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For nearly two millennia, despite repeated prohibitions, Christian women have preached. Some have preached in official settings; others have found alternative routes for expression. Prophecy, teaching, writing, and song have all filled a broad definition of preaching. This anthology, with essays by an international group of scholars from several disciplines, investigates the diverse voices of Christian women who claimed the authority to preach and prophesy. The contributors examine the centuries of arguments, grounded in Pauline injunctions, against women's public speech and the different ways women from the early years of the church through the twentieth century have nonetheless exercised r...
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), the only medieval woman known to have authored systematic works of exegesis, composed fifty-eight little-studied Expositiones euangeliorum, homilies on twenty-seven Gospel passages. Hildegard described her divine charge to restore the tottering faith of her era through the revelation of hidden mysteries in the Scriptures. She was to continue the exegetical tradition of the Fathers and to construct moral fortifications with the words of Scripture in order to defend her sisters against the forces of evil. Hildegard of Bingen and her Gospel Homilies constitutes the first in-depth study of Hildegard's Expositiones and of her exegesis, preaching, and use of sources. It explores the Expositiones in the context of Hildegard's intellectual and cultural milieu and underscores the central role of biblical interpretation in the seer's works. Furthermore, this book re-examines Hildegard's self-depiction in the context of monastic education for women, the magistra's exchange with her mentors and friends, and her rich use of divine voice to empower her own expression. This is a new, exciting, and erudite study on one of the most influential female mystics.
The authoritative true story of the notorious deadly chest and the victims of the curse placed on it around 1830. The original letter by Virginia Cary Hudson is researched and published by Dr. Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Virginia's granddaughter and retired Harvard professor.
This ground-breaking volume assesses the contemporary epidemic of intimate partner violence and explores how and why cultural and religious beliefs serve to excuse battering and to work against survivors’ attempts to find safety. Theological interpretations of sacred texts have been used for centuries to justify or minimize violence against women. The authors recover historical and especially medieval narratives whose protagonists endure violence that is framed by religious texts or arguments. The medieval theological themes that redeem battering in saints’ lives—suffering, obedience, ownership and power—continue today in most religious traditions. This insightful book emphasizes Chr...
This volume, written by experts on Catherine of Siena, considers her as a church reformer, peacemaker, preacher, author, holy woman, stigmatic, saint and politically astute person. The manuscript tradition of works by and about her are also studied.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098 '1179) describes the virtue of Fortitude teaching the other virtues in the fire of the Holy Spirit. Like Fortitude, Hildegard was enkindled by the Holy Spirit and edified many with her teaching. Hildegard of Bingen's Homilies on the Gospels are here translated for the first time from Latin into English. Hildegard's sisters recorded and preserved her informal preaching in this collection of homilies on twenty-seven gospel pericopes. As teacher and superior to her sisters, Hildegard probably spoke to them in the chapter house, with the scriptural text either before her or recited from memory, according to Benedictine liturgical practice. The Homilies on the Gospels prove essential for comprehending the coherent theological Vision that Hildegard constructs throughout her works, including the themes of salvation history, the drama of the individual soul, the struggle of virtues against vices, and the life-giving and animating force of greenness (uiriditas). Moreover, the Homilies on the Gospels establish Hildegard as the only known female systematic exegete of the Middle Ages.
A study of the involvement of the Cistercian Order in the events surrounding the outbreak of heresy - particularly that of the Cathars and the resulting Albigensian Crusade - in southern France. Led by the example of Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian monks turned their attention to the world outside the monastery walls in response to the threat posed by heretical Christians, in particular the Cathars. The white monks, withother intellectuals, turned to pen, pulpit and popular preaching to counteract heresy, some accepting posts as bishops and papal legates, helping and even directing the Albigensian crusade, and contributing to the formulation ofprocedures for inquisition. Kienzle examines this important but little-studied aspect of Cistercian history to discover how and why the Order undertook endeavours that drew the monks outside their monastic vocation. The analysis of texts about the preaching campaigns and their contexts illuminate the ways in which medieval monastic authors perceived heresy, preached, and wrote against it. Professor BEVERLY MAYNE KIENZLE teaches at Harvard Divinity School.
In Hildegard of Bingen, Gospel Interpreter, Beverly Mayne Kienzle presents and acquaints readers with Hildegard’s fifty-eight Homilies on the Gospels―a dazzling summa of her theology and the culmination of her visionary insight and scriptural knowledge. Part one probes how a twelfth-century woman became the only known female Gospel interpreter of the Middle Ages. It includes an examination of Hildegard’s epistemology―how she received her basic theological education and how she extended her knowledge through divine revelations and intellectual exchange with her monastic network. Part two expounds on several of Hildegard’s homilies, elucidating the theological brilliance that emanate...
This volume provides an introduction to Hildegard and her works, with a focus on the historical, literary, and religious context of the seer’s writings and music. Its essays explore the cultural milieu that informs Hildegard’s life and various compositions, and examine understudied aspects of the magistra’s oeuvre, such as the interconnections among her works. A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen builds on earlier studies and presents to an English-speaking audience various facets of the seer’s historical persona and her cultural significance, so that the reader can grasp and appreciate the scope of the unparalleled life and contributions of Hildegard, who was declared to be a saint and a doctor of the Church in 2012. Contributors include: Michael Embach, Margot E. Fassler, Franz J. Felten, George Ferzoco, William T. Flynn, Felix Heinzer, Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Tova Leigh-Choate, Constant J. Mews, Susanne Ruge, Travis A. Stevens, Debra L. Stoudt, and Justin A. Stover.
Presents the Order's figureheads, practical life and spiritual horizon, and its contribution to medieval Europe's religious, cultural and political climate.