In this new essay published today at The Church Life Journal, I look at St. Hildegard of Bingen's views on the origins of sexual abuse and the universal #MeToo moment. She notices precisely the ways in which the abuse of power distorts our ability to know and understand reality, and thus distorts our relationships with each other and with God. Her solution lies in the redemption of human nature through Christ's humility.
While the right order requires that we should believe the deep things of the faith before we undertake
to discuss them by reason, it seems careless for us, once we are established in the faith, not to aim at
understanding what we believe.
-Anselm of Canterbury, Cur Deus Homo
About Me
- Nathaniel M. Campbell
- 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.
Friday, August 19, 2022
"Sexual Abuse and the Shadows of the Fall"
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1 comment:
Unfortunately, the illustrating image from a stained-glass window in Ste-Foy, Selestat, does not depict Hildegard von Bingen, but some other medieval Hildegard, see: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_von_Egisheim
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