Barbara Newman 
Sister of Wisdom 
St. Hildegard’s Theology of the Feminine

Barbara Newman reintroduces English-speaking readers to an extraordinary and gifted figure of the twelfth-century renaissance. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was mystic and writer, musician and preacher, abbess and scientist who used symbolic theology to explore the meaning of her gender within the divine scheme of things.


With a new preface, bibliography, and discography,
Sister of Wisdom is a landmark book in women’s studies, and it will also be welcomed by readers in religion and history.

Table of Content

Illustrations

Abbreviations

Preface (1997)

Preface (1987)


1. ‘A poor little female’


Biographical sketch

Survey of Hildegard’s works

Theology and the problem

of feminine authority


2. The Feminine Divine

Theophany and the bride of God

The mirror of providence, the virgin spring,

and the tree of life

The eternal counsel

Wisdom as creatrix and anima mundi

Wisdom’s vesture

The chastisements of charity


3· The Woman and the Serpent

Made in God’s image

The garment and the mirror

The bright cloud and the shadow

Eve and Satan


4· Daughters of Eve

Women’s sexuality and character

God, Satan, and fertility

Gynecology

Healing and magic


5· The Mother of God

Mary and the ancient counsel

Eve and Mary

Atonement through the virgin birth

Mary as the feminine ideal

Mary, the Church, and the priesthood


6. The Bride of Christ

The Church eternal in heaven

Synagogue and Church

The wedding on Calvary

Christ’s virgins and the virgin Church

Mother Church and the motherhood of God

‘An effeminate age’


7· Sister of Wisdom

Theology and gender revisited

Sapiential thought through

the twentieth century

Feminism and the future of Sophia


Texts of Hildegard’s Poetry


Bibliography

Discography

Index

About the author

Barbara Newman is Associate Professor of English at Northwestern University.