This week in Christian history: Jerry Falwell church founded, John Marrant born, Johannes Tauler dies

Johannes Tauler died – June 16, 1361

This week marks the anniversary of the death of Johannes Tauler, a late Medieval German Dominican friar and author best known for his works on religious mysticism.

Tauler entered the Dominican order while only a teenager and was influenced by a mysticism movement known as the Gottesfreunde, or “Friends of God.”

Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) referred to Tauler as “one of the four outstanding figures in the amazing flowering of mystical experience and writing that took place in late-medieval Germany.”

“This phenomenon included the unlettered Beguine Mechthild of Magdeburg and Tauler's fellow Dominicans Meister Eckhart and Heinrich Seuse,” stated CCEL. “Tauler's sermons, written only in German, circulated widely in the Middle Ages in Germany and the Low Countries.”

“Tauler was less erudite and more practical than Eckhart, and his teaching was built on the devotional habits of his day. As a result, he was able to transmit much of Eckhart's basic teachings when Eckhart himself was branded as heretical.”

Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther was a fan of Tauler’s work, having written at one point that “If you want to read pure, solid theology ... you should get hold of Johannes Tauler’s sermons.”