The soteriology of the English 14th century mystic Julian of Norwich moves in the direction of a hope for universal salvation. The ground for this hope is established through Julian’s appropriation of the doctrine of the soul’s creation in the image of God, the imago dei. Previous studies have primarily focussed on Augustine’s influence on Julian’s use of the imago dei doctrine. While this has been fruitful, in order to better grasp the nuances of Julian’s anthropology and soteriology, it is essential to also attend to Cistercian influences. In particular, William of St. Thierry’s notion of the will that remains godly in spite of sin and Aelred of Rievaulx’s writing on friendship provide important background to the development of Julian’s soteriology. Interestingly, Julian very rarely explicitly mentions the term image of God. However, in her use of the Middle English word kynd, Julian clearly invokes the doctrine of the imago dei. Further, the doctrine of the imago dei powerfully informs her imagination such that the trope of image may be seen behind important theological developments such as the correspondence between the human and the divine and her notions of what is potentially occurring in the process of contemplation. Close attention to the image tropes that structure Julian’s contemplation and her various usages of the word kynd reveals the complexity of Julian’s adaptation of the doctrine of the imago dei and elucidates the ground of her soteriology.

Thesis (M.A.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2001. / Thesis advisor: Heather Munroe Prescott. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-91).

The thesis covers new ground in several ways. It is over two hundred years ago that Blomefield first published his monumental survey of Norwich. Since then much work has been done on individual aspects of the Church in late medieval Norwich. However, no attempt had been made to synthesize these later researches. This thesis tries to make the synthesis. Blomefield used wills extensively in his survey of the Church in Norwich. He used them, almost exclusively, as evidence that various things happened: for example, as evidence that a certain hermit lived in the city, or that a particular person was buried in one of the friaries. This thesis, too, makes extensive use of the factual information which wills provide, but it also tries to use wills as evidence of thought and of intentions. Thus, Chapter 3 of the thesis analyses how the citizens of late medieval Norwich left their money in their wills, and from this analysis an attempt is made to estimate what the citizens thought about various aspects of their religion. Wills have never been used extensively in this second way in a study of Norwich. Indeed, few other English or Continental towns have been, or can be, the subjects of similar studies. In as much as it uses wills in this second way, Chapter 3 of the thesis parallels the recent work of Mile de Nuce on Toulouse and that of Dr Thomson on London. Dr Thomson's work on London is the only other comparable study of a late medieval English town which has so far been made, and there are only two more English cities - York and Canterbury - for which enough wills survive from the late Middle Ages to permit studies of this kind. As well as trying to fill these specific gaps, the thesis hopes to contribute to the study of the late medieval Church in more general ways. Namely, by throwing a little more light on three inter-connected questions about the late medieval Church which are receiving increasing attention from ecclesiastical historians. First, movement in the Church from below: that is to say, how the mass of the faithful (as distinct from those who were the official rulers and teachers of the Church) affected and were affected by Christianity. Secondly, the impact of new religious movements which were the product of the late Middle Ages. And thirdly, the question of 'lay piety', or the religion of the laity. Two reasons why the Church in late medieval Norwich merits study, have just been mentioned: no synthetic study of the topic has recently been made, and secondly, so many wills of the citizens survive. In addition, Norwich is of intrinsic interest since the records of the subsidies of 1523-7 show that it was then the second most populous and wealthy city in England (after London). Furthermore, the religious institutions of the early and high Middle Ages abounded in the city. Thus, Norwich was an episcopal city, unlike the next most populous city in the 1520's, Bristol; Norwich had a Benedictine monastery and four friaries, and a nunnery nearby, and it had more parish churches than any English city other than London and possibly Lincoln. Yet at the same time Norwich was especially likely to have been in contact with the new religious currents of late medieval Christendom. Thus, Norwich was a major European city, and it was the cities which seem to have been the chief centres of the new religious movements; Norwich was also the provincial capital of one of the most advanced areas of the kingdom; and geographically and through trade Norwich was close to the Low Countries and the lower Rhineland, which were then the most fertile areas for religious movements this side of the Alps. The starting point of the thesis has been the wills of the citizens of late medieval Norwich. These wills survive in large numbers from 1370. Most of them are preserved in the will-registers of the Norwich Consistory Court, though many of the most interesting ones are in the will-registers of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. As has just been said, these wills are the basis of Chapter 3 of the thesis. They also provide much information for other chapters of the thesis. For example, they provide information about where the citizens wanted to be buried, and about whom they chose as executors and witnesses of their wills as their confessors - points which are discussed in Section (a) of Chapter 1. They provide information about those sons and daughters of the testators in question who were priests or members of religious Orders, and about the books which the secular clergy of the city owned, and about their wealth - points which are discussed in Section (b) of Chapter 1. They also provide information about the books which the laity owned, about the numbers and some of the activities of the guilds and confraternities and the recluses of the city, about Christian names and patron saints, about the shrines to which testators dispatched pilgrims, about the religious objects, such as rosaries and vestments, which the citizens owned, and about the Masses and prayers which the citizens wanted to be said for them when they died - points which are discussed in Chapter 2. After the wills, four collections of records have been of special value. First, the records of the dean and chapter (then the prior and convent) of Norwich. As well as containing the records of visitations of various parishes in the city, these documents provide valuable information about tithe disputes and about other conflicts in which the Benedictine Cathedral Priory was involved; and the obedientiary rolls of the priory record offerings to various shrines in the Cathedral, which are discussed in the section of pilgrimages. Secondly, Norwich City Records. The Private Deeds in these records have provided information about a number of chantries, and the Account Rolls of the Guild of St George have provided considerable knowledge about the guild of St George, as well as about other guilds and confraternities. The other records of the City Government have provided information about a multitude of topics, and they have been specially useful for the section in Chapter 4 which discusses the disputes between the citizens and the Cathedral Priory, Thirdly, the bishops' registers. As well as showing who were the patrons of the parochial benefices in the city, the registers provide valuable information about the careers of the beneficed clergy of the city, and especially about how many of them had university degrees. And fourthly, the record of Bishop Goldwell's visitation of the parishes of Norwich, which is a very full record of how many members of the parish clergy there were in the city in 1492, and of how they were distributed among the parishes. Of the printed sources, Hudson and Tingey's edition of The Records of the City of Norwich stands in a class of its own for its usefulness. It has been especially valuable for Section (a) of Chapter 4, which deals with the disputes between the citizens and the Cathedral Priory, and the editors' introduction to the book has been most useful. The various works in which the 1389 returns of the guilds and confraternities of Norwich are printed, and Miss Grace's edition of the Records of the Gild of St George in Norwich, provided much of the knowledge used in Section (c) of Chapter 2, which discusses the guilds and confraternities of the city. Dr Jessopp's edition of the records of visitations of religious houses in the diocese of Norwich has provided considerable information, especially for the section on the morals and behaviour of the clergy.

