The Persistence of Mysticism in Catholic Europe

This volume completes the account of Early Modern mysticism during the period 1500-1675 found in Volume VI. Part 1 dealt with mysticism in the Reformation, while Part 2 treated Spanish mysticism. The late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries was an era that featured not only a great outpouring of mystical literature, but also growing disputes about the nature of the myustical element in Christianity. In the seventeenth century, France emerged as the center of mystical teaching, as figures such as Francis de Sales, Pierre de Bérulle, and a host of others demonstrate. Nevertheless, Italy also had important mystics, especially women like Maria Maddalena de'Pazzi, as did Catholic Germany with the great mystical poet, Angelus Silesius (Johann Scheffler). This volume also investigates the mysticism of Catholics known as Recusants, who fled Protestant England to live and work on the Continent, as well as the mystics of the Catholic Netherlands, like the Caremlite tertiary Maria Petyt. A number of shared features are evident in many of these Early Modern mystics, such as the stress on the annihilation of the soul's own activities to open it up to divine action within. New developments in the Christological core of mysticism are also found, such as Bérulle's Christological theocentrism. The role of ecstasy is highlighted, both in male mystics, but especially in women. Also note worthy is the dominance of affectivity over intellectuality in the mystical life. Despite these many developments and the changed context of Early Modernity, this volume is written out of the conviction that the great traditions of earlier Christian mysticism persisted into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. --Dust jacket.