Download or read book The Flowing Light of the Godhead written by Mechthild (of Magdeburg) and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is the first English translation based on the new critical edition of The Flowing Light of the Godhead, the sole mystical visionary work of Mechthild, a 13th-century (c. 1260-c. 1282/94) German Beguine. This challenging work of deep religious insight reflects Mechthild's inner life, and God's as well, employing a great variety of traditional medieval literary forms and genres in prose and verse.
Download or read book Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book written by Sara S. Poor and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometime around 1230, a young woman left her family and traveled to the German city of Magdeburg to devote herself to worship and religious contemplation. Rather than living in a community of holy women, she chose isolation, claiming that this life would bring her closer to God. Even in her lifetime, Mechthild of Magdeburg gained some renown for her extraordinary book of mystical revelations, The Flowing Light of the Godhead, the first such work in the German vernacular. Yet her writings dropped into obscurity after her death, many assume because of her gender. In Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book, Sara S. Poor seeks to explain this fate by considering Mechthild's own view of female authorship, the significance of her choice to write in the vernacular, and the continued, if submerged, presence of her writings in a variety of contexts from the thirteenth through the nineteenth century. Rather than explaining Mechthild's absence from literary canons, Poor's close examination of medieval and early modern religious literature and of contemporary scholarly writing reveals her subject's shifting importance in a number of differently defined traditions, high and low, Latin and vernacular, male- and female-centered. While gender is often a significant factor in this history, Poor demonstrates that it is rarely the only one. Her book thus corrects late twentieth-century arguments about women writers and canon reform that often rest on inadequate notions of exclusion. Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book offers new insights into medieval vernacular mysticism, late medieval women's roles in the production of culture, and the construction of modern literary traditions.
Download or read book Mechthild of Magdeburg written by Mechthild and published by DS Brewer. This book was released on 2003 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mechthild of Magdeburg's The Flowing Light of the Godhead is one of the great surprises of German medieval literature. Compiled between c.1250 and c.1282, it is an extraordinary piece of imaginative writing. It integrates visions, auditions, dialogues, prayers, hymns, lyrical love poems, letters, allegories and parables, and draws creatively on features from hagiography, the disputation, the treatise, and magic spells, as the author documents her relationship with God and with her contemporaries. Within the context of German literary history, it is the first text in the tradition of mystical writing that was neither a translation nor a free adaptation of a Latin text, but rather an independent composition in the vernacular. Also of major significance is the fact that this text was written by a woman, thus offering insights into the cultural and social-historical context of the female religious (Mechthild lived her adult life as a beguine and latterly as a nun) in thirteenth-century northern Europe. Selections from the text are presented here in translation with introduction and notes. Dr Elizabeth A. Andersen teaches in the School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University.
Download or read book Meditations from Mechthild of Magdeburg written by Mechthild (of Magdeburg) and published by Paraclete Press (MA). This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the passionate poetry of a bride to her bridegroom, this thirteenth-century German mystic recorded thirty years of her most intimate conversations with God. The selections in this edition offer a powerful glimpse into Mechthild's vision of God and her constant longing to be in his heart. This eloquent female ascetic recounts her mystical union with God in an unusual combination of literary genres ranging from rich allegory to lyrical poetry and prose. At age twenty, Mechthild left her home to begin a life of intense prayer as a beguine under the direction of the Dominicans. Continually speaking out against abuses in the Church, Mechthild incurred a lifelong conflict with the religious authorities of her time, making the survival of her writings all the more remarkable.
Download or read book Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics written by Bernard McGinn and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1997-01-09 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great German mystic Meister Eckhart remains one of the most fascinating figures in Western thought. Revived interest in Eckhart's mysticism has been matched, and even surpassed, by the study of the women mystics of the late13th century. This book argues that Eckhart's thought cannot be fully be understood until it is viewed against the background of the breakthroughs made by the women mystics who preceded him.
