WEBINAR: Hildegard of Bingen
Barbara NewmanNorthwestern University
Join us for our fourth Spring Webinar Series lecture with renowned medievalist Barbara Newman, who will introduce us to the life of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1169). A German Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard produced works of visionary theology drawn from her mystical vision and one of the largest surviving collections of medieval musical compositions.
As a female religious in the 12th century, she held a remarkable influence in the Church through preaching tours across Germany and correspondence with popes, emperors, and other monastic reformers. In 2012, she was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI.
What can reason discover about God? Are there other possible ways to know God? Medieval Christians undertook great rational enterprises—including the sharp logic of Abelard and the grand system of Thomas Aquinas—as well as practiced experiential and contemplative modes of knowing, as did Bernard of Clairvaux. This course will examine how different preeminent medieval Christian thinkers saw the relationship between reason and wisdom, how to arrive at them, and so how to seek the face of God.
This series is cosponsored by the Calvert House Catholic Center, the Collegium Institute, the Harvard Catholic Center, the Nova Forum, the Beatrice Institute, and the Saint Benedict Institute,
Upcoming Seminars:
Thursday, May 7, 7PM
Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux | Willemien Otten (University of Chicago)
Thursday, May 14, 7PM
Julian of Norwich | Katie Bugyis (University of Notre Dame)
Thursday, May 21, 7PM
Bonaventure | Kevin Hughes (Villanova University)
Thursday, May 28, 7PM
Meister Eckhart | Bernard McGinn (University of Chicago)
Thursday, June 4, 7PM
Nicholas of Cusa | David Albertson (University of Southern California)
Barbara Newman is John Evans Professor of Latin; and Professor of English, Religious Studies, and Classics at Northwestern University. Her work is focused upon medieval religious culture, comparative literature, and women's spirituality. She has authored or edited 10 books, most recently a translation of Mechthild of Hackeborn's The Book of Special Grace (2017) She has also written three books on Hildegard of Bingen: an edited volume, Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World (1998); an edition and translation of Hildegard's collected songs, Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum (1988, rev. 1998); and Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine (1987). Professor Newman has been a Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Alice Berline Kaplan Center for the Humanities at Northwestern. Professor Newman is a past president of the Medieval Academy of America
