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Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics: Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete
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.
176 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 2014
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About the author
Bernard McGinn
101 books59 followersBernard McGinn, the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, is widely regarded as the preeminent scholar of mysticism in the Western Christian tradition. He has also written extensively on Jewish mysticism, the history of apocalyptic thought, and medieval Christianity.
A cum laude graduate of St. Joseph's Seminary and College in Yonkers, NY, he earned a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1963 and a PhD in history from Brandeis University in 1970. After teaching theology for a year at The Catholic University of America, he joined the Chicago faculty in 1969 as an instructor in theology and the history of Christianity and was appointed a full professor nine years later. Dr. McGinn was named to the Donnelley chair in 1992. He retired in 2003.
The recent recipient of a Mellon Foundation Emeritus Grant, he also has held a Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship, an American Association of Theological Schools research award, two research fellowships for work at the Institute for Advanced Study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a research fellowship at the Institute for Ecumenical and Culture Research at St. John's University, and a Lily Foundation Senior Research Fellowship.
Dr. McGinn has delivered invited lectures at some one hundred colleges and universities in North America, Europe, and Israel. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Medieval Academy of America. Past-president of the International Society for the Promotion of Eriugenean Studies, the American Society of Church History, and the American Catholic Historical Association, he is member of the board of The Eckhart Society. He served as editor-in-chief of the Paulist Press series Classics of Western Spirituality and currently serves as a member of the editorial boards of Cistercian Publications, The Encyclopedia of World Spirituality, The Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, and Spiritus.
A cum laude graduate of St. Joseph's Seminary and College in Yonkers, NY, he earned a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1963 and a PhD in history from Brandeis University in 1970. After teaching theology for a year at The Catholic University of America, he joined the Chicago faculty in 1969 as an instructor in theology and the history of Christianity and was appointed a full professor nine years later. Dr. McGinn was named to the Donnelley chair in 1992. He retired in 2003.
The recent recipient of a Mellon Foundation Emeritus Grant, he also has held a Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship, an American Association of Theological Schools research award, two research fellowships for work at the Institute for Advanced Study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a research fellowship at the Institute for Ecumenical and Culture Research at St. John's University, and a Lily Foundation Senior Research Fellowship.
Dr. McGinn has delivered invited lectures at some one hundred colleges and universities in North America, Europe, and Israel. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Medieval Academy of America. Past-president of the International Society for the Promotion of Eriugenean Studies, the American Society of Church History, and the American Catholic Historical Association, he is member of the board of The Eckhart Society. He served as editor-in-chief of the Paulist Press series Classics of Western Spirituality and currently serves as a member of the editorial boards of Cistercian Publications, The Encyclopedia of World Spirituality, The Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, and Spiritus.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 12, 2023
Eckhart And The Beguines
I have returned to the teachings of Meister Eckhart many times for spiritual inspiration. I have read some of the extensive scholarly literature on Eckhart, including a recent book by Professor John Connolly, "Living Without Why: Meister Eckhart's Critique of the Medieval Concept of Will" (2014) which explores the background of Eckhart's thought in ancient and medieval philosophy. In a private note, Professor Connolly kindly recommended this earlier book, "Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics" to me. The book is based on a university seminar, "Eckhart and the Women Mystics" held in 1993. The book consists of an introduction by McGinn, followed by six papers on Eckhart and three women mystics, and a concluding essay, "Women and Men in the Development of Late Medieval Mysticism" by Eckhart scholar Richard Woods, O.P. I learned a great deal from Connolly and from this book about different perspectives on Eckhart.
The Beguines were a group of lay women who adopted a religious way of life outside the convent. The independence from Church authority they attempted frequently brought them into difficulty. Denied the opportunity for formal university education in theology, the Beguines developed their own personal spirituality. Most of them did not know Latin and wrote in their vernacular languages. In his introduction to the volume, McGinn points out that there were three large strands of theological expression in medieval Christian Europe. The first and best-known is scholasticism. Eckhart himself was highly scholastically trained. The second was monastic. And the third was the developing, broad spirituality of lay people which received a strong impetus from the Beguines. The extent to which Eckhart in fact read literature by the Beguines is difficult to determine. McGinn and the contributors to this volume make a strong case that Eckhart and the Beguines had some similar spiritual concerns and shared a common background.
The first Beguine considered in this book is Hadewijch, and her writings are available in the Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality Series. Hadewijch: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality) (There appear to be two writers, an earlier and a latter writer of this name.) The essays in this volume develop parallel themes and poetical metaphors between Eckhart and Hadewijch that focus on the use of desert imagery as a picture of the soul emptying itself for God. There is some doubt about which writer came first and about the extent of direct influence.
The second Beguine considered is a obscure figure, Mechthild of Magdeburg, whose book "The Flowing Light of the Godhead" was published in "Classics of Western Spirituality" after the publication of this volume. Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead (Classics of Western Spirituality) Mechtild writes in a poetic style full of visions which, according to this study, appears at first highly different from the Meister. Yet she and Eckhart develop common themes, among which is sin and its place in coming to know God. Mechtild writes, for example: " I would rather be clothed with hell and crowned with devils than be without my sin." In modern terms, Mechtild is pointing out the need for a degree of self-acceptance in understanding oneself and the spiritual quest. This book points out parallels in Eckhart's writings with Mechtild on this and on other matters.
The Beguine writer receiving the most attention in this volume is Marguerite Porete, the focus of three essays. Unlike the other two women, Porete achieved notoriety. Porete had been admonished by Church authorities about her teaching activities, but she ignored the warnings and persisted. She was arrested, tried, convicted, and burned at the stake. Her book, "The Mirror of Simple Souls" continued over the centuries to have a large audience among spiritually inclined readers. It was not until the 20th Century that Porete was definitively established as the author. The essays in this book establish many parallels between Eckhart and Porete, including Porete's use of Eckhart's central teaching of "living without why". Of the three women discussed in this book, Eckhart appears most likely to have read the book of Porete. It too is available in the "Classics of Western Spirituality". Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls (Classics of Western Spirituality)
The essays in this book focus on gender and on the changes in male-female relationships in the 13th Century and in the Church. In this regard, some of the essays perhaps are too ready to draw parallels with contemporary feminism. But the issue remains important. Questions of sexuality, man-woman relationships, the body and its place in the spiritual life, and the tension between love and reason in the spiritual life are central to the writings of the Beguines and of Meister Eckhart. The Meister spent much of his career preaching to lay people and to women with women religious responsible for the transcriptions we possess of his vernacular sermons. Eckhart learned from the Beguines and was able to incorporate their teachings in his own thinking -- an invaluable trait which remains important.
After reading this volume, I spent some time returning to Eckhart and rereading some of his sermons discussed in this book that show Beguine influence. I hope to have the opportunity to read some of the Beguines' own writings and to learn more about them. This book is academic and specialized in tone in places, but it is an excellent introduction to the Beguines for serious students of Eckhart.
Robin Friedman
I have returned to the teachings of Meister Eckhart many times for spiritual inspiration. I have read some of the extensive scholarly literature on Eckhart, including a recent book by Professor John Connolly, "Living Without Why: Meister Eckhart's Critique of the Medieval Concept of Will" (2014) which explores the background of Eckhart's thought in ancient and medieval philosophy. In a private note, Professor Connolly kindly recommended this earlier book, "Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics" to me. The book is based on a university seminar, "Eckhart and the Women Mystics" held in 1993. The book consists of an introduction by McGinn, followed by six papers on Eckhart and three women mystics, and a concluding essay, "Women and Men in the Development of Late Medieval Mysticism" by Eckhart scholar Richard Woods, O.P. I learned a great deal from Connolly and from this book about different perspectives on Eckhart.
