Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection (Classics of Western Spirituality (Paperback)) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809131943 ISBN 13: 9780809131945

Publisher: Paulist Press, 1990

Synopsis

English-speaking Christians owe Paulist Press an enormous debt of gratitude for their continuing efforts to help us gain a deeper appreciation of our spiritual heritage. Spiritual Life Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection translated from the Middle English, with an introduction and notes by John P.H. Clark and Rosemary Dorward preface by Janel Mueller Behold him well, for he goes before you not in bodily likeness but invisible, through the secret presence of his power. Therefore see him in the spirit if you can, or else trust him and follow him wheresoever he goes, for he shall lead you in the right way to Jerusalem; that is, the sight of peace in contemplation. Walter Hilton (c.1343-1396) This edition of The Scale of Perfection by English Augustinian Canon Walter Hilton represents a considerable advance on what has hitherto been available. The modern-language version by Rosemary Dorward is made from those manuscripts selected as the basis for the forthcoming Early English Text Society editions, and differs at a number of points from existing printed versions. The introduction and theological notes by John P.H. Clark take account of the considerable progress which has been made in the last twenty years in the understanding of Hilton's life and milieu, and of his theological background. Hilton is considered in relation to Richard Rolle, to The Cloud of Unknowing and to some of the turbulent religious movements of his day. Arising from this context, his powerful restatement of the church's traditional wisdom, addressed to those outside the cloister as well as within, is seen to speak to the needs of our own day as clearly as to those of the fourteenth century. †

About this title

About the Author

Walter Hilton (d. 1396) was an English Augustinian mystic. He attended Cambridge University, and at some point, probably before 1386, he rejected the legal and administrative career available to him and retired from the world as a hermit. Later he decided that his true vocation was not to the heremitic life, but to a religious order. According to manuscript tradition, Hilton died as an Augustinian Canon Regular in the priory of St. Peter at Thurgarton in Nottinghamshire. His spiritual writings were widely influential during the fifteenth century in England.

Edition details

• Publisher: Paulist Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809131943
• ISBN 13: 9780809131945
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368