Common threads · 6 books
Visions, tears, poems, and arguments from women whose religious voices were hard to contain. Finish with a history that puts bodies and everyday life back into the picture.
A little guidance for each book, and where it might take you next.
Hildegard von Bingen
Read the opening visions with their explanations. Pay attention to who authorizes the speaker and how images become arguments. The 1990 date is for the Paulist English translation, not Hildegard's medieval writing.
Next: Revelations of Divine Love
Julian of Norwich
Read Julian's reflections on suffering and divine love together. Notice how a brief vision leads to years of careful interpretation. The 1901 date identifies an English edition or translated collection, not the original text's composition.
Next: The Flowing Light of the Godhead
Mechthild of Magdeburg
Follow the changes between poetry, dialogue, and admonition. Ask how a writer finds a voice outside the usual scholarly institutions. The 1998 date identifies an English edition or translated collection, not the original text's composition.
Next: The Mirror of Simple Souls
Marguerite Porete
Follow the conversation between Love, Reason, and the Soul. Watch what happens when the speaker claims to have moved beyond ordinary rules. The 1993 date identifies an English edition or translated collection, not the original text's composition.
Next: The Book of Margery Kempe
Margery Kempe
Keep the awkward encounters as well as the visions in view. Ask how travel, tears, and reputation affect the authority of a religious life. The 1940 date identifies an English edition or translated collection, not the original text's composition.
Next: Holy Feast and Holy Fast
Caroline Walker Bynum
Use this history to ask why food and bodies mattered to medieval women's religious lives. Revisit the earlier texts with those material details in mind.
Finished this reading path? Mark the moment, then find your next good book.
Also includes The Mirror of Simple Souls
A path through Christian writers who push language to its limits. Read about unknowing, detachment, and a soul that seems to have outgrown the usual explanations.
More Common threads paths
A reading route made on ReadPath.
More Common threads paths
Two Spanish mystics write about loss, desire, prayer, and the demands of living with other people. Read the spiritual maps beside the lives and institutions that shaped them.
