Hildegard of Bingen: Philosophical Life and Spirituality

Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) was a medieval mystic. From a young age, she had many colorful visions and became well known and influential not only in her own time but in ours as well. Her music reached the mellow house scene in the 1990s, reviving Hildegard’s spirituality for people today. In this paper, I will approach Hildegard as a philosophical practitioner and conduct an imaginary philosophical consultation. I will study her biography, listen to her words by some authentic text fragments and propose a spiritual exercise on her music in order not to just think about Hildegard of Bingen but to try and think like Hildegard of Bingen, in line with the principles of philosophical practice. This way, I will try to understand Hildegard in a practical way and not (just) annotate the regular (theoretical) interpretations of her life. I will distinguish three phases in her life as movements towards spirituality: (1) her relationship with the world, (2) her relationship with God, and (3) her relationship with herself as a spiritual being. I will argue that her life is an example of a philosophical life. Hildegard’s “not fitting in any place” (being átopos) and her development define such a life as a path towards an authentic self, attained by spirituality. The paper intends to contribute both to the understanding of philosophical consultations and to the understanding of Hildegard of Bingen.