Mystik und Körperlichkeit: Eine komplementär-vergleichende Lektüre von Heinrich Seuses geistlichen Schriften (review)

This book, a revision of Fenten's doctoral dissertation written at the University of Zürich under the direction of Alois Haas, undertakes a comparative study of Suso's Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit (Little Book of Eternal Wisdom, 1328) and his Horologium Sapientiae (Wisdom's Watch upon the Hours, 1334), a Latin expansion and adaptation of the Büchlein. Both texts were extremely influential in their day, with the Horologium widely read not only in Germany, but also in the Low Countries, France, Italy and England. As part of her doctoral work Fenten has also published separately a German translation of the Horologium. Her study also includes discussion of Suso's Vita, or Life of the Servant. Fenten's analysis does not include Suso's letters or his Little Book of Truth, the latter of which she considers "theoretical-philosophical" in nature, and thus not central to a study of his influence on the mystical tradition.

Fenten's aim is a "re-reading" of Suso that highlights the centrality of corporality, which has long been acknowledged in his German writings, throughout his entire mystical oeuvre. While she does not wish to obscure important differences between his Latin and German writings, her hope in including the rather understudied Horologium is to establish a "textual flow" (Textfluß, p. 6) between his writings in both languages. In the process, Fenten highlights the inherent paradox of a bodily focus for a writer whose goal of mystical union is purely spiritual. Suso's positive assessment of the body's role on the path to mystical union is deeply significant, she argues, and has its roots in Thomas of Aquinas's theology of the unity of the soul and body. Suso's Life of the Servant, with its depictions of extreme bodily asceticism, though not a major focus of her study, serves throughout as a case study for the "practical dimension" (praktische Dimension, p. 7) of Suso's theology of the body.

Her pithy conclusion (pp. 217–220) is not a bad place to begin reading; it summarizes with striking clarity and economy the major contributions of her study, beautifully articulating the logic of Suso's corporal focus—as manifested in the humanity of Jesus and Mary, the importance of the human heart as the site of the divine encounter, and the practice of asceticism (the three main themes of her study)—within his larger program of the search for union with the divine. As mentioned, this bodily focus is most famously and shockingly evident in The Life of the Servant, but Fenten effectively pulls back the lens to view the Life as a homogenous, intentional part of Suso's overall program and in the process reveals the physicality of Suso's mysticism to be much more than a mere (and gruesome) starting point for spiritual beginners. Rather, Fenten depicts Suso as an astute and realistic mystical theologian whose teachings acknowledge that most humans are and will remain beginners. Fenten shows that the resulting tension for those who strive for union in the context of mortality is grounds, in Suso's thought, not for rejecting the body, but instead for celebrating and exploiting the opportunities it represents.

The study is divided into three main sections, each drawing on the source texts as appropriate: "Jesus and Mary—Mediators to God"; "The Heart—Site of the Divine Encounter"; and "Asceticism—Training for Perfection." Although the three texts she studies do not play equal roles in each section, Fenten's choice to organize her study by themes, rather than by texts, effectively highlights patterns that underscore the symbiotic relationship between the body and interiority across Suso's oeuvre.

Part One, on the intercessory roles of Jesus and Mary, draws its material from the Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit and the Horologium Sapientiae. In both works Christ and Mary serve as frequently parallel models and mediators for humanity...