<p>This dissertation explores the complex vocabularies of service and servitude in the Age of Chaucer. Working with three major Middle English texts--William Langland's <i>Piers Plowman</i> (chaps. 1 and 3), Julian of Norwich's <i>Revelation of Love</i> (chap. 2), and Geoffrey Chaucer's <i>Troilus and Criseyde</i> (chap. 4)--my thesis argues that the languages of service available to these writers provided them with a rich set of metaphorical tools for expressing the relation between metaphysics and social practice. For late medieval English culture, the word "service" was an all-encompassing marker used to describe relations between individuals and their loved ones, their neighbors, their church, their God, and their institutions of government. In the field of Middle English studies, these categories have too often been held apart from one another and the language of service has too often been understood as drawing its meanings solely from legal and economic discourses, the purview of social historians. <i>Love, Labor, Liturgy</i> sets out to correct this underanalysis by pointing to a diverse tradition of theological and philosophical thought concerning the possibilities and paradoxes of Christian service, a tradition ranging from Saint Augustine to Martin Luther and beyond.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation explores theologies of suffering through engagement with five theologians from across fifteen centuries of the Christian tradition: Gregory the Great, Julian of Norwich, Jeremy Taylor, C.S. Lewis and Ivone Gebara. It uses a typological method to examine the types of responses that are advocated by each theologian, and the relation of their responses to five theological touchstones: Humanity, Sin and Evil; God’s Providence; Salvation; Christ; and Eternal Life. The Introductory Chapter provides an exploration of the definitions and etymologies of suffering and grief; a description of the typological method; an examination of notable relevant literature; and an introduction to the five thinkers. Chapter One is an examination of the life and writings of the 6th century pope Gregory the Great, with particular focus on The Book of the Pastoral Rule and Moralia. Gregory understands suffering to be a discipline sent by God to the faithful. Chapter Two is an examination of the life and Revelations text of the 13th century English mystic Julian of Norwich, who focuses on the reward God desires to give those who suffer. Chapter Three is an examination of the life and writings of 17th century Anglican bishop Jeremy Taylor, with particular focus on Holy Living and Holy Dying. Taylor places an emphasis on the lifelong practice of faithfulness in preparation for death. Chapter Four is an examination of the life and writings of 20th century Anglican theologian and author C. S. Lewis, with particular attention to The Problem of Pain, The Chronicles of Narnia, A Grief Observed, and Letters to Malcom. Lewis offers the example of one who is willing to engage with the depth of his grief and to question God on his road to acceptance. Chapter Five is an examination of the life and writings of contemporary Brazilian, feminist and liberation theologian Ivone Gebara, with particular focus on her book Out of the Depths and her engagement with Latin American author Isabel Allende. Gebara questions traditional understandings of suffering, as well as when suffering is to be accepted and when suffering is unjust and should be combated. The Concluding Chapter constructs a contemporary theology of suffering drawing on the insights and wrestling with the challenges raised by the varying perspectives of the five theologians. The goal is to provide a hopeful and nuanced way of thinking theologically about suffering for contemporary Christians. The contemporary theology affirms the importance of the call, found in Gebara, to combat unjust suffering through acts of love and mercy, while also affirming that acceptance of the reality of endemic suffering, found in all five theologians, can provide one with opportunities to grow spiritually, live more faithfully and to experience the blessings in the midst of suffering that are a foretaste of heavenly bliss.

