In search of an authentic religious experience, many expectations are directed towards mysticism. Schäufele provides an introduction to the history of Christian mysticism from its biblical beginnings to the present day. He demonstrates that mystical religiosity has always been an option within Christian piety, but gained particular significance under certain historical and social conditions: in antiquity under the influence of Neoplatonism and monasticism, in the wake of the Reformation and lay piety of the High Middle Ages, and under the conditions of confessional division in the Early Modern period.