Retrieving Hildegard of Bingen's Incarnational Eco-Theology
Reflections on the The Imago Dei, Eco-Justice, and the New Creation in light of Hildegard of Bingen's Eco-Theology
*Creation and Redemption, Scivias II.i. Adam at the top right with Christ at the bottom infusing light and life to the Hexameron (the created world) and those trapped in darkness.
In light of my last post on Hildegard’s eco-theology, I promised a part two that would explore Hildegard’s Incarnational eco-theology for the church today. I’m currently turning in my last assignments for my degree which is why there was no post last week! Nevertheless, I am excited to share an adapted version of the second half of my senior project on Hildegard of Bingen’s eco-theology. In this, I explore implications of her theology through discussion of the imago dei, eco-justice, and the New Creation. Recall that I argued that Hildegard’s use of viriditas (life/greenness) and ariditas (death/decay) in her writings are an Incarnational eco-reenactment of the redemptive tension between life and death. I continue her model of ecology to argue that creative action, eco-justice, and the reality of the New Creation have their roots in a distinctly Incarnational theology of the earth that demands activity from those who believe in the life-giving power and identity of Viriditas—Greenness incarnate. While in no way exhaustive of all that could be said about contemporary eco-action, I hope this is edifying and provides space for fruitful personal and communal reflection.
The Imago Dei and the Mandate of Creative Action
Scholars have recently begun to reflect on the Hildegardian notion that ecology is a spiritual task inaugurated in the bestowing of the imago dei on humanity. For Hildegard, a theology of the imago dei was not a vague concept, but a reality that had real matter to it. One scholar posits that because Hildegard saw the universe’s purpose as to incarnate God, she viewed being made in the Image of God as the affirmation that humans were created out of the same elements God chose for his Incarnation. Therefore, we are living incarnations of the Incarnation of God. This notion that the cosmos and creation mirrors God is helpful even if one does not share this interpretation of the Image of God. The fruit I hope to draw from this is a theology of creative action that is rooted in an Incarnational ecology.
Hildegard writes,
“The earth grants sprouting greenness according to the nature of humankind, depending on the quality and direction of their lives and actions. Men and women are the light green heart of the living fulness of nature. A direct connection exists between the heart of each person and the elements of the cosmos. They affect together that which has been decided in human hearts.”
This is a powerful statement about the creative power bestowed on humans. God created people to create, and a theology of creation should be so deeply connected to Incarnational theology that creating beautiful things and stewarding our green home is tied to the conviction that God Incarnate is continually incarnated in these efforts. Creation care is ultimately the assertion that Viriditas is victorious and ariditas has no place in the world which our Lord created and became incarnate. As people made in the image of Viriditas, we create, not destroy; give life, not kill; and cure, not sicken.
Because the Christ event allowed God to dwell in human hearts, it can be inferred that humanity’s incarnating presence on earth necessitates the care of creation. It is a spiritual task to care for creation, resist pollution, and cultivate an environmental mind because we incarnate the life-giving viridity of God in ourselves and our creative and restorative efforts. However, the reality is that humanity often allows ariditas to win in both our ecological and spiritual lives. Because of this, a statement such as “the earth hungers for the fullness of justice,” rings true both spiritually and ecologically.
The Fullness of Justice: Two Hildegardian Models
Hildegard wrote extensively on God’s justice especially in relation to the Earth. In line with the medieval view of justice, Hildegard probably had in mind the ideas of harmony, cooperation, and equilibrium—the “making right” of things. This is the definition of justice I will be operating from in this section. We glimpse this equilibrium in her commentary on the chaos of the heavens since the Fall and the eventual calmness that will occur at the Last Day. “Before the Fall of Adam, the heavens were immovable and did not turn, but after the Fall, they gradually started to spin. On the Last Day they will come again to rest, as it was at the beginning before the Fall.” Though she is concerned with largely metaphysical realities, there is a strong element of material substance to her theology of eco-justice. Namely, humans incarnate the viridity of Christ to a groaning creation in their creative action, efforts in stewardship, and pursuit of harmony among the humans and the natural world.
There are two major instances of Hildegard’s ecological theology of justice in her writings. The first is an exchange between the cosmic man—a figure that represents the Triune God—and the elements of the earth. Hildegard writes,
“And I heard how the elements of the world turned to the man with a wild cry. And they shouted:
“We cannot run anymore to finish the race as our master wills it. For people with their evil deeds reverse our course like a mill that turns everything upside down. We already reek like the pest and hunger for the fulness of justice.
The Cosmic Man answered: “I will sweep you clean with my broom, and I will afflict the people until they turn back to me…Now all the winds are filled with the decay of leaves, and the air spits out pollution so that people can hardly open their mouths anymore.”
