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1956- ). For a critical edition of Suso's writings, see Karl Bihlmeyer, ed., Heinrich Seuse. Deutsche Schriften (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1907). For a critical edition of Tauler, see Ferdinand Vetter, ed., Die Predigten Taulers, Deutsche Text des Mittelalters XI (Berlin: 1910).

Translations:

Meister Eckhart, The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises, and Defense, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. Edmund Colledge & Bernard McGinn (New York: Paulist Press, 1981). As the title indicates, this has the essentials, but only the essentials. It is important to get the companion volume, Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher (see below).

Henry Suso, The Exemplar, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Frank Tobin (New York: Paulist Press, 1989). Suso's Exemplar is his masterpiece, really an anthology of diverse documents including his autobiography as well as his mystical works, notably the Little Book of Eternal Wisdom and the Little Book of Truth.

Bernard McGinn and Frank Tobin, ed. and trans., Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher, Classics of Western Spirituality(New York: Paulist Press, 1986).

Bernard McGinn, ed., Maurice O'Connell Walshe, trans., The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart (New York: Continuum, 2010), hardcover, $98. The only complete translation of Eckhart's sermons in English--and for the most part, an excellent one. Walshe's original edition (a 3-volume edition published by the "new age" publisher Element) had been out of print for some years, but McGinn helpfully convinced Continuum to bring it back.

Oliver Davies, ed. and trans., Meister Eckhart: Selected Writings (New York: Penguin Book, 1994).

Maria Shrady, trans., John Tauler: Sermons, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1985).

James A. Wiseman, ed. and trans., John Ruusbroec: The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1985).

2. MEISTER ECKHART & THE RHINELAND MYSTICS: STUDIES

Bernard McGinn, The Mystical Theology of Meister Eckhart: The Man from Whom God Hid Nothing, Edward Cadbury Lectures 2000-2001 (New York: Herder / Crossroad, 2001). A magisterial survey of the life and mystical teaching of Meister Eckhart by the leading historian of Christian mysticism. McGinn has been working on Eckhart for decades. This is the fruit of those long years of study. Full of nuances and essential insights. Required reading for any student of Eckhart.

Bernard McGinn, The Harvest of Mysticism in Medieval Germany, Vol. 4 of The Presence of God: A History of Christian Mysticism (New York: Herder / Crossroad, 2005). Part of McGinn's magisterial survey of the history of mysticism. This focuses on the great Dominican spiritual writers, first, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, then, Meister Eckhart and his Rhineland successors, Johannes Tauler and Heinrich Suso. There is no comparable survey of such depth and breadth in English. Essential.

Bernard McGinn, The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism (1350-1550), Volume 5 of The Presence of God: A History of Christian Mysticism (New York: Crossroad / Herder & Herder, 2012) hardcover, $70. NEW. This is the latest volume of McGinn's monumental history. While much of it is devoted to the English mystics (see below), it opens with a lengthy study of another of the great Rhineland mystics, the Dutch priest and writer Jan van Ruusbroec.

John Caputo, “Fundamental Themes in Meister Eckhart’s Mysticism,” The Thomist 42 (1978) 197-225. One of the best brief introductions to Eckhart’s worldview and central concerns.

Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart: Mystical Theologian (London: SPCK, 1991).

Oliver Davies, God Within: The Mystical Tradition of Northern Europe (reprint: Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2006).

Oliver Davies, “Why were Meister Eckhart’s propositions condemned?” New Blackfriars 71 (1990) 433-445.

Robert J. Dobie, “Meister Eckhart’s Metaphysics of Detachment,” Modern Schoolman 80 (2002): 35-54.

Robert J. Dobie, “Reason and Revelation in the Thought of Meister Eckhart,” The Thomist 67 (2003): 409-438.

William Harmless, "Mystic as Mystagogue: Meister Eckhart," in Mystics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

Karl Kertz, “Meister Eckhart’s Teaching on the Birth of the Divine Word in the Soul,” Traditio 15 (1959) 327-363.

Richard Kieckhefer, “Meister Eckhart’s Conception of Union with God,” Harvard Theological Review 71 (1978) 203-225.

