The Book Of Margery Kempe (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
I've gone into a bout of reading the histories of mystics (also called contemplatives - some might argue that these are present day charismatics) and since I consider myself one, I've found these works very engaging. I could see where someone who has no interest in such things as trying to make a real spiritual connection with God would find such an autobiography as boring or irritating, but for me it came across as enlightening because Margery was so common and not painted as a saint to be venerated or imitated. It is in her commonness and her bumpy road to seek spiritual experience that I can so identify with. Margery did a lot of things that a present day seeker would say is wrong and she believed in things that are not doctrinally sound, but yet she gave it her all the best way she knew how. Whether or not the experiences she described are authentic or the ravings of a woman who has lost touch is arguable. I tend to think there is a mixture of both here.One of the things fourteenth-century mystics were interested in was achieving contemplation. The idea was that a person who spent long hours in prayer and contemplation (literally meditating on events that took place in the Jesus or Mary's life) could somehow physically experience those events as if they were happening to him or her. A person who achieved contemplation might feel Christ’s suffering, becoming one with Him in His passion, one with His suffering. There were two different ways that people achieved this union. First, a person could become an ascetic, a person who shuns all pleasure and endures some physical hardships, even at times beating, whipping, or hitting his or her body. This was a union with Jesus’ suffering in a physical way. The second method used to join with Jesus’ suffering was mental or spiritual. This is the method that Margery chose and it is called contemplation. Contemplation is achieved by initially meditating deeply on Christ’s suffering, His persecution, His cross, and His passion. If a person meditates properly and long enough, he or she would enter into a trance-like state and come to a place of ecstatic union with God. This is called “achieving contemplation” or “mystical union.” In this state, all sorts of supernatural things can happen. A person might receive visions of past Biblical events, visions of future events, or feel what Jesus, Mary, the apostles, or the saints felt at a given time. These visions can come physically, mentally, or spiritually. This was not specific to Margery, but was a well traveled road in the 1300s. Although it sounds foreign to many today, it was well known in her time and by pursuing this path, she wouldn't have seemed odd or out of place, but merely devout.Probably the greatest difference between Margery and the other mystics I have read about in the 1300s and 1400s is her behavior upon receiving her experiences. Her reactions were so foreign to what was expected in her day that I tend to think that this was the reason she was rejected and ostracized, while people like St. Bridget and Julian of Norwich were celebrated. Margery had highly emotional experiences and showed dramatic public displays of her experiences, often crying and making a public spectacle of herself in a variety of different venues. Margery would wail any place and any time, it might be in the middle of a priest’s sermon or in the middle of a busy fruit market. This was the exact opposite of what her contemporary mystics were doing. The authorities on contemplation such as Richard Rolle or Thomas Kempis wrote that a mystic was to suffer in silence and that a passionate person might not be able to achieve contemplation at all.Many people disrespected and shunned Margery because of her tremendous weeping. Women in the fourteenth-century behaved themselves in public. Certainly God would not cause a woman to misbehave! Much of the public could not understand her behavior as anything but farce. Some of the clergy would not preach in her presence, because she would invariably become loud and disruptive. Margery would come right out in the community, in the church, in the market, and in the roadways and wail and cry while she experienced the mystical union of the suffering of Christ’s passion. In fact, Margery felt that being treated badly by the public was another way of feeling suffering and that the public’s bad treatment might increase her chances of becoming one with Christ.In the end, the book is an autobiography of her life and specifically her attempts at achieving contemplation, that is, the mystical union with Christ. After reading Rolle, Kempis, Julian of Norwich and St. Bridget's writings and biographies, I suspect that Margery never truly achieved her goal, but the road there was an interesting and insightful one that someone who can appreciate spiritual connection might enjoy reading about.
