One of the most influential German mystical writers of the 14th century, Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361) spent his life as a mendicant preacher in the Order of Preachers. These selected sermons show Tauler's emphasis on the via negativa together with his insistence on the importance of cataphatic mysticism and the merits of an active life.

This book sets up a dialogue between Heidegger and four medieval authors: St. Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and Jan van Ruusbroec. Through a close reading of medieval and Heideggerian texts, the book brings to light elements that present possibilities for a revised appropriation of some traditional metaphysical and theological ideas, arguing that, in spite of Heidegger's critique of "ontotheology," many aspects of his thought make a positive, and not exclusively critical, contribution. Unlike some past studies of the relation between Heidegger and medieval mysticism, this book seeks to establish a real identity between the content, the subject-matter (Sache), of the medieval and Heideggerian texts that it examines. In so doing, it challenges Heidegger's own assertion that what he calls "being" cannot be called God. Against this assertion, Sikka argues that what is to be called God remains an open question, and points out metaphysical and theological elements in Heidegger's reflections on being that help to answer this question. Offering new insights into the relation between metaphysics, theology, and mysticism, the book contributes not only to Heidegger studies but to philosophical theology as well.

Histories of the German Dominican order have long presented a grand narrative of its origin, fall, and renewal: a Golden Age at the order's founding in the thirteenth century, a decline of Dominican learning and spirituality in the fourteenth, and a vibrant renewal of monastic devotion by Dominican "Observants" in the fifteenth. Dominican nuns are presumed to have moved through a parallel arc, losing their high level of literacy in Latin over the course of the fourteenth century. However, unlike the male Dominican friars, the nuns are thought never to have regained their Latinity, instead channeling their spiritual renewal into mystical experiences and vernacular devotional literature. In Ruling the Spirit, Claire Taylor Jones revises this conventional narrative by arguing for a continuous history of the nuns' liturgical piety. Dominican women did not lose their piety and literacy in the fifteenth century, as is commonly believed, but instead were urged to reframe their devotion around the observance of the Divine Office. Jones grounds her research in the fifteenth-century liturgical library of St. Katherine's in Nuremberg, which was reformed to Observance in 1428 and grew to be one of the most significant convents in Germany, not least for its library. Many of the manuscripts owned by the convent are didactic texts, written by friars for Dominican sisters from the fourteenth through the fifteenth century. With remarkable continuity across genres and centuries, this literature urges the Dominican nuns to resume enclosure in their convents and the strict observance of the Divine Office, and posits ecstatic experience as an incentive for such devotion. Jones thus rereads the "sisterbooks," vernacular narratives of Dominican women, long interpreted as evidence of mystical hysteria, as encouragement for nuns to maintain obedience to liturgical practice. She concludes that Observant friars viewed the Divine Office as the means by which Observant women would define their communities, reform the terms of Observant devotion, and carry the order into the future.

In this book on The Arnhem mystical sermons, Ineke Cornet offers the first in-depth study of the mystical and theological content of this sixteenth-century sermon collection from St. Agnes in Arnhem.

John Tauler (1300-1361) was a German Dominican theologian, preacher, and devotional writer. He had a profound influence in his own time on both clergy and laity. Tauler was a man of profound spiritual devotion, and he preached against a purely external Christianity defined by empty ritual. Faith, for Tauler, included a personal relationship between the Triune God and the believer. Luther cited Tauler as one of the foremost influences upon his thinking. Later devotional writers such as John Arndt and Johann Gerhard would similarly draw heavily on the works of the medieval mystic. The reason for Tauler's popularity, particularly among heirs of the Reformation, is apparent in this work, titled Meditations on the Life and Passion of Christ. This book is a Christ-centered devotional masterpiece, throughout which the author contemplates various elements of Christ's life and passion. Throughout, he expresses the Christian's own sins and sole reliance upon Christ for salvation. This is an ideal work for Lenten devotions.