Download Free The Spiritual Espousals Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online The Spiritual Espousals and write the review.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
The Espousals is the masterpiece of the fourteenth-century Flemish mystic Jan van Ruusbroec, who described one's spiritual development as involving the active life, the inner or yearning life, and the contemplative life, which he explains in the Espousals in three books. The overall theme of the three books is the message of Matthew 25:6, "See, / the Bridgegroom cometh, / go out / to meet him", which involves a four-step experience in each of the three "lives". The reader travels past the same guideposts three times, each time at a higher plane. Three times the reader sees the same thing occur - the meeting of the person with God - in the same sequence, but under a new light. Ruusbroec supports his mystical treatise with a solid anthropological and theological thought. He sketches the psychological structure of the person, as well as the natural and supernatural relationship between God and the person. In short, Ruusbroec endeavors to verbally express the inner condition of a person being united with God.
In this volume is a masterpiece of medieval literature and spirituality from the 14th-century (1300-1366) German Dominican mystic.
The Sparkling Stone is a classic by the Flemish mystic John of Ruysbroeck.
Jan van Ruusbroec (1293-1381), a Flemish mystical theologian, was one of the most original Trinitarian thinkers in the medieval West. Yet, his works--written in Middle-Dutch--have remained relatively unknown. In this book, Rik Van Nieuwenhove presents the first major study in English of Ruusbroec's thought. Van Nieuwenhove explores in detail Ruusbroec's theology of the Trinity, his anthropology, Christology, and his understanding of union with God. Van Nieuwenhove's study reveals that Ruusbroec, while incorporating aspects of the rich theological and spiritual tradition that preceded him, wrote at the beginning of a modern age in which mystical theology changed radically in nature. Ruusbroec claimed that the divine Persons are subject to an eternal dynamic of procession or out-going from the Father, on the one hand, and returning to the shared divine essence, on the other. The human person is called to participate in this continuous ebbing and flowing by leading a life that combines contemplation and charitable activity. Ruusbroec argued that mysticism should be interpreted in terms of a transformation of the human person rather than in terms of an immediate experience of God. Jan van Ruusbroec, Mystical Theologian of the Trinity is an innovative, original study of one of late medieval theology's undiscovered treasures. Written in clear, accessible language, this new interpretation of Ruusbroec's theology will appeal to all those interested in mysticism, medieval theology, and the doctrine of the Trinity.