This was a fascinating read, though in some ways a bit tedious. I was motivated to read The Book of Margery Kempe since, as an Oblate of the Order of Julian of Norwich, I knew that Margery had at one time visited Julian and I was curious about her recollection of the event. Also, I had always had the impression that Margery was a bit "coo coo", and wanted to decide for myself. Good thing, because, having read her recollections, I'm quite convinced that she was not only a mystic, but a deeply authentic one, despite her eccentricities and somewhat unusual manner of, shall we say, "evangelizing". Her life would probably make a good movie: born c. 1373, her father, John Burnham, was a 5-time mayor of (King's) Lynn. She married John Kempe, a town burgess; was the mother of 14 children (!), only one of whom is mentioned in the book (who didn't particularly like her, but later "converted" before he died. She ran a brewery business for a short time, then a corn milling operation. Despite not being wealthy, she managed through her 60+ years to always find a way to come up with provisions: money, food, clothing, ship's passage, traveling companions, etc. And travel she did -- to the Holy Land, Rome, Germany, to many English shrines & churches, etc..Margery had the God-given gift of tears, & not only the gift, but that gift in overflowing abandance! People thought she was faking it most of the time, though it's clear from her account that God was running the show behind the scenes. I don't think Margery would've intentionally given herself to the kind of wailing & sobbing she did just for fun. She took a LOT of flak: from everyone from archbishops down to the woman/man on the street -- everywhere she went! Gail McMurray Gibson, in an article towards the end of the book, pinpoints, in my opinion, what's really going on here. She says: "It would be far more accurate…to say that Margery Kempe of Lynn possessed an unswerving sense of devotional theater and that she embraced her martyrdoms deliberately and self-consciously." No question that Margery was a bit of a "drama queen" -- but a truly "holy drama queen". Because of this her reputation was widespread, not only in England, but overseas also. Some people accepted her, even idolized her; others found her off-putting, if not disgusting. But, though hauled in as a potential heretic many, many times, she always passed the inquisition of the Archbishop of Canterbury, other bishops, countless clergy (all men, of course!), and most of her confessors. If you follow her "dalliances" (i.e., conversations) with Christ throughout her book, you can hardly help but be impressed by her sincerity, honesty, deep spirituality, humility, and, above all, her faith. The section in Book Two which records her accustomed daily prayers (about 3 1/2 pages worth!) are really inspiring, both in their simplicity & in their scope. She prays to the Trinity, to Mary, to the Saints, to the Apostles, to the Holy Spirit. She confesses & asks pardon. She acknowledges the gift of tears. She prays for her confessors, the Church, civil leaders, non-Christians, those without faith, heretics, non-believers, sinners, those tempted. She prays for her family, her fellow-Christians, the sick and needy. She intercedes for her detractors, for the souls in Purgatory, for the well & woe in her life. She prays very specifically for nature & all creatures. And finally she remembers the dead. I think it's quite safe to say that, for all her drama & stepping outside the box, this woman really lived what she professed to believe -- and, I might say, enjoyed doing so!
What do You think about The Book Of Margery Kempe (2000)?
Margery Kempe is a fascinating personality, both for her unpretentious mysticism and for the psychological anxiety that her intense spirituality caused her. In her book, she is candid about her struggles with clerical hypocrisy, with sexuality, and with the negative reactions of others to the outward expressions of her visions (she seems to have spent an inordinate amount of time weeping and loudly crying out, manifestations of her grief at the sufferings of Christ's Passion). But for all the turmoil in her psyche, she evinces no skepticism about her mystical beliefs, relating as fact many of her conversations with God. The text is repetitive and lacking in detail, even given its antiquity. However, Margery Kempe's guilelessness creates a vivid, revealing self-portrait. The Penguin edition I read was sparse in annotation. The Norton Critical Edition, which I haven't seen, might provide a better contextual framework for the book.
—Tony Gualtieri
I'm guessing this book is on my grad school reading list because, written in 1436, it's the first known autobiography in the English language. I'm curious why it's call an "autobiography" because it seems more of a collaboration between the illiterate Margery Kempe, her first half-illiterate scribe, the priest who finally made the text readable, and then finally the scholars who translated The Book of Margery Kempe from middle English. Okay, so I feel like I'm being dismissive by giving this book two stars--what do I expect? I'm a postmodern kid and want to be entertained by my Great Literature. If you can call this book that. Kempe takes a vow of celebacy and cries her way across Europe and the Middle East to tell people about her conversations with God.Cool points: she started a business and travels without her husband and admits she considered having an affair. But then she is always beating herself up for how sinful she is. Plus she's pretty darn classist and gets all pissy at her servants for not following her unquestioningly to the ends of the earth. I think focusing on what I found cool about this book--points highlighted on the flap-copy summary--is trying too hard to "rescue it" for what a contemporary reader finds admirable in female narrators.Don't read this book too literally. I don't buy the whole having fourteen children. That doesn't add up, especially if she had to wait until the last one was grown to travel.If I had to write a paper on this book, I'd probably focus on the construction of sanity vs. madness. Who decided Kempe was a madwoman? If it allows her to be close to Jesus, is that really such a bad label?
—Ariel
Wrap up: Honestly, don't let her wowing over God get in your way of reading this, because then you're totally missing the point.Would I read this book again? No. Did I think it was good? Yes. It's strange situation isn't it? I suppose the only time I will ever come to face with this text again is through the world of academia. And in that context, I don't think I would mind analyzing and writing about her book once more. If you are of Christian faith or you are simply interested in this sort of reading, this may be something to look into. That being said, do not think this will be a quick stroll through the park. If you're looking for an interesting approach to the feminist lens, this is an option. Kempe's capacity as a woman to smoothly whisk herself out of harmful and toxic situations and somehow be able to have control over much of what happens to her is a rare thing to find in any text of this sort.FULL LENGTH REVIEW ON MY BLOG :3http://onherbookshelf.blogspot.ca/201...
—Ichorica
