![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/308\/2012\/01\/images-155.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n“Love me passionately, love me often, and love me long.” \u00a0The appeal might grace the cover of\u00a0Cosmopolitan<\/em>. \u00a0The one, big exception? \u00a0That it is addressed to God…in the thirteenth century…by a “virginal” nun named Mechthild de Magdeburg.<\/p>\nThese days I am reading Mechthild’s strange, quirky yet wise The Flowing Light of the Godhead <\/em>and finding there what she (or at least her male confessor, Heinrich) promises in the Prologue: “an increase in solace and spiritual grace.” \u00a0For me, the “solace” consists in the reassurance that the Holy Spirit was alive and well in speaking authoritatively through women writers and theologians as far back as the thirteenth century. \u00a0The “grace”- in the presentation of a God who longs jealously after my soul the way a stricken lover does, and from whom separation is as necessary as “togetherness” if our love is to be real.<\/p>\nThis depiction of the spiritual life as one of Love wooing the human soul in an erotically laced, wrestling contest of sorts is one that we would do well to recover in an age when sexuality has become so untethered from spirituality. \u00a0That God’s Love in a sense seeks to “devour” us, so that even our best virtues burn away when we find ourselves in the refining fire of God’s jealous love, is, I suspect, an important component in any conversation about the nature of love, sex and spirituality. I am grateful to Mechthild for giving it voice. \u00a0In the days and weeks to come, you will probably be hearing more from Mechthild and other women writers and theologians as I, thanks to Emory theologian Wendy Farley and her seminar on women’s theology, survey their contributions to the Christian tradition. \u00a0I hope you’ll join us for the ride!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Love me passionately, love me often, and love me long.” \u00a0The appeal might grace the cover of\u00a0Cosmopolitan. \u00a0The one, big exception? \u00a0That it is addressed to God…in the thirteenth century…by a “virginal” nun named Mechthild de Magdeburg. These days I am reading Mechthild’s strange, quirky yet wise The Flowing Light of the Godhead and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,6,68,43,14,53,13,122,5],"tags":[404,405,403],"class_list":["post-1105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-and-culture","category-feminism","category-grace","category-humor","category-love","category-sex-and-sexuality","category-spirituality","category-theology","category-women","tag-christianity-and-sex","tag-cosmopolitan","tag-mechthild-de-magdeburg"],"yoast_head":"\n
Move Over, "Cosmo." - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Move Over, "Cosmo." - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" “Love me passionately, love me often, and love me long.” \u00a0The appeal might grace the cover of\u00a0Cosmopolitan. \u00a0The one, big exception? \u00a0That it is addressed to God…in the thirteenth century…by a “virginal” nun named Mechthild de Magdeburg. These days I am reading Mechthild’s strange, quirky yet wise The Flowing Light of the Godhead and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fellowship of Saints and Sinners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kristina.robbdover\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-26T15:37:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-01-26T21:45:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/files\/2012\/01\/images-155.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kristina Robb-Dover\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@saintplussinner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@saintplussinner\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Move Over, \"Cosmo.\" - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Move Over, \"Cosmo.\" - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","og_description":" “Love me passionately, love me often, and love me long.” \u00a0The appeal might grace the cover of\u00a0Cosmopolitan. \u00a0The one, big exception? \u00a0That it is addressed to God…in the thirteenth century…by a “virginal” nun named Mechthild de Magdeburg. These days I am reading Mechthild’s strange, quirky yet wise The Flowing Light of the Godhead and…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html","og_site_name":"Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kristina.robbdover","article_published_time":"2012-01-26T15:37:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-01-26T21:45:13+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/files\/2012\/01\/images-155.jpg"}],"author":"Kristina Robb-Dover","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@saintplussinner","twitter_site":"@saintplussinner","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html","name":"Move Over, \"Cosmo.\" - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/files\/2012\/01\/images-155.jpg","datePublished":"2012-01-26T15:37:19+00:00","dateModified":"2012-01-26T21:45:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#\/schema\/person\/4c3cdf7104b785db2790c0ea54388e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/files\/2012\/01\/images-155.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/files\/2012\/01\/images-155.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/01\/move-over-cosmo.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Move Over, “Cosmo.”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/","name":"Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","description":"Beliefnet Voices...thoughts at the intersection between life and God for anyone converted, unconverted or under conversion","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#\/schema\/person\/4c3cdf7104b785db2790c0ea54388e75","name":"Kristina Robb-Dover","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/dcf\/dcfc687b5670420584dc52026042422ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/dcf\/dcfc687b5670420584dc52026042422ax96.jpg","caption":"Kristina Robb-Dover"},"description":"Thoughts at the intersection of life and God from one saint and sinner for anyone \"converted,\" \"unconverted,\" or \"under conversion.\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/author\/krobbdover"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/461"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1120,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions\/1120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}