Abstract
In the first volume of his magnum opus, The Presence of God, A History of Western Christian Mysticism, Bernard McGinn explained that his original plan for three volumes in all was adjusted to allow the first tome to subdivide into two, The Foundations of Mysticism (1991) and The Growth of Mysticism, Gregory the Great through the 12th Century (1994). That new plan for a four-volume set was short-lived, however, as the medieval materials also began to subdivide. After volume III, The Flowering of Mysticism (1200–1350) in 1998, volumes IV (2007) and V (2012) took 1500 pages to cover the late Middle Ages, and masterfully so. Once planned for three volumes overall, the project will here take three books to cover this one large topic, for this is volume VI, part 1, on the Protestant Reformation, generously defined, with two more Reformation parts yet to come.
Readers of this splendid and ever-expanding series can expect its well-established virtues: contextual introductions, theological overviews for each author, a focus on the elusive “mystical” element regarding the “presence of God,” generous citations of primary texts and secondary studies with copious endnotes, and full apparatus of sources, bibliography, and indices. As always, McG. writes clearly and treats disputed issues fairly. His theme of “presence” charts a middle course between a narrow focus on complete union with God and the broad field of all things spiritual. Yet “consciousness of the presence of God” (15) is still a large topic and requires a panoramic survey, since this “mystical” element is an aspect of Christianity in general. So it is that McG. surveys the Reformation broadly, especially here the German realm of Luther and the “Radicals,” with a minimal glance at the Reformed (47–56). The coverage extends beyond the 16th century to J. Arndt and J. Boehme and also to England for the Puritans and Anglican poets Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, and Treherne. But the main topic is the Germans, and McG.’s main purpose is to counter those who have long claimed a break between Protestants and the (medieval) mystical tradition (viii).
McG. makes his case for continuity of medieval mystical themes into the Reformation not so much with Luther as with the “Radicals”: Karlstadt, Müntzer, Denck, Franck, and (later) Weigel. Yes, Luther used some of the late medieval Rhineland authors, especially Tauler, and he edited and commended the hugely influential German Theology, especially to claim precedent for his emphasis on personal experience and the marital imagery of the happy exchange of believer and Christ. With H. Oberman, McG. balances (sic et non, 22) such appropriation with Luther’s fierce rejection of not only the “Dionysian darkness” but also the overall interiority of an inner union of the loving soul with God apart from saving faith in the external Word (29, 42). It was the Radicals, McG. argues, who carried on the Rhineland mysticism of “God within,” and the deep interior union of love, but with a twist. In the Middle Ages, such an emphasis usually coexisted with the institutional structure of church and sacraments, except for the (largely imaginary) Free Spirits who were condemned precisely for being anti-sacerdotal and anti-hierarchical. McG. argues that the Radicals, all the way to Weigel who explicitly appreciated Meister Eckhart, shared the medieval teachings (78, 128) but changed (indeed severed) their relationship to the rest of the Christian context (95–98, 128–30), such as ministry and sacraments. McG. is very persuasive about this sharp difference between Luther and the Radicals, but he missed the chance to use the Wittenberg invective against the “enthusiasts” on exactly this indictment, namely, that they claimed to have “God within” instead of hearing the external Word in faith.
Johan Arndt, in McG.’s telling, admirably bridged the two worlds, combining Luther’s emphasis on faith and the Taulerian experiential fervor (148). J. Boehme, however, may have been a mystic in his own theosophic (or Gnostic) way, but was he, asks McG., a Christian mystic (190)?
What next? Surely part 2 of volume VI will feature the famous Spanish Roman Catholics Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross along with Ignatius of Loyola, but what will be saved for part 3? McG. suggests a return to the English realm with coverage of Quakers (264) and Recusants (275), but time will tell. Treating mysticism as an aspect of Christianity so generally means coverage of the whole tradition, and thus the project continues to grow. Like J. Pelikan’s well-known history of dogma (University of Chicago Press) and H.O. Old’s less-known history of preaching (Eerdmans), McG.’s vast survey of complex materials defies the trend to narrow specialties, and we can only be grateful. May the volumes keep coming!