The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism [Hardcover]

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism brings together a team of leading international scholars to explore the origins, evolution, and contemporary debates relating to Christian mystics, texts, and the movements they inspired.

• Provides a comprehensive and engaging account of Christian mysticism, from its origins right up to the present day
• Draws on the best of current scholarship by bringing together a collection of newly-commissioned readings by leading scholars
• Considers examples of mysticism in both Eastern and Western Christianity
• Offers a brilliant synthesis of the key figures and historical periods of mysticism; its core themes, such as heresy, gender, or aesthetics; and its theoretical considerations, including theological, literary, social scientific, and philosophical approaches
• Features chapters on current debates such as neuroscience and mystical experience, and inter-religious dialogue

Notes on Contributors xi

Preface xix

1 A Guide to Christian Mysticism 1
Julia A. Lamm

Part I Themes in Christian Mysticism 25

2 The Song of Songs 27
Ann W. Astell and Catherine Rose Cavadini

3 Gender 41
Barbara Newman

4 Platonism 56
Willemien Otten

5 Aesthetics 74
Don E. Saliers

6 Heresy 89
J. Patrick Hornbeck II

Part II Early Christian Mysticism 103

7 Mysticism in the New Testament 105
Alan C. Mitchell

8 The Judaean–Jewishl³³