Revised: 6/99

BIBLIOGRAPHY #7: Meister Eckhart & Medieval Mysticism

1. MEISTER ECKHART & THE RHINELAND MYSTICS: STUDIES

Richard Woods, Eckhart’s Way, Way of the Christian Mystics 2 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1990)

paperback, $13. A fine recent survey of the major themes in Eckhart’s mysticism. Lots of good quotes
from Eckhart’s work. Woods is overly defensive about Eckhart’s orthodoxy—so can cloud over why
Eckhart was so controversial. A fine bibliography.

Frank Tobin, Meister Eckhart: Thought and Language (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1986) hardcover.

Recent. A superb in-depth study by the best contemporary translator of Eckhart’s German works. Tobin
moves with equal ease in the intricate Latin thought of Eckhart the scholastic and in the paradoxical German
poetry of Eckhart the preacher.

John Caputo, “Fundamental Themes in Meister Eckhart’s Mysticism,” The Thomist 42 (1978) 197-225. One of the

best, brief introductions to Eckhart’s worldview and central concerns.

Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart: Mystical Theologian (London: SPCK, 1991).
Jeanne Ancelet-Hustache, Master Eckhart and the Rhineland Mystics (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1957).
Robert K.C. Forman, Meister Eckhart: Mystic as Theologian (Rockport, MA: Element, 1991) paperback, $17.
Karl Kertz, “Meister Eckhart’s Teaching on the Birth of the Divine Word in the Soul,” Traditio 15 (1959): 327-363.
Richard Kieckhefer, “Meister Eckhart’s Conception of Union with God,” Harvard Theological Review 71 (1978)

203-225.

Bernard McGinn, “The God Beyond God: Theology and Mysticism in the Thought of Meister Eckhart,” Journal of

Religion 61 (1981): 1-19.

Bernard McGinn, “Eckhart’s Trial Reconsidered,” The Thomist 44 (1980) 390-414.
Bernard McGinn, ed., Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics (New York: Continuum, 1994) paperback, $15.
Steven Ozment, Homo Spiritualis: A Comparative Study of the Anthropology of Johannes Tauler, Jean Gerson, and

Martin Luther, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Thought 6 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967).

Reiner Schurmann, Meister Eckhart: Mystic and Philosopher (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1978).
Paul Vergeyen, Ruusbroec and his Mysticism, Way of the Christian Mystics (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press,

1994), paperback, $13.

2. MEISTER ECKHART & THE RHINELAND MYSTICS: TEXTS

Meister Eckhart, The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises, and Defense, Classics of Western Spirituality 28,

ed. Edmund Colledge & Bernard McGinn (New York: Paulist Press, 1981) paperback, $18. Eckhart was
one of the most radical of the medieval mystics: he writes using brilliant paradoxes, striking imagery,
provocative claims—yet was schooled in all the subtleties of medieval scholasticism. His orthodoxy was
challenged, and some of his positions were posthumously—and unjustly—condemned.

Henry Suso, The Exemplar, Classics of Western Spirituality 63, trans., Frank Tobin (New York: Paulist Press, 1989)

paperback, $17. Suso (1300-1366) was a Dominican mystic and the great successor to Meister Eckhart.
His Exemplar includes his autobiography as well as his mystical works, especially the Little Book of Eternal
Wisdom and the Little Book of Truth.

Meister Eckhart, Teacher and Preacher, Classics of Western Spirituality 52, ed. Bernard McGinn & Frank Tobin

(New York: Paulist Press, 1986) paperback, $18.

Meister Eckhart, Selected Writings, ed. Oliver Davies (New York: Penguin Book, 1994) paperback, $12.
John Ruusbroec, The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works, Classics of Western Spirituality 48, trans. James A.

Wiseman (New York: Paulist Press, 1985) paperback, $18.

Bibliography #7: Meister Eckhart

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Johannes Tauler, Sermons, Classics of Western Spirituality 47, trans. Maria Shrady (New York: Paulist Press, 1985)

paperback, $10.

3. OTHER MEDIEVAL MYSTICS: STUDIES

Bernard McGinn, The Growth of Mysticism: 500 to 1200 A.D. and The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in

the New Mysticism, 1200-1350 (New York: Crossroad, 1996 & 1998), paperback, $25 per volume. NEW.
McGinn is the leading contemporary historian of Christian spirituality. These are the second & third
volumes of his multi-volume history of mysticism, The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian
Mysticism. The second includes in-depth studies of Gregory the Great and Bernard of Clairvaux, while the
third focuses on Francis of Assisi. See also volume 1, The Foundations of Mysticism, which has some fine
suggestions on how to read and interpret mystics and their theological endeavors.

