Hadewijch and Her Sisters: Other Ways of Loving and Knowing

by John Giles Milhaven

Overview

Hadewijch, a thirteenth-century woman, describes her relationship with God as a mutual loving in which God and she affect each other personally and profoundly. This book presents in detail the account by Hadewijch of this supreme and most satisfying experience.

Presented here are phenomenologically specific traits of the bodily knowing that Hadewijch and other women of her time and place prized in their devotion to Christ and his saints. The opposition to the traditional Western ideal and norm is evident. In prizing embodied mutuality, Hadewijch has learned from Bernard of Clairvaux, but sees much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791415429
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	08/24/1993
Series:	SUNY series, The Body in Culture, History, and Religion
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	171
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Giles Milhaven is Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. He is the author of Good Anger.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Abbreviations

Part I. Hadewijch and the Mutuality of Love

Part II. Medieval Women and Bodily Knowing

Appendix. Thomas Aquinas on the Pleasure of Sex and the Pleasure of Touch

Notes

Blibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

"This is a fine example of thick scholarship made accessible and challenging. It is an exciting book that not only incorporates strong scholarship but presents it with clarity."—Clare B. Fischer

From the Publisher

Milhaven (religious studies, Brown U.) explores the 13-century Antwerp writer's defense of modes of love and knowledge scorned by mainstream (i.e. patriarchal) society. She describes "mutual loving," in which she and God affect each other personally, and "bodily knowing," as a path of devotion. Many of her ideas are current among feminist thinkers today. Paper edition (unseen), $12.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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