Visionary Women: Three Medieval Mystics

By Rosemary Radford Ruether

In Visionary Women, influential feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether glimpses into the souls of three medieval mystics. Hildegard of Bingen, a self-taught theologian who developed a mystical secret language used in her community of mystics, became a traveling preacher and author. At the age of forty, Mechthild of Magdeburg was commanded by God to write down her visions, which resulted in seven books. Julian of Norwich prayed as a young child that she would see Christ's passion, that she would get deathly ill, and that she would long for God--all in her desire to focus her life solely on God--and He answered all three.

Ruether describes the women as prophets with a God-given message for the church and society of their time. Her sympathetic overview evokes the new religious horizons they envisioned for Christianity. She discusses the three women's beliefs about God, theology, and their identity. Though they faced adversity, they challenged these notions as bold women in the faith, secure in their strong relationship with God.

Visionary Women is an adaption from Ruether's award-winning book, Women and Redemption: A Theological History. Readers will join in the long tradition of keeping the mystics' messages alive and relevant.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Release date: May 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781506488516

Rosemary Radford Ruether

Rosemary Radford Ruether taught for twenty-seven years at the Garrett- Evangelical Theological Seminary and Northwestern University and for six years at the Graduate Theological Union. Dr.Ruether is an emerita professor at Garrett- Evangelical and the Graduate Theological Union. She is the author or editor of more than forty books and numerous articles, including Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology; Women-Church: Theology and Practice of Feminist Liturgical Communities; and Gaia & God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. She teaches at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California.

Book preview

Cover Page for Visionary Women

Visionary Women

Rosemary Radford Ruether

Three Medieval Mystics

Visionary Women

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

VISIONARY WOMEN

Three Medieval Mystics

Copyright © 2002, 2023 Fortress Press, an imprint of 1517 Media. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Email [e-mail] or write to Permissions, Fortress Press, PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209.

Adapted from Rosemary Radford Ruether, Women and Redemption: A Theological History (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1998).

Cover design: Kristin Miller

Cover image: Vision of the angelic hierarchy, Hildegard von Bingen, 12th century

Print ISBN: 978-1-5064-8850-9

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-8851-6

While the author and 1517 Media have confirmed that all references to website addresses (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing, URLs may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Hildegard of Bingen

Mechthild of Magdeburg

Julian of Norwich

Notes

Further Reading

Preface

It is with great pleasure that I introduce this publication, which makes my writings on three medieval mystics—Hildegard of Bingen, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Julian of Norwich—accessible to a popular audience. The writings of these women were largely unknown until a few decades ago. Translations of medieval writers into English or other modern languages focused on the male theologians and generally did not see women as having an authoritative voice. We owe it to the new interest in women and women’s writings in recent years that these women mystics have been rediscovered and their work made accessible in modern translations.

The rich creativity of the thought of these medieval women is providing Christians in the twenty-first century with new insights into Christian faith and into the medieval world as well. We are amazed at the range and complexity of female imagery in their work. Female images inform their understanding of God, the creation and redemption of the universe, the fecundity of nature, and the relation of the self to God. Such a range of female symbolism belongs more to the mystical than the scholastic tradition and was particularly developed by women mystics. Without these writings our understanding of the possibilities of feminine symbolism in Christianity would remain unknown to most Christians.

How did such women manage to write at all, much less have their writings preserved so that we can delight in their insights today? Officially medieval Christianity saw women as secondary in nature and sinful through their primacy in the Fall, therefore to be denied any public voice as teachers in the church. Yet the church also preserved the tradition that women were equally capable of holiness and might be empowered by the Holy Spirit as prophets to teach the church. This view of the Holy Spirit as an equal opportunity employer allowed medieval women to rupture the limits placed upon them and proclaim their visions boldly.

Yet their voices would still not have come down to us if there had not been a network of supporters around them that mentored these women, provided them with access to literacy and scholarship, encouraged them to write down their thoughts or acted as their secretaries to inscribe their visions, recognized them as prophetic thinkers, and advocated for their recognition as such to church authorities. Our knowledge of these women also depends on the religious communities of women and men who copied their works, preserved them in their libraries, and handed them down to future generations.

A great network of supporters, preservers, and publicists of the work of these three and other medieval women mystics surround them and allow us to enjoy them today. One thinks of Jutta, Hildegard’s mentor, who educated her and promoted her to be her successor as abbess; of Volmar, the provost of the adjoining men’s monastery, who recognized her gifts and acted as her scribe to write them down; and of her community of nuns, who translated her visions into brilliant pictures and preserved them in their community. One thinks of Heinrich of Halle, who likewise encouraged Mechthild and helped her write her visions; and of the nuns of the monastery of Helfta, who protected her in her old age and preserved her writings. One thinks of the Augustinian friars across the road from Julian’s anchorhold, who lent her books for her study; and of the Benedictine monks who fled with her writings at the Reformation to keep them from being destroyed.

It is through such networks of lovers, preservers, and publicists of these women’s work that the fruits of their spirit reach us today. Fortress Press now joins this network that keeps their memory alive. May they become ever more a part of our active tradition!

Introduction

The New Testament and patristic message of the inclusion of women in the image of God redeemed in Christ, however andro-centrically conceived and in dichotomous tension with women’s subjugation in creation and fallenness, activated women as agents in seeking and acting on this offer or redemption. One discerns this presence of the female subject behind many New Testament and patristic male authors, either when men seek to contain and limit this female agency or when they appeal to women’s particular interests; that is, promotion of asceticism to women as freeing them from the trials of male