Mysticism in Early Modern England by Liam Peter Temple (review)
Alison Shell
The Catholic historical review September 1, 2023 DOI: 10.1353/cat.2023.a914163 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Key findings | Shell contends that Temple's monograph comprehensively maps early modern English debates over mysticism across five cultural environments, balancing attention to women and men and to Anglican, Catholic, and radical figures. She argues the book shows the term 'mysticism' was often pejorative in the period and that scholarship on the subject has now matured. |
Abstract
Reviewed by: Mysticism in Early Modern England by Liam Peter Temple Alison Shell Mysticism in Early Modern England. By Liam Peter Temple. [Studies in Modern British Religious History.] (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2019. Pp. ix, 236. £75.00/ $115.00. ISBN: 978-1-78327-393-5.) The early twentieth-century spiritual writer Evelyn Underhill spoke of mysticism as revealing "truths that are timeless." But though mystical experience itself imparts the sensation of transcending time within ecstatic union with God, it has often had intense temporal repercussions for mystics and their advocates—not least in the centuries after the Reformation. This study's five chapters each describe a cultural environment where mystical practice elicited fierce debate among Englishmen and -women of the early modern period: the advocates and detractors of English Benedictine mysticism in the first half of the seventeenth century; the radical religionists who thrived within revolutionary England; the mid-seventeenth-century writers who speculated upon the bodily and mental causes of mysticism; the harbingers of the age of reason who distrusted the anti-rational tendencies of mystics; and the Philadelphian Society, a crucible of counter-Enlightenment thought. As this summary suggests, Liam Temple's study is highly comprehensive. Given that mysticism flourished in convents inhabited by expatriate Englishwomen and was fomented by such pan-European thinkers as Jakob Böhme, transnational reach comes with the territory. The book's judicious gender balance is more unexpected and very welcome. Early modern mysticism has benefited so much in recent years from feminist scholars' attention to women's spiritual agency, in contexts ranging from the nuns of Cambrai to the Philadelphian prophetess Jane Lead, that there has been a danger of neglecting their male counterparts. Church of England clerics have been particularly out of fashion, given the keen recent interest in Catholics, radical religionists, and others operating outside the established church's hierarchies. However, Temple gives appropriate platform space to Anglican clergymen of several stripes: Establishment men such as the Latitudinarian Edward Stillingfleet, proponent of rational religion and foe of the Benedictine Serenus Cressy, and non-jurors such as Charles Leslie, whose own marginalization did not stop him arguing against religious toleration for Philadelphians. Finally, Temple's cross-denominational reach is entirely in keeping with his subject matter. The mystical transports of a Benedictine nun and a devotee of Böhme's teaching would have been different in theological content, but they often met round the back in the way they affected literary metaphor and personal behavior. This made it relatively easy for a polemicist to draw comparisons between Catholicism and radical religion. Meric Casaubon, for instance, posited that Catholics and sectarians both suffered from religious melancholy: in a direct line of descent from classical religion, as the mocking term "pagano-papism" indicates (18). "Anti-Mysticism in Early Modern England" could have been a viable alternative title for Temple's book; as he demonstrates, the term was often pejorative in the period he covers, and despite such scholars as Underhill, quoted above, its negative connotations have lasted until relatively recently. Temple's sensitive, [End Page 804] engaging, non-judgmental monograph shows that writing on the topic has now come of age. Alison Shell University College London Copyright © 2023 The Catholic University of America Press
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|---|---|---|---|
| Are “mystical experiences” essential for antidepressant actions of ketamine and the classic psychedelics? | 2024 | Review | |
| The Beyond Within: The LSD Story | 1965 | Book review | |
| Psilocybin occasioned mystical‐type experiences | 2020 | Narrative review | |
| Ecstasy research in the 20th century – an introduction | 2019 | Review | |
| Predictors and potentiators of psychedelic-occasioned mystical experiences | 2022 | Review |