Bernard McGinn, “The God Beyond God: Theology and Mysticism in the Thought of Meister Eckhart,” Journal of Religion 61 (1981) 1-19.

Bernard McGinn, “Eckhart’s Trial Reconsidered,” The Thomist 44 (1980) 390-414.

Bernard McGinn, ed., Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics: Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechtild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete (New York: Continuum, 1994).

Bruce Milem, The Unspoken Word: Negative Theology in Meister Eckhart’s German Sermons (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2002).

Lyndon P. Reynolds, “Bullitio and the God Beyond God: Meister Eckhart’s Trinitarian Theology,” New Blackfriars 70 (1989): 169-181 and 235-244.

Kurt Ruh, Meister Eckhart: Theologe, Prediger, Mystiker (Munich: Verlag C.H. Beck, 1985). One of the best surveys.

Georg Steer & Loris Sturlese, eds., Lectura Eckhardi: Predigten Meister Eckharts von Fachgelehrten gelesen und gedeutet, 2 vol. to date (Stuttgart / Berlin: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1998, 2003).

Frank Tobin, Meister Eckhart: Thought and Language (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1986).

Paul Vergeyen, Ruusbroec and his Mysticism, Way of the Christian Mystics (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1994).

Richard Woods, Eckhart’s Way, Way of the Christian Mystics (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1990).

Richard Woods, Meister Eckhart: Master of Mystics (New York: Continuum, 2011).

3. JULIAN OF NORWICH & THE ENGLISH MYSTICS: TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

The 14th century saw the rise of new currents of mysticism, especially vernacular mysticisms, rooted in local traditions of spirituality. Among the most remarkable was the emergence of mysticism in England. Five major mystics--Julian of Norwich, the anonymous Cloud of Unknowing writer, Walter Hilton, Richard Rolle, and Margery Kempe--are the best known. They were pioneers not only of English mysticism but of the English prose. Julian of Norwich (c.1342-c.1416), a visionary whose near-death experience led to her writing two treatises, one, an early, largely descriptive account of her visionary experiences, the other, an extended meditation, using her visionary experiences as a springboard for extraordinarily eloquent meditations on questions of the origins of evil and the necessity of suffering, of providence and universal salvation.

Texts:

Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins, eds., The Writings of Julian of Norwich: A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love, Brepols Medieval Women Series (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006). This is simply a superb tool for students. It includes a critical edition of her Middle English texts, together with an abundance of notes on Julian's theology and on her Middle English vocabulary. The two accounts are arranged side by side so that students can carefully trace how Julian expands her reflections and modifies her views in her later text.

Hope Emily Allen, ed., English Writings of Richard Rolle, Hermit of Hampole (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931).

Frances Beer, ed., Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love: The Shorter Version, from BL Add MS 37790, Middle English Texts 8 (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1978) This is a scholarly edition of A Vision, with introduction and study of the manuscripts, textual and thematic relationships of A Vision and A Revelation.

Thomas H. Bestul, Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, TEAMS Middle English Texts series (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000).

Edmund Colledge and James Walsh, A Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich, 2 vols. (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1978). For a generation, this has served as the critical edition of Julian's works. Vol. 1 has Julian's A Vision [=Short Text], while Vol. 2 has annotated edition of A Revelation [=Long Text]. While still of great value, it has been displaced by more recent scholarship on Julian's texts and her broader intellectual context.

Georgia Ronan Crampton, ed., The Shewings of Julian of Norwich, TEAMS Middle English Text Series (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1994). A web version available at: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/Crampton.htm

Marion Glasscoe, ed., A Revelation of Love, Exeter Medieval Texts (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1996).

Robert Hasenfratz, ed., Ancrene Wisse (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1998).

Phyllis Hodgson, ed., The Cloud of Unknowing and the Book of Privy Counselling, Early English Text Society, os., 218 (Oxford: Oxford University Pres, 1944).

Phyllis Hodgson, ed., The Cloud of Unknowing and Related Treatises on Contemplative Prayer (Exeter, 1982). The volumes includes the Middle English texts of the Book of Privy Counselling, Epistle of Prayer, Epistle of Discretion, Deonise Hid Divinity, Benjamin Minor, The Study of Wisdom, Of Discerning of Spirits.

