Thinking about God’s desire with the medieval mystics
“I have the sense that Mechthild of Magdeburg’s whole life was lived in pursuit of her divine beloved.”
Wendy Farley is professor of religion at the Graduate School of Theology, University of Redlands, where she directs the program in Christian spirituality. Her research focuses on contemplative practice, mysticism, and classical texts and how they intersect with issues of social justice, feminism, womanism, and queer theology. She is the author of several books on mysticism and feminism, including The Thirst of God: Contemplating God’s Love with Three Women Mystics, about medieval mystics Marguerite Porete, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Julian of Norwich, and, most recently, Beguiled by Beauty: Cultivating a Life of Contemplation and Compassion.
Some readers may not have heard of Mechthild of Magdeburg. Who was she, and why does she interest you?
Mechtild was a 13th-century contemplative in what is now Germany. She was a beguine. The beguines were a group of lay women—primarily in the 13th century, although they still exist today—who did not want to become nuns and did not want to live the married life. Some were widows; some were virgins. They were distinctive in that they did not have a particular order.
