The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism

Picks the best sections of works from scores of theologians. Well-organized by themes. The short bibliographies are concise and do a great job of putting the texts into proper perspective so you get a sense of where each mystic got his/her ideas.

Would certainly like to own a copy someday. A book I will go back to again and again, I'm sure.

Overall, this book gave a decent general overview of Christian mysticism. My biggest complaint, though, was that there was too much focus on the West (and when the editor did use authors from the East, he chose pieces which are more in tune with Western Christianity than Eastern). There was also too much focus on very small heretical movements (why so many quotes from the Quietists?); their presence in the book was disproportionate to their presence in history. Not bad, but there's much better out there.

Good reference book to the "essential writings" of mysticism. From the perspective of a non-specialist, the editor is clearly an expert and has put together in one volume a diverse collection of mystic works across the ages, from Patristics to the Middle Ages, from the Church East and West.

Excerpts from the original sources of writers on Christian mysticism, starting from early Christianity up to modern times.