Bella Millett, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, eds., Medieval English Prose for Women: Selections from the Katherine Group and Ancrene Wisse (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990).

S.J. Ogilvie-Thomason, ed., Richard Rolle: Prose and Verse, Early English Text Society, o.s. 293 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

J.R.R. Tolkien, ed., The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle: Ancrene Wisse, Early English Text Society, o.s. 249 (London: 1962).

Barry Windeatt, ed., English Mystics of the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Selections of the Middle English texts from Richard Rolle, Cloud author, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and anonymous works.

Barry Windeatt, ed., The Book of Margery Kempe (New York: Longman, 2000).

Translations:

Edmund Colledge and James Walsh, trans., Julian of Norwich, Showings, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1978). This remains the best complete translation of Julian's two texts (for those who can't read the original Middle English).

James Walsh, trans., The Cloud of Unknowing, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1981). The anonymous author of The Cloud has been called the greatest of the 14th-century English mystics. His theme: that God cannot be known by the mind, but only a love that pierces through the ‘cloud of unknowing.’ See other works by the Cloud writer published under the title: The Pursuit of Wisdom & Other Works, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. George Maloney & James Walsh (New York: Paulist Press, 1988).

Rosamund Allen, ed. and trans., Richard Rolle: The English Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1988).

John P.H. Clark and Rosemary Dorward, trans. Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1991).

Julia Bolton Holloway, ed. and trans., Julian of Norwich: Showing Love (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 2003).

Anne Savage and Nicholas Watson, ed. and trans., Anchoritic Spirituality: ‘Ancrene Wisse’ and Associated Works, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1991); Ancrene Wisse, pp. 41-208.

Elizabeth Spearing, and A.C. Spearing, trans., Revelations of Divine Love, Penguin Classics (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1998). Designed to replace Wolters.

Lynn Staley, ed. and trans., The Book of Margery Kempe: A New Translation, Contexts, Criticism, Norton Critical Edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001).

Clifton Wolters, trans. Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love, Penguin Classics (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966). A loose translation of Sloane text; now replaced with Spearing translation above.

4. JULIAN OF NORWICH & THE ENGLISH MYSTICS: STUDIES

Denys Turner, Julian of Norwich,Theologian (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), hardcover, $40. This offers a major new interpretation of Julian, reading her less as a mystic and more as a systematic theologian, wrestling with providence, Christology, and soteriology. Well-written.

Bernard McGinn, The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism (1350-1550), Volume 5 of The Presence of God: A History of Christian Mysticism (New York: Crossroad / Herder & Herder, 2012) hardcover, $70. NEW. A large section, pp. 331-490, of this latest volume of McGinn's monumental history is devoted to Julian of Norwich, the Cloud of Unknowing, and the other English mystics. McGinn brings both a thorough command of the latest scholarship to his uniquely encyclopedic knowledge of the history of mysticism. Now the place to begin.

Christopher Abbott, Julian of Norwich: Autobiography and Theology (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1999).

David Aers and Lynn Staley, Powers of the Holy: Religion, Politics, and Gender in Late Medieval English Culture (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996).

Clarissa W. Atkinson, Mystic and Pilgrim: The Book and the World of Margery Kempe (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983).

Denise Nowakowski Baker, Julian of Norwich’s Showings: From Vision to Book (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).

Frederick Bauerschmidt, Julian of Norwich and the Mystical Body Politic of Christ (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999).

Ritamary Bradley, Julian’s Way: A Practical Commentary on Julian of Norwich (London: HarperCollins, 1992).

Jennifer Bryan, Looking Inward: Devotional Reading the Private Self in Late Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).

Carmel Bendon Davis, Mysticism and Space: Space and Spatiality in the Works of Richard Rolle, the Cloud of Unknowing Author, and Julian of Norwich (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2008)

Elizabeth Dreyer, “Julian of Norwich: ‘Sweet Touchings’: The Spirit and Grace,” Holy Power, Holy Presence: Rediscovering Medieval Metaphors for the Holy Spirit (New York: Paulist Press, 2007).

Elisabeth Dutton, Julian of Norwich: The Influence of Late-Medieval Devotional Compilations, Studies in Medieval Mysticism (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2008).

