DNF. Have never been so genuinely angry at a book before, not even with Camus. Absolutely abysmal, abysmal excuse for commentary. The prose, diction, and sentence structure you would expect from a middle schooler. I don’t even know where to begin. The quotes from colleagues who are not academics and just random people (often Jungians, which I will get to later) he has [seemingly imaginary] conversations with about Hildegard where they conveniently happen to speak in a way that argues exactly whatever horseshit he is trying to say. The constant belittling of Hildegard for being unclear while he mutilates her writings and her art. The fact there are about 10 actual words from Hildegard per chapter followed by mountains of hot air. The fact that the illuminations are themselves small and faded pictures jarringly put into the middle of one chapter, in matte. The fact that he accuses her of metaphysical antisemitism (even though ironically, she is one of the few mystics of her time who does not have this problem, though her thoughts on the Second Crusade are not exactly unproblematic) AND THEN QUOTES JUNG (and his own Jungian psychiatrist friends!!!) DOZENS OF TIMES PER CHAPTER! Haphazardly mentioning the Shekinah (as if he knows what that means!) like the spineless New Age charlatan he is. Nauseating misuse of countless terms from Eastern religions.

You should be put down like a dog. It is a cruel God that allowed you to write and publish this without reservations.

illustrations 5; text 2

Read while on Germany trip and we went to Bingen!

I would recommend to read the selections in the book with background of Hildegard's unusual life.

Very interesting Christian mystical text.

I was a bit disappointed with this book. The illustrations of her artwork are nice but the writing. Mathew Fox dominates this book with his viewpoint and only quotes small snippets of her writings. Most of the time he is not even quoting full sentences. I find this very annoying as it seems so much cherry picking you really are not sure this is about his views or if it really is covering her views because there is so little of her own words involved! Maybe it is, as others have stated, a good starter for a look into her writings. But with so little of her writings in it I find that a stretch. I am glad I have another book about her to read in my stash. Perhaps that will be more helpful.

Sometimes I don't know how I end up finding and reading books. I'm majorly studying the Book of Kells. This has good ornamented first letters, borders, and the paintings that the nuns made from Hildegard's description of her visions.
I found a wonderful quote on p. 24.
" It is important that God be imaged essentially as curved and circular. This is an ancient tradition wherever women's religions are allowed their say: the Divinity as circle, or circle in motion, that is, spiral. "
I am a certified labyrinth facilitator. The labyrinth in Chartes Cathedral from around the 13th century is a circular path that may have been used by those who could not make pilgrimages to the holy land.

It's time to return the book to the library I've had my nine weeks and I'm not ready to speed read. It's dense. Right now I have listed it as "probably-won-t-read" But I'm not ready to put it as "couldn-t-finish" I might take it out again...

The author mixes his own thoughts with the Saint's and analyses her visions using shocking words like 'erotic' and New Age terminologies. I confess, I could not go through with reading this book.

This is a most beautiful book and I use it for quiet reflection and for sharing with others. It continually refreshes me.

I turned to this book after reading Matrix by Lauren Groff (a fictional account of a woman mystic) to renew my love for the Rhineland mystics of the twelfth century. Matthew Fox offers a wonderful discussion of Hildegard's illuminations. She, and her contemporary women mystics, possessed such a beautiful theology. Hildegard was simply extraordinary in all that she did but most importantly, to me, was how she pointed out and celebrated our common divinity - "we, too, are 'other Christs'" According to her, compassion is the seed within us that develops into God. Compassion floods the universe. (p. 37) She develops this further as she emphasizes our interdependence and points to the beauty of ecumenism. We need to pay attention - Hildegard has much to teach us!

Rating it 5 stars for the ideas, her art, and the divine timing this subject matter came into my life. HOWEVER, looking at the other reviews, I realize I have to read about her from a more credible scholar. Definitely some interesting patriarchal bs happening at some parts, interspersed through her visions and rumination over her life. But other than that I am very intrigued by Hildegard of Bingen and will be researching her and her life a bit more deeply.