Download or read book The Soul as Virgin Wife written by Amy Hollywood and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2000-12-05 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Cities of Ladies written by Walter Simons and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2010-08-03 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title In the early thirteenth century, semireligious communities of women began to form in the cities and towns of the Low Countries. These beguines, as the women came to be known, led lives of contemplation and prayer and earned their livings as laborers or teachers. In Cities of Ladies, the first history of the beguines to appear in English in fifty years, Walter Simons traces the transformation of informal clusters of single women to large beguinages. These veritable single-sex cities offered lower- and middle-class women an alternative to both marriage and convent life. While the region's expanding urban economies initially valued the communities for their cheap labor supply, severe economic crises by the fourteenth century restricted women's opportunities for work. Church authorities had also grown less tolerant of religious experimentation, hailing as subversive some aspects of beguine mysticism. To Simons, however, such accusations of heresy against the beguines were largely generated from a profound anxiety about their intellectual ambitions and their claims to a chaste life outside the cloister. Under ecclesiastical and economic pressure, beguine communities dwindled in size and influence, surviving only by adopting a posture of restraint and submission to church authorities.
Download or read book A Medieval Woman s Companion written by Susan Signe Morrison and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2015-11-30 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What have a deaf nun, the mother of the first baby born to Europeans in North America, and a condemned heretic to do with one another? They are among the virtuous virgins, marvelous maidens, and fierce feminists of the Middle Ages who trail-blazed paths for women today. Without those first courageous souls who worked in fields dominated by men, women might not have the presence they currently do in professions such as education, the law, and literature. Focusing on women from Western Europe between c. 300 and 1500 CE in the medieval period and richly carpeted with detail, A Medieval Woman’s Companion offers a wealth of information about real medieval women who are now considered vital for understanding the Middle Ages in a full and nuanced way. Short biographies of 20 medieval women illustrate how they have anticipated and shaped current concerns, including access to education; creative emotional outlets such as art, theater, romantic fiction, and music; marriage and marital rights; fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, contraception and gynecology; sex trafficking and sexual violence; the balance of work and family; faith; and disability. Their legacy abides until today in attitudes to contemporary women that have their roots in the medieval period. The final chapter suggests how 20th and 21st century feminist and gender theories can be applied to and complicated by medieval women's lives and writings. Doubly marginalized due to gender and the remoteness of the time period, medieval women’s accomplishments are acknowledged and presented in a way that readers can appreciate and find inspiring. Ideal for high school and college classroom use in courses ranging from history and literature to women's and gender studies, an accompanying website with educational links, images, downloadable curriculum guide, and interactive blog will be made available at the time of publication.
Download or read book Agnes Blannbekin Viennese Beguine written by Agnes Blannbekin and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2002 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Female mysticism, usually nourished in contemplative surroundings, in Blannbekin's case drew its inspiration from urban life; Weidhaus identifies her visions as 'street mysticism'. This early example of a spiritual diary incorporating the visions of a female mystic offers a glimpse of religious women's daily life and spiritual practices. Agnes Blannbekin was from an Austrian farming family, but as a Beguinelived an urban life: Ulrike Weithaus refers to her experiences as 'street mysticism'. Blannbekin's spiritual life revolved around the liturgical cycles of the church year, but also embraced the opportunities and vagaries of city life. Her visions comment on memorable events such as a popular bishop's visit to town during which people were trampled to death; the consequences of a rape committed by a priest; thefts of the Eucharist and the work of witches. Christ, for Blannbekin, is not only bridegroom, but also shopkeeper, apothecary, and axe-wielding soldier, and it was her vision of swallowing Christ's foreskin which led to the eventual censorship of her works. Life and Revelations has only recently been rediscovered by Austrian scholar Peter Dinzelbacher, and this translation is based on his critical edition.