Samuel Fanous and Vincent Gillespie, eds., Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Mysticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

Gail McMurray Gibson, The Theater of Devotion: East Anglian Drama and Society in the Late Middle Ages (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989)

Marion Glasscoe and E.A. Jones, eds., The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England, 7 vols. (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1980, 1982; Cambridge: Brewer, 1984, 1987, 1992, 1999, 2004). An enormous and extremely valuable collection of essays.

Kerrie Hide, Gifted Origins to Graced Fulfillment: The Soteriology of Julian of Norwich (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2001).

Grace M. Jantzen, Julian of Norwich: Mystic and Theologian (New York: Paulist Press, 1988).

Grace M. Jantzen, Power, Gender, and Christian Mysticism, Cambridge Studies in Ideology and Religion 8 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Lynn Staley Johnson, “The Trope of the Scribe and the Question of Literary Authority in the Works of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe,” Speculum 66 (1991): 820-838.

M. Diane F. Krantz, The Life and Text of Julian of Norwich: The Poetics of Enclosure, Studies in the Humanities, vol. 32 (New York: Peter Lang, 1997).

Judith Lang, “‘The Godly Wylle’ in Julian of Norwich,” Downside Review 102 (1984): 163-173.

Kenneth Leech and Benedicta Ward, eds., Julian Reconsidered, Fairacres Publications 106 (Oxford: SLG Press, 1988).

Phyllis Mack, Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).

Liz Herbert McAvoy, ed., A Companion to Julian of Norwich (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2008).

Sandra J. McEntire, ed., Julian of Norwich: A Book of Essays, Garland Medieval Casebook 21 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).

Kevin McGill, Julian of Norwich: Visionary or Mystic?, Routledge Series in Medieval Religion and Culture (New York: Routledge, 2006)

Catherine M. Mooney, ed., Gendered Voices: Medieval Saints and Their Interpreters (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999).

Teresa Morris, Julian of Norwich: A Comprehensive Bibliography (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellon, 2010).

Joan N. Nuth, Wisdom’s Daughter: The Theology of Julian of Norwich (New York: Crossroad, 1991.

Joan N. Nuth, God’s Lovers in an Age of Anxiety: The Medieval English Mystics, Traditions of Christian Spirituality (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001).

Marilyn Oliva, The Convent and the Community in Late Medieval England: Female Monasteries in the Diocese of Norwich, 1350–1540 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1998).

Margaret Ann Palliser, Christ, Our Mother of Mercy: Divine Mercy and Compassion in the Theology of the Shewings of Julian of Norwich (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1992).

Brant Pelphrey, Christ Our Mother: Julian of Norwich, Way of the Christian Mystics 7 (Wilmington: Michael Glazier, 1989).

Felicity Riddy, “Julian of Norwich and Self-Textualization,” in Editing Women, ed. Ann M. Hutchison (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998), 101-124.

Felicity Riddy, “‘Women Talking about the Things of God’: A Late Medieval Sub-Culture,” in Women and Literature in Britain: 1150-1500, eds. Carol M. Mealey, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 17 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 104-127.

Elizabeth Robertson, “Medieval Medical Views of Women and Female spirituality in the Ancrene Wisse and Julian of Norwich’s Showings,” in Feminist Approaches to the Body in Medieval Literature, eds. Linda Lomperis and Sarah Stanbury (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 142-167.

Sarah Salih and Denise N. Baker, eds., Julian of Norwich’s Legacy: Medieval Mysticism and Post-Medieval Reception (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

Janet Martin Soskice, The Kindness of God: Metaphor, Gender and Religious Language (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

Lynn Staley, Margery Kempe’s Dissenting Fictions (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994).

Lynn Staley, “Julian of Norwich,” The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Literature, 1100-1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 179-189.

Lynn Staley, "Julian of Norwich and the Late Fourteenth-Century Crisis of Authority," in The Powers of the Holy: Religion, Politics and Gender in Late Medieval English Culture, eds., David Aers and Lynn Staley (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996) 107-178.

Robert Karl Stone, Middle English Prose Style: Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich (The Hague: Mouton, 1970).

