Contemporary Theological Explorations in Mysticism
About the Book Series
This series facilitates new points of synergy and fresh theological engagements with Christian mystical traditions. Reflecting the plurality of theological approaches to Christian mystical theology, books in the series cover historical, literary, practical, and systematic perspectives as well as philosophical, psychological, and phenomenological methods.
Although the primary focus of the series is the Christian tradition, exploration of texts from other traditions also highlight the theological, psychological and philosophical questions that Christian mysticism brings to the fore.
Medieval Mystical Women in the West: Growing in the Height of Love
1st Edition
Edited
By John Arblaster, Rob Faesen
January 30, 2026
This book explores the rich and varied mystical writings by and about medieval – and a few early modern – women across Western Europe. Women had a profound and lasting impact on the development of medieval and early modern spiritual and mystical literature, both through their own writing and ...
Metaphor, Making and Mysticism: Radical Re-Imaginings in Language and Art
1st Edition
Edited
By Sheila Gallagher, Louise Nelstrop, Lydia Shahan
October 24, 2025
This volume focuses on the interplay between metaphor, making, and mysticism and sheds new light on the power of the metaphorical and creative dimensions of the mystical for the twenty-first century. It explores the ways a variety of mystical writers deal with metaphor and image by bringing ...
John of the Cross: Carmel, Desire and Transformation
1st Edition
Edited
By Edward Howells, Peter Tyler
September 29, 2025
This book explores the life and teaching of John of the Cross, the Spanish mystic who remains a major source of Western thought on spirituality, theology and mysticism. Leading academics discuss the importance and legacy of John from historical, theological, philosophical, pastoral, ecumenical, ...
Kierkegaard and Mysticism: Reception, Influence, Resonance
1st Edition
Edited
By Hjördis Becker-Lindenthal
September 16, 2025
Kierkegaard and Mysticism brings together scholars who show that reading Søren Kierkegaard from the perspective of mysticism not only sheds new light on the Dane’s thought but also offers a fresh approach to mysticism as such, considering its relevance for existential questions, ethics, inter-faith...
Gender and Medieval Mysticism from India to Europe
1st Edition
Edited
By Alexandra Verini, Abir Bazaz
December 18, 2024
This book opens up a dialogue between pre-modern women identified as mystics in diverse locations from South Asia to Europe. It considers how women from the disparate religious traditions of Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity expressed devotion in parallel ways. The argument is that women’s ...
Spiritual Formation as the Hero’s Journey in John of Ruusbroec
1st Edition
By Robert Pelfrey
January 29, 2024
This book examines the theology of spiritual formation developed by fourteenth-century Flemish mystic John of Ruusbroec, arguing that his formational path clearly and consistently displays the characteristics of the archetypal narrative structure of the hero’s journey. To start with, a ...
Mysticism and Materialism in the Wake of German Idealism
1st Edition
By W. Ezekiel Goggin, Sean Hannan
September 25, 2023
This book argues that the rediscovery of mystical theology in nineteenth-century Germany not only helped inspire idealism and romanticism, but also planted the seeds of their overcoming by way of critical materialism. Thanks in part to the Neoplatonic turn in the works of J. G. Fichte, as well as ...
Christian Mysticism and Incarnational Theology: Between Transcendence and Immanence
1st Edition
Edited
By Louise Nelstrop, Simon D. Podmore
June 30, 2021
This book examines the relationship between transcendence and immanence within Christian mystical and apophatic writings. Original essays from a range of leading, established, and emerging scholars in the field focus on the roles of language, signs, and images, and consider how mystical theology ...
Exploring Lost Dimensions in Christian Mysticism: Opening to the Mystical
1st Edition
Edited
By Louise Nelstrop, Simon D. Podmore
June 30, 2021
’Mystical theology’ has developed through a range of meanings, from the hidden dimensions of divine significance in the community’s interpretation of its scriptures to the much later ’science’ of the soul’s ascent into communion with God. The thinkers and questions addressed in this book draws us ...
On Deification and Sacred Eloquence: Richard Rolle and Julian of Norwich
1st Edition
By Louise Nelstrop
June 30, 2021
This book considers the place of deification in the writings of Julian of Norwich and Richard Rolle, two of the fourteenth-century English Mystics. It argues that, as a consequence of a belief in deification, both produce writing that is helpfully viewed as sacred eloquence. The book begins by ...
Semiotic Theory and Sacramentality in Hugh of Saint Victor
1st Edition
By Ruben Angelici
March 31, 2021
This book offers Hugh of Saint Victor’s early scholastic thoughts on sacrament in order to re-discover the pre-modern theological understanding of ontological signification. The Christian understanding of sacrament through the category of ‘signs’ results in a theology that inherently shares in the ...
Art and Mysticism: Interfaces in the Medieval and Modern Periods
1st Edition
Edited
By Louise Nelstrop, Helen Appleton
August 14, 2020
From the visual and textual art of Anglo-Saxon England onwards, images held a surprising power in the Western Christian tradition. Not only did these artistic representations provide images through which to find God, they also held mystical potential, and likewise mystical writing, from the early ...