The Soul as Virgin Wife

Amy Hollywood

Description

The Soul as Virgin Wife presents the first book-length study to give a detailed account of the theological and mystical teachings written by women themselves, especially by those known as beguines, which have been especially neglected. Hollywood explicates the difference between the erotic and imagistic mysticism, arguing that Mechthild, Porete, and Eckhart challenge the sexual ideologies prevalent in their culture and claim a union without distinction between the soul and the divine.

The beguines' emphasis in the later Middle Ages on spiritual poverty has long been recognized as an important influence on subsequent German and Flemish mystical writers, in particular the great German Dominican preacher and apophatic theologian Meister Eckhart. In The Soul as Virgin Wife, Amy Hollywood presents the first book-length study to give a detailed textual account of these debts. Through an analysis of Magdeburg's The Flowing Light of the Godhead, Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls, and the Latin commentaries and vernacular sermons of Eckhart, Hollywood uncovers the intricate web of influence and divergence between the beguinal spiritualities and Eckhart.

Sujets

• Medieval
• Philosophie et théologie
• Edad Media
• Mysticism
• Spirituality
• Middle Ages
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 05 décembre 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268081829
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

The Soul as Virgin Wife
STUDIES IN SPIRITUALITY AND THEOLOGY 1
Lawrence Cunningham, Bernard McGinn, and David Tracy
SERIES EDITORS
T HE S OUL AS V IRGIN W IFE
Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart
AMY HOLLYWOOD
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame and London
Copyright 1995 by University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 All Rights Reserved http://www.undpress.nd.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
Paperback printed in 2001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hollywood, Amy M., 1963-.
The soul as virgin wife : Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart / Amy Hollywood
p. cm. - (Studies in spirituality and theology series : vol. 1)
Revision of author s thesis (Ph. D.-University of Chicago, 1991).
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-268-01769-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Mysticism-History-Middle Ages, 600-1500. 2. Mysticism-Catholic Church-History. 3. Mechthild, of Magdeburg, ca. 1212-ca. 1282. 4. Porete, Marguerite, ca. 1250-1310. 5. Eckhart, Meister, d. 1327. I. Title. II. Series.
BV5075.H64 1995
248.2 2 09022-dc20
94-40479 CIP
ISBN 9780268081829
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER
C ONTENTS
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
1. VISIONARY IMAGINATION AND APOPHASIS
2. THE RELIGIOSITY OF THE MULIERES SANCTAE
3. THE SOUL AS HAUSFRAU: MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG S THE FLOWING LIGHT OF THE GODHEAD
4. THE PROBLEM OF THE TEXT: MARGUERITE PORETE S THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS
5. LANGUAGE AND ONTOLOGY IN MEISTER ECKHART: THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF HIS MYSTICISM
6. THE CENTRAL MYSTICAL THEMES OF MEISTER ECKHART S GERMAN WORKS
7. THE TRANSFORMATION OF SUFFERING IN MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, MARGUERITE PORETE, AND MEISTER ECKHART
N OTES
B IBLIOGRAPHY
I NDEX
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book began as a dissertation, written under the exemplary guidance of Bernard McGinn. Initially, the study focused on detailed analyses of the mystics texts. These readings remain central, but I realized that the theoretical and historical grounding for my conclusions needed to be articulated in greater detail; this led me to write chapters 1 and 2 and substantially revise the remainder. Bernie McGinn has been unstinting in his support throughout the process of revision and expansion, providing all of the postdoctoral assistance for which a former student could hope. I am glad to be able to acknowledge my debt to him here.
I would also like to thank others who have read the manuscript, offering suggestions and criticisms, and often saving me from error. David Tracy and Anne Carr read the early version with care, often clarifying for me my own conclusions. Frank Tobin s comments were invaluable for the final revision of the manuscript. I hope that Stephanie Paulsell will always be my first reader and thank her for the generosity and unflagging enthusiasm with which she greeted this and other projects. Reed Lowrie read the penultimate version with an editor s eye (and pen), making important suggestions. The book is now, I hope, much more readable. For comments on sections of the text and other forms of assistance, thanks also to Ellen Babinsky, Lawrence Cunningham, Michael Drompp, Liz Feder, Rahel Hahn, Michael McLain, Kevin Madigan, Cynthia Marshall, Charlie Poole, Michael Sells, Walter Simons, Brad Stull, and Mark Winokur.
Others, without reading or commenting directly on the present study, played important roles in its genesis. I am indebted to the members of various reading groups in feminist theory, both at the University of Chicago and Rhodes College, in particular Cathy Frasier, Susan Hill, Maggie Kim, Susan St. Ville, Susan Simonaitis, and Kathy Waller. Thanks also to my friends Maria Arbusto and Ellen Armour. Ellen listened to me work through many of the ideas presented in the opening chapters. I hope I didn t bore her too much.
I presented portions of the present work at the International Conference on Medieval Studies, the American Academy of Religion, Rhodes College, Hamilton College, and the Medieval Colloquium of Dartmouth College. These audiences gave me not only an opportunity to try out ideas, but also many helpful comments and suggestions.
For financial support during the writing of this study, I thank the University of Chicago, the Charlotte Newcombe Fellowship Foundation, the Rhodes College Faculty Development Endowment, and the Burke Fund of Dartmouth College.
I am also grateful to everyone who made me talk about something else-especially Ken Fox. And again, thanks to Reed, who has yet to see the last of Mr. Farnear.
1

