Hildegard of Bingen · Theology

The Human Microcosm in a Living Cosmos

Hildegard&rsquo;s cosmology: the universe is not dead matter but a single, ordered, living whole quickened by divine fire, and the human being stands at its center as a <em>microcosm</em> - a little world in whom the whole great world is gathered and answered, body echoing firmament.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Hildegard saw the cosmos as a living, interconnected, divinely ordered whole (not inert matter), and the human being as a microcosm mirroring that macrocosm - the little world answering to the great one - so that humanity is bound into creation and responsible to it. Explain the microcosm idea and why…

Leads to Plato.

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