Christological transformation in The Mirror of Souls, by Marguerite Porete

According to Porete's careful distinctions, the intellect has the capacity for three kinds of knowledge. In the realm of created beings, the intellect is able "to know" about the world of things and "to apprehend" meanings by reasoning.8 "To understand," however, is a technical term for Porete that refers specifically to knowing the things of God.9 But all three kinds of knowledge-knowing, apprehending, and understanding-depend upon the object of the will, which controls the kind of knowledge that the intellect, generated by natural ability, will attain. In other words, what is loved or desired is what will be known, apprehended, or understood.

In the soul's spiritual progress, natural ability, intellect, and will, while differentiated, work very closely together. The object of the will sets the limits for the enterprise of the ability and the function of the intellect, and therefore also for whether understanding is generated. If the will focuses upon the things of God, then the intellect's understanding expands and grows.

If, however, the will is oriented toward created things, then natural ability is limited insofar as it is impeded from carrying out its enterprise-being conformed to the will of God. The will's earthly orientation also limits the intellect, since intellect is generated from ability. The will's orientation limits development of natural ability, which in turn constricts the intellect's capacity to know. As long as it wills apart from God, the soul remains independent-alienated and separated from God in sin. Intellect, generated by natural ability and controlled by the will, gives only as much knowledge as will and natural ability allow. As long as the will remains independent of God and oriented exclusively toward created things, the intellect's knowledge will be limited to them and therefore will be knowledge of a particular kind. Knowledge of this sort is not understanding, according to Porete, because it is not directed toward the things of God. If the will is oriented toward divine things, and, more important, returns to God, then the intellect's capacity grows until both ability and intellect generate understanding of divine things. The soul's transformation from alienation to conformation in a union of indistinction is christological and is accomplished by freely rendering the will back to God.

CHRISTOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE SOUL

A christological dynamism lies behind and beneath Porete's elaboration of the soul's transformation into her exemplar, Jesus Christ, and thus her return to her true being; that is, the soul becomes by grace what Jesus Christ is by nature-truly human and truly divine. Identifying three moments in the soul's transformation highlights the central christological dynamic of the process: (1) the annihilation of the human will, (2) the role of absolute humility in the soul's transformation into her exemplar, and (3) the eternal preexistence of the soul in God.10 Finally, I show how Porete claims that Jesus Christ, as exemplar, functions as the divine energy that makes the soul's transformation possible.