This study offers a narrative comparison of A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love, the two texts created by the first known English woman writer, Julian of Norwich (c. 1343 – c. 1416). It focuses Julian as a storyteller rather than as a theologian, mystic or visionary, concentrating particular on her narrative strategies, that is, on the strategic use of formal narrative features and the changes in these between Vision and Revelation. This dissertation therefore examines Vision and Revelation in terms of three narrative features: plot, characterization and perspective or point of view (termed ‘focalization’ here). These three narrative features are brought into dialogue with Julian’s theology. Three analytical angles help shed more light on Julian’s innovative use of these structures in her works: modern narratology, Middle English literary theory and practice, and the texts’ own literary concepts and self-referential comments. Two central narratological methods are used throughout. The first is to make a distinction between narrator Julian, who tells about the events, and character Julian, who experiences the events. The second is distinguishing several hermeneutic layers or levels of signification in a narrative. Following narratologist Mieke Bal, this discussion distinguishes between fabula (the raw material), story (the content of the text) and text (the linguistic construct). On the basis of this exploration, this study argues that Revelation includes, expands and transforms the narrative structures of Vision, and thereby consciously draws more attention to the structures themselves. At the same time, however, within Revelation a similar narrative reshaping can be seen as between Vision and Revelation. That is, Revelation reshapes its own new narrative structures, in order to hint at God’s greater structure and envelop its own in His. This greatest structure, however, is only glimpsed. As regards these narrative structures, this study argues that linear finite narrative desire driving the plot of Vision is taken up into an endless, greater narrative desire in Revelation, creating a circular plot. At the same time, narrator Julian constructs an omnitemporal, non-sequential plot. Moreover, this analysis shows that the focalization already found in Vision is made more demonstrative in Revelation, while the narrator directs this gaze more towards the apophatic and what is always hidden. Finally, this study explores how many of the characters from Vision are made twofold in Revelation, while Revelation at the same time foreshadows the union this doubleness will achieve at the end of time. Revelation, in short, utilizes Vision’s structures and its own to implode structure.  Julian’s poetics thus is one of continuous developing and enveloping, which allows her to depict God, herself and the reader as characters in each other’s narratives and as participating in each other’s storytelling: she authorizes her own story by making it God’s and the reader’s as well. This more conscious structuring and simultaneous reshaping of the new structure in Revelation forms Julian’s most innovative narrative strategy and the most striking interaction between her art and theology: narrator Julian depicts her own storytelling as simultaneously participating in that of God and foreshadowing God’s ultimate storytelling at the end of time.

