Barbara Newman is Associate Professor of English at Northwestern University.

Illustrations
Abbreviations
Preface (1997)
Preface (1987)
1. "A poor little female"
Biographical sketch
Survey of Hildegard's works
Theology and the problem
of feminine authority
2. The Feminine Divine
Theophany and the bride of God
The mirror of providence, the virgin spring,
and the tree of life
The eternal counsel
Wisdom as creatrix and anima mundi
Wisdom's vesture
The chastisements of charity
3· The Woman and the Serpent
Made in God's image
The garment and the mirror
The bright cloud and the shadow
Eve and Satan
4· Daughters of Eve
Women's sexuality and character
God, Satan, and fertility
Gynecology
Healing and magic
5· The Mother of God
Mary and the ancient counsel
Eve and Mary
Atonement through the virgin birth
Mary as the feminine ideal
Mary, the Church, and the priesthood
6. The Bride of Christ
The Church eternal in heaven
Synagogue and Church
The wedding on Calvary
Christ's virgins and the virgin Church
Mother Church and the motherhood of God
"An effeminate age"
7· Sister of Wisdom
Theology and gender revisited
Sapiential thought through
the twentieth century
Feminism and the future of Sophia
Texts of Hildegard's Poetry
Bibliography
Discography
Index

Barbara Newman reintroduces English-speaking readers to an extraordinary and gifted figure of the twelfth-century renaissance. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was mystic and writer, musician and preacher, abbess and scientist who used symbolic theology to explore the meaning of her gender within the divine scheme of things.
With a new preface, bibliography, and discography, Sister of Wisdom is a landmark book in women's studies, and it will also be welcomed by readers in religion and history.