The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism - Paperback

by Julia A. Lamm (Editor)

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism brings together a team of leading international scholars to explore the origins, evolution, and contemporary debates relating to Christian mystics, texts, and the movements they inspired.

• Provides a comprehensive and engaging account of Christian mysticism, from its origins right up to the present day
• Draws on the best of current scholarship by bringing together a collection of newly-commissioned readings by leading scholars
• Considers examples of mysticism in both Eastern and Western Christianity
• Offers a brilliant synthesis of the key figures and historical periods of mysticism; its core themes, such as heresy, gender, or aesthetics; and its theoretical considerations, including theological, literary, social scientific, and philosophical approaches
• Features chapters on current debates such as neuroscience and mystical experience, and inter-religious dialogue

Back Jacket

In the past two decades, interest in mysticism has grown hugely, both in the academic world and in the popular imagination. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism presents a comprehensive and engaging account of the origins and evolution of Christian mysticism right up to the current day, discussing the mystics, their texts, and the movements they inspired.

The volume brings together a team of distinguished scholars who provide a rich synthesis of historical figures and texts, important themes in mysticism (for example, gender, scripture, and heresy), and theoretical perspectives (for example, neuroscience, literary criticism, and interreligious dialogue) in relation to Christian mysticism, problematizing and testing the categories of "mysticism" and "mystic." The result is a compelling and engaging volume drawing on the best of recent cutting-edge scholarship, and providing insights into an ancient but important Christian tradition.

Author Biography

Julia A. Lamm is Associate Professor of Theology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She is a recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for research at the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. She is also the author of The Living God: Schleiermacher's Theological Appropriation of Spinoza (1996) and co-editor of a forthcoming volume on Schleiermacher, The Christmas Dialogue and Other Selections, for the Classics of Western Spirituality series. She has also published articles on Julian of Norwich.