Rik Van Nieuwenhove is Associate Professor of Medieval Theology at Durham University. He has authored many articles and books on medieval theology and spirituality, including: Thomas Aquinas and Contemplation (OUP, 2021), Jan van Ruusbroec. Mystical Theologian of the Trinity (IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003), and co-edited The Theology of Thomas Aquinas (IN: University of Notre Dame, 2005) and Late Medieval Mysticism of the Low Countries (NJ: St Paulist Press, 2008).

1. Introduction; Part I. The Legacy of the Fathers: 2. Augustine of Hippo; 3. Monks and scholars in the fifth and sixth centuries: John Cassian, Boethius and Pseudo-Dioysius; Part II. Early Medieval Theologians: 4. Gregory the Great; 5. John Scottus Eriugena and the Carolingian renaissance; Part III. The Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries: 6. Introduction: renewal in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; 7. Anselm of Canterbury; 8. Monks and scholars in the twelfth century: Peter Abelard, William of St. Thierry and Bernard of Clairvaux; 9. Hugh of St. Victor; 10. Richard of St. Victor; 11. Hildegard of Bingen; 12. Peter Lombard and the systematization of theology; Part IV. The Thirteenth Century: 13. Introduction: Mendicant orders, universities and Islamic scholarship; 14. Two beguines: Mecthild of Magdeburg and Hadewijch of Antwerp; 15. Early Franciscan theology: Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, and the Summa Halensis; 16. Bonaventure; 17. Albert the Great; 18. Thomas Aquinas; 19. The Condemnations of 1277; 20. John Duns Scotus; Part V. The Fourteenth Century and Beyond: 21. Upheavals and pluralism in the fourteenth century; 22. William of Ockham; 23. Meister Eckhart; 24. Jan van Ruusbroec and the modern devotion; 25. Epilogue.