Frederick Bauerschmidt, Julian of Norwich and the Mystical Body Politic of Christ (Notre Dame: University of

Notre Dame Press, 1999) hardcover, $35. NEW.

Frances Beer, Women and Mystical Experience in the Middle Ages (Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 1992) paperback.

A study of Hildegard of Bingen, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Julian of Norwich.

Ritamary Bradley, Julian’s Way: a Practical Commentary on Julian of Norwich (London: HarperCollins, 1992)
Emilie Zum Brunn & Georgette Epiney-Burgard, eds., Women Mystics in Medieval Europe, trans. Sheila Hughes

(New York: Paragon House, 1989) paperback, $17.

Caroline Walker Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval

Religion (New York: Zone Books / MIT Press, 1991) paperback.

Caroline Walker Bynum, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley: University

of California Press, 1982) paperback, $16.

Steven Chase, Angelic Wisdom: the Cherubim and the Grace of Contemplation in Richard of St. Victor, Studies in

Spirituality and Theology 2 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 199_) hardcover, $33.

Lynda L. Coon, Sacred Fictions: Holy Women and Hagiography in Late Antiquity, Middle Ages Series

(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1997), hardcover, $40. NEW.

Renate Craine, Hildegard: Prophet of the Cosmic Christ (New York: Crossroad, 1997) paperback.
Harvey Egan, Christian Mysticism: the Future of a Tradition (New York: Pueblo Books, 1984) paperback.
Sabina Flanagan, Hildegard of Bingen: A Visionary Life, 2

nd

ed. (New York: Routledge, 1996) paperback, $19.

Marion Glasscoe, English Medieval Mystics: Games of Faith (London: Longman, 1993).
Amy M. Hollywood, The Soul as Virgin Wife: Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart,

Studies in Spirituality and Theology 1 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995) hardcover.

Saskia Murk Jansen, Brides in the Desert: The Spirituality of the Beguines, Traditions of Christian Spirituality Series

(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998) paperback, $13. NEW.

Grace Jantzen, Julian of Norwich: Mystic and Theologian (New York: Paulist Press, 1988) paperback, $15.
William Johnston, The Mysticism of the Cloud of Unknowing: a Modern Interpretation (New York: Desclee Co.,

1967), preface by Thomas Merton.

David Knowles, The English Mystical Tradition (New York: Harper, 1961). Often cited, but quite dated.
Jean Leclerq & Louis Bouyer, The Spirituality of the Middle Ages, vol. 2 of History of Christian Spirituality (New

York: Seabury, 1968) paperback, $18. Dated, but still valuable.

Barbara Newman, ed., Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World (Berkeley: University of

California, 1998) paperback, $20. NEW.

Elizabeth Petroff, Body and Soul: Essays on Medieval Women and Mysticism (New York: Oxford University Press,

1994) paperback, $18.

Jill Raitt, ed., Christian Spirituality II: High Middle Ages and Reformation (New York: Crossroad, 1987) paperback,

$20. A fine survey.

Heinrich Schipperges, The World of Hildegard of Bingen: Her Life, Times, and Visions, trans. John Cumming

(Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999) hardcover, $35. NEW.

Miriam Schmitt, Linda Kulzer, eds., Medieval Women Monastics: Wisdom’s Wellsprings (Collegeville, MN:

Liturgical Press, 1996) paperback.

Jane Tibbetts Schulenberg, Forgetful of Their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500-1100 (Chicago: University

of Chicago Press, 1998) hardcover, $40. NEW.

Bibliography #7: Meister Eckhart

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Michael Anthony Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
Paul Szarmach, ed., An Introduction to the Medieval Mystics of Europe (New York: SUNY, 1984) paperback, $15.
Frank Tobin, Mechtild von Magdeburg: a Medieval Mystic in Modern Eyes (Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1995).
Denis Turner, The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism (New York: Cambridge University Press,

1995).

Ingeborg Ulrich, Hildegard of Bingin: Mystic, Healer, Companion of the Angels (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press,

1993).

Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness (reprint:

New York: Noonday Press, 1955). A path-breaking turn-of-the-century classic.

4. OTHER MEDIEVAL MYSTICS: TEXTS

Julian of Norwich, Showings, Classics of Western Spirituality 1, trans. Edmund Colledge & James Walsh (New

York: Paulist Press, 1978) paperback, $18. Currently popular among feminists because of her bold
speaking of Jesus as “our mother”; they miss the obvious: that Julian was very much an austere, thoroughly
medieval ascetic—much devoted to the passion of Christ. Yet her warmth and optimism make this a
classic.

The Cloud of Unknowing, Classics of Western Spirituality 26, trans. James Walsh (New York: Paulist Press, 1981)

paperback, $15. The greatest of the 14th Century English mystics. His theme: that God cannot be known
by the mind, but only a love that pierces through the ‘cloud of unknowing.’

Angela of Foligno, Complete Works, Classics of Western Spirituality 77, trans. Paul Lachance (New York: Paulist

Press, 1993) paperback, $19.

Birgitta of Sweden, Life and Selected Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Albert Ryle Kezel (New

York: Paulist Press, 199_) paperback, $16.

Catherine of Genoa, Purgation and Purgatory, Classics of Western Spirituality 12, trans. Serge Hughes (New York:

Paulist Press, 1979) paperback, $17.

Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, Classics of Western Spirituality 17, trans. Suzanne Noffke (New York: Paulist

Press, 1980 ) paperback, $19.

Gertrude of Helfta, The Herald of Divine Love, Classics of Western Spirituality 76, trans. Margaret Winkworth (New

York: Paulist Press, 1993 ) paperback, $18.

Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, Classics of Western Spirituality 67, trans. Columba Hart and Jane Bishop (New York:

Paulist Press, 1990) paperback, $23.

Hildegard of Bingen, The Book of the Rewards of Life, trans. Bruce W. Hozeski (New York: Garland Publishing,

1994).

Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, Classics of Western Spirituality 71, trans. John P.H. Clark and Rosemary

Dorward (New York: Paulist Press, 1991) paperback, $18.

Jean Gerson, Early Works, trans. Brian Patrick McGuire, Classics of Western Spirituality 92 (New York: Paulist

Press, 1998) paperback, $25. NEW.

Margery Kemp, The Book of Margery Kemp, trans. John Skinner (New York: Image / Doubleday, 1998) paperback,

$12. NEW.

Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Flowing Light of the Godhead, Classics of Western Spirituality 93, trans. Frank Tobin

(New York: Paulist Press, 1998) paperback, $25. NEW.

Marguerite Porète, The Mirror of Simple Souls, Classics of Western Spirituality 79, trans. Ellen Babinsky (New

York: Paulist Press, 1993) paperback, $18.

Richard of St. Victor, The Book of the Patriarchs, Classics of Western Spirituality 10, trans. Grover Zinn (New

York: Paulist Press, 1979) paperback, $10.

Richard Rolle, The English Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality 58, trans. Rosamund Allen (New York: Paulist

Press, 1988) paperback, $13.

Thomas á Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, ed. Harold C. Gardiner (New York: Image / Doubleday, 1955)

paperback, $9. Perhaps the most widely read book of Christian spirituality.

Anchoritic Spirituality: Ancrene Wisse and Associated Works, Classics of Western Spirituality 73, trans. Anne

Savage & Nicholas Watson (New York: Paulist Press, 1991) paperback, $23.

Bibliography #7: Meister Eckhart

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Beguine Spirituality: Mystical Writings of Mechtild of Magdeburg, Beatrice of Nazareth, and Hadewijch of Brabant,

ed. Fiona Bowie, trans. Oliver Davies (New York: Crossroad, 1990).

Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality 56, trans. John Van Engen (New York: Paulist

Press, 1988) paperback, $14.

Joseph L. Baird, ed., The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen, Volume 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994)

NEW in paperback, $19.

Louis Dupré & James A. Wiseman, Light from Light: an Anthology of Christian Mysticism (New York: Paulist

Press, 1988) paperback.

Harvey Egan, ed., An Anthology of Christian Mysticism (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991) paperback, $28.
Barry Windeatt, ed., English Mystics of the Middle Ages (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), hardcover,

$60.