Norman P. Tanner, The Church in Late Medieval Norwich, 1370–1532 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1984).

Rosalynn Voaden, ed., Prophets Abroad: The Reception of Continental Holy Women in Late-Medieval England (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1996).

Ann K. Warren, Anchorites and Their Patrons in Medieval England (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).

Diane Watt, Secretaries of God: Women Prophets in Late Medieval and Early Modern England (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1997)

Nicholas Watson, “The Composition of Julian of Norwich’s Revelation of Love,” Speculum 68 (1993): 637-683.

Nicholas Watson, “‘Yf Wommen Be Double Naturelly’: Remaking ‘Woman’ in Julian of Norwich’s Revelation of Love,” Exemplaria 8 (1995): 1-34.

Nicholas Watson (2007), Richard Rolle and the Invention of Authority, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

5. OTHER MEDIEVAL MYSTICS: TEXTS

Note: A number of key figures listed in earlier bibliographies are also generally classified as “mystics”: e.g. John Cassian, Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure. See Medieval Bibliographies #2, #4, #5.

Bernard McGinn, ed., The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism (New York: Modern Library, 2006). A superb collection of mystical writings arranged topically. McGinn offer selections that examine issues too often ignored, such as the role of biblical interpretation in mystical literature or the role of sacraments in mysticism. While this includes authors from all eras, there is a large selection of medievals including Bernard of Claivaux, Aelred of Rievault, William of St.-Thierry, Guigo I, Richard of St. Victor, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Catherine of Genoa, Hadewjich of Antwerp, Richard Rolle, Meister Eckhart, and Nicholas of Cusa.

Angela of Foligno, Complete Works, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Paul Lachance (New York: Paulist Press, 1993).

Birgitta of Sweden, Life and Selected Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Albert Ryle Kezel & Marguerite T. Harris (New York: Paulist Press, 1990).

Catherine of Genoa, Purgation and Purgatory, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Serge Hughes (New York: Paulist Press, 1979).

Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Suzanne Noffke (New York: Paulist Press, 1980 ).

Elisabeth of Schonau, The Complete Works, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Ann L. Clark & Barbara Newman (New York: Paulist Press, 2001).

Gertrude of Helfta, The Herald of Divine Love, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Margaret Winkworth (New York: Paulist Press, 1993).

Jean Gerson, Early Works, trans. Brian Patrick McGuire, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1998).

Margaret Ebner, Major Works, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Leonard Hinsley (New York: Paulist Press, 1993).

Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Flowing Light of the Godhead, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Frank Tobin (New York: Paulist Press, 1998).

Marguerite Porète, The Mirror of Simple Souls, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Ellen Babinsky (New York: Paulist Press, 1993).

Nicholas of Cusa, Selected Spiritual Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. H. Lawrence Bond (New York: Paulist Press, 1997).

Richard of St. Victor, The Book of the Patriarchs, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Grover Zinn (New York: Paulist Press, 1979).

Thomas á Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, ed. Harold C. Gardiner (New York: Image / Doubleday, 1955). Perhaps the most widely read book of Christian spirituality.

Anglo-Saxon Spirituality, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. Robert Boenig (New York: Paulist Press, 2000).

Beguine Spirituality: Mystical Writings of Mechtild of Magdeburg, Beatrice of Nazareth, and Hadewijch of Brabant, ed. Fiona Bowie, trans. Oliver Davies (New York: Crossroad, 1990).

Celtic Spirituality, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. Oliver Davies (New York: Paulist Press, 2000).

Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. John Van Engen (New York: Paulist Press, 1988).

Theodore J. Antry and Carol Neel, eds., Norbert and Early Norbertine Spirituality, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 2007).

Denis Searby, trans., The Revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden: Liber Caelestis, 2 vol. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, 2008).

Elizabeth Spearing, ed., Medieval Writings on Female Spirituality (New York: Penguin Books, 2002).

Rik Van Nieuwenhove, ed., Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 2008).