Notice that this exchange speaks to “ecological sin” and the need for spiritual repentance. The earth’s groaning for the fullness of justice refers to both observable ecological realities and the metaphysical tension of good and evil. Hildegard echoes Paul’s statement in Romans 8:19 that “all creation groans as in childbirth waiting for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed.” The earth’s groaning is both spiritual and ecological in the sense that the flourishing of the two is always intimately related. Ariditas “hardens the divide between the body and the soul, matter and spirit.” Instead of living in harmony, the death and decay that ariditas brings makes the flourishing of the body almost impossible and consequently, the soul suffers. As long as death plagues the planet, it does so ecologically and spiritually. Plants die, forests are felled, and harsh climates kill just as people groan in spiritual wastelands, devoid of hope and flourishing. If we wish to know the state of humanity, look to the land as ecological groaning often mirrors the internal state of humanity.
An Incarnational ecology reacts to the groaning of creation by incarnating the fullness of God’s justice on the earth. It brings heaven to earth. Christ has come enfleshed in the elements of the world to free humanity from the grasp of sin and death, and an eco-spiritual response to this glorious reality is to resist sin and death in all its forms by incarnating the viridity of Greenness Incarnate. This means resisting environmental decay while resisting the spiritual decay of the church, cultivating greenness while cultivating spiritual growth, and pursuing partnership between humanity and the natural world while pursuing unity in the church. The motif of the earth’s longing for the fullness of justice presents itself in one more helpful illustration. Hildegard names this the “Iron Mountain of God’s justice.”
The Iron Mountain
I’ve written on this motif on here before, so if this sounds familiar it’s because it is!
The kingdom of God is an iron mountain with ineffable justice in its shadows and the poor in spirit at its roots. Hildegard describes such a mountain in her allegories of love and justice in her Scivias. She illustrates a powerful scene: On top of this mountain is a great figure clothed in blinding light. Hildegard writes that the “wings” or shadows of the mountain points to a “just and pious demonstration of ineffable justice brought about by true equity.” In addition, Hildegard personifies two images at the roots of the mountain. The first is the Fear of the Lord and the second is the Poor in Spirit. The Fear of the Lord is a woman and the Poor in Spirit is a small child. She writes that the piercing gaze of the Fear of the Lord, “dispels all obliviousness to God’s justice.”
Hildegard sees powerful virtues spring from the shining figure on the mountain and surround the two figures at the base of the mountain. These virtues are not explicitly named but work to embolden the woman and child with the concerns of God—namely for justice. Hildegard personifies three realities. First, we can assume the figure on the mountain is God–the standard of justice. The Fear of the Lord and the Poor in Spirit–woman and child–stand at the foot of the mountain in its shadow. This placement positions them within the influence of the divine concern for ineffable justice. More to it, Hildegard paints the picture of virtues springing from the shining figure on the mountain and encircling the two figures at the base. They are emboldened with a desire for justice because they are embraced by the concerns of God. According to Hildegard, doing justice is an outworking of salvation and a mark of a person pierced by the concerns of God.
The iron mountain is an illustration for our time. It should not be lost on us that this illustration is ecological in its use of categories to describe the justice of God. Hildegard’s iron mountain of justice–the kingdom of God–is a reality that should shape how all Christians engage in the world. For Hildegard, justice requires advocacy and tangible intervention to combat the harsh realities of the world—both spiritual and ecological. With the humble Incarnation of Christ as our example, Christians must strive to embody this display of virtue, humility, and justice as we care for the planet and the souls of humanity, recognizing that both represent the conviction that God’s life-giving justice reigns over the powers of sin and death in all its forms.
New Creation: Heaven is Green
This would not be a complete Hildegardian ecological theology for the church today if the promise of new creation was not mentioned. The pinnacle of a theology of creation, the reality of new creation can either cause a lack of interest in stewarding the planet or a renewed urgency for doing so. Some believe that Earth as we know it will be destroyed and a new heaven and earth will be created. Others hold to a view that stresses the renewal of earth as we know it and a heaven that is green. In other words, it is imperative to care for creation because in doing so, we affirm the goodness of renewal and embody a spirit of longing for the new creation.
Hildegard imagines a green Paradise in her second vision in Scivias. In describing Paradise, she writes,
“But Paradise is the place of delight, which blooms with the freshness of flowers and grass and the charms of spices, full of fine odors and dowered with the joy of blessed souls, giving invigorating moisture to the dry ground; it supplies strong force to the earth, as the soul gives strength to the body, for Paradise is not darkened by shadow or the perdition of sinners.”
