4. Julian of Norwich and Spiritual Depth: Spiritual Experience and Relational Intimacy
Environmental Spirituality and Wellbeing - Integrating Social and Therapeutic Theory and Practice - Jeff Leonardi
Robert Fruehwirth [+]
Rector, North Carolina
Description
Of the world’s mystics, Julian of Norwich is one of the most relational. Her entire spiritual experience, related in narrative detail in her Revelations of Divine Love, is one of relational intimacy — a security of connection and sharing of self, back and forth with the divine Other. Not only does Julian share with us the to-