Books in the Studies in Spirituality and Theology series

Jan Van Ruusbroec (1293-1381), a Flemish mystical theologian, was one of the most original Trinitarian thinkers in the medieval West. In this book, Van Nieuwenhove explores in detail Ruusbroec's theology of the Trinity, his anthropology, Christology and his understanding of union with God.

In this compelling study of two seventeenth-century female mystics, Bo Karen Lee examines the writings of Anna Maria van Schurman and Madame Jeanne Guyon, who, despite different religious formations, came to similar conclusions about the experience of God in contemplative prayer. Van Schurman was born into a Dutch Calvinist family and became a superb scriptural commentator before undergoing a dramatic religious conversion and joining the Labadist community, a Pietistic movement. Guyon was a French layperson whose thought would be identified with Quietism-a spiritual path that was looked upon with suspicion both by the French Catholic Church and by Rome. Lee analyzes and compares the themes of self-denial and self-annihilation in the writings of these two mystics. In van Schurman's case, the focus is on the distinction between scholastic knowledge of God and the intima notitia Dei accessible only by radical self-denial. In Guyon's case, it is on the union with God that is accessible only through a painful self-annihilation. For both authors, Lee demonstrates that the desire for enjoyment of God plays an important role as the engine of the soul's progress away from self-centeredness. The appendices offer facing Latin and English translations of two letters by van Schurman and a selection from her Eukleria.

McIntosh's examination of the unique christological thought of 20th-century theologican Hans Urs von Balthasar provides an example of how christology and spirituality can come together to offer a more humanistic idea of Christ.

Julian of Norwich wrote ""A Revelation of Love"", a short text which shows the immediacy of her experience, and a long text which shows 20 years of reflection. This book offers a reading of these texts and addresses the relationship between the understanding of God and her vision of human community.