is that rich theme in creation-centered spirituality of humankind's divin-
return to education as the quest for wisdom as much as the development of knowledge and information.
5. Humanity's divinization, Another theme that Julian dares to develop is that rich theme in creation-centered spirituality of humankind's divinization. While Eastern Christianity never lost this theme in its theology, the West struggled to keep it alive after the all-pervading influence of Augustine's guilty conscience reduced salvation to cleansing from sin instead of awakening to divine potential, divine beauty. The tradition of our divinization is well attested to in wisdom literature, in the theme so underdeveloped in the West about our being images of God, and in John
2 Paul. Yet even in our time translators of Julian have made efforts to "clean up" her references to our divinzation. In fact, the theme is altogether orthodox, and when it is lost, spirituality often gets reduced to boring religious pronouncements and sterile legalisms. The reader of Julian would do well indeed to keep this in mind and heart while reading, discussing and praying her meditations in this book. Ponder, for example, these words:
"We are of God. That is what we are. |_saw no difference between God and our Substance but as if it were all
God"
Notice, however, that Julian never confuses our divinity with pantheism but has a well-developed and nuanced grasp of panentheism. For continuing on in the phrase | have quoted from she says: "I take this to mean that our substance is in God: that is, God is God, and our substance is a creature in God."
Ng ee ake 6. Other themes. There is a rich treasure house in Julian of all the themes of creation-centered spirituality for the alert reader and pray-er.
Not only the five | have alluded to but also the themes of Original Blessing (no creation-centered theologian makes a big thing of original sin).
Julian says: "Il saw that God never began to love us for. . .we have always been in God's foreknowledge, known and loved from without beginning." Be alert to themes of gratitude, thanksgiving, praise. Of dialectical
(both/and) as distinct from dualistic (either/or) images and ways of thinking. Of humor and laughter. Of realized eschatology. Of joy and resurrection, of a mysticism of the empty tomb. Of universal salvation. Of a keen penetration of sin and evil without there being an exaggeration of either's importance. Of church as people, the New Temple, of the mystical body. Of trust and not fear or guilt as the basis of a psychology of spirituality. Of a vulnerable God who suffers and who celebrates.
Julian is a mystic and for our times a prophet who brings us the Good but challenging News of creation-centered theology. Her intellectual and mystical contribution to our lives is untold if we take the time and space to meditate with her, to share and be touched. | can guarantee that it will