The Beguines were a group of lay women who adopted a religious way of life outside the convent. The independence from Church authority they attempted frequently brought them into difficulty. Denied the opportunity for formal university education in theology, the Beguines developed their own personal spirituality. Most of them did not know Latin and wrote in their vernacular languages. In his introduction to the volume, McGinn points out that there were three large strands of theological expression in medieval Christian Europe. The first and best-known is scholasticism. Eckhart himself was highly scholastically trained. The second was monastic. And the third was the developing, broad spirituality of lay people which received a strong impetus from the Beguines. The extent to which Eckhart in fact read literature by the Beguines is difficult to determine. McGinn and the contributors to this volume make a strong case that Eckhart and the Beguines had some similar spiritual concerns and shared a common background.
The first Beguine considered in this book is Hadewijch, and her writings are available in the Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality Series. Hadewijch: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality) (There appear to be two writers, an earlier and a latter writer of this name.) The essays in this volume develop parallel themes and poetical metaphors between Eckhart and Hadewijch that focus on the use of desert imagery as a picture of the soul emptying itself for God. There is some doubt about which writer came first and about the extent of direct influence.
The second Beguine considered is a obscure figure, Mechthild of Magdeburg, whose book "The Flowing Light of the Godhead" was published in "Classics of Western Spirituality" after the publication of this volume. Mechthild of Magdeburg: The Flowing Light of the Godhead (Classics of Western Spirituality) Mechtild writes in a poetic style full of visions which, according to this study, appears at first highly different from the Meister. Yet she and Eckhart develop common themes, among which is sin and its place in coming to know God. Mechtild writes, for example: " I would rather be clothed with hell and crowned with devils than be without my sin." In modern terms, Mechtild is pointing out the need for a degree of self-acceptance in understanding oneself and the spiritual quest. This book points out parallels in Eckhart's writings with Mechtild on this and on other matters.
The Beguine writer receiving the most attention in this volume is Marguerite Porete, the focus of three essays. Unlike the other two women, Porete achieved notoriety. Porete had been admonished by Church authorities about her teaching activities, but she ignored the warnings and persisted. She was arrested, tried, convicted, and burned at the stake. Her book, "The Mirror of Simple Souls" continued over the centuries to have a large audience among spiritually inclined readers. It was not until the 20th Century that Porete was definitively established as the author. The essays in this book establish many parallels between Eckhart and Porete, including Porete's use of Eckhart's central teaching of "living without why". Of the three women discussed in this book, Eckhart appears most likely to have read the book of Porete. It too is available in the "Classics of Western Spirituality". Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls (Classics of Western Spirituality)
The essays in this book focus on gender and on the changes in male-female relationships in the 13th Century and in the Church. In this regard, some of the essays perhaps are too ready to draw parallels with contemporary feminism. But the issue remains important. Questions of sexuality, man-woman relationships, the body and its place in the spiritual life, and the tension between love and reason in the spiritual life are central to the writings of the Beguines and of Meister Eckhart. The Meister spent much of his career preaching to lay people and to women with women religious responsible for the transcriptions we possess of his vernacular sermons. Eckhart learned from the Beguines and was able to incorporate their teachings in his own thinking -- an invaluable trait which remains important.
After reading this volume, I spent some time returning to Eckhart and rereading some of his sermons discussed in this book that show Beguine influence. I hope to have the opportunity to read some of the Beguines' own writings and to learn more about them. This book is academic and specialized in tone in places, but it is an excellent introduction to the Beguines for serious students of Eckhart.
Robin Friedman
December 19, 2024
An insightful look into both Beguine mysticism and the history behind vernacular theology. This helped me better understand a lot of the concepts present in The Mirror. Will probs re-read The Mirror with a companion book, though.
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November 10, 2021Read for Primary Tutorial: Medieval Female Mystics
September 24, 2024
I previously read Bernard McGinn's 'Thomas Aquinas's Summa theologiae: A Biography' and loved it. His 'Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics' is 6 talks, an intro & conclusion. Very tecchnical.
December 3, 2018
The leading scholar of Christian mysticism over the last half-century offers an excellent, critical introduction to the Beguines, represented by three leading medieval female mystics, and the Beguines literary, theological likeness to the work of the Dominican German mystic, Meister Eckhart.
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October 20, 2007Professor Amy Hollywood taught this book in her course entitled Mysticism and Christianity.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews