Vernacular Theology
Vernacular Theology
intellectual reflection or speculation, the practice of contemplation, living the Christian life, and pastoral practice were ideally a seamless whole. Critically, to be "a theologian" meant that a person (for example,
Julian of Norwich) had contemplated the mystery of God and had an experience of faith and practice (especially exposure to scripture and participation in the liturgy) on which to reflect. Knowledge of divine things was inseparable from the love of God, deepened in prayer. For Augustine, for example in his De Trinitate, Books XII–XIV, God is known not by scientia (analytical knowledge) but by sapientia (a contemplative knowledge of love and desire). This approach to theology is richly illustrated in the writings of Julian.
It is important to underline that the notion of "mysticism" as a distinctive reality based on purely subjective experience is not overtly present in patristic and medieval contexts, including Julian. The French Jesuit interdisciplinary scholar and important historian of Christian mysticism,
Michel de Certeau, can be credited with establishing that such a distinct category associated with subjective religious experience, largely detached from the wider Christian life and from Church teaching, originated only in the later sixteenth century and the seventeenth century. It was associated with the major religious, social, and cultural changes of the time.20
Julian of Norwich is a mystical theologian in the sense that her theology expresses an intelligentia amoris, a knowledge born of loving God and experiencing the love of God. Julian's theological journey depends on her pursuit of a deeply contemplative Christian life which led at some stage to her becoming a solitary or anchoress. The starting point of Julian's theology, as with so much medieval mystical writing, is her experience of God in the midst of sickness and suffering and her sense that the essential icon of God is the figure of the suffering Jesus on the Cross.
As a consequence, Julian's mystical theology maintains an ambiguous balance of a theology of "knowing" ("positive" or kataphatic theology) and a theology of "unknowing" ("negative" or apophatic theology) both in relation to the transcendent mystery of God‐as‐Trinity and in relation to the core of human identity which is irrevocably united with God.
These themes will be developed further in later chapters.
Vernacular Theology The historical context within which Julian of Norwich wrote her texts is often described as "the age of the vernacular." This was a century when, as I noted in the previous chapter, there was a gradual shift from writing literature only in Latin or Norman‐French to using Middle English as a literary language rather than simply the spoken language of the lower social
Julian's Theology
classes. It was also a time when there was a growing interest in religious ideas and greater access to the bible and other religious literature among an increasingly literate laity, particularly the new merchant classes in the expanding world of commercial towns and cities like Norwich.
However, Julian may be described as a vernacular theologian not simply because she used Middle English prose rather than Latin but also because her vision and projected audience is democratic rather than limited to a spiritual or theological elite. In her own words, "In all this
I was greatly moved in love towards my fellow Christians ['mine evenchristen'], that they might all see and know the same as I saw, for I wished it to be a comfort to them, for all this vision was shown for all men" (chapter 8).
The phrase "fellow Christians" or "my fellow Christians" appears regularly throughout Julian's text. The first mention of this key word is at the end of chapter 6 where Julian underlines that the lesson of God's tender love for us is the foundation of everything that was revealed to her. Her teaching addressed to everyone is that this knowledge should provoke
"the soul" – that is, each human being – to be less self‐preoccupied and to be filled with love for its fellow Christians. In chapter 8 Julian is very clear that her intention in writing is that all her fellow Christians "might see and know the same as I saw" and that "everything that I say about me
I mean to apply to all my fellow Christians."
This additional dimension of the concept of "vernacular" is defined by Denys Turner as "demotic" theology – that is, non‐formulaic, non‐ hierarchical in tone, and in a language intelligible to ordinary people.21
This demotic style is underlined by Julian's frequent use of everyday images. Thus, in chapter 6 (as it appears in the Paris manuscript) God's providential care is shown even in the physical provision in the human body of a means of expelling food waste; in other words, defecation. Her vision of the copious bleeding of Jesus in chapter 7 is compared to the drops of water that fall from the eaves of a house during rain showers and also to the herring scales that would have been familiar to people living in a fishing port such as Norwich. The following chapter 8 echoes the imagery of chapter 5 in suggesting that all that is made is "little" when compared to God. Yet Julian also firmly underlines that the world that we know and all creation is beautiful and good. Again, perhaps echoing the familiar experience of the fishermen and other sailors of the port of Norwich, chapter 10 uses the imagery of being in the depths of the sea.
Whatever its origins, this imagery was intended by Julian as a way of reassuring people that wherever they are, God is continually with them and they are wholly safe. The imagery of "bountiful waters" on the earth is also used in chapter 12 as a reminder of God's care. A final example is the use of the word "poynte" or "pointe" in chapter 11: "I saw God in