Julian of Norwich and the Mystical Body Politic of Christ

by Bauerschmidt, Frederick Christian

• ISBN13: 9780268011949
• ISBN10: 026801194X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr

Summary

Julian of Norwich and the Mystical Body Politic of Christ provides a close and historically sensitive reading of Julian's Revelation of Love that addresses the question of the relationship between our understanding of God and our vision of human community. By examining Julian's images of Christ's body, this book seeks to discern the "political" meaning of her theology. Locating these images within the context of late medieval debates over the nature and extent of divine power, the book argues that Julian presents an alternative account of divine power in which the crucified body of Christ becomes the focus and shape of divine omnipotence. This account of divine power serves as the norm of all human exercise of power, rendering the possibility of the "mystical body politic of Christ" as the exemplary form of human community. In this reading, the theological is irreducibly political and the political is irreducibly theological. As such, Julian is presented as both a theologian of the first rank and one who "imagines the political".

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	ix
1. IMAGINING THE POLITICAL	1	(32)
A. THEOLOGICAL POLITICS	3	(6)
B. POLITICAL THEOLOGY	9	(3)
C. BETWEEN THE TIMES	12	(21)
1. THE METAPHYSICS OF ORDER	15	(8)
2. THE METAPHYSICS OF FREEDOM	23	(10)
2. "I DESYRED A BODELY SIGHT"	33	(30)
A. THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST	34	(2)
B. BODILY SEEING	36	(10)
1. THREE REQUESTS	36	(6)
2. SEEING JESUS	42	(4)
C. EVENT AND INTERPRETATION	46	(4)
D. THE ONLY HEAVEN	50	(13)
1. NEITHER AFFECTIVITY NOR CONTEMPLATION	51	(6)
2. GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS WRITTEN IN THE FLESH OF JESUS	57	(6)
3. "A FEYER AND DELECTABLE PLACE"	63	(62)
A. BOUNDARIES	64	(15)
1. BODIES SMOOTH AND GROTESQUE	64	(9)
2. DWELLING ON MARGINS	73	(6)
B. THE GROTESQUE BODY OF CHRIST	79	(28)
1. DEFECATION AND DEGRADATION	79	(5)
2. FROM FLOOD TO DROUGHT	84	(5)
3. A BODY OF LACK: CHRIST OUR MOTHER	89	(7)
4. PRIVATION AND PLENTY	96	(11)
C. CLOSED IN THE GOODNESS OF GOD	107	(12)
1. DWELLING IN THE BODY	108	(5)
2. THE SCOPE OF THE BODY	113	(6)
D. THE DEFORMATION OF A PERSECUTING SOCIETY	119	(6)
4. "A CONTYNUANT LABORER AND AN HARD TRAVELER"	125	(66)
A. A SHEWYNG FULL MYSTELY	127	(17)
1. SENSUS LITTERALIS	129	(9)
2. SENSUS MYSTICUS	138	(6)
B. TREASURE IN THE EARTH	144	(18)
1. REUNITING SUBSTANCE AND SENSUALITY	145	(8)
2. EXEMPLARISM AND ELECTION	153	(9)
C. A DRAMA WITHOUT FOOTLIGHTS	162	(29)
1. THEO-DRAMA	162	(11)
2. LORDS AND SERVANTS	173	(18)
CONCLUSION: PERFORMING THE BOOK	191	(12)
APPENDIX: WHO WAS JULIAN OF NORWICH?	203	(10)
NOTES	213	(54)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	267	(16)
INDEX	283