Kenneth Baxter Wolf, ed. and trans., The Life and Afterlife of St. Elizabeth of Hungary: Testimony from her Canonization Hearings (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

6. OTHER MEDIEVAL MYSTICS: STUDIES

William Harmless, Mystics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) paperback, $19. Mystics are those who claim to have experienced God. This book introduces readers to the scholarly study of mysticism, exploring both mystics’ extraordinary lives and their no-less-extraordinary writings. The heart of the book is a set of case-studies of Christian mystics, including four medievals: Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, as well as Evagrius Ponticus and Thomas Merton. This case-study approach brings things down to earth, restoring mystics to their historical context, and helps bring them alive and let them speak with unexpected immediacy. The closing chapter offers a unique, multi-sided optic for exploring mystics, their religious communities and their writings. Geared to a broad audience.

Bernard McGinn, The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism, 5 vol. to date (New York: Crossroad / Herder, 1996, 1998, 2005, 2012). Four volumes are relevant to the study of medieval mysticism:

Volume 2: The Growth of Mysticism ( 500 to 1200 A.D)

Volume 3: The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism, 1200-1350

Volume 4: The Harvest of Mysticism in Medieval Germany

Volume 5: The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism (1350-1550)

McGinn is the leading contemporary historian of Christian spirituality. The second volume includes in-depth studies of Gregory the Great and Bernard of Clairvaux; the third focuses on Francis of Assisi and Bonaventure, the fourth focuses on Eckhart and the Dominicans, while the fifth focuses on Jan van Ruusbroec, Catherine of Siena, and the English mystics (see above). There is no better comprehensive study of medieval mysticism.

Caroline Walker Bynum, Crown and Veil: Female Monasticism from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008).

Caroline Walker Bynum, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982).

Peter J. Casarella, Cusanus: The Legacy of Learned Ignorance (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2006).

John Coakley, Women, Men and Spiritual Power: Female Saints and Their Male Collaborators, Gender, Theory, and Religion (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006).

Lynda L. Coon, Sacred Fictions: Holy Women and Hagiography in Late Antiquity, Middle Ages Series (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1997).

Amy M. Hollywood, The Soul as Virgin Wife: Mechtild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart, Studies in Spirituality and Theology 1 (University of Notre Dame Press, 1995).

Amy M. Hollywood, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012) paperback, $30. NEW.

Nancy J. Hudson, Becoming God: The Doctrine of Theosis in Nicholas of Cusa (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).

Saskia Murk Jansen, Brides in the Desert: The Spirituality of the Beguines, Traditions of Christian Spirituality Series (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998).

Christine Peters, Patterns of Piety: Women, Gender and Religion in Late Medieval and Reformation England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Elizabeth Petroff, Body and Soul: Essays on Medieval Women and Mysticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

Sara S. Poor, Mechthild of Madgeburg and Her Book: Gender and the Making of Textual Authority, Middle Ages Series (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

Jill Raitt, ed., Christian Spirituality II: High Middle Ages and Reformation (New York: Crossroad, 1987).

Jane Tibbetts Schulenberg, Forgetful of Their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500-1100 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).

Michael Anthony Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). Has fine chapters on Marguerite Porete and Eckhart.

Paul Szarmach, ed., An Introduction to the Medieval Mystics of Europe (New York: SUNY, 1984).

Larissa Juliet Taylor, The Virgin Warrior: The Life and Death of Joan of Arc (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).

Frank Tobin, Mechtild von Magdeburg: a Medieval Mystic in Modern Eyes (Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1995).

Denys Turner, The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

7. CONCILIARISM & THE ROOTS OF THE REFORMATION

Francis Oakley, The Conciliarist Tradition: Constitutionalism in the Catholic Church, 1300-1870 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). This is the place to start on one of the most important and overlooked trends in the history of Christianity, the attempt to create an alternative to the papal monarchy. Oakley is always lucid.

J.H. Burns & Thomas Izbicki, eds., Conciliarism and Papalism, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). A valuable collection of source documents.

Thomas M. Izbicki, trans., Nicholas of Cusa: Writings on Church and Reform, I Tatti: Renaissance Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008).

Stephen Edmund Lahey, John Wyclif, Great Medieval Thinkers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

Alister E. McGrath, The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1986).

Brian Patrick McGuire, Jean Gerson and the Last Medieval Reformation (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2005).

Brian Patrick McGuire, A Companion to Jean Gerson, Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 2006).

