A Living Light

A Living Light explores some of the major events in the life of Hildegard of Bingen: mystic, physician, composer, and one of the foremost intellectuals of the Middle Ages. In the form of a dramatic novella, it telescopes to such life-changing events as the courageous recording of her visions, the Church's acceptance of her accounts of prophetic experience, the formation of her own abbey, and the interdiction against her nuns for the burial of a revolutionary on holy ground. A story of character, spiritual doubt and achievement, kindness and resolve, and a life devoted to both faith and works, A Living Light adds to the growing volume and range of works, both scholarly and creative, addressing the influence of this extraordinary woman; it attests to the profound effects possible through the commitment of single, loving, creative individuals even in the most difficult and oppressive of times.

E. L. Risden is Associate Professor of English at St. Norbert College, where he teaches medieval and Renaissance literature. He is the author of a dozen books, including Beasts of Time, Beowulf in Faithful Verse, Beowulf for Business, and The Heroes and the Gods.