SOURCE: An introduction to Birgitta of Sweden: Life and Selected Revelations, edited by Marguerite Tjader Harris and translated by Albert Ryle Kezel, Paulist Press, 1990, pp. 13-51.

In the following introduction to The Life of Birgitta of Sweden, Nyberg examines the structure of Birgitta's Revelations and the theological doctrine it propounds.

Spiritual Background and Early Life

Mystic union with God, redeeming words and deeds born out of a burning heart—all that we summarize under the heading "spirituality"—is not to be labelled male or female. It is both and at the same time either of them; seemingly a contradiction. In studying the mystics and the great men and women of spiritual life we find this contradiction dissolved into a kind of dynamic interaction between the level of the splendor of eternity, and the level of huruan relations in the sphere of creation. Many great spiritual men had the...