Secrets of God

Flanagan, a leading Hildegard scholar, has selected and translated a range of material, which makes the work of the twelfth-century visionary accessible to a popular audience. Selections are long enough to introduce readers to Hildegard's style and the structure of her arguments with out causing them (in the words of a commentator writing a generation after her death) to shrink from and avoid reading the books of Hildegard because of her difficult syle. Flanagan has preserved the style in her translation, but readers who do not shrink from it will find it rewarding; what some commentators have found difficult and unusual, many readers have found creative and insightful. Both style and content have contributed to Hildegard's growing popularity more than eight centuries after her death. This collection includes mystical writings, writings in natural history and medicine, correspondence, narrative, and poetry, as well as a brief biography, a bibliography, and a discography for readers who wish to pursue Hildegard's work further. --Steve Schroeder, Booklist <br> At last it is possible for the ordinary reader to get some idea of the energy and creativity of the great Hildegard's mind. These translations of her spiritual and medical writing, her poetry and letters, are a remarkable contribution to the study of early women writers. --Monica Furlong, author of Merton: A Biography and Visions and Longings: Medieval Women Mystics