Erich Meuthen, Nicholas of Cusa: A Sketch for a Biography (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2010).

Nelson H. Minnich, Councils of the Catholic Reformation: Pisa I (1409) to Trent (1545-63), Variorum Collected Studies series CS 890 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008).

Alistair Minnis and Rosalynvn Voaden, eds., Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition, c. 1100-c.1500, Brepols Essays in European Culture, Vol. 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010).

Francis Oakley, The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1979).

Francis Oakley, The Political Thought of Pierre d’Ailly: The Voluntarist Tradition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964).

Heiko A. Oberman & Charles Trinkhaus, ed., The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Reformation Religion (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1974).

Heiko A. Oberman, Dawn of the Reformation: Essays in Late Medieval and Early Reformation Thought (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992).

Heiko A. Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Nominalism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963).

Matthew Spinka, John Hus at the Council of Constance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1965).

Thomas N. Tentler, Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977).

Brian Tierney, Foundations of the Conciliar Theory: The Contribution of the Medieval Canonists from Gratian to the Great Schism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955).

8. HERESY, WITCHCRAFT, & MILLENARIANISM

Robert E. Lerner, The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972). The so-called heretics of the Free Spirit claimed that they had achieved union with God, that they were God, and so had no need of Church or conventional morals. At least that’s what their enemies (inquisitors) accused them of saying. But as Lerner shows, inquisitors’ accusations and real heresy are quite different matters. This study is fine example of how to read medieval documents with a critical eye. A fascinating look behind what made headlines in the Middle Ages.

Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1992). The most comprehensive survey of medieval heresy. Lambert, whose studies on the Spiritual Franciscans are the standard, here studies not only the Spirituals, but also the Waldensians, the Cathars, the Joachimites, the Lollards, and many others.

Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie, Montaillou: the Promised Land of Error, trans. Barbara Bray (New York: Vintage, 1979). A widely-acclaimed case study of life in a medieval town. Ladurie gleans his portrait from the records of the local inquisition which was led by Jacques Fourier would go on to become Pope Benedict XII.

Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Caterina Bruschi, The Wandering Heretics of Languedoc, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th series (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012) paperback, $40. NEW.

Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970).

Dyan Elliot, Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages, The Middle Ages Series (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998).

Heinrich Fichetenau, Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages, 1000-1200 (Penn. State University Press, 1998).

Sean L. Field, The Beguine, the Angel, and the Inquisitor: The Trial of Marguerite Porete and Guiard of Cressonessart (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012) paperback, $40. NEW.

J. Patrick Hornbeck, II, What Is a Lollard? Dissent and Belief in Late Medieval England, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Ian Hunter, John Christian Laursen, & Cary J. Nederman, eds., Heresy in Transition: Transforming Ideas of Heresy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005).

Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, Cambridge Medieval Textbooks (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

Richard Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976).

Alan C. Kors & Edward Peters, ed., Witchcraft in Europe, 1100-1700: a Documentary History (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989).

Malcolm Lambert, The Cathars (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998).

Carol Lansing, Power & Purity: Cathar Heresy in Medieval Italy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Gordon Leff, Heresy in the Later Middle Ages: the Relation of Heterodoxy to Dissent, 1250-1450, 2 vol. (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1967).

Bernard McGinn, Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil (reprint of 1993 edition: New York: Columbia University Press, 2000).

Bernard McGinn, ed., Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages, rev. ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).

Shannon McSheffrey, Gender and Heresy: Men and Women in Lollard Communities, 1420-1530, Middle Ages Series (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995).

R.I. Moore, The Birth of Popular Heresy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1976).

R.I. Moore, The Origins of European Dissent, Medieval Reprints for Teaching 30 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994).

Edward Peters, Heresy and Order in the Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980).

Marjorie Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages: A Study in Joachimism (reprint: Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993).

Jeffrey Burton Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1972).

Jeffrey Burton Russell, Dissent and Order in the Middle Ages (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.

Stephen O’Shea, The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars (Walker & Co., 2001).

Michael Van Dussen, From England to Bohemia: Heresy and Communication in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012) hardcover, $85. NEW.

Walter L. Wakefield, trans. Heresies of the High Middle Ages: Selected Sources (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991).