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Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias (Classics of Western Spirituality)

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Hildegard von Bingen, one of the prominent German mystics in the Middle Ages, stands as an anomaly amidst the whole host of Christian mystics. One reason to account for this is the fact that instead of advocating reform of the church in a confrontational manner, she often deflects it by recourse to God's voice. The voice that speaks in Scivias is more often than not the 1st person voice of God, and the persona of Hildegard the receptor of the visions occupies technically the position of a third person glossator and observer. On top of that, the chief focus of her 'reform' is of 'ordo virtutuum', a reform that works from within as opposed to the outright opposition(or confrontational gestures) offered by English Lollards in their translation of the Latin Vulgate into the vernacular Middle English tongue, or the Beguines' usurpation of the Catholic church's monopoly to Biblical interpretation.

Another reason to account for her special status as a medieval mystic is the absence of any so-called phenomenon of stigmata, trance-like swoonings, fleshly ecstasies like those of Margery Kempe or Teresa D'Avila. Hildegard received these purported visions without the influence of drugs and she transcribed them in a state of clarity unlike any other female mystics of her time.

What I appreciated about this edition was that they placed the pictorial depiction of her visions side by side with her writings and expositions of their meanings. The pity however is that these pictures(illustrated plates in the original medieval manuscripts) are not coloured, and one suffers from disappointment since he is not able to re-construct exactly the details(right down to the colour and shade Hildegard mentions) as in the original. Barbara Newman's introduction was extremely helpful, owing to her academic expertise in the field of medieval mysticism. Personally speaking, I bought this for the sake of an academic paper, but anyone else who is interested in the background of medieval mysticism and esoteric wisdom will find Newman's introduction enlightening and useful to set the whole work in the right context.

Hildegard was one of the most famoust mystics of the medieval period. A rarity amoung women of that time, she conversed with learned theologians and even the pope, was given considerable autonomy to learn and teach, and was a very gifted writer, poet, theologian, mystic, and scientist.

Hildegard's visions, which are included in this collection, form a larger set of works of hers which include poems, songs and music, and various encyclopedias. Hildegard was a very learned woman for her time.

Her visions are very complex and involve many elements and themes. Some deal with classic theological motifs from the medieval period, such as the Church, Christ, heaven and hell, the last judgement and the fall. Others deal with the relationship between man (the microcosm) and the universe, while others deal with the mysteries of the Triune God and God's prescence in nature.

Most striking in Hildegard's visions is the intimate connection between man, God, and the creation. Mathew Fox rightly said Hildegard is a creation mystic; for her, the divine spirit fills and energises the universe, and the Earth itself is seen in terms as our mother and as sacred. Hurting creation is in fact a way we hurt ourselves, an ecological ethic which can certainly say a lot to us in this time, where our greedy carelessness towards the world and its resources threatens to imperil our very survival as a species. Hildegard also quite rightly and perceptively understands the goodness of creation in terms of the goodness of God, whose abundance is given to us freely out of love. Our sin in Hildegard's system very much boils down to our selfish tendency to only see ourselves and our wants, rather than our relationship with the creation and the creator. In this way, Hildegard speaks to us today as the prophet, who warns us of the spiritual and material destruction and doom that will come to us if we continue to live in our wicked ways; demythologized and interpreted in our context, this can be read as a prophecy to our own destruction if we do not turn from our sinful selfishness which manifests itself in the reckless way we hurt and exploit other people and the environment merely to sate our own desire.

Hildegard's work is filled with beauty and colour and is greatly enjoyable also as fine art, and indeed, Hildegard is as much a great artist as she is a prophet and mystic.

This collection of her works is quite good and takes us through the main cycles of prophetic visions.

Rather astonishig how it pulls old testament and new together making excellent sense of items that formerly seemed to make little sense. It told me things I was not even aware of dealing with my own Catholic faith.

Scivias is a book that unfortunately is not very well known. This is a work a Christian should not ignore, as well as all the work of St. Hildegard von Bingen. The whole book shows that this is really heavenly inspiration, no doubt that Saint Hildegard had the gifts of the Holy Spirit, since she had the gifts of prophecy, healing, etc. She is one of the most amazing persons born in the world.

This book is very deep. I have found it to be an inspiration to live a better and more holy life. To love others increasingly.
God shows his control of the world, yet, we believe we have control, we do to an extent. A profound book ready to get you on track with faith in HIM.

Highly Recommended !