Mechthild of Magdeburg and Marguerite Porete. Different Ways of Understanding Love in Union with Divinity

Abstract

This article analyzes the work of two beguines from the 13th century belonging to the so-called vernacular theology. It is proposed to characterize the works of Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Flowing Light of the Goodhead, and Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls, in order to determine the most distinctive traits of the authors. In both works love is central, at the same time it is intimately linked to knowledge. Even so, the reading of the texts and their careful examination allow us to propose that Mechthild’s work is mainly linked to the literature of courtly love, while Marguerite’s, to the time it includes these elements, it is more rooted in the mystique of nothingness, which will later become widely known in tradition through the work of Meister Eckhart. For this reason, the place given to the senses and corporeality acquires greater relevance in Mechthild’s work, while in Marguerite the unitive loving experience is purely spiritual. These nuances in the characterizations of the union with the divinity must be read in their historical context, since during the 13th century and the following a controversy developed on the affective or intellectual character of the mystical union. These different ways of understanding love that we find in the works of these medieval authors represent another way of approaching the idea and function of eros, which from Plato onwards has been one of the central themes of philosophical reflection.