A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

the theology of repentance 247
constituted the fijirst audiences for the work outside Rupertsberg (where
Hildegard’s nuns naturally heard and copied the text as its primary audience),
and these other religious communities also used the text for selfexamination.
In the conclusion to this article, I would like to summarize
the means through which a composition of a highly interesting, narrativepsychological
nature is created in the Vite mer. through the artful interplay
of image and explication, dogmatic explanation, and literal discourse
on the part of the vices.
Two psychological threads run through the Vite mer. text: one static,
one evolving. The static line appears in each section: new virtues and
vices are presented, and the punishments in the place of purifijication are
presented dramatically, followed by the acts of penance, which challenge
the reader to act. This unchanging pattern contrasts with the development
of theological topoi, which unfold as follows: The battle between
good and evil, and the necessity of this fijight, is introduced; God and Christ
are presented in their majestic and sovereign function so that their superiority
to the devil cannot be questioned. At this point, humanity’s role in
the cosmos is explained: humans are a part of a greater whole that was
wondrously created. Humankind is responsible for the other creatures,
and humanity’s sins prevent the rest of creation from fulfijilling their tasks.
Each human being is granted the possibility of deciding whether to follow
the path of good or evil. This decision cannot succeed without God’s assistance,
which is granted over and over again because God is compassionate
and merciful and fijinds joy in the forgiveness of sins. God established baptism
and penance so that the possibility for redemption and purifijication
is available to humanity at all times. In the beginning, the God of power
and might appears; at the end, we fijind the God of compassion.
Only after all of this has been narrated do we come to the events of
the Last Judgement, during which the ultimate purifijication takes place.
Only now is the true measure of the horrors of hell described, and then
only from an outside perspective. Only now does the complete opposition
between good and evil unfold, because the visions of heavenly joys
appear as the goal towards which all human endeavors strive in this mortal
life. If one considers the representation of the blessed, who await their
release and their salvation and who speak in the fijirst two parts of the
text, then one can consider the work to be framed by the depiction of
heavenly joys.
The images and structure of the Vite mer. reflect the development of
the narrative. The static line is drawn through repetition in the various
sections. These repetitions appear within the images, primarily in the fog