Julian of Norwich

Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt is associate professor of theology at Loyola College in Maryland.

"With astonishing lucidity, Bauerschmidt proves himself to be a most delicate reader of Julian at the same time as he draws, always with relevance, on a range of powerful contemporary theorists to facilitate our understanding of the scope, depth, and contemporary force of Julian's mystical and political theology." —David Aers, James B. Duke Professor of English and Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Duke University"Much recent writing on the medieval "mystical" traditions seems either to take a thin slice of concepts through the complex matrix of historical context, or else to offer historical focus at the expense of contemporary relevance. Bauerschmidt's Julian of Norwich and the Mystical Body Politic of Christ is a remarkable achievement of synthesis between a theologico-political analysis of distinct contemporary relevance and historical faithfulness to Julian's own fourteenth century world."—Denys Turner, H.G. Wood Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham, England"This book is to be commended for its bold attempt to provide a new vocabulary with which to discuss aspects of the Revelation of Divine Love, a text which repeatedly resists scholarly explication. Julian gives no sources for her thought, and this book eschews the search for them. It offers a reading of Julian's text, not a hypothesis as to its author's intentions, although its argument is occasionally rendered vulnerable by an over-close identification of author with text. Bauderschmidt wisely disclaims that he has unlocked the text's 'real' significance, and acknowledges that his treatment of it is guided by a particular interest in human community. The result is an honest and searching contribution to Julian scholarship. —The Heythrop Journal"[Bauerschmidt] presents an intriguing and inspiring interpretation of Julian of Norwich's Revelation of Love that bridges the gap between the medieval text and its implications for present-day communities of faith, between academic analysis and committed action." —Church History, Studies in Christianity & Culture"This is the best study on Julian since Colledge and Walsh's 1978 critical edition of Showings. Bauerschmidt's treatment of Julian's bodily sight of the Crucified is a stunning tour de force of imaginative scholarship. I have nothing but praise for this uniformly excellent book." —Theological Studies"Bauerschmidt adds a creative and challenging dimension to the current lively discussion of the theology of fourteenth-century British anchorite Julian of Norwich. His reading of Julian's text is complex and challenging and makes a provocative contribution to both the hermeneutics of medieval texts and to contemporary political discussions." —Religious Studies Review"In this very important book, Frederick Bauerschmidt provides us with a more adequate account than any hitherto of Julian of Norwich specifically as a theologian, rather than as a mere spiritual writer or else as a feminist avant la lettre." —Pro Ecclesia