힐데가르트의 신비체험에 나타난 생태신학적 함의 –창조와 구원의 비이원적 통전성을 중심으로-

Abstract

Through humans’ endless greed and violent acts of exploiting nature, the ecological crisis has created a threat to global survival. Accordingly, the church and theology are at a point where a complete awareness of truth and salvation and deep reflection on holistic spirituality are more important than anything else. This study seeks to explore this path of holistic spirituality through consideration of mysticism. Above all, Hildegard von Bingen, a female mystic who lived in the Middle Ages, accepted her prophetic calling in the dark conditions of the time and devoted her life to a vision to save humanity and the world. She actively communicated with the world as she contemplated how to spread God’s message of salvation in the world through her real life and faith. Her life, which sought to transform the corrupt church and society of the time, is presented through an eco-theological perspective on humans and nature in the form of a unique mystical experience. Above all, her theology is premised on the restoration and salvation of the entire creation world, including both humans and nature, rather than the dualistic salvation of ‘fall-redemption’. In other words, the vision of the universal Christ is revealed based on the integrated awareness of creation and salvation. Meanwhile, Hildegard’s holistic ecological theological implications emphasize the restoration of good creation, showing a fundamental difference from creation spirituality, which recognizes the issues of repentance for sin and salvation as secondary. In other words, she suggests that the work of redemption by the Triune God is a non-dual, holistic work encompassing the salvation of humans and all creatures along with the restoration of new creation within the vision of the universal Christ. Although, until recently, mystical thought has been criticized for a long time as not having a clear theological awareness and a properly established view of salvation from the perspective of the rationalist tradition, in fact, mystical thought has a clear understanding of the Christian view of the Trinity and salvation through Jesus Christ, And it provides a more solid basis for the gospel truth of Christianity. This is because it shows within the real experience of divine presence how God’s presence and the work of salvation are experienced and revealed in a specific individual’s existential life and faith. Accordingly, this study aims to look at the holistic and eco-theological implications of creation and salvation through the process of analyzing and interpreting the symbolic meanings of the hallucinatory experiences of Hildegard, one of the representative female mystics of the Middle Ages. The structure of this study is as follows. The characteristics of Hildegard’s mystical theology, the content and interpretation of Hildegard’s visionary experience, and Hildegard’s ecological theological perspective on creation and salvation are discussed.