The writings of Jan van Ruusbroec—frequently rendered in English as John van Ruysbroeck—bear witness, Evelyn Underhill says, to “the direct ecstatic knowledge of God.” Through these writings the central Christian belief in our relationship with God, she claims, is “raised to the nth degree of intensity, experienced in all its depth and fullness.”
In this book Underhill examines Ruusbroec’s life and provides an overview of his works, examining in greater detail his understanding of God and humanity. She then discusses his approach to the spiritual life, seeing how he plumbs the depths of the interior life, before concluding with the “‘Superessential Life’ of Unity.” In all of this she demonstrates her joy in the “new and living jewel—or, in his own words, a ‘sparkling stone’—which reflects the actual radiance of the Uncreated Light.”
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