Julian of Norwich: Autobiography and Theology: 2

Julian's Revelations is 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 ABBOTT gained his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester.