the

"eroticized

violence"

of

medieval

women

mystics

advanced

and

sustained

the

patriarchal

ideology

that

women

take

pleasure

in

physical

and

spiritual

violence

done

to

them

in

the

name

of

love.

Hollywood,

Amy.

The

Soul

as

Virgin

Wife:

Mechthild

of

Magdeburg,

Marguerite

Porete

,

and

Meister

Eckhart.

Notre

Dame:

University

of

Notre

Dame

Press,

1995.

when

Mechthild's

mystical

theology

pairs

"the

heights

of

bliss"

with

"the

most

exquisite

pain,"

it

does

so

as

a

faithful

recipient

of

this

tradition,

in

which

love

and

pain

occupy

the

center

of

God's

relationship

to

humankind.

Ultimately,

those

who

are

scandalized

by

Mechthild's

wedding

of

erotic

and

painful

rhetoric

will

be

scandalized

by

what

has

become

the

heart

of

the

Christian

tradition,

as

well.