Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader [Paperback]

Hildegard of Bingen (Author), Carmen Acevedo Butcher (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2007

“Humanity, take a good look at yourself. Inside, you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation. You’re a world – everything is hidden in you.” –Hildegard of Bingen

 

She was a Benedictine abbess, artist, composer, dietician, naturalist, poet, travelling preacher, mystic, and political consultant. She was a self-doubter with acute certainty in a merciful and mysterious God; a gifted healer who suffered from illness her whole life. Meet the incomparable Hildegard of Bingen. Nourishing, challenging, and idea-bursting, her writings will stir and awaken your soul.

 

This essential reader captures the vibrant spirit and intelligence of Hildegard with selections from her songs, theological texts, liturgical music, and letters. Combined with an introduction to Hildegard’s life and era, a map of Hildegard’s Germany, chronology, and a thorough bibliography/discography, Hildegard of Bingen provides the ideal introduction to the thought of this fascinating medieval mystic.

 

“Nothing short of delightful . . . . I often felt I was reading Hildegard, the real Hildegard, for the first time.”

-Dr. Katharina Wilson, Professor of Comparative Literature, The University of Georgia

 

“This book is a gift to the church. Carmen Butcher wisely selects and elegantly translates Hildegard’s works, including her soaring music, spiritual visions, and selected letters.”

-Scot McKnight, author of The Jesus Creed and The Real Mary

 

“Carmen Butcher has tapped into St. Hildegard’s spirit and made it accessible.”

– Br. Benet Exton, O.S.B., St. Gregory’s Abbey and University

Editorial Reviews

Review

For those who already know and admire her, this compilation of Hildegard's various works is an ideal reference. For those who are unacquainted with Hildegard of Bingen, this book is the best of introductions. Carmen Acevedo Butcher, besides her selections from Hildegard's own works, provides the reader with a biography of this remarkable medieval mystic. The English translations from Hildegard's Latin are engaging. Hildegard, a nun who died in the 12th century, speaks our own language today. She was instructed by God to "write down what you see and hear!" Carmen Acevedo Butcher has made it accessible to us in this fine book. -- Br. Benet Tvedten, author of The View from a Monastery

I just finished Dr. Butcher's manuscript, and I am happy to report that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. In fact, it was one of those texts that, imperceptibly but irresistibly, draws you in until you fall in step with the author in her perambulations between the 12th and 21st centuries. Good medievalist that she is, her mode of presentation, analogical logic, if the favored form of medieval argumentation, but her transposition of this usually theological, legal or scientific methodology to seemingly banal events is nothing short of delightful. The introductory essay detailing Hildegard's life and accomplishments is engaging, her obvious affinity with her subject spiritually inspiring, and her presentation scholarly and lucid.

Where her true contribution to Hildegard studies lies, is in her genuinely masterful rendering of Hildegard's texts. With a keen eye for the multifaceted Latin of the source texts as well as the specifically Hildegardian cadence of her language, Butcher was able to create texts that, like the original, are epitomes of vigor, striking metaphoric expression, directness and immediacy. As I was reading them, I often felt I was reading Hildegard, the real Hildegard, for the first time. -- Dr. Katharina Wilson, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Georgia

If you think a 12th-century nun famous in her time for apocalptic visions has nothing to say to us today, think again. In this finely written book, Carmen Butcher shows us a Hildegard who was endearingly human, battling self-doubt while tenaciously and creatively using her many talents to express God's love and energize the church. Butcher's translations make this fascinating medieval woman's words fresh and accessible to modern readers. -- Christian History and Biography, Jennifer Trafton, Managing Editor

This book is a gift to the church. Carmen Acevedo Butcher brings Hildegard of Bingen to life for us. Women trapped in a man's world, such as many women were in the Middle Ages, found freedom in monasticism. None more so than Hildegard of Bingen. Carmen Butcher wisely selects and elegantly translates Hildegard's works, including her soaring music, spiritual visions, and selected letters. What strikes any reader today about Hildegard is her audacity ¬ born of faith and fostered in prayer, Hildegard confronted the powers of her day with words about the Living Word. -- Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University

Product Details

• Paperback: 183 pages
• Publisher: Paraclete Press; annotated edition edition (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557254907
• ISBN-13: 978-1557254900
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Carmen Acevedo Butcher received the 46th Georgia Author of the Year award for The Cloud of Unknowing with the Book of Privy Counsel. She was Carnegie Professor of the Year for Georgia and recipient of the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship. As a Fulbright Senior Lecturer, she taught graduate and undergraduate students for a year at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea. She studied medieval literature at The University of Georgia with Dr. John Algeo. Dr. Butcher also studied at The University of London on a Fulbright grant and at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg on a Rotary International Graduate Scholarship. She has published numerous books and articles in medieval studies and linguistics with Cambridge University Press, Mercer University Press, Cengage Learning / Wadsworth, Paraclete Press, Shambala Publications, and others. She is a professor of English and Scholar-in-Residence at Shorter University and is frequently asked to speak at universities, colleges, and community venues and leads retreats on Bible study and prayer. She writes regularly for Christianity Today and has served as a commentator for Georgia Public Broadcasting (97.7 FM). She is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Her husband, Sean, and she met in London during the first Fulbright grant. Her website is www.carmenbutcher.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars St. Hildegard of Bingen a future Doctor of the Church?, March 14, 2007

