She sounds like the Ayn Rand of mysticism - everything good in her writings you can get from other people without the accompanying bad stuff. The idea of transcending the natural human virtues and the "law" (but while fulfilling them) is built into the core of Christianity.
One big thing I have realized from your podcasts on Islam and Hinduism, Peter, is how unique Catholicism is in that mysticism is fully integrated within it. It seems that in Islamic mysticism, you have the idea that the "rules," the Scripture and the religious authorities are for the masses, while the mystics are a sort of elite who no longer need those things. In Hinduism, as some have remarked, you have One-mysticism for the elites and polytheism for the masses. (Not that Hinduism is really a unified religious system, of course, so it might not be the best comparison to either Islam or Christianity.) In Catholicism, on the other hand, it is the same religion for intellectuals and for the illiterate, for contemplatives and actives, for mystics and everyone else. (I think of Peter Brown's work debunking the "two-tier" theory of Christianity that held that the sophisticated elites had a different religion than the "popular religion" of the masses - on the contrary, for example, devotion to saints has always existed among elites and common people alike.) The great Catholic mystics have not considered themselves exempt from the "rules" or from obedience to the Church authorities - even when they challenged them on occasion.
In contrast with Porete, who wrote about humility yet thought herself above the rest of the Church and exempt from the virtue of obedience, I can think of so many authentic Christian mystics and visionaries who were ordered by the "human element" of the Church - their religious superiors, spiritual director or local ecclesiastical authority - to keep silent, either because their case had not been judged yet or they were deemed suspect because of the seeming radicality of their message (which has really always just been a renewal of the radical essence of Christianity). Yet they were always vindicated in the end, without defiantly tooting their own horn. In fact their humility and obedience ultimately testified to the authenticity of their spirituality.
She sounds like the Ayn Rand
She sounds like the Ayn Rand of mysticism - everything good in her writings you can get from other people without the accompanying bad stuff. The idea of transcending the natural human virtues and the "law" (but while fulfilling them) is built into the core of Christianity.
One big thing I have realized from your podcasts on Islam and Hinduism, Peter, is how unique Catholicism is in that mysticism is fully integrated within it. It seems that in Islamic mysticism, you have the idea that the "rules," the Scripture and the religious authorities are for the masses, while the mystics are a sort of elite who no longer need those things. In Hinduism, as some have remarked, you have One-mysticism for the elites and polytheism for the masses. (Not that Hinduism is really a unified religious system, of course, so it might not be the best comparison to either Islam or Christianity.) In Catholicism, on the other hand, it is the same religion for intellectuals and for the illiterate, for contemplatives and actives, for mystics and everyone else. (I think of Peter Brown's work debunking the "two-tier" theory of Christianity that held that the sophisticated elites had a different religion than the "popular religion" of the masses - on the contrary, for example, devotion to saints has always existed among elites and common people alike.) The great Catholic mystics have not considered themselves exempt from the "rules" or from obedience to the Church authorities - even when they challenged them on occasion.
In contrast with Porete, who wrote about humility yet thought herself above the rest of the Church and exempt from the virtue of obedience, I can think of so many authentic Christian mystics and visionaries who were ordered by the "human element" of the Church - their religious superiors, spiritual director or local ecclesiastical authority - to keep silent, either because their case had not been judged yet or they were deemed suspect because of the seeming radicality of their message (which has really always just been a renewal of the radical essence of Christianity). Yet they were always vindicated in the end, without defiantly tooting their own horn. In fact their humility and obedience ultimately testified to the authenticity of their spirituality.