This text brings together seven scholarly essays on the uneasy flowering of medieval mysticism. Meister Eckhart, a Dominican preacher and teacher, championed the work of female mystics and even incorporated some of their teachings into his sermons and writings. This collection examines the connection between this towering figure and the Beguines-laywomen who developed a free style of religious life modeled after the Gospel. Hadewijch of Brabant startled many with her severe accounts of the soul's process of self-annihilation. Mechthild of Magdeburg's visionary accounts of her relationship with God were unusual to say the least. And Marguerite Porete was put to death in 1301 for her mysticism of the margins which put love above reason.
Editor McGinn describes these women mystics as presenting a vernacular theology in opposition to monastic and scholastic theology. They also offered a critique of the institutional church's clericalism and corruption. Best of all, these courageous souls gave expression to the spiritual aspirations of women.