Women Mystics - Paperback

by Louis Bouyer (Author)

Focusing on the lives and writings of five women mystics, the great theologian and spiritual writer Louis Bouyer shows that, far from relegating women to some inferior position, Christianity has often been shaped and steered by women. The Church passed beyond the collapse of medieval Scholasticism and the errors of the Renaissance largely due to a succession of exceptional feminine personalities.

Bouyer studies five female figures whose influence catalyzed an interior renaissance within Catholicism--the kind the Church needs as much today as it did in times past. Between Hadewijch of Antwerp, Teresa of Avila, Thérèse of Lisieux, Elizabeth of the Trinity, and Edith Stein, there is a striking continuity, yet each is unique--and deeply creative--in her spiritual mission, and each has given to Christians a vivid glimpse into the reality of the living God

Author Biography

Father Louis Bouyer (1913-2004) was born to a Parisian family and was ordained as a Lutheran pastor at age twenty-three. He converted to Catholicism in 1939 and was ordained a priest for the Oratory in 1944. He became a prolific theological writer and taught worldwide. His works have had an enduring impact on Catholic theology. His other books include The Church of God and The Word, Church, and Sacraments.