num_pages: 344
description: The widespread view that 'mystical' activity in the Middle Ages was a rarefied enterprise of a privileged spiritual elite has led to isolation of the medieval 'mystics' into a separate narrowly defined category. Taking the opposite view this book shows how individual mystical experience such as those recorded by Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe is rooted in nourished and framed by the richly distinctive spiritual contexts of the period. Arranged by sections corresponding to historical developments it explores the primary vernacular texts their authors and the contexts that formed the expression and exploration of mystical experiences in medieval England. This is an excellent insightful introduction to medieval English mystical texts their authors readers and communities. Featuring a guide to further reading and a chronology the Companion offers an accessible overview for students of literature history and theology.
language: English
title: The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Mysticism
publisher: Cambridge University Press