The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth Century

Bernard McGinn is a historian of Christian mysticism, and this book, published by Crossroad, is the first volume of his multi volume academic history The Presence of God, tracing the roots and early development of Western Christian mystical thought from its origins through the fifth century. Its strength is exhaustive engagement with the primary patristic and late antique sources themselves, situating mystical writers within their theological and historical context rather than treating mysticism as a timeless universal category. As the opening volume of a much longer project, its scope is bounded to this early period, so claims about medieval or later Christian mysticism need the later volumes of the same series rather than this one alone.