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The Flowering of Mysticism. Men and Women in the New Mysticism - 1200-1230. By Bernard McGinn. Pp. xv + 526. New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1998. L35. 0 8245 1742 3.
The Flowering of Mysticism is the third volume in a five volume series on the history of Western Christian Mysticism, from the earliest centuries up to the present time, published under the general title, The Presence of God. Volumes I and 2, dealing with Origins to the Fifth Century (1991) and Gregory the Great through the twelfth century (1994) respectively, established Professor Bernard McGinn's reputation as 'the best scholar of Western Christian mysticism' and 'the world's greatest interpreter of Western Christian mysticism'. (Reviews)
In my opinion Volume 3 lives up to the high acclaim with which the first two volumes were received. The mystical text, and its place in the Western Christian tradition, is the primary object of his study, and the period 1200 to 1350, with which this volume deals, McGinn considers to be the richest era for the production of mystical literature in the whole history of Christianity.
The lengthy Introduction (30 pp) gives a lucid and detailed outline of the author's thesis and insights into the spiritual climate of the period about which he is writing. From his chronological study of Western Christian mysticism during the first millennium of the
Christian era McGinn noted a distinct 'shift' in mystagogical spirituality which took place, he claims, in the early thirteenth century. He depicts this period as a time of great vitality for...