5. CONCILIARISM & THE ROOTS OF THE REFORMATION

Steven Ozment, The Age of Reform, 1250-1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and

Reformation Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980) paperback, $16. Ozment helps re-join
what is too often separated: medieval studies and reformation studies. He offers summaries on a broad
range of figures and questions. It is widely acclaimed, but I must confess that I find myself quibbling with
some of his judgments and interpretations.

Alister E. McGrath, The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1986)

paperback, $20.

Francis Oakley, The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1979)

paperback, $12.

Francis Oakley, The Political Thought of Pierre d’Ailly: The Voluntarist Tradition (New Haven: Yale University

Press, 1964).

Heiko A. Oberman & Charles Trinkhaus, ed., The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Reformation Religion

(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1974). A pathbreaking set of essays.

Heiko A. Oberman, Dawn of the Reformation: Essays in Late Medieval and Early Reformation Thought (Grand

Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992) paperback, $30.

Heiko A. Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Nominalism (Cambridge,

MA: Harvard University Press, 1963).

Heiko A. Oberman, The Reformation: Roots and Ramifications, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 199_)

paperback, $29.

Matthew Spinka, John Hus at the Council of Constance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1965).
Thomas N. Tentler, Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977).
Brian Tierney, Foundations of the Conciliar Theory: The Contribution of the Medieval Canonists from Gratian to

the Great Schism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955). A classic.

6. HERESY, WITCHCRAFT, & MILLENARIANISM

Robert E. Lerner, The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press,

1972) paperback, $19. The so-called heretics of the Free Spirit claimed that they had achieved union with
God, that they were God, and so had no need of Church or conventional morals. At least that’s what their
enemies (inquisitors) accused them of saying. But as Lerner shows, inquisitors’ accusations and real heresy
are quite different matters. This study is fine example of how to read medieval documents with a critical
eye. A fascinating look behind what made headlines in the Middle Ages.

Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation, 2nd

edition (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1992) paperback, $20. The most comprehensive survey of medieval
heresy. Lambert, whose studies on the Spiritual Franciscans are the standard, here studies not only the
Spirituals, but also the Waldensians, the Cathars, the Joachimites, the Lollards, and many others.

Bibliography #7: Meister Eckhart

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Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie, Montaillou: the Promised Land of Error (New York: Vintage, 1978) paperback, $10. A

widely-acclaimed case study of life in a medieval town. Ladurie gleans his portrait from the records of the
local inquisition which was led by Jacques Fourier would go on to become Pope Benedict XII.

Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle

Ages, Revised edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970) paperback, $12. An entertaining study of
the wildest of the fringe (and often heretical) groups that made headlines in the late Middle Ages and the
early Reformation.

Dyan Elliot, Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages, The Middle Ages Series

(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998) paperback, $20. NEW.

Heinrich Fichetenau, Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages, 1000-1200 (Penn. State University Press,

1998) hardcover, $45. NEW.

Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, Cambridge Medieval Textbooks (New York: Cambridge University

Press, 1990), paperback, $15.

Richard Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture (Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1976).

Alan C. Kors & Edward Peters, ed., Witchcraft in Europe, 1100-1700: a Documentary History (Philadelphia:

University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989).

Gordon Leff, Heresy in the Later Middle Ages: the Relation of Heterodoxy to Dissent, 1250-1450, 2 vol. (New

York: Barnes & Noble, 1967).

Bernard McGinn, Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil (San Francisco:

HarperCollins, 1993) paperback, $14.

Bernard McGinn, ed., Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages, rev. ed. (New York: Columbia

University Press, 1998) paperback, $18. NEW. An anthology of apocalyptic texts.

Shannon McSheffrey, Gender and Heresy: Men and Women in Lollard Communities, 1420-1530, Middle Ages

Series (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995) paperback, $19.

R.I. Moore, The Birth of Popular Heresy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1976).
R.I. Moore, The Origins of European Dissent, Medieval Reprints for Teaching 30 (Toronto: University of Toronto

Press, 1994) paperback, $18.

Edward Peters, Heresy and Order in the Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980).
Marjorie Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages: A Study in Joachimism (Notre Dame:

University of Notre Dame Press, 197_) paperback, $20. A classic study, now back in print.

Jeffrey Burton Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1972).
Jeffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986)

paperback, $17.

Jeffrey Burton Russell, Dissent and Order in the Middle Ages (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992).
Walter L. Wakefield, trans. Heresies of the High Middle Ages: Selected Sources (New York: Columbia University

Press, 1991), paperback.