It is one of many achievements of Riehle's book to bring to the fore the 'vivid exchange of ideas' between the medieval English mystics and their continental counterparts.... It has been a great pleasure to read this book. The translation is graceful, and the physical, editorial, and typographical makeup of the book reflects the high standards of the press. Considering the ever-decreasing attention non-English publications receive in Anglo-American scholarship, the translation of Riehle's important book into English will ensure that it gets the recognition it deserves.(Anglistik) A completely fresh look at the question of solitude and its relationship to the production of theological texts.... A sensitive and subtle book.... Although The Secret Within is centered on familiar writers and works, Riehle's approach to them gives them new freshness.... His detailed, subtle, and dense readings serve to remind us how rich these texts are and how fully they repay constant study.(Speculum) It is in the large number of texts analysed that readers can really appreciate the depth and breadth of Riehle's achievement here. Riehle aims to 'consider the texts as works of literary and theological significance' (p. xv), and the book certainly succeeds in these twin aims, at times arguing that the theological sophistication of certain texts has been under-appreciated in previous scholarship (e.g. in relation to Julian of Norwich), and in the process providing the reader with a thorough reminder of the long and varied textual tradition (e.g. the Psalms, Pauline writings, Origen) from which medieval mystical writers could gain both certainty and confusion in theological matters.(parergon)
