Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine

Front Cover
University of California Press, 1989 - 305 pages
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.
 

Contents

PREFACE 1987
xix
A POOR LITTLE FEMALE
1
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
4
SURVEY OF HILDEGARDS WORKS
15
THEOLOGY AND THE PROBLEM OF FEMININE AUTHORITY
34
THE FEMININE DIVINE
42
THEOPHANY AND THE BRIDE OF GOD
46
THE MIRROR OF PROVIDENCE THE VIRGIN SPRING AND THE TREE OF LIFE
51
GYNECOLOGY
143
HEALING AND MAGIC
148
THE MOTHER OF GOD
156
MARY AND THE ANCIENT COUNSEL
160
EVE AND MARY
167
ATONEMENT THROUGH THE VIRGIN BIRTH
171
MARY AS THE FEMININE IDEAL
181
MARY THE CHURCH AND THE PRIESTHOOD
188

THE ETERNAL COUNSEL
55
WISDOM AS CREATRIX AND ANIMA MUNDI
64
WISDOMS VESTURE
71
THE CHASTISEMENTS OF CHARITY
75
THE WOMAN AND THE SERPENT
89
MADE IN GODS IMAGE
91
THE GARMENT AND THE MIRROR
94
THE BRIGHT CLOUD AND THE SHADOW
100
EVE AND SATAN
107
DAUGHTERS OF EVE
121
WOMENS SEXUALITY AND CHARACTER
126
GOD SATAN AND FERTILITY
133
THE BRIDE OF CHRIST
196
THE CHURCH ETERNAL IN HEAVEN
198
SYNAGOGUE AND CHURCH
204
THE WEDDING ON CALVARY
211
CHRISTS VIRGINS AND THE VIRGIN CHURCH
218
MOTHER CHURCH AND THE MOTHERHOOD OF GOD
228
AN EFFEMINATE AGE
238
SISTER WISDOM
250
THEOLOGY AND GENDER REVISITED
254
SAPIENTIAL THOUGHT THROUGH THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
258
FEMINISM AND THE FUTURE OF SOPHIA
265
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About the author (1989)

Barbara Newman is Associate Professor of English at Northwestern University.

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