Hildegard of Bingen and Sex Complementarity - by Dr. Shanon Sterringer - February 19, 2020
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Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen and Sex Complementarity
by Dr. Shanon Sterringer | February 19, 2020
“Hildegard is rightly considered as the foundress of the sex complementarity position.” This is a loaded statement written by Sister Prudence Allen, R.S.M. (appointed to the International Theological Commission by Pope Francis in 2014) in Volume One of her three volume work, The Concept of Woman (pg. 292). Complementarity is a highly controversial theological position created by Pope John Paul II in his series of addresses compiled into what is called, Theology of the Body. While Hildegard’s writings do articulate a rationale for the sexes and she believed everything in the created world is organized by divine plan, to cite her as the foundress for what is happening in the Church today under this new theology of JPII fails to understand her within her historical and cultural context. She did not abide by the boundaries created by a concept of sex complementarity, though her writings do indicate that she seemed to believe her call to leadership was unique and not the norm. “It is a womanish time” she often wrote, not because she was a radical feminist, but because the men of her day, particularly the clergy, had failed to step up and embrace their vocations.
Why do I even care about this particular theological position? I served as a Director of Religious Education for almost two decades. In that time I watched a significant shift take place in the way in which the institution is catechizing. This concept of complementarity, "TOB" as it's called in Cleveland (also goes by the name of "The Culture Project") came in through a backdoor (a Trojan Horse) a decade or so ago and has infiltrated many of the dioceses across the U.S. Most parents are not directly involved with their children's catechetical programs (they trust the church to teach religion) and so there is an entire generation being indoctrinated with this distorted theology. I began to "sound the alarm" over a decade ago, but with little support from those who should have been concerned.
On the surface [complementarity] looks attractive - it teaches mutual respect of the sexes, or seems to. The issue with it is that it has so tightly defined what is proper to the sexes, it divides rather than unifies women and men. There is no room in it for diversity. Underneath the surface it is homophobic, misogynistic, judgmental, and is rooted in biblical fundamentalism. It is a dangerous theology and we are allowing our children to be indoctrinated with it.
On the surface it looks attractive - it teaches mutual respect of the sexes, or seems to. The issue with it is that it has so tightly defined what is proper to the sexes, it divides rather than unifies women and men. There is no room in it for diversity. Underneath the surface it is homophobic, misogynistic, judgmental, and is rooted in biblical fundamentalism. It is a dangerous theology and we are allowing our children to be indoctrinated with it. It is the required curriculum of this diocese (one of the "initiatives" Bp. Perez boasted about bringing to Cleveland as he quickly packed his bags to move up the corporate ladder as the Archbishop of Philadelphia). The program is packaged in a way that suggests it is going to renew Catholicism and some are jumping on board because it is charismatic and easy to implement (you do not have to be a scholar to teach it - you just have to be able to hit play on the video and follow the manual provided). The diocese is demanding every catechist (day school and parish) be trained in it. It is creating a cult, not fostering a healthy relationship with God.
A second reason I have a vested interest in this theological movement is because Hildegard of Bingen is being touted by the institution as its foundress and that hits a nerve for me.
Hildegard of Bingen is being touted by the institution as its foundress and that hits a nerve for me.
Hildegard of Bingen was a 12th century German Benedictine nun and a genius. Pope Benedict XVI canonized her on May 10, 2012 and named her the 4th female Doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012. The depth of her creativity is in a class of its own – her music, art, theology, preaching, and leadership. Like Thomas Aquinas, she left us a “summa” which scholars are still trying to unpack. Her major works include Scivias, Liber Vitae Meritorum, Liber Divinorum Operum, Physica, Causae et Curae, Lingua Ignota, Correspondence (letters), Ordo Virtutum, and Symphonia. Her minor works include two hagiographies, parts of her vita, an interpretation of the Benedictine Rule, a collection of homilies, and a document written to the Monk Guibert of Gembloux answering 38 Theological Questions. She built two monasteries, ran an infirmary, went on preaching tours, and served as a spiritual advisor to emperors, bishops, abbots/abbesses, and the laity. She was a scholar and a mystic. She not only experienced the Living Light, she embodied it. How is it then that a woman so brilliant and competent, a woman whose counsel was sought after by some of highest-ranking men of her day, refers to herself as a weak and unlearned vessel? Her writings repeatedly refer to woman as the weaker, and even misbegotten, sex. These are words we eagerly trace back to Augustine and Aquinas, not a renegade woman like Hildegard!
While there is some question as to whether or not her excessive reference to women as the weaker sex was a technique she used to manipulate her own position of authority in a patriarchal culture, her scientific texts suggest she believed it on some level. It was the generally accepted view of the day (a few years later Aquinas will emphasize it in his writings). There is a trend today to purge this part of her works and focus exclusively on her eco-feminism. Her mystical awareness of our interconnectedness with the earth, viriditas, and the entire cosmos presents an image of the divine beyond any theological construct. She had the eyes and ears of a mystic and could see the presence of God in everything she touched, including herbs, trees, and precious stones. Yet, she was also staunchly conservative in her theological views and did not sugarcoat her words when faced with what she perceived as heretical ideas (e.g. the teachings of the Cathars). As much as it pains me to say this, Hildegard was not a feminist, at least not by today’s standards. She was very much a product of her time and culture. If we are going to respect her integrity, we must acknowledge who she was in her historical context (for good or ill) and what influences may have shaped her worldview at that time. But, I do not believe she would endorse Theology of the Body today either and it is a discredit to scholarship to read back into her works an anachronistic interpretation of a theology that emerged in the 20th century with a JPII.
Contributing Author Dr. Shanon Sterringer
In the Middle Ages (and sadly still today), women who assume to possess knowledge and authority over and above men in the Church are often condemned as heretics. It did not take much for a woman to find herself banished, excommunicated, or worse. If Hildegard had been born a century or so later, she may have been accused of witchcraft or possession and burned at the stake. By the grace of God, however, she was born early enough and had the intellect to maneuver a path through the patriarchal system for eighty-one years. If she was just another “product of her time” subject to the same discriminatory attitudes we are battling today, what makes her so special in regard to changing the trajectory of women in leadership roles in the Church today?Hildegard of Bingen was able to move beyond the social and religious obstacles of her day and modeled an example of ethical and creative leadership which to this day is extraordinary.
In the Middle Ages (and sadly still today), women who assume to possess knowledge and authority over and above men in the Church are often condemned as heretics. It did not take much for a woman to find herself banished, excommunicated, or worse. If Hildegard had been born a century or so later, she may have been accused of witchcraft or possession and burned at the stake. By the grace of God, however, she was born early enough and had the intellect to maneuver a path through the patriarchal system for eighty-one years. If she was just another “product of her time” subject to the same discriminatory attitudes we are battling today, what makes her so special in regard to changing the trajectory of women in leadership roles in the Church today? Hildegard of Bingen was able to move beyond the social and religious obstacles of her day and modeled an example of ethical and creative leadership which to this day is extraordinary. She was bound by the world in which she was formed, and at times she was blinded by it, but her visions took her to a level outside of her time and place. For example, her innate understanding of the theological concept of viriditas (greening life-force) which animates and sustains everything in the created world (not only in the physical sense but in mind and spirit) is remarkable. For most of our Judeo-Christian history, women have been considered ritually unclean due to the fact that we menstruate and give birth. Until recently, women in the Roman Catholic tradition had to be “re-churched” following childbirth before being permitted back into the Church. Many mothers missed the baptisms of their own children because they were not yet ritually cleansed and therefore were not permitted into the sacred space. Giving birth is the most sacred act a human being can engage in, how could it possibly leave a woman – someone who had literally “given her body” for another - impure in the eyes of God? A couple of years ago, I was invited to offer a seminar on women and leadership in the Roman Catholic Church in a seminary in India. At the breakout session, one of the seminarians came up to the microphone and said, “I hear what you are saying, and I do not have a problem with girls functioning as altar servers. However, how can we keep track of who is eligible to serve because they cannot be in the sanctuary when they have their menstrual cycle?” Needless to say, I was shocked by the comment. It had not dawned on me that in this part of the world, women are still considered “unclean” due to the fact we are physically designed to bring new life into this world. If we are honest, one of the underlying reasons women are not admitted to ordained ministry today is because we bleed. Hildegard stood apart from the attitude of her day in this regard. She saw a woman’s menstrual cycle and her ability to bring forth life as a sign of viriditas. “For woman, the rivulet of menstruation indicates her greenness and flowering that blooms in her offspring. As a tree from its greenness brings forth blossoms and leaves and bears fruit, so too woman, from the greenness of the rivulets of menstrual blood, brings forth blossoms and leaves in the fruit of her womb…” (Berger, 1999, pg. 82)I am an ordained priest and am deeply in love with Hildegard of Bingen. I have dedicated over a decade of my life to her. As I prepared for ordination, I had some difficult conversations with her writings because Hildegard did not support the notion of women priests. She clearly states this in Scivias. I had to come to understand that while she was a woman ahead of her time, she could not comprehend the world through a lens that was not accessible to her at that particular place and time in history. Her writings need to be read in their historical and cultural context, the same as we read the Scriptures. To lift her writings from the pages of history and simply drop them into a contemporary context without interpretation is fundamentalism and Catholics are not fundamentalists… If Hildegard were to return today, and I believe her spirit is very much alive in various ways, it is very likely she would have a different understanding of the sexes and divinely ordered roles than she had 900+ years ago. Our understanding of who God is and how we are called to be in relationship to God and each other evolves as we grow in wisdom, knowledge, and grace. Our understanding of God has certainly evolved since the 12th century, especially as new scholarly methods emerge and archeological discoveries surface. If we are tuned into the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, our hearts will be opened, and our minds will be changed through our personal experiences. I am positive Hildegard would have continued to grow and evolve in her theological views had she lived for a millennium... Our task as scholars is to take the wisdom of those who have gone before us and build on the work they started. She may have planted the seeds that have grown into the contemporary concept of sex complementarity, but I do not believe she would recognize the fruit it has produced.
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Rev. Dr. Shanon Sterringer is a theologian and an ordained priest (ARCWP) with over two decades of pastoral experience and a strong advocate for holistic health/spirituality. Her background includes a Ph.D. (2016) from Union Institute & University in Ethical and Creative Leadership (she focused on the example of St. Hildegard of Bingen); a D.Min (2012) and a MA in Theology (2007) from St. Mary's Seminary and Graduate School of Theology; a MA in Ministry (2011) from Ursuline College; and a BA (2003) from Cleveland State University. She is a certified minister. She has training in pastoral care/counseling and sacramental preparation including marriage and funerals. She has received a number of awards and acknowledgements over the years for her academic and pastoral achievements. She is the author of a daily meditation book, 30 Day Journey with St. Hildegard of Bingen (fortress press 2019).
She is married and is the mother of 3 beautiful adult daughters. In her spare time she is an amateur beekeeper and she loves to be outside walking, collecting Lake Erie Beach Glass, and reading.
Her greatest passion is St. Hildegard of Bingen and her second spiritual home is on the Rhine River in Germany! She has dedicated her life to discovering creative ways to help others renew their greenness (viriditas) of mind, body, and spirit.
Shanon’s blog can be found at thegreenshepherdess.org
