 previous article in this issue | next article in this issue  |
Preview first page |
Document Details : Title: Dets van onser vrouwen Subtitle: Preaching, Mysticism, and the Virgin Mary in the Middle Dutch Limburg Sermons Author(s): SHAHAN, Lydia Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf Volume: 94 Issue: 1-3 Date: 2024 Pages: 151-181 DOI: 10.2143/OGE.94.1.3293966 Abstract : The Virgin Mary is a recurring figure in the Limburg Sermons, a collection of vernacular Middle Dutch mystical sermons compiled around 1300. The Limburg Sermons are a heterogeneous collection with a complex, multilingual transmission history. Tracing Mary as an imaginative model within these sermons provides insight into the reception of this compilation by both male and female audiences. Many sermons capitalize on the exegetical multivalency of Mary as both the Bride of the Song of Songs and the individual soul. Mingling these figures through imagery of the garden, also drawn from the Song of Songs, the sermons encourage their listening audience to inhabit a Marian subject position in order to effect interior transformation. Other sermons focus on Mary’s own speech as both a form of moral regulation and as an imaginative prompt. Examining the figure of Mary in these sermons thus sheds new light on the relationship between preaching, Marian veneration, and mystical spirituality in the medieval Low Countries. |
|
