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Abstract
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) was brought up from the age of 7 at the monastery of Disibodenberg, near Mainz, Germany. Little is known of her early life until a mystical experience in her 43rd year prompted her to start recording her visionary insights inScivias (Know the Ways), a work that gained the approval of both St. Bernard and Pope Eugenius III at the Council of Trier in late 1147 or early 1148. Soon after 1150, she succeeded in moving with her female community from Disibodenberg to Rupertsberg near Bingen. There she became famous as a prolific author and as a spiritual guide and counselor for both her nuns and the wider community. Although not trained in philosophy, her visionary treatises,Scivias, theLiber vitae meritorum (Book of Life’s Rewards), and theLiber divinorum operum (Book of Divine Works) reveal her desire to interpret religious doctrine in the light of nature. She was profoundly interested in the therapeutic properties of plants, stones, and living organisms in the natural world, as well as in the capacity of music to restore the human soul. Although she never traveled outside of Germany, she was widely recognized by contemporaries across Europe as being one of the most extraordinarily gifted women of her day.
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Centre for Religious Studies, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
Constant J. Mews
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Correspondence toConstant J. Mews.
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Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Henrik Lagerlund
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Mews, C.J. (2020). Hildegard of Bingen. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1665-7_214
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