Performativity” is employed in this study as a methodological approach to an understanding of patriarchy and its effects. As the materialized effect of the use of language and symbolization (speech acts, larger discourses, rituals) it fits within the broad frame of rhetorics, where the last highlights the creational or shaping force of language. Specifically the study focuses on an adapted version of Judith Butler’s notion of “performativity” in an analysis of the lives of various women. The term “performativity” is used in two fundamentally different senses. In the first, it refers to the prescriptions and expectations of patriarchy in regard to the identity and behaviour of its subjects, presented to them through master narratives. This sense of the word is pejorative in that “performativity” is a means of oppression and control. In the other sense of the word, “performatives” are those alternative ways of behaving and responding, chosen by women in their attempts to free themselves from the stifling effects of patriarchy and the master-narrative that it dictates. In this sense, the term actually refers to contra-performatives. Any study focusing on patriarchy necessarily requires an understanding of the origins and workings, as well as the effects, of that phenomenon. The study traces the development of the patriarchal system from pre-history, through Antiquity, into the Middle Ages and the Modern Era. This examination reveals the universality of patriarchy around the world and throughout history. The phenomenon is defined as an oppressive system of male domination within the family and society. As the study focuses particularly on the lives of two fourteenth century English women, Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich, an examination of English society of that period as a strongly gendered culture, is undertaken. The very limited options available to women are delineated: the choice confronting them was either marriage and procreation, or church and chastity. Margery Kempe initially chose the former, while Julian of Norwich chose the latter. How did these choices impact on their lives, and in what ways may they be regarded as “performative”? Through various speech acts and rituals, as well as their writing, these women confronted patriarchy, sometimes directly and overtly, and at other times subtly and covertly, in their endeavours to create for themselves an alternative to patriarchal oppression. Alternative discourses informed alternative “performances”. In order to demonstrate the universality over time and place of patriarchy and the universal, “performative” response of women to it, the focus then shifts to nineteenth and twentieth century South Africa, where the life-worlds of a diverse group of women are studied. Again, “performativity” as a tool of liberation in the hands of women such as James Barry, Olive Schreiner, Johanna Brandt and Ellen Kuzwayo, is examined. The value of “performativity” is then, emphasised in this study, particularly as a means for those who have for whatever reason – gender, sexual orientation, race, etcetera – been “othered”, to overcome the regime under which they suffer. Regimes which have existed throughout history. This study in a sense serves as a springboard for further research into the why and how of liberation from patriarchal and other oppression. / Prof. H. Viviers

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 278 is an early-fourteenth-century trilingual manuscript of the Psalms from Norwich Cathedral Priory, an urban cathedral church staffed by Benedictine monks. This manuscript is notable because it contains one of six Middle English Metrical Psalters, the earliest Middle English translation of the Psalms, as well as a full Anglo-Norman Oxford Psalter, the most popular French translation of the Psalms in late medieval England. While the Middle English Metrical Psalter is a remarkable and understudied text in and of itself, the Metrical Psalter of CCC 278 is even more interesting because of its monastic provenance and innovative layout. This thesis explores the questions of why a monastic institution would produce a manuscript of two complete, prominently displayed, vernacular Psalters with only highly abbreviated Latin textual references; what sociolinguistic and political forces drove the production of this innovative manuscript; and how the Middle English Metrical Psalter in particular was read, and by whom. Because there are no annotations, colophon, prologue or external documentation to provide clues to either the intended or actual use of the manuscript by the Priory monks, this thesis undertakes a detailed historicization and contextualization of the book in its urban, religious, linguistic and social settings. In addition, the lenses of community, mediation, and authority are applied, leading to the conclusion that CCC 278 and its Middle English Metrical Psalter were likely used by the monks to reach out to Norwich’s élite laity in order to form a mixed reading community around the book—a reading community controlled by the Priory.

The history of retail and consumption during the eighteenth-century has enjoyed interest from historians for a number of decades, yet few studies have concentrated on large cities or utilised a case study method to develop an in-depth and longitudinal understanding of change across the whole century. This study seeks to rectify this by concentrating on the city of Norwich, which was the second largest city in England in 1700, in order to build up a detailed social history of retail, shopping and consumption. The research seeks to clarify the exact nature of change in urban retail and consumption, exploring the existence of consumer and retail 'revolutions' and the relationship between them. Using a variety of archival sources the study uncovers the extent of the consumption of novel goods, the changing nature of the economic character of each of Norwich's thirty-four parishes and uncovers the dual personality of the city, with evidence for a leisured town set within the larger industrial city. Detailed mapping of directory data points to a concentration of luxury retail in key streets, making up a cultural thoroughfare which linked the traditional cultural centre of the city in the east to the new purpose-built leisure arena on the western boundary. The character of retail change and the role of the shopkeeper is assessed through newspaper advertisements, trade cards, probate inventories, diaries and contemporary visual representations of the city centre. While a clear transformation was detected across the century, the evidence suggests that change was cumulative rather than a big shift at a fixed point in time. However, although the changes noted in this research did not constitute 'revolution' in an immediate sense, the modifications in urban spaces, retail and consumption, which were evident from the beginning of the century, were undoubtedly significant in their long-term effects by laying the foundations for current practice.