author
Robert Alfred Vaughan
1823–1857
Remembered for the thoughtful classic Hours with the Mystics, this 19th-century English writer brought religious history and spiritual ideas to life with unusual warmth and curiosity. He was also a Congregational minister and scholar whose promising career was cut short far too soon.
1 Audiobook
Hours with the Mystics: A Contribution to the History of Religious Opinion
by Robert Alfred Vaughan
About the author
Born in Worcester on March 18, 1823, Robert Alfred Vaughan was an English Congregationalist minister, scholar, and author. He studied at University College, London, later trained at Lancashire Independent College, and continued theological study in Halle, Germany.
Vaughan served in the ministry at Bath and then in Birmingham, while building a reputation as a serious and wide-ranging thinker. He is best known for Hours with the Mystics (1856), a work that helped introduce many readers to the history of Christian mysticism and remains the book most closely associated with his name.
His life was brief—he died in London on October 26, 1857—but he left a strong impression as a gifted writer with wide intellectual interests. After his death, some of his essays and personal writings were collected and published, helping preserve the voice of a writer whose work blended learning, faith, and literary grace.