V ISIONARY I MAGINATION AND A POPHASIS
In the middle years of the thirteenth century, Mechthild of Magdeburg described the genesis of her book, a compendium of visions, prayers, dialogues, and mystical accounts entitled The Flowing Light of the Godhead ( Das fliessende Licht der Gottheit ). From the time she first was greeted by God, through her decision to leave home, family, and friends to live as a solitary beguine, until the moment she was called on by God to write of his glory, her life was one of conflict between body and soul: 1
These were the weapons of my soul [sighs, tears, confession, fasts, vigils, beatings, and constant prayer] with which I so completely overcame the body, that for twenty years there was never a time when I was not tired, sick, or weak, most of all from compunction and sorrow, and also from good desire and spiritual work, and I had many difficult sick days from nature. But powerful love came and occupied me so profoundly with these wonders, that I did not dare remain silent, although in my simplicity this caused me much sorrow. 2
Reluctant to undertake the task set for her by love, Mechthild questions God on his choice of one so unworthy as the spokesperson of his glory.
Mechthild describes herself as a fool, a sinful and poor human being in body and in soul. She argues that God should entrust his words to wise people ( wisen luten ) whose lowliness will not diminish his glory. 3 God s answer, here and elsewhere in the text, is to insist on the precedence of his will over her reservations. He plays on her modesty; Mechthild uses the humility topos of Christian literature to her advantage, for God argues that his glory is more fully displayed through her lowliness than through the wise. 4 His word and command, moreover, is reinforced by the cleric to whom Mechthild goes to discuss her dilemma. Mechthild inscribes within her text its official approbation by both God and man. 5
Writing is not only an approved activity for Mechthild, then, but one demanded by the divine. She must write; she cannot be silent about the wonders with which love occupies her. Yet these wonders not only cure but also cause her suffering. As she writes in an earlier passage, God s wonder wounds the soul: Lord your wonder has wounded me, your grace has oppressed me. 6 Throughout the text she reflects on the wounds of Christ and refers to the Song of Songs and the wound inflicted on the lover by the beloved; the wounded soul ( gewundete s le ) thereby identifies herself with both Christ and the bride who mourns the absence of her beloved. 7 These wonders and the wounds they inflict are both the source of her writing and its subject matter. Through writing of these wonders, experienced as a wounding intensification of her suffering, she will ultimately be healed:
Then our lord spoke: You shall follow me and trust me in these things, and you will be sick for a long time and I will care for you, and all of those things which you need in body and in soul I will give to you. 8
Mechthild s wounds are caused by love, the agony brought about by the apparently intermittent nature of God s presence to her soul. At first blaming this absence on the body and its physicality, experienced as a barrier to divine bliss, she comes to understand it as rooted in the will and its dispositions. Through obedience to God s will, Mechthild is eventually able to recognize and experience his continual presence. Reflection on the wounds caused by the wonders of love heals her. Furthermore, in communicating these wonders and wounds through a written text, she is able to make the divine voice present to herself and others.
The relationship between divine absence and the powers of the imagination, as well as the ambivalence of the latter for the medieval Christian author, is made even more explicit in the prologue to The Mirror of Simple Souls ( Le Mirouer des simples ames anienties et qui seulement demourent en vouloir et desire d amour ) by the solitary, itinerant beguine Marguerite Porete (d. 1310). 9 In the opening of this allegorical dialogue, Love gives an exemplum explaining its genesis and function. Love tells of a young lady, the daughter of a king, who lives in a foreign country. There she hears of the great courtesie and nobility of King Alexander, with whom she falls in love. Her love, however, causes her only sorrow and unhappiness, for Alexander is inaccessible to her, and she can accept no other love but his.
And when she saw that this faraway love, who was so close to her within herself, was so far outside, she thought that she would comfort her unhappiness by imagining some figure of her love, by whom she was often wound