About Me

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I am a medievalist, a social studies teacher at Knox Central High School, and an adjunct instructor in history at Union Commonwealth University. My research includes medieval theologies of history, text/image relationships in visionary and mystical texts, and the writings of the twelfth-century Doctor of the Church, St. Hildegard of Bingen. I am also a translator of medieval Latin and German texts, especially as relate to my research. My translation of Hildegard's Book of Divine Works is available from Catholic University of America Press here. I completed a Master's in Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame in 2010, a Fulbright Fellowship in Germany in 2008, and a B.A. in Classics and German at Boston College in 2007.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Spiritui Sancto honor sit: A Chronogram for the Feast of St. Hildegard

Human microcosm enmeshed by clouds.
Liber Divinorum Operum 1.3
(detail from Lucca, MS 1942, fol. 28v)
spIrItVI sanCto honor sIt,
qVI In opere hILDegarDIs VIrgInIs
stVDIa saLVtarIa
VeLVt nVbes In aVrIs pVrIs nItentes
nobIs CoLLegIt.

Honor be to the Holy Spirit,
who in the work of the virgin Hildegard
has gathered for us
studies in saving health
like clouds gleaming in the clear sky.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

New Article: “The prophetess and the pope: St. Hildegard of Bingen, Pope Benedict XVI, and prophetic visions of church reform”

Nathaniel M. Campbell, “The prophetess and the pope: St. Hildegard of Bingen, Pope Benedict XVI, and prophetic visions of church reform,” postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies 10.1 (2019), 22-35; read online for free here.

Just published in a special issue devoted to “Prophetic Futures,” this article explores the affinities between St. Hildegard of Bingen and Pope Benedict XVI that may have led him to canonize her and declare her a Doctor of the Church in 2012. It pays special attention to their views on the Church’s prophetic mission and prophecy’s role in reforming it.

Abstract