Mysticism and Spirituality in Medieval England

Without the theologians of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, without the anchoritic writings of the thirteenth century, Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich, Walter Hilton, Margery Kempe could not have written as they did. Likewise, those who followed them - the Wycliffites, the Bridgeittines, the writers of religious lyrics -responded to those who had gone before. The articles presented here identify major themes and the web of influence that links them; new but solid interpretations are offered of the key figures and their background, and the emphasis is on the rich variety of mysticism these authors and texts embody.

WILLIAM F. POLLARD is Professor of English at Huntingdon College; ROBERT BOENIG is Associate Professor of English at Texas A & M University.

Contributors: THOMAS H. BESTUL, ROBERT BOENIG, RITAMARY BRADLEY, SUSAN DICKMAN, DOUGLAS GRAY, ROGER ELLIS, MICHAEL P. KUCZYNSKI, WILLIAM F. POLLARD, DENIS RENEVEY, ELLEN M. ROSS, ANNE SAVAGE, RENÉ TIXIER.

Table of Contents

`Pseudo-Dionysius and the Via Towards England'. - Robert Boenig
`Enclosed Desires: A Study of the Wooing Group'. - Denis Renevey
`The Solitary Heroine: Aspects of Meditation and Mysticism in Ancrene Wisse, the Katherine Group, and the Wooing Group'. -
`Richard Rolle and the `Eye of the Heart''. - William F. Pollard
`` is louely blinde werk': Contemplation in The Cloud of Unknowing and Related Treatises'. - Rene Tixier
`Julian of Norwich: Everyone's Mystic'. - Ritamary Bradley
`A Showing of God's Grace: The Book of Margery Kempe'. -
`Rolle among the Reformers: Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in Wycliffite Copies of Richard Rolle's Psalter'. - Michael Kuczynski
`Medieval English Mystical Lyrics'. - Douglas Gray
`Further Thoughts on the Spirituality of Syon Abbey'. - Roger Ellis