For For a reader who wants a clear introduction to the Flemish mystic Jan van Ruusbroec, his life and teaching. Not for a reader wanting his texts themselves.
Should I read this?
For the general reader
2 of 5worth a look
For the researcher
4 of 5important
Difficulty
3 of 5demanding
An introduction to Ruusbroec: his life and his teaching on the spiritual life, by a writer who thought him among the greatest mystics.
How it proceeds
Philosophic3 of 5
Scriptural1 of 5
Experiential4 of 5
Sociological1 of 5
Historical3 of 5
Independent intensities, 0–5 — what the work is made of, not how good it is.
A study of the fourteenth-century Flemish mystic Jan van Ruusbroec (1293-1381), published in London by G. Bell and Sons in 1915. Underhill gives an account of his life, then of his teaching on the spiritual life, drawing on the Flemish texts and the translations then available, with a bibliography. She regarded Ruusbroec as one of the greatest of the mystics, and the book carries forward the work of Mysticism on a single figure. The next year she edited an English translation of three of his treatises.
