Mystics of the Renaissance

Mystics of the Renaissance is a book by Rudolf Steiner, first published in 1911. In this concise collection of essays Steiner traces the spiritual lives and ideas of key European mystics — from Meister Eckhart, Tauler and Suso, through Paracelsus and Nicholas of Cusa, to Jacob Boehme and Giordano Bruno — and shows how their inward experiences anticipated and influenced later currents of modern thought.

The book frames these figures not as relics of the past but as living voices whose mystical insight challenged the purely material outlook of their age. Steiner combines close historical reading with philosophical reflection, exploring how mystical experience reshaped notions of the self, nature and knowledge during the transition to the modern era. Written for readers interested in spirituality, intellectual history and the religious imagination, it situates Renaissance mysticism as an active force in the genealogy of modern spiritual and philosophical ideas.