Julian of Norwich

the long version

"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."--BOOK JACKET.