Matthew Fox is the popular and controversial speaker, spiritual teacher, and author of more than 30 books. He was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years until silenced by the Vatican in 1989 and formally dismissed in 1993. Now an Episcopal priest, he travels extensively sharing his vision of a spirituality that includes mysticism, social justice, and the marriage of the Divine Feminine and the Sacred Masculine.
In this passionately presented book, Fox looks at Hildegard of Bingen as harbinger, prophet, and template of our own age even though she was born almost 1,000 years ago. In his third book on this saint and Doctor of the Church, he celebrates her as a herald of the Divine Feminine, a green prophet, and a church reformer. She represents an alternative to the fundamentalism which has hobbled all the world's religions and has tried to keep alive the albatross of patriarchy.
Fox begins with a stirring five-page tribute to Hildegard of Bingen's many talents and accomplishments and ends the book with an appendix of spiritual practices in the spirit of this faithful servant of God.
In a dazzling series of thought-provoking chapters, Fox shows the relevance of this 11th century dynamo to our times. He creatively sets her multidimensional ministry alongside the panentheism of Mary Oliver, Howard Thurman's God of life and light, the eco-warrior defenders of the earth, Einstein's science, creation spirituality, the wild woman spirit of Clarissa Pinkola Estes, the prophetic challenge, and Dorothee Soelle's advocacy of the Divine Feminine.
Along the way, Fox quotes Hildegard of Bingen. Here is a sampler of her vision:
• "No creature, whether visible or invisible, lacks a spiritual life."
• "There is no creation that does not have a radiance. Be it greenness or seed, blossom or beauty — it could not be creation without it."
• "The blowing wind, the mild, moist air, the exquisite greening of trees and grasses — in their beginning, in their ending, they give God their praise."
• "It is in praise and service that the surprise of God is consummated."
• "The prophets are a royal people, who penetrate mystery and see with the spirit's eyes. In illuminating darkness, they speak out."
