Review
Thoughtful and perceptive study. JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY


Book Description
Julian's Revelationsis remarkable for its theological breadth and boldness, and for its sympathetic awareness of the demands of life as lived. Yet Julian was not a theologian, but a lay person writing out of her personal experience. This study seeks to present a rounded view of her writing by considering the implications of the autobiographical in relation to the theological and vice versa. It explores the relationship between Julian's predicament as a writer who must derive her authority from experience rather than ecclesiastical office and the precise character of her theology as it issues from that predicament; it argues that Julian's mature writing, by integrating notions of creation, incarnation, ecclesiology and personal spirituality in a single coherent vision, achieves a vigorous affirmation of the person as such in the sustaining context of the Church.CHRISTOPHER ABBOTTgained his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Julian of Norwich is one of the outstanding figures not only of the medieval English Church but of Christian history as a whole. Her mature writing, as represented by the Long Text of her Revelations, is remarkable for its theological breadth and boldness, for its subtlety and rigour of expression, and for its sympathetic awareness of the demands of life as lived. Yet from an ecclesiastical point of view, Julian is not a theologian or teacher licensed to speak on behalf of the institution. A lay-person, a woman, she writes out of her own personal experience and evidently in a setting of some independence.. "This study seeks to present a rounded view of Julian's writing by considering the implications of the autobiographical in relation to the theological and vice versa. It explores the relationship between Julian's predicament as a writer who must derive her authority from experience rather than ecclesiastical office and the precise character of her theology as it issues from that predicament; it argues that Julian's mature writing, by integrating notions of creation, incarnation, ecclesiology and personal spirituality in a single coherent vision, achieves a vigorous affirmation of the person as such in the sustaining context of the Church.

SYNOPSIS

Julian's Revelations considered as autobiography and theology, shedding new light on one of the outstanding figures of the medieval English church.

FROM THE CRITICS

Elisabeth Koening - Theology Today