Bernard McGinn, considered by experts to be the best scholar of Western Christian mysticism in the world, became known far beyond academia with the 1991 publication of The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth Century. The initial volume in a four-volume series was greeted with immediate and unprecedented critical praise. This second volume, The Growth of Mysticism, will also stand on its own as a towering achievement, taking up the story from 500 to 1200 CE. It is the fascinating history of early medieval mysticism when monasticism was the dominant religious and educational institution of the new post-Roman world. It brings to life such visionaries as Gregory the Great, John Scottus Eriugena, Bernard of Clairvaux, and many others. Filled with knowledge and wisdom, The Growth of Mysticism is grounded in the highest scholarship.

Remaining a classic in its field, this book explains first how mysticism relates to such things as vitalism, theology psychology, symbolism and magic. This treatment may seem unusual for Christian mysticism, but it relates widely to the world as we know it and the different practices therein. Part Two explores the awakening, purification and illumination of yourself and gives solid groundwork for such things as voices, visions dreams and other mystical experience.

This interdisciplinary handbook provides extensive information about research in medieval studies and its most important results over the last decades. The handbook is a reference work which enables the readers to quickly and purposely gain insight into the important research discussions and to inform themselves about the current status of research in the field. The handbook consists of four parts. The first, large section offers articles on all of the main disciplines and discussions of the field. The second section presents articles on the key concepts of modern medieval studies and the debates therein. The third section is a lexicon of the most important text genres of the Middle Ages. The fourth section provides an international bio-bibliographical lexicon of the most prominent medievalists in all disciplines. A comprehensive bibliography rounds off the compendium. The result is a reference work which exhaustively documents the current status of research in medieval studies and brings the disciplines and experts of the field together.

What will the final state of the redeemed look like? Throughout the history of the church, conceptions of the final state have tended to minimize the promise of the new heavens and new earth. In contrast to the historical dominance of spiritual, heavenly, non-temporal conceptions of the final state, the last two decades have witnessed a rise in conceptions that include the redemption of material, earthly, and temporal reality. These “new creation” conceptions have included proposals regarding the fulfillment of Old Testament land promises. In New Creation Eschatology and the Land, Steven L. James argues that in recent new creation conceptions of the final state there is a logical inconsistency between the use of Old Testament texts to inform a renewed earth and the exclusion of the territory of Israel from that renewed earth. By examining a select group of new creationists, James shows that the exclusion of the territorial restoration of Israel in a new creation conception fails to appreciate the role of the particular territory in Old Testament prophetic texts and results in an inconsistent new creationism.

The present book reflects on the life, work, and legacy of an exceptional and enigmatic woman: the philosopher and French Jewish mystic Simone Weil. It constitutes a testimony so unique that it is impossible to ignore. In a Europe where authoritarian regimes were dominant and heading, in a sinister manner, toward World War II, this woman of fragile health but indomitable spirit denounced the contradictions of the capitalist system, the brutality of Nazism, and the paradox of bourgeois thought. At the same time, her spiritual journey was one of zeal and sorrow--that of a true mystic--but her radical intransigence and passion for freedom kept her from actually approaching the institutional church. Curious and insatiable, she wanted to experience, in the flesh, the suffering of society's least fortunate and the truths of other religions. The reader will need to develop a discerning empathy for Simone Weil's sensibility, beyond her particular passion and zeal, in order to appreciate her in depth. But undeniable are this truly singular woman's authenticity, her capacity to suffer, her identification with the other, her inner passion, her almost magical perception of the depths of the human spirit. And that is why her story merits being told as one of the great witnesses of our age.

Capturing the essence of life in great civilizations of the past, each volume in the

Bringing together the research of several eminent scholars, A Companion to the Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris seeks to provide a deep introduction to the significance, scope, and reach of the abbey’s influence in the twelfth century and beyond. Sixteen chapters introduce the history of the abbey from its beginnings through the reception of its major writings. Chapters are grouped in the areas of the life and ministry of Victorine canons, the abbey’s contributions to biblical exegesis, sacramental and theological teachings, and the Victorine understanding of Christian life and prayer. Such a thorough introduction to the Abbey of Saint Victor has never before been published. Contributors are: David Albertson, Rainer Berndt, Boyd Taylor Coolman, Marshall Crossnoe, Torsten K. Edstam, Christopher P. Evans, Margot E. Fassler, Hugh Feiss, Karin Ganss, Franklin T. Harkins, Donna R. Hawk-Reinhard, C. Stephen Jaeger, Juliet Mousseau, Dominique Poirel, Patrice Sicard, and Frans van Liere.

Did Chinese mysticism vanish after its first appearance in ancient Taoist philosophy, to surface only after a thousand years had passed, when the Chinese had adapted Buddhism to their own culture? This first integrated survey of the mystical dimension of Taoism disputes the commonly accepted idea of such a hiatus. Covering the period from the Daode jing to the end of the Tang, Livia Kohn reveals an often misunderstood Chinese mystical tradition that continued through the ages. Influenced by but ultimately independent of Buddhism, it took forms more various than the quietistic withdrawal of Laozi or the sudden enlightenment of the Chan Buddhists. On the basis of a new theoretical evaluation of mysticism, this study analyzes the relationship between philosophical and religious Taoism and between Buddhism and the native Chinese tradition. Kohn shows how the quietistic and socially oriented Daode jing was combined with the ecstatic and individualistic mysticism of the Zhuangzi, with immortality beliefs and practices, and with Buddhist insight meditation, mind analysis, and doctrines of karma and retribution. She goes on to demonstrate that Chinese mysticism, a complex synthesis by the late Six Dynasties, reached its zenith in the Tang, laying the foundations for later developments in the Song traditions of Inner Alchemy, Chan Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism.