Four theses on St. Hildegard of Bingen

If I am right about the importance of reading the visions of St. Hildegard of Bingen in the light of the early Vita of Gottfried of Disibodenberg and (after his death) Theoderich of Echternach, who imply that they were bestowed in order to ensure the orthodox (if imagistically allegorical) interpretation of both [1] Scripture and [2] Tradition; [3] set down in the form of an imagistic early scholasticism or [comprehensive] systematic theology; and [4] endorsed at the highest levels of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, then "The prophetessa teutonica can be shoehorned [(fugt sich . . . ein)] only with difficulty into the history of [Christian] mysticism [in general], and so-called German [Christian] mysticism [in particular].  Hildegard is not to be placed at the head of a line [of descent] that would lead from her to a [St.] Gertrude of Helfta or [a] Mechthild of Magdegburg.  She turns out to be in hindsight a theologian of high rank who develops, via the [(in)] power of image and symbol independently, [a] theology saturated by [the Christian] tradition."

     Jörg Ulrich, "Vision bei Hildegard von Bingen:  Beobachtungen zur Vita Gottfrieds und Theoderichs und zu den Visionsschriften Hildegards," Kerygma und Dogma 47 (2001):  27 (14-29).