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1 The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism is a multiauthored interdisciplinary guide to the study of Western Christian mysticism, with an emphasis on the third through the seventeenth centuries. The book is thematically organized in terms of the central contexts, practices, and concepts associated with the mystical life in early, medieval, and early modern Christianity. Written by leading authorities and younger scholars from a range of disciplines, the volume provides a clear introduction to the Christian mystical life and articulates a bold new approach to the study of mysticism. The book looks beyond the term mysticism, which was an early modern invention, to explore the ways the ancient terms mystic and mystical were used in the Christian tradition: What kinds of practices, modes of life, and experiences were described as mystical? What understanding of Christianity and of the life of Christian perfection is articulated through mystical interpretations of scripture, mystical contemplation, mystical vision, mystical theology, or mystical union? What practices and experiences provided the framework within which one could describe mystical phenomena? And what topics are at the forefront of the contemporary study of Christian mystical practice and experience? Amy Hollywood is Elizabeth H. Monrad Professor of Christian Studies at Harvard Divinity School. She is the author of The Soul as Virgin Wife: Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart (1995); Sensible Ecstasy: Mysticism, Sexual Difference, and the Demands of History (2002); and Acute Melancholia and Other Essays (forthcoming). She has written widely on topics medieval and modern and is currently engaged in an historical, philosophical, literary, and theological exploration of enthusiasm in the modern West. Patricia Z. Beckman teaches in the Department of Religion and the Great Conversation program at St. Olaf College. Her research and writing explore medieval women s mystical teaching and practice, especially those of Mechthild of Magdeburg. She has served on the Council of the American Society of Church History and as senior Fellow for the Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogues project. She is an advocate for the public understanding, discussion, and debate of all things religious and historical.

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3 Cambridge Companions to Religion This is a series of companions to major topics and key figures in theology and religious studies. Each volume contains specially commissioned chapters by international scholars, which provide an accessible and stimulating introduction to the subject for new readers and nonspecialists. Other Titles in the Series AMERICAN JUDAISM, edited by Dana Evan Kaplan KARL BARTH, edited by John Webster THE BIBLE, 2nd edition, edited by Bruce Chilton BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION, edited by John Barton DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, edited by John de Gruchy JOHN CALVIN, edited by Donald K. McKim CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, edited by Colin Gunton CHRISTIAN ETHICS, edited by Robin Gill CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY, edited by Charles Taliaferro and Chad V. Meister CLASSICAL ISLAMIC THEOLOGY, edited by Tim Winter JONATHAN EDWARDS, edited by Stephen J. Stein FEMINIST THEOLOGY, edited by Susan Frank Parsons THE JESUITS, edited by Thomas Worcester JESUS, edited by Markus Bockmuehl C. S. LEWIS, edited by Robert MacSwain and Michael Ward LIBERATION THEOLOGY, edited by Chris Rowland MARTIN LUTHER, edited by Donald K. McKim MEDIEVAL JEWISH PHILOSOPHY, edited by Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman MODERN JEWISH PHILOSOPHY, edited by Michael L. Morgan and Peter Eli Gordon MOHAMMED, edited by Jonathan E. Brockup POSTMODERN THEOLOGY, edited by Kevin J. Vanhoozer PURITANISM, edited by John Coffey and Paul C. H. Lim THE QUR AN, edited by Jane Dammen McAuliffe KARL RAHNER, edited by Declan Marmion and Mary E. Hines REFORMATION THEOLOGY, edited by David Bagchi and David Steinmetz FREIDRICK SCHLEIERMACHER, edited by Jacqueline Mariña SCIENCE AND RELIGION, edited by Peter Harrison ST. PAUL, edited by James D. G. Dunn THE TALMUD AND RABBINIC LITERATURE, edited by Charlotte E. Fonrobert and Martin S. Jaffee HANS URS VON BALTHASAR, edited by Edward T. Oakes and David Moss JOHN WESLEY, edited by Randy L. Maddox and Jason E. Vickers

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5 The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism Edited by Amy Hollywood Harvard Divinity School Patricia Z. Beckman St. Olaf College

6 cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY , USA Information on this title: / Cambridge University Press 2012 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2012 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The Cambridge companion to Christian mysticism / [edited by] Amy Hollywood, Harvard Divinity School, Patricia Z. Beckman, St. Olaf College p. cm. (Cambridge companions to religion) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN (hardback) 1. Mysticism. I. Hollywood, Amy M., 1963 II. Beckman, Patricia Z., 1967 BV C dc ISBN Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