Download or read book Acute Melancholia and Other Essays written by Amy Hollywood and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-15 with total page 603 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acute Melancholia and Other Essays deploys spirited and progressive approaches to the study of Christian mysticism and the philosophy of religion. Ideal for novices and experienced scholars alike, the volume makes a forceful case for thinking about religion as both belief and practice, in which traditions marked by change are passed down through generations, laying the groundwork for their own critique. Through a provocative integration of medieval sources and texts by Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Talal Asad, and Dipesh Chakrabarty, this book redefines what it means to engage critically with history and those embedded within it.
Download or read book Women Intellectuals and Leaders in the Middle Ages written by K. A. Bugyis and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wide-ranging examination of women's achievements in and influence on many aspects of medieval culture.
Download or read book Mechthild of Hackeborn written by and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces an English translation of the Book of Special Grace, a Latin mystical work composed by Mechthild of Hackeborn and her sisters at the convent of Helfta in the 1290s.
Download or read book Nobility and Annihilation in Marguerite Porete s Mirror of Simple Souls written by Joanne Maguire Robinson and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first book-length study of Marguerite Porete's important mystical text, The Mirror of Simple Souls, examines Porete's esoteric and optimistic doctrine of annihilation—the complete transformative union of the soul into God—in its philosophical and historical contexts. Porete was burned at the stake as a relapsed heretic in 1310. Her theological treatise survived the flames, but it circulated anonymously or under male pseudonyms until 1946, and her message endures as testament to a distinctive form of medieval spirituality. Robinson begins by focusing on traditional speculations regarding the origin, nature, limitations, and destiny of humankind. She then examines Porete's work in its more immediate historical and literary contexts, focusing on the ways in which Porete conceptualizes and expresses her radical doctrine of annihilation through contemporary metaphors of lineage and nobility.
Download or read book Enduring Lives written by Carol Lee Flinders and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2013 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this companion volume to her best-selling Enduring Grace, Flinders profiles the lives of four contemporary women of faith. Contending that her modern subjects are spiritual heirs to saints and mystics she draws parallels between her modern subjects and their historical predecessors.
Download or read book The Complete Works written by Hadewijch and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 1980 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hadewijch, a Flemish Beguine of the 13th century, is undoubtedly the most important exponent of love mysticism and one of the loftiest figures in the western mystical tradition.
Download or read book The Little Book of Prayers written by David Schiller and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 1996-10-01 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The perfect gift for seekers, the curious, and the spiritually hungry, The Little Book of Prayers now has a stunning new cover and a more prayer book–like format. Gathered from holy books and prayer books, from songs and spirituals, spoken traditions and poets, it is an unexpectedly approachable collection of common and uncommon prayers from around the world. The entries, one per page or spread, are chosen for their depth of feeling, beauty of expression, spiritual intensity, and sense of the universal. The book is organized into broad categories of praise, entreaty, contemplation, mourning, and grace; and two indexes—one by authorship, and the other by topic—make it immediately accessible. There are familiar prayers, like the Lord’s Prayer and 23rd Psalm, which, placed in new context, shine with a renewed beauty and wisdom. You’ll find prayers unfamiliar to many in the West, such as the “Opener” from the Koran or the four vows of the Boddhisattva, chanted every evening in Zen monasteries around the world. And the surprising—from the “Prayer of the Unknown Confederate Soldier” to the blues of Lightnin’ Hopkins to the poetry of Rumi. God help us to live slowly: To move simply: To look softly: To allow emptiness: To let the heart create for us. Amen. —Michael Leunig You, whose day it is, make it beautiful. Get out your rainbow colors, so it will be beautiful. —Nootka Song
Download or read book Flowing Light of the Divinity written by Mechthild (of Magdeburg) and published by Scholarly Title. This book was released on 1991 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mystical revelations as well as random thoughts of this 13th- century woman constitute a major text for the study of medieval spirituality and medieval women. This new translation by Christiana Mesch Galvani--with an edition of the German text on facing pages--includes a critical introduction, textual notes, and bibliography. Annotation(c) 2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
