The first vision in book two of Hildegard von Bingen’s masterwork, Scivias. This vision focused on Adam and Christ, where Adam fails to pick a flower representing “the sweet precept of obedience". In a radical revision of Genesis, instead of Satan tempting Adam with the knowledge of good and evil, this knowledge was a gift from God that Adam ignored. Redemption follows represented by the stars of the patriarchs, the prophets, John the Baptist and finally Christ himself.
Hildegard von Bingen was considered a mystic theologian, and her canonization was contentious — but her visions were more than just imaginative — they were a thoughtful and deliberate redefinition of God’s relationship with mankind.
