Late Medieval Mysticism

Late Medieval Mysticism, edited by Ray C Petry, 413 pages

This collection brings together texts from St Bernard of Clairvaux, St Francis of Assisi, St Bonaventure, Bl Ramon Lull, Meister Eckhart, Richard Rolle, Henry Suso, St Catherine of Siena, Jan van Ruysbroeck, Nicholas of Cusa, and St Catherine of Genoa, among others, spanning 400 years from the twelfth century to the sixteenth.  Each author receives a brief introduction, including a short biography and bibliography.  Inevitably, the selections are themselves also rather limited, providing no more than a taste of the sources.  As a sampler, this is acceptable, but readers looking for a real understanding of the authors should go directly to the full works.

"Mysticism" is a word with many meanings, but in the Catholic tradition it is nothing more nor less than the science of the love of God.  How to attain to a fuller communion with the Divine is the subject of all the works excerpted here. As is to be expected with so many authors spread across Europe from Italy to England and over four centuries, there is considerable variety in their approaches - especially in the development of a strict apophatic approach in the Rhineland mystics.  As Petry's commentary makes clear, however, the continuity is deeper than the differences - especially the insistence on balance between the active and contemplative life that can be traced back at least as far as St Gregory the Great and St Benedict.