German Mysticism from Hildegard of Bingen to Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Literary and Intellectual History (Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions)

By Andrew Weeks

Book Overview

This book offers the reader an introduction to the writings of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Tauler, Nicholas of Cusa, Paracelsus, Jacob Boehme, Angelus Silesius, Novalis and includes the more recent thinkers, such as Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein, who were influenced by the tradition. It is the first study of its scope to take into account the much ignored historical preconditions of German mysticism and the first to trace the thematic evolution of mystical literature from a core of biblical and Augustinian materials. It also follows in the footsteps of recent scholarship in showing how German mysticism interacts with other currents in intellectual history such as the Reformation, Romanticism, or Modernism. Instead of murky generalizations, the reader will find clear discussions of representative literary documents, analyzed with an eye to theme, source, style, function, and influence.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791414205
• ISBN13: 9780791414200
• Release Date: July 1993
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Useful overview of German mysticism

Andrew Weeks presents an interesting overview of German mysticism, starting with the mystical thought of Meister Eckhart and continuing through to Jacob Boehme and through to Wittgenstein in the modern period. The most interesting parts of the book deal with Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, and Jacob Boehme, who seem to contain the most fascinating mystical ideas mixed with the most powerful conciousness of God's prescence, while in later periods God seems to recede from the cosmos and mysticism occurs in more nature-oriented forms. This work is worth reading for anyone interested in German mystical thought.