By 

Benet Exton "Br. Benet Exton, O.S.B." (Shawnee, OK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader (Paperback)

I had the privilege of seeing and reviewing the original manuscript of this book. Dr. Carmen Butcher has translated St. Hildegard's works into modern English that is very readable. Those familiar with St. Hildegard and her works will appreciate this reader and those new to her will have a great introduction to this wonderful saint and follower of the Rule of St. Benedict. Dr. Butcher in the introduction presents a short biography of St. Hildegard. In my original review I suggest that if Pope Benedict is looking for another woman to declare a Doctor of the Church, St. Hildegard would make a wonderful candidate. St. Hildegard was very influential in her time. She had the special permission of the Church to preach to clerics and lay alike. Pope Eugene III read some of her works at a synod he was attending and praised her. St. Bernard of Clairvaux also praised her as did many clerics and lay people of note. Many sought her advice and aid. Again this reader by Dr. Butcher is a great introduction to this holy saint of God, St. Hildegard.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Things, April 22, 2007

By 

Christina Danielle Buckley "db" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader (Paperback)

Carmen Butcher has done it again. In her newest book, "Hildegard of Bingen: a spiritual reader," not only has she once more rendered ancient medieval texts readable, enjoyable, and inspiring, but she has also provided a concise and interesting biography of Hildegard of Bingen. She has taken her gift for translation, as evident in "Incandescence: 365 readings with women mystics," and combined it with her penchant for breathing new life into long-gone characters, as in her biography, "Man of Blessing: A Life of St. Benedict." The introductions to each chapter are written in such a way that they are suited for, as Butcher writes, a "first-time Hildegard reader or long-time Hildegard friend" (xii). Each section gives the reader insight into another facet of the twelfth century abbess. As I read, I was continually surprised at the beauty and poetry Butcher maintained throughout her translations, whether it be a song, vision, or letter. This book is made to be read more than once. The first reading will be a delightful rushing from page to page, as you soak up Hildegard and her work. But the second reading will be a slow, meditative one, rendering spiritual nourishment and inspiration that seeps from Hildegard's wisdom and passion. Hildegard writes in one of her letters, "Always try to learn new things, then, because that's as necessary to wisdom as internal organs are to being healthy." Read "Hildegard of Bingen," and you will have learned new things.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Benedictine mother of Bingen, February 19, 2008

By 

Daniel B. Clendenin (www.journeywithjesus.net) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader (Paperback)

In an age when life expectancy was somewhere around forty, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) lived a life that was remarkably long and incredibly productive. Butcher describes Hildegard as an "Über-multitasking Frau" and authentic "polymath." The description fits. The Benedictine abbess founded two convents, conducted four preaching tours, penned at least 400 letters, wrote music and a morality play, supervised illuminated manuscripts, cared for her fellow sisters, and wrote three major theological tomes based upon her famous visions. All this despite her pronounced feelings of self-doubt, the lack of formal schooling, chronic illnesses that probably included depression and migraine headaches, and the subservient roles assigned to women by a male-dominated church and culture.

Hildegard was born the youngest of ten children to an aristocratic family that lived near Mainz. She started having what she later concluded were divine visions as earlier as age three. When she was eight her parents dedicated her to the religious life, and at age fourteen she entered the St. Disibod Abbey at Disibodenberg. Until her death almost seventy years later, she devoted herself to the life of a Benedictine nun. After keeping her visions to herself for decades, when she was forty-two Hildegard says that God told her to write what she had seen and heard: "So now you must give others an intelligible account of what you see with your inner eye and what you hear with your inner ear. Your testimony will help them. As a result, others will learn how to know their Creator. They'll no loner refuse to adore God."

Butcher describes her anthology as a "Hildegard 101." After describing the life of Hildegard (pp. 1-29), her seven chapters introduce readers to Hildegard's varied works: twenty songs, Scivias or Know the Ways of the Lord (a work of twenty-six visions in three parts), her morality drama called The Play of the Virtues, selections from her 400 letters, excerpts from her writings about nature and medicine, The Book of Life's Merits (six visions about Christian temptations), and then The Book of Divine Works (10 visions in three parts). A short conclusion is followed by an extensive chronology of Hildegard's life, and a bibliography for further reading and also for listening to recordings of Hildegard's music. Butcher's short work is no substitute for the critical editions of Hildegard's works, but it might well provoke curious readers to seek them out after enjoying her fine introduction to one of the most important mothers of the church.