In recent years research on Christian mysticism has enjoyed a well deserved renaissance. This is evident in Bernard McGinn's magisterial multi-volume series The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism (1991–) and the recent contributions of The Cambridge companion to Christian mysticism (2012) and The Wiley-Blackwell companion to Christian mysticism (2013). This present volume provides another valuable addition to the study of Christian mysticism, most notably at the intersection of mysticism, politics and the love of God. The editors summarise their agenda as the investigation into the ‘expressions of divine union and love in both the medieval and early modern periods [that] have been closely intertwined with the mechanism and politics of reform’ (p. 4). The authors represent a multi-disciplinary scope of historical, theological and literary explorations that argue that the Protestant Reformation was not the death knell of medieval mysticism as many have previously assumed. This volume presents carefully annotated research that persuasively corrects this faulty perception.
The introductory chapter of this stimulating collection of twelve essays, seven of which are focused on women writers, demonstrates the foundational importance of medieval mysticism for both Roman Catholic and Protestant writers. Additionally, it argues that the traditional rigid boundaries that have been constructed through polemics obscure the reality of the more fluid interaction between Protestants and Roman Catholics, in particular, in their devotional writings. The editors define mysticism as ‘the tradition of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century texts articulating affective piety, the via negativa, and the accompanying devotional practices’ (p. 5).
Euan Cameron sets the stage in the first chapter by highlighting the epistemological foundation of mysticism. He reminds readers that it is essential not only to know what a person knows but equally how one knows. Cameron interacts with the themes of authority, tradition, reason and the direct illumination of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, this essay betrays an unbalanced approach in marginalising the Protestant contribution to mysticism that essentially is contradicted by other chapters in this collection. Perhaps most untenable is his claim that Calvin was ‘of all the reformers perhaps the most rational and least mystical in their theologies’ (pp. 39–40). While Cameron accurately recognises the importance of the Holy Spirit in the Genevan reformer's writings he does not appreciate the significant scholarship on Calvin's mystical language and theology especially in his treatment of the eucharist. This is rather surprising since the eucharist is a primary theme in a number of the essays of this volume.
The second chapter, by Alana King, is the first of five chapters dedicated specifically to the Protestant reception of medieval mysticism. She treats the radical sixteenth-century Lutheran, Valentin Weigel's reading of Meister Eckhart. The next three chapters concentrate on the Roman Catholic interaction with their own mystical roots. Kees Schepers insightfully traces a collection of 162 sermons produced for the St Agnes Convent in Arnhem. This unique form of spirituality blended the affective love mysticism of Ruysbroeck with the more speculative Rhineland mysticism of Eckhart. Kirsten Christensen's fourth chapter considers the eucharistic and epistolary writings of the beguine, Maria van Hout. Arthur Marotti turns his attention to the English: Dame Gertrude More and her relationship with the Protestant turned Benedictine Augustine Baker, her spiritual director. Both of these last two chapters depict the tensions that women frequently experienced when their mystical experiences challenged the hierarchy and authority of the Roman Church.
Chapters vi and vii both focus on varied expressions of Quaker mysticism. Genelle Gertz and Sarah Apetrei research the prophetic and visionary experiences that formed around George Fox's ‘inner light’. Clearly Quakerism demonstrated the goal of this volume in recognising the frequent destabilising effect of the more radical expressions of apophatic mysticism on political structures and the resulting need for reform. In the eighth chapter Alison Shell's treatment of the English Catholic John Austin's rhapsodic use of the Psalms reflects more of the kataphatic school that is usually associated with earlier bridal mysticism. Franz Eybl's chapter is devoted to the embodied poetry of the Lutheran Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg. While Protestant, her writings were equally appreciated by Roman Catholic readers and reflect once again the significance of the eucharist within Christian mysticism. In chapter x Bethany Wiggin evaluates the radical mysticism of Marie Christine Sauer who lived temporarily in Conrad Beissel's Ephrata community in Pennsylvania. Jeffrey Hamburger and Hildegard Elisabeth Keller take up the critical dimension of interiority and images in post Reformation mysticism. While Protestants decried the idolatrous Catholic usage of images, they none the less shared with Roman writers the necessity ‘to claim the heart's inner chambers as a space to be cleansed and filled with edifying images’ (p. 330). They assert that Luther chose the heart as a symbol and summary of his theology. Calvin should also be recognised since his motto was to offer his heart promptly and sincerely to God. Niklaus Largier's chapter on rhetorical analysis as an integration of many of the book's themes completes this volume.
These carefully researched chapters include extensive helpful content endnotes that provide deeper commentary and suggestions for additional research and background. Many of these essays contain frequent German texts that are translated to facilitate greater understanding by non-German readers. While some chapters would be approachable for those who are new to the study of mysticism, many require a more advanced foundation to grasp their treatment of the subject. This book intentionally privileges the more radical expressions of Christian mysticism within the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. However, the editors’ claim that ‘the centerground of Western mysticism, mostly apophatic, [stressed] the understanding that the conscious self has to be “annihilated” in order for a believer to experience union with the godhead’ (p. 11) is debatable within the larger recovery of Christian mysticism in both Roman Catholic and Protestant devotional texts. Also, while the via negativa stream of mysticism was more present in radical expressions of post-Reformation recovery of medieval mysticism, it would have been helpful to acknowledge more fully the reality of the kataphaic school as well. The implicit message is that mysticism was not equally popular in the moderate expressions of Puritans, German and Dutch Pietists and Roman Catholics, many of whom also engaged in attempted political resistance and reform. That aside, this is a valuable collection of essays that deserves a wide readership and engagement for continuing research and discussion.
