Hildegard as a Theologian

Even though she was an abbess, not a simple nun, Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179) had to be very careful when she, as a woman, started claiming visions that connected her directly to God and resulted in quite a copious outpouring of writings spanning from theology to psychology, from theater plays to medicine.

We don’t know much about the backstage work of personal contacts that she must have carefully devised to get written approval of her first book by Bernard of Clairvaux. Once that was obtained, however, she felt secure enough to go on with her life and production.

It’s interesting to observe that in her letter to Bernard she calls herself a wretched person, and even more a wretched woman who has studied no theology and knows no Latin. Yet she claims that she received her visions in Latin, and she shows a quite deep knowledge of the Bible and theology in the book itself — written, of course, in Latin — that she had someone deliver into Bernard’s hands. Even more, on the very first page of such a book, which recounts her visions in great detail, she is addressed by the divine voice as a human being. Not a gendered individual, but a representative of the human species as a whole, replete with a dignity that jumps out from the page.

As a theologian of the 12th century — and even more the only recognizable female theologian of her era — Hildegard could not confront the dogma of original sin directly. The ideas of Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430) were still the basis of Catholic orthodoxy in Western Europe. She probably did not even fancy criticizing Augustine. Yet she turned the doctrine of original sin on its head, simply by infusing it with her spiritual experience.

Augustine’s pessimism, which so heavily covers his late writings, is nowhere to be found in Hildegard. She is still very aware of the power of evil, but she also wants to give humanity all the possible weapons to fight it. One has the constant impression, while reading her writings, that the Edenic state can not only be recovered in the afterlife, but can be approximated to quite a great extent even in this very bodily life.

Hildegard’s description of the fall of humanity — she talks of Adam as its symbol and progenitor — is found in several of her writings, but the most interesting to me are the medical ones, where her focus is on recovering the fullness of the psycho-physical integrity of people. Her general diagnosis with regard to humanity is that in the Edenic state people live in perfect harmony of body and soul, their health being stunning: they smell deliciously, their intuition is very keen, and their spleen produces a clear substance.

But their breaking up with God brought about chaos in their minds and their bodies. Sad thoughts became prevalent, stagnant mucus produced bad smells and bad functioning of organs, and the spleen started producing a bitter fluid, which is the cause of melancholy and wrath. This mutation, however, can be reversed through the appropriate methods, which include awareness of one’s thoughts, respect of the natural rhythms of one’s body and nature, diet and herbs and stones which can cure not just any specific illness, but most especially all the specific human types in which the perversion of the original human state has issued.*

Hildegard, of course, was aware that the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ, and the sacraments of the Church which communicate such redemption to the believers, are the main channels for the restoration of people to their Edenic state. Just as Augustine said, and the Church confirmed. But what about her medical writings then?

A naughty reading would have that, for her, the redemption and the sacraments are not enough. Without proper care of one’s body, they fail. A less naughty reading would state that all of nature to her is a sacrament, that is, the presence of God within matter.

Either way, her theology of restoration and wholeness, starting from Augustinian premises, ends up in a very different place. One in which one’s continual care for one’s emotional and physical balance is not only not egocentric and not sinful, but is an instrument in God’s hands for reaching the full stature of our potential as human beings. This is God’s will, in Hildegard’s understanding.

Hildegard’s literal reading of the Fall as an historical, archaic event is, of course, untenable. Her insistence on talking about Adam as the main culprit, rather than Eve, is surely formidable in her age. The challenge that her interpretation posed to centuries of ascetic Augustinian-flavored spirituality seems to me still far from being fully appreciated.

---

Giovanni Giambalvo Dal Ben, Ildegarda, l’arte della cura, in Dal Ben & Pereira (eds.), Le Vie di Ildegarda. Saperi, contemplazione, cura, Gabrielli 2020. 

Banner Image: Sculpture of Hildegard of Bingen by Karlheinz Oswald, 1998, in front of Eibingen Abbey. Photo by Gerda Arendt, on Wikimedia Commons.

---

Queries for Contemplation

Do you think of your self-care as a spiritual activity?

---

Related Readings by Matthew Fox

Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century, p. 30

Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works: With Letters & Songs

Gabriele Uhlein, Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen, Preface by Matthew Fox.