Mystics of the Renaissance and Their Relation to Modern Thought

There are certain magical formula which operate throughout the centuries of Man's mental history in ever new ways. In the following expositions, I speak about the Mystics, from Master Eckhart to Angelus Silesius, with a full measure of devotion and acquiescence. "Contradictions," which one critic or another may further count up against me, I shall not mention at all. It does not surprise me to be condemned from one side as a "Mystic" and from the other as a "Materialist." When I find that the Jesuit Father Miiller has solved a difficult chemical problem, and I therefore in this particular matter agree with him unreservedly, one can hardly condemn me as an adherent of Jesuitism without being reckoned a fool by those who have insight.

I hope to have shown in this book that one may be a faithful adherent of the scientific conception of the world and yet be able to seek out those paths to the Soul along which Mysticism, rightly understood, leads. I even go further and say: Only he who knows the Spirit, in the sense of true Mysticism, can attain a full understanding of the facts of Nature. But one must not confuse true Mysticism with the ''pseudo-mysticism" of ill-ordered minds.

This book takes on the following subject areas in an effort to link Renaissance mysticism with modern thought and theory:

Introduction
Meister Eckhart
Friendship with God: Tauler, Suso, and Ruysbroeck
Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa
Agrippa von Nettesheim and Theophrastus Paracelsus
Valentine Weigel and Jacob Boehme
Giordano Bruno and Angelus Silesius
Afterword