Julian of Norwich and the mystical body politic of Christ / Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bauerschmidt, Frederick Christian.

Series:

Studies in spirituality and theology ; 5.

Studies in spirituality and theology ; 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christianity and politics--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Christianity and politics.

Mysticism--England--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Mysticism.

Julian, of Norwich, 1343-.

Julian.

Jesus Christ--Mystical body--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Jesus Christ.

Physical Description:

xii, 290 p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, 2008, c1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In May 1373, the English mystic Julian of Norwich was healed of a serious illness after experiencing a series of visions of the Blessed Virgin and of Christ's suffering. Her account, A Revelation of Love, is considered one of the most remarkable documents of medieval religious experience. In Julian of Norwich and the Mystical Body Politic of Christ, Frederick Bauerschmidt provides a close and historically sensitive reading of Julian's Revelation of Love that addresses the relationship between our understanding of God and our vision of human community. By locating Julian's images of Christ's body within the context of late medieval debates over the nature and extent of divine power, Bauerschmidt argues that Julian presents an alternative account of divine power in which the crucified body of Christ becomes the locus and shape of divine omnipotence. For Julian, 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, Bauerschmidt shows Julian to be both a theologian of the first rank and one who "imagines the political."

Contents:

Cover

Half title

Series page

Title page

Copyright

Dedication

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1. IMAGINING THE POLITICAL

A. THEOLOGICAL POLITICS

B. POLITICAL THEOLOGY

C. BETWEEN THE TIMES

1. The Metaphysics of Order

2. The Metaphysics of Freedom

2. "I DESYRED A BODELY SIGHT

A. THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST

B. BODILY SEEING

1. Three Requests

2. Seeing Jesus

C. EVENT AND INTERPRETATION

D. THE ONLY HEAVEN

1. Neither Affectivity nor Contemplation

2. God's Righteousness Written in the Flesh of Jesus

3. "A FEYER AND DELECTABLE PLACE

A. BOUNDARIES

1. Bodies Smooth and Grotesque

2. Dwelling on Margins

B. THE GROTESQUE BODY OF CHRIST

1. Defecation and Degradation

2. From Flood to Drought

3. A Body of Lack: Christ Our Mother

4. Privation and Plenty

C. CLOSED IN THE GOODNESS OF GOD

1. Dwelling in the Body

2. The Scope of the Body

D. THE DEFORMATION OF A PERSECUTING SOCIETY

4. "A CONTYNUANT LABORER AND AN HARD TRAVELER

A. A SHEWYNG FULL MYSTELY

1. Sensus Litteralis

2. Sensus Mysticus

B. TREASURE IN THE EARTH

1. Reuniting Substance and Sensuality

2. Exemplarism and Election

C. A DRAMA WITHOUT FOOTLIGHTS

1. Theo-drama

2. Lords and Servants

Conclusion

Appendix

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780268075712

0268075719

OCLC:

607120174