English Writings

The Classics of Western Spirituality

by Richard Rolfe

. 1989 clean bright copy

Genres: Religion, Christianity, Spirituality, History

1000 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Rolle was a 14th century English mystic and hermit who left behind a body of writings in both Middle English and Latin. This volume translates the Middle English ones into modern English. It includes scriptural commentaries on some of the Psalms and the Song of Songs (i.e. the Song of Solomon), and the Ten Commandments. He discusses on how to live the Christian spiritual life. One of the works, "The Form of Living" was written for a nun named Margaret Kirkby and was copied, as were these other works, for other monastics. There survive quite a number of Rolle's writings, both the English and Latin ones, in England and on the European continent, as well as other works by influential writers - think Julian of Norwich, Walter Hilton, the author of "The Cloud of Unknowing", just to name three of the English ones. Recommended to anyone interested in the spiritual/mystical/religious life. For me, this was part of my private Lenten reading this year.

Richard Rolle's dates are ca. 1290/1300 - 1349. He died the year that the bubonic plague -the Black Death - was ravaging Europe and England, but as the translator in her introduction mentions, it's unclear that Richard died of the plague.

[Zuzanna W · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was boring as shit I can't lie