The Esthetics of the Wounded Body

Most modern people would never describe the wounded body as beautiful or seductive. They call it perverse, shocking and meaningless, the antagonist of the epic body. But Hadewijch offers a different perspective on the human body. Even the stigmatized body is a part of her theological reflection. For this mystic wounds are icons, they are gateways to the divine which help her in her mystical growth. During this mystical quest her body is transforming, while losing herself in the intimate love for the Suffering God. Her body shares in the process of deification. However this divine body contrasts the modern ideals and confronts the reader with the fragility of the human body and the brokenness of the human person. More and more people realize this fragility and are haunted by it. Hadewijch challenges them to jump into the abyss and to lose themselves in an erotic desire that takes away this fear. She shows them the art of bodily seduction, the dance of divine bodies which celebrates the loss of the self and reveals the beauty of the wounded body.status: publishe