Denys Turner’s Julian of Norwich, Theologian (Yale, 2011) convincingly demonstrates that Julian’s reflections can be deemed theology “by the most demanding standards of comparison with her medieval peers - Anselm, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonventure and Thomas Aquinas.” He insists that Julian cannot fit into modernity’s conception of a “mystic”: she did not consider her “shewings” (visions) to have “some character of epistemic independence relative to the common teaching of the Church.” Turner’s analysis of the theology of the “shewings” explores the heights and depths of the mystery contemplated by Julian: “the very love that is the Trinity willed to reveal itself in a world in which there is sin.”
1 comment:
Very much appreciated your review.
I might add that Turner's statements are all the more reason to study the work of Martin Thornton, who said all that and far more about Julian of Norwich and her work's place in the English-Anglican school of theology and spirituality, and did so writing in 1963 (in English Spirituality: An Outline of Ascetical Theology According to the English Pastoral Tradition).
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