The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism 1200-1350
By Bernard McGinn
New York: Crossroad, 1998. Hardback, xvi + 526 pages.
As part of an envisioned five-volume series tracing the historical development of western Christian Mysticism, McGinn's The Flowering of Mysticism compliments the preceding volumes, The Foundations of Mysticism and The Growth of Mysticism. It identifies the year 1200 as a turning point in Christian mysticism, when an impetus for a "new mysticism" was inspired by the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Beguines.
-DANIEL ROSS CHANDLER
January/February 2001