Dazzling Darkness: The Lives and Afterlives of the Christian Mystics

For 2,000 years, women and men of the Christian faith have experienced what some mystics call a ’dazzling darkness’: the spiritual journey to the heart of ultimate reality, or God. These direct communions have ranged from mild illuminations to a union consuming the mystic’s will.

This book traces such spiritual figures’ lives, times and teachings, from early Christendom to modern mystics like Simone Weil and Thomas Merton. It explores how the anchoress Julian of Norwich grew up while the Black Death was devastating Europe; how, when the beguine Marguerite Porete lived, the Church was particularly primed to burn ’heretics’; and how Pierre Teilhard de Chardin developed his idea of spiritual evolution with Darwin’s theories in the air.

Deeply researched and highly engaging, Dazzling Darkness tells the stories of towering figures like Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross, and highlights many lesser-known mystics, including Mary of Egypt, Seraphim of Sarov and Charles de Foucauld, allowing their voices to sing out to future generations.

James Harpur is a poet, author and translator who lives in Ireland. He was the 2023 Writer Fellow at the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, Trinity College, Dublin. His debut novel, The Pathless Country, won the J G Farrell Award and was shortlisted for the John McGahern Prize.