Flowing Light of the Godhead, The

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 1999 by Beckman, Patricia Zimmerman

The Flowing Light of the Godhead. By Mechthild of Magdeburg. Translated and introduced by Frank Tobin. Preface by Margot Schmidt. Classics of Western Spirituality Series. New York and Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1998. xl 373 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Growing interest in the recovery of mystical writings, especially of women's mystical writings, has occasioned a new translation of the German beguine Mechthild of Magdeburg's (c. 1208-c. 1282/94) Flowing Light ofthe Godhead (FL). Mechthild's lyric drama of the mystical life proves critical to an understanding of the breadth and diversity of medieval spiritual writings and the subsequent tradition. Writing in the thirteenth century, Mechthild stands at the beginning of a new wave of Christian spirituality with its innovative forms of spiritual life and vernacular spiritual writing. She crafts a highly allegorical teaching on nature and action of the divine and the soul in mystical union. Meclithild writes erotic couplings, otherworldly journeys, and unusually creative storylines and images for mystical union in a unique mixture of prose and poetry which is full of allusions to courtly life, the apostolic life, and the Song of Songs exegetical tradition. Drawing on contemporary notions of love, she harvests vocabulary and images from diverse sources to combine the teasing of courtly love poetry with the monastic instruction on divine love.

Frank Tobin's translation joins the Classics of Western Spirituality Series, which pairs careful textual translations, from critical editions when possible, with prefaces and introductions from scholars and spiritual leaders. This long-awaited volume supersedes two earlier translations because it is the only English translation based on Hans Neumann's critical edition. Tobin approaches the text from an extensive knowledge of secular literature, other mystical treatises, and his own thorough analysis of the secondary literature. Though he rightly has deemed content the ultimate goal of his translation, forcing him to lay aside Mechthild's trademark rhythm and oscillation between prose and poetry, glimpses of Mechthild's tone and style survive and are a tribute to the translator. We thus have for the first time a translation that satisfies both the academic rigor of proper manuscript reading and the poetic sensibility of those hoping to appropriate Mechthild's work for use within the Christian tradition.

Tobin gives a concise and useful synopsis of the history of beguines who thrived in the late Middle Ages, including the fruitful partnership of Dominicans with these new groups of pious women. He joins the fragmentary biographical evidence of Mechthild's life with the FL's textual history as integral to Mechthild's importance within the tradition. His compendia of both the literary context and the mystical themes of Mechthild's work help to focus and guide one's reading of the text itself. in a fine pairing of international scholars, Margot Schmidt provides a preface in which she examines the centrality of the heart and its theological significance as a symbol of interior religious training, suffering, and power.

Mechthild's remarkably readable work will be of use to scholars, teachers, recoverers of women's voice in the tradition, liturgists, theologians and practitioners seeking imagistic God talk. It will prove invaluable for those who see themselves as a combination of all the above and who seek a voice of poetry, story, and song for the most profound Christian expression.

PATRICIA ZIMMERMAN BECKMAN

St. Olaf College

Northfield, Minnesota