The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism by Herbert Thurston | 1st Edition 1952

Edition & Publication

Publisher: Burns Cates

Year: 1952

Edition: True First Edition

Notes: Condition

• Book: Near Fine. Clean throughout with no foxing. Cloth boards remain sharp. The blue top edge is exceptionally vibrant, a feature often dulled or lost in surviving copies. Binding tight and square.

• Dust Jacket: Very Good−. Correct first-issue jacket, price clipped. No foxing. Light edge wear with small chips at extremities, consistent with age. Spine clear and legible. Now housed in an archival Mylar sleeve.

A particularly well-preserved example of the true first edition, superior to most copies encountered.

Blurb / Summary

First published in 1952, The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism is a rigorous and sceptically minded examination of the extraordinary physical manifestations historically associated with Christian mystics. Jesuit scholar Herbert Thurston brings his trademark clarity, erudition, and restraint to subjects often sensationalised or uncritically accepted.

Drawing on hagiography, Church records, eyewitness testimony, and medical perspectives, Thurston investigates phenomena such as stigmata, levitation, bilocation, miraculous fasting, incorruptibility, and ecstatic trances. Rather than promoting credulity, he applies careful historical analysis and rational scrutiny, distinguishing between authentic mystical experience, psychological or physiological explanation, exaggeration, and outright fraud.

The result is a work that respects spiritual experience while insisting on intellectual honesty. It remains a landmark text in the study of mysticism, theology, and religious psychology, valued for its balance, scholarship, and refusal to sensationalise the miraculous.

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