Eroticism and Pain in Mechthild of Magdeburg's The Flowing Light

✍ Scribed by Emily Hunter McGowin

• Book ID: 111297797
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2011
• Weight: 168 KB
• Volume: 92
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0028-4289
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-2005.2010.01392.x

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This article presents an introduction to the rhetoric of eroticism and pain in the theology of medieval mystic, Mechthild of Magdeburg (c. 1208‐c. 1282/94), author of The Flowing Light of the Godhead. A survey of select texts from TFL is presented, with a focused analysis of Book IV, Chapter 12, where pain is cast in the role of a courtly intermediary between Christ and the soul. It is argued that a deeper consideration of this chapter provides significant insight into Mechthild's overall conception of pain in relation to the divine. Moreover, she writes with a coherent mystical theology of pain situated firmly within the Christian liturgy and narrative tradition.