7 Contents Contributors page ix Introduction 1 Amy Hollywood Part 1 Contexts 1 Early Monasticism 37 Douglas Burton-Christie 2 Song, Experience, and the Book in Benedictine Monasticism 59 Amy Hollywood 3 New Forms of Religious Life in Medieval Western Europe 80 Walter Simons 4 Early Modern Reformations 114 Edward Howells Part 11 Key Terms 5 Apophatic and Cataphatic Theology 137 Andrew Louth 6 Lectio Divina 147 E. Ann Matter 7 Meditatio/Meditation 157 Thomas H. Bestul 8 Oratio/Prayer 167 Rachel Fulton Brown 9 Visio/Vision 178 Veerle Fraeters 10 Raptus/Rapture 189 Dyan Elliott vii

8 viii Contents 11 Unio Mystica/Mystical Union 200 Bernard McGinn 12 Actio et Contemplatio/Action and Contemplation 211 Charlotte Radler Part 111 Contemporary Questions 13 Latin and the Vernaculars 225 Barbara Newman 14 Transmission 240 Sara S. Poor 15 Writing 252 Charles M. Stang 16 The Body and Its Senses 264 Patricia Dailey 17 Mysticism and Visuality 277 Jeffrey F. Hamburger 18 Emotion 294 Fiona Somerset 19 Authority 305 Mary Frohlich, RSCJ 20 Gender 315 Alison Weber 21 Sexuality 328 Constance M. Furey 22 Time and Memory 341 Patricia Dailey Select Bibliography of Christian Mystical Texts up to around Select Bibliography of Modern Works Related to the Study of Western Christian Mysticism 357 Author and Artist Index 371 General Index 378

9 Contributors Patricia Z. Beckman teaches in the Department of Religion and the Great Conversation program at St. Olaf College. Her research and writing explore medieval women s mystical teaching and practice, especially those of Mechthild of Magdeburg. She has served on the Council of the American Society of Church History and as senior Fellow for the Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogues project. She is an advocate for the public understanding, discussion, and debate of all things religious and historical. Thomas H. Bestul is Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of Texts of the Passion: Latin Devotional Literature and Medieval Society (1996) and the editor of A Durham Book of Devotions (1987) and Walter Hilton s Scale of Perfection (2000). With Franco Morenzoni and Greti Dinkova- Bruun he edited the Opera omnia of Alexander of Ashby (Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis 188; Brepols 2004). He has written many articles on the prayers and meditations of Anselm of Canterbury and on other topics in medieval devotional literature. Rachel Fulton Brown is Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago. She is the author of From Judgment to Passion: Devotion to Christ and the Virgin Mary, (2002) and coeditor with Bruce Holsinger of History in the Comic Mode: Medieval Communities and the Matter of Person (2007). She has published numerous articles on monastic and devotional prayer. Her current project is a study of the history and experience of saying the Hours of the Virgin. Douglas Burton-Christie is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University where he teaches in the area of Christian spirituality. He earned his PhD in Christian Spirituality from the Graduate Theological Union in 1988 and his MA in Theology from Oxford University in His primary research interests are in the contemplative traditions of ancient Christian monasticism, spirituality and the natural world, and the discipline of Christian spirituality. He is the author of The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism (1993) and The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology (2012), and is the founding editor of the journal Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality. Patricia Dailey teaches in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She has published essays in the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, New Medieval Literatures, Women s Studies Quarterly, ix

10 x Contributors Le Secret: Motif et Moteur de la Litterature, Les Imaginaires du Mal, and PMLA. Her book, Promised Bodies: Time, Language, and Corporeality in Women s Mystical Texts (2012), focuses on temporality, embodiment, and language in medieval mystical texts and Anglo-Saxon poetry. She is the coeditor of the Brill Companion to Hadewijch. In addition to her work in medieval literature, she has translated works by Giorgio Agamben (The Time That Remains, 2005), Jean- François Lyotard, Antonio Negri, and Eric Alliez. Dyan Elliott is the Peter B. Ritzma Chair in the Humanities, Department of History at Northwestern University. She is the author of Spiritual Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock (1995); Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages (1999); Proving Woman: Female Spirituality and Inquisitional Cultures in the Later Middle Ages (2004); and The Bride of Christ Goes to Hell: Metaphor and Embodiment in the Lives of Pious Women, (2012). Veerle Fraeters studied Dutch language and literature at the Catholic University of Louvain. In 2002, she was appointed senior lecturer as an associate of the Ruusbroec Research Institute at the University of Antwerp. Her research is focused mainly on the area of medieval mysticism, and she has published primarily on visionary literature and female mysticism. She is currently collaborating with Frank Willaert on a new edition with a modern Dutch translation of the complete works of Hadewijch and with Patricia Dailey on A Companion to Hadewijch. Mary Frohlich, RSCJ, is Associate Professor of Spirituality at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Her publications include essays on spirituality as a discipline, Carmelite spiritual writers, and topics in ecospirituality. Each year at the Summer Seminar in Carmelite Spirituality, she offers lectures and workshops with a particular focus on the women of Carmel. Other current research interests include mystical dimensions of conversion to the Earth, the contributions of women in seventeenth-century French spirituality, and methodological issues in spirituality. Constance M. Furey is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University. She is the author of Erasmus, Contarini, and the Religious Republic of Letters (2005). She has also published articles on utopia, history, and the interest in the body and subjectivity in the study of religion. Her current book project explores how male and female writers of English Renaissance devotional poetry used the genre to reimagine friendship, marriage, patronage, authorship, and erotic love. Jeffrey F. Hamburger is the Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture at Harvard University. A Fellow of the Medieval Academy and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, he has written extensively on late medieval mysticism as well as medieval art, especially in Germany. Amy Hollywood is the Elizabeth H. Monrad Professor of Christian Studies at Harvard Divinity School. She is the author of The Soul as Virgin Wife: Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart (1995); Sensible Ecstasy:

