Monday, September 06, 2004

Hildegard of Bingen

This is a site that has some of Hildegard's hymns in Latin and English translation. I have only known Hildegard's writing for a year now and am amazed at the depth of her theological mind and its originality. In the introduction to her Scivias in the Classics of Western Spirituality series, Barbara J. Newman writes: "If Hildegard had been a male theologian, her Scivias would undoubtebly have been considered one of the most important early medieval summas" (p. 23) . You may also find more of her hymns here. I have yet to find an espeically striking hymn on the Spirit to link for you. She writes about the "Spirit giver of life" as the "greening Spirit." Her reflections on creation, the church, the Trinity, the sacraments, the virtues, and covers more ground than you might imagine. The Scivias, the center of a triology of her theological works, is a little hard to read for a post-Peter Lombard like myself. The order of her writing and comments follow her biblical and liturgical vision, not an organised series of topics. Or do they?

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