Trinitarian Love Mysticism

Ruusbroec, Hadewijch, and the Gendered Experience of the Divine

Bibliographic Data

ID3388903
AuthorsJessica A Boon (0000-0002-5794-856X, Institute of Religious Studies, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume72
Issue3
Pages484-503
Publication date2003-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueChurch History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-6407 • E-ISSN: 1755-2613
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0009640700100320
OpenAlexW2073119907
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited11

In the early part of the fourteenth century, a parish priest in Brussels came into the possession of a manuscript containing the vernacular letters, visions, and poetry of a woman known only as "beata Hadewijch." The priest prized the manuscript, even recommending it to his fellow conventuals decades later, and included its primary tropes of courtly love mysticism (Minnemystik) as an essential part of many of his writings on the active, interior, and contemplative ways to mystical union. This local priest turned canon regular, Jan van Ruusbroec (1292-1381), has been celebrated for centuries for his Trinitarian theology, for his speculative or essence mysticism, and for his negative theology-but Ruusbroec's reliance on Hadewijch's metaphor of courtly love has only recently become a subject of scholarly study. An examination of the parallels between Hadewijch and Ruusbroec's theology, a heavily Trinitarian theology conveyed by means of the metaphor ofMinne, not only serves to expand our comprehension of their theologies, but also provides a unique perspective on the religious experience of medieval men and women

Art · Contemplation · Jewish mysticism · Literature · Metaphor · Mysticism · Poetry · Possession (linguistics · Subject (documents · Theology · Vernacular · Vision · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies

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