Women, Men, and Spiritual Power: Female Saints and Their Male Collaborators

Church History, Dec, 2008 by Patricia Z. Beckman

Coakley's clear conceptual framework alone would be extraordinarily helpful to excerpt as a brief introduction to the primary questions in the field. One could simply read the introduction, chapter 1, and chapter 11. But it would be a mistake to miss the artful analysis of his carefully chosen texts, especially those that have received less attention in the secondary materials (for example, Eckbert and Elisabeth of SchSnau; Margaret of Cortona and Guinuta Bevegnati; John Marienwerder and Dorothy of Montau). In effect, the case studies train us into reading authorial intent, constructions of sanctity, and gendered history all at once.

What we gain by reading in Coakley's manner is insight into how categories of holiness were and are constructed. We gain motive. We gain subtle but essential distinctions among types of authority that functioned in medieval texts. While we are at it, we end up addressing our own presumptions about fundamental questions of religious authority. We are invited to view our own witness to descriptions, and more pertinently constructions, of authority in medieval mystical texts.

Patricia Z. Beckman

St. Olaf College