Hildegard appears to imagine a fresh, green, blooming Paradise—everything we might imagine Eden to be pre-Fall. The sentiment, “heaven is green,” rings true according to Hildegard’s vision of Paradise. If Eden was like this, how much more is the kingdom of God bursting with greenness? When Christians affirm that we ought to bring heaven to earth, an ecological rendering of this affirmation is that creation care and cultivation should be a priority of those who look forward to life eternal in the blooming heaven.
In light of Hildegard’s theology of a Green Paradise, her theology of New Creation is deeply Incarnational and presents several helpful propositions for the church to embrace today. In her Scivias and poetical chants, Hildegard imagines two creations or two “matters.” Both are created and brought forth by the Second Person of the Trinity—the Word of God. See an exemplary musical chant of this reality below,
“O most splendid jewel and clear beauty of the sun, that fills you. A fountain leaping from the heart of the Father, who is his only Word, through which He created the first matter of the world, which Eve confused; For you the Father fashioned this Word as a human being and by this action you are the light filled matter through which this Word breathes out all virtues, just as he brought forth all creatures from the primal matter.”
For Hildegard, the first creation is that which is created in Genesis 1. The roundels or days of creation encompass this creative action by the Word of God. The second creation is envisioned by Hildegard to come forth from the body of the Virgin. The “most splendid jewel” is Mary and the clear beauty that fills her is the Word. Instead of the six roundels of creation holding this creation, the Virgin is the carrier of the bright Sun (Son). Hence, the Incarnation incarnates this second creation as Christ both is and sets in motion this new creation. This second matter is “light filled matter” in contrast to the chaotic darkness that ripped through the first creation.
Looking to John 1, it becomes apparent that Hildegard draws from this passage in her commentary on the two creations. She sees the new creation inaugurated in the Incarnation and Christ as the One through which all things are recreated and restored. Recall that Hildegard likened a virtue to each day of creation to signify the goodness of each day. In the second or new creation, the virtues spring from Christ—the pinnacle of goodness. The church’s theology of the New Creation should be drawn from an Incarnational ecology that places Christ as the Green Light from whom all redemption, restoration, and recreation flows.
Biblical scholar, Doug Moo, summarizes the significance of the relationship between creation stewardship, New Testament eschatology, and eco-justice,
“NT eschatology is not intended to foster Christian passivity but to encourage God’s people to actively and vigorously align their values and behavior with what it is that God is planning to do.”
We do not only look forward to the future event of New Creation, but join with Hildegard in rejoicing that God Incarnate has already inaugurated this restoration. This is a spiritual reality that should give way to a tangible concern for preserving greenness and the flourishing of the natural world because it was made by the Word of God and pronounced good. Pursuing eco-justice in whatever capacity is set before us affirms that our values and behaviors are aligned with God’s plan of renewal. Rather than passively watch as ariditas overtakes our planet, Christians should actively seek to incarnate the fullness of life, greenness, and justice on earth because this sacramental action affirms our hope for the renewal of our groaning creation through the risen Christ.
Conclusion: The Ecological Cure
A true botanist, theologian, and physician, Hildegard of Bingen presents an ecological cure to a spiritual crisis. A broken creation needs restoration both spiritually and physically. Though steeped in medieval allegorical interpretation, her ecological theology has much to say to Christians today. This Incarnational eco-theology is chronological in nature as it begins with the creative potential bestowed on human beings in the imago dei, necessitates actions of justice that incarnate equilibrium and harmony in the created world, and culminates in the promise of a Christocentric New Creation where all is made right and earth is renewed through the power of Viriditas.
The church is situated in the middle stage of incarnating God’s justice in the world. From an ecological standpoint, we do this by pursuing harmony and equilibrium among humans and the natural world—creating, not destroying; cooperating, not oppressing; and prioritizing the flourishing of both humanity and the natural world over one or the other. It may be time to recover an Edenic theology of labor where humans steward and cultivate the land and it does not fight back nor do humans exploit the land. The Genesis 1 mandate of filling the earth may be understood as a command to expand Eden. We fill the earth with creative power and justice through the power of viriditas, working to incarnate the paradisiacal qualities of Eden. We work to bring the green heaven to Earth.
Thus, a Hildegardian Incarnational ecology presents a green cure to the eco-spiritual crises of our world. This cure is Greenness come down, Greenness incarnate: Viriditas himself, Christ himself. Christ, the great physician, set in motion his restorative plan for humanity in his Incarnation and continues to infuse the world with his light and viridity. The Earth reenacts the divine spectacle through the polarity of viriditas and ariditas while Christians pursue viriditas—life, creative power, and greenness—as we look forward to the New Creation and the renewal of all things through the life-giving power of Viriditas himself.