The Chaucer Review: An Indexed Bibliography (Vols. 1-30)

Hirsh, John C. "The Experience of God: A New Classification of Certain Late Medieval Affective Texts." 11 (1976): 11-21.
Readers may classify texts like Richard Rolle's The Mending of Life as "Texts of Encounter" (14), showing direct religious meetings with the divine as an experience separate from devotions. Texts such as A Talking of the Love of God, Hilton's Love of God, and Rolle's Form of Living are "Texts of Adoration" (15). These works discuss meditations on Christ's person. "Texts of Devotion" emphasize a new kind of penitentialism: all these texts involve a soul seeking salvation. Handbooks tend toward adoration; thus they do not fit into the last category.