11 Contributors xi Mysticism, Sexual Difference, and the Demands of History (2002); and, forthcoming from Columbia University Press, Acute Melancholia and Other Essays. Edward Howells is Lecturer in Christian Spirituality at Heythrop College, University of London. He is the author of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila: Mystical Knowing and Selfhood (2002) and coeditor with Peter Tyler of Sources of Transformation: Revitalising Christian Spirituality (2010). Andrew Louth is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University and Visiting Professor at the Vriie Universiteit, Amsterdam. He is the author of Greek East and Latin West, AD (2007); Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys (1996); Discerning the Mystery: An Essay on the Nature of Theology (1990); and books on Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, and John Damascene and on the tradition of desert spirituality in the Christian tradition, Eastern and Western. E. Ann Matter is the William R. Kenan Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her teaching and scholarship focus on medieval and early modern spirituality in Western Christianity, with special attention to biblical exegesis and the importance of women authors. Bernard McGinn is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, where he taught from 1969 until his retirement in He has written extensively on the history of Christian apocalyptic traditions, as well as on spirituality and mysticism. He is currently completing the fifth volume of his projected seven-volume history of Christian mysticism under the general title The Presence of God. He also serves as the editor-in-chief of the Paulist Press series The Classics of Western Spirituality (123 volumes to date). Barbara Newman is Professor of English, Religion, and Classics at Northwestern University. She is the author of Frauenlob s Song of Songs (2007); God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages (2003); From Virile Woman to WomanChrist (1995); and many books and articles on Hildegard of Bingen and other religious women. She is currently working on a study of crossover between sacred and secular literature in the Middle Ages. Sara S. Poor is Associate Professor of German Literature at Princeton University. She is author of Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book: Gender and the Making of Textual Authority (2004) and coeditor of Women and Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and the Limits of Epic Masculinity (2007). Her current research concerns the intersection of late medieval German narratives of clever women and the roles of women in the production of fifteenth-century devotional books. Charlotte Radler is Associate Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. Her research interests include the mysticism of Meister Eckhart, women in medieval mysticism, and the construction of heresy and orthodoxy in early and medieval Christianity. Her work has appeared, among other places, in The Journal of Religion, Vigilae Christianae, Spiritus, and the Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies. She is currently working on a book on the role of love in Meister Eckhart s thought.

12 xii Contributors Walter Simons is Professor of History at Dartmouth College. He is the author, most recently, of Cities of Ladies: Beguine Communities in the Medieval Low Countries, (2001) and editor, with Miri Rubin, of The Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. IV: Christianity in Western Europe, c c (2009). Fiona Somerset is Associate Professor of English at Duke University and coeditor of the Yearbook of Langland Studies. She is the author of Clerical Discourse and Lay Audience in Late Medieval England (1998) and editor of Four Wycliffite Dialogues (2009). Her Classics of Western Spirituality volume Wycliffite Spirituality (with J. Patrick Hornbeck II and Stephen E. Lahey) is slated for publication in 2012.She is finishing work on a new book on the writings of the Lollard movement, Feeling Like Saints. Charles M. Stang is Assistant Professor of Early Christian Thought at Harvard Divinity School. His research focuses on the history and theology of Christianity in late antiquity, especially Eastern varieties of Christianity. He has edited, with Sarah Coakley, Rethinking Dionysius the Areopagite (2009). His book Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite is forthcoming in 2012 from Oxford University Press. Alison Weber is Professor in the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese and Affiliate Professor in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia. She is the author of Teresa of Ávila and the Rhetoric of Femininity (1990) and edited Book for the Hour of Recreation by María de San José (2002) and Approaches to Teaching Teresa of Ávila and the Spanish Mystics (2009). Her articles have appeared in Renaissance Quarterly, Hispanic Review, Sixteenth Century Studies, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, and other scholarly journals. She is currently working on a monograph on mysticism and perceptions of sanctity in early modern Spain.