Theology
1098 to 1179, Rhineland, Germany
Scivias and the living Light, viriditas the greening power, the human microcosm, and a symphonic soul - a visionary theology in which the whole living cosmos sings the praise of its Maker.
Start learning Hildegard →Hildegard’s distinctive way of seeing: not the trance of the ecstatic nor the pictures of a dream, but a waking vision received with ‘the eyes and ears of the inner person’ - a steady brightness she ca…
Hildegard’s most original idea: viriditas , the ‘greening power’ - the moist, fresh, life-giving force by which God quickens all creation, the sap of the Holy Spirit running through plants, bodies, and…
Hildegard’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 microcosm - a little world in whom the whole great…
Hildegard’s theology of music: the soul itself is symphonic , and song is no ornament but the soul’s deepest act - a recovery of the harmony Adam sang with the angels before the Fall, and a participation, he…
Hildegard called herself a paupercula feminea forma - a poor little figure of a woman, unlearned and weak - and on exactly that ground claimed the authority to preach in public, rebuke bishops and popes, and write theol…
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