Hildegard of Bingen's Book of Divine Works: With Letters and Songs [Paperback]

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 Workswas written between 1170 and 1173, and this is its first appearance in English. The third volume of a trilogy which includesScivias, 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 Worksis 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 Matthew Fox is a Dominican theologian. He is the author of ten books includingOriginal Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality and Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, published by Bear & Company, and is the director of the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality, Oakland, California.
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 PART: 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
Letterlâ