Flowering of Mysticism

Bernard McGinn is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. He is the author of Anti-Christ, Early Christian Mystics, The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, and The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart. He lives in Chicago.

"This third volume in The Presence of God series, actually the first of two parts, covers the rich terrain of Franciscan mysticism and the emergence of female mystics (the speculative mysticism associated with Meister Eckhart and later male mystics of 1300A50 will wait for a companion volume, to be subtitled "Love and Knowledge in Late Medieval Mysticism"). Suffice to say, however, the treatment here, as in McGinn's previous volumes, is bountiful, detailed, and exhaustive. Particularly as he surveys female mystical literature, the field becomes verdant and exceptional. Introducing and analyzing female mystics great and small, McGinn (Univ. of Chicago's Divinity Sch.) expands immensely an area previously including only the well-known, such as Hadewijch of Antwerp and Mechthild of Magdeburg. Literate, scholarly, and profound, this is highly recommended for all religion collections." -- Library Journal