What is gained by the reader who allows himself or herself to be led into [Hildegard von Bingen's] rich world of symbolism? . . . Her experience as a woman and her personal struggle for liberation; her marrying of science, art, and religion; her psychology of microcosm/macrocosm; her potential for global religious ecumenism based on her deep mysticism; her prophetic commitment to justice; her deep ecological sense; her commitment to holistic education and theological methodology; her symbolic consciousness. . . . She illumines us today more than she illumined or dreamed of illuminating anyone in her own time.
— Matthew Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen