Hildegard of Bingen's Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs

Hildegard of Bingen, a Rhineland mystic of the twelfth century, has been called an ideal model of the liberated woman. She was a poet and scientist, painter and musician, healer and abbess, playwright, prophet, preacher and social critic.

The Book of Divine Works was written between 1170 and 1173,

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and this is its first appearance in English. The third volume of a trilogy which includes Scivias, published by Bear & Company in 1985, this visionary work is a signal resounding throughout the planet that a time of healing and balance is at hand. The Book of Divine Works is a cosmology which reunites religion, science, and art, and readers will discover an astonishing symbiosis with contemporary physics in these 800-year-old visions. The present volume also contains 51 letters written by Hildegard to significant political and religious figures of her day and translations of twelve of her songs.

Editor Matthey Fox is a Dominican theologian. He is the author of ten books including Original Blessing: A Primer in CreationSpirituality and Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, published by Bear & Company, aandis the director of the Institute on Culture and creation Spirituality, Oakland, California.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a German nun, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, and Benedictine abbess. In his Introduction, Matthew Fox (the former Dominican priest who founded the 'Creation Spirituality' movement) notes, 'Hildegard offers western civilization a deep and healing medicine for what may well be its number-one disease of the past few centuries: anthropocentrism... Hildegard brings together the three essential elements essential elements of a living cosmology. The first element is science... The second element... is a healthy mysticism... The third element... is art. Neither science nor theology is enough to awaken a people.'

She asks, 'Since God is Reason, how could it be that God, who causes all divine actions to come to fruition through human beings, is not active?' (Pg. 10) She observes, 'As long as we are in this world, we cannot know the soul and its merits.' (Pg. 169) She predicts, 'Foreigners will invade Christendom and destroy Church institutions by taking advantage of the Christians' lack of weapons. All this is an indication of the coming of the Antichrist. These days will be saturated with filth...' (Pg. 247)

In one of her letters, she states, 'I am but a poor woman who listens to the instruction of the masters.' (Pg. 331) She adds in another letter, 'I am but a poor creature and fragile vessel; yet what I speak to you comes not from me but from the clear light. Human beings are vessels God has made and filled with the Spirit so that the divine work might come to perfection in them.' (Pg. 338)

She wonders, 'What about those in the Church who through an interdict impose silence on the singing of God's praise? If on earth they have committed the wrong of robbing God of the honor of the praise which is God's due, then they can have no fellowship with the praise of the angels in heaven.' (Pg. 359)

While as with other translations supported by Matthew Fox (e.g., Sheer Joy, Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart's Creation Spirituality in New Transition), scholars might debate its accuracy, this is still a very lively translation of a work that richly deserves modern readership.-Steven Propp

One of what i call a Christianomicon.. A Book Of Marvels like many various Necronomicons; xcept, the author is not a 'Madman' like Abdul AlHazred; but a Saint possessed by/or in contact w/Alien Forces or Praeter-Human-Intelligences. Her Book: Liber Scivias (Illuminated), would better illustrate this point. Like when Hildegard's receiving a vision being shown as tentacles reaching down from the Heavens! Not all Necronomicon's are evil. Mostly they are Archetypes of the Dreamplane & The Akashic Records; being xpressed by an overflow from the Unconscious & Subconscious Minds (which incidentally hold our closest ties 2 Aliens, what lies beneath the Seas, & Reptillian Consciousness). Other 'Christianomicon's' would include: The Book of Enoch, The Codex Gigas, works by St.Cyprian, & Ethiopian Magic Scrolls ...ect. ad nauseum..-Blair Cordero

Contents

Introduction
The Book of Divine Works
First part: The world of humanity
Translator's note
Foreword
First vision: On the origin of life
Second vision: On the construction of the world
Third vision: On human nature
Fourth vision: On the articulation of the body
Second art: The kingdom of the hereafter
Fifth vision: The places of purification
Third part: The history of salvation
Sixth vision: On the meaning of history
Seventh vision: Preparation for Christ
Eighth vision: On the effect of love
Ninth vision: Completion of the cosmos
Tenth vision: On the end of time
Letters
Translator's note
Letter One Hildegard to Bernard of Clairvaux
Letter Two Hildegard to Pope Anastasius IV
Letter Three Hildegard to Biship Eberhard II of Bamberg
Letter Fur Hildegard to archibishop Eberhard of Salzburg
Letter Five Hildegard to archibishop Philip of Cologne
Letter Six Hildegard to King Konrad III
Letter Seven Hildegard to Frederick
Letter Eight Hiildegard to Frederick
Letter Nine Hildegard to Bertha
Letter Ten Hildegard to King Henry II of England
Letter Eleven Hildegard to Her Spiritual Daughters
Letter Twelve Hildegard to Her Spiritual Daughters
Letter Thirteen Hildegard to Abbot Kuno
Letter Fourteen Hildegard to Prior Albert
Letter Fifteen Hildegard to Abbot Helenger
Letter Sixteen Hildegard to the Monks of Zwiefalten
Letter Seventeen Hildegard to Abbot Helmrich
Leter Eighteen Hildegard to Abbot Adam of Ehrach
Letter Nineteen Hildegard to Abbot Withelo
Letter Twenty Hildegard to the five Burgundian Abbots
Letter Twenty-One Hildegard to Monks St. Eucharius
Letter Twenty-Two Hildegard to Abbot Philip
Letter Twenty-Three Hildegard to Abbot Philip
Letter twenty-Four Hildegard to Philip and the Clergy
Letter Twenty-Five Hildegard to Werner of Kirchheim
Letter Twenty-Six Hildegard to a religious superior
Letter Twenty-seven Hildegard to an Abbot
Letter Twenty-Eight Hildegard to a Pirest
Letter Twenty-Nine Hildegard to an Abbot
Letter Thirty Hildegard to a Priest
Letters Thirty-One and Thirty-Two Hildegard to Gertrude
Letter Thirty-Three Hildegard to Bishop Eberhard
Letter Thirty-Four Hildegard toElisabeth of Schongua
Letter Thirty-Five Hildegard to Elisabeth
Letter Thirty-Six Hildegard to Christian Lay People
Letter Thirty-Seven Hildegard to an Excommunicant
Letter Thiryt-Eight Hildegard to an unkonown lay person
Letter Thrity-Nine Hildegard to Wibert of Gembloux
Letter forty Hildegard to Wibert and the monks of Villers
Letter Forty-One Hildegard to the relates of Mainz
Letter Forty-Two Hildegard to Archibishop Christian
Songs
Introduction
1 Kyrie
2 O Virtus Sapientiae, O moving force of wisdom
3 De Sancta Maria, in praise of Mary
4 De Spiritu Sancto, to the Holy Spirit
5 Item De Virginibus, Praiinsg viergins
6 de Sancta Mria, To Mary
7 O Felix Anima, O happy soul
8 O Vis Aeternitatis, O eternal vigor
9 De Martyribus, In praise of martyrs
10 De Innocentibus, to the innocents
11 De Sancto Disibodo, In honor of St. Disibode
12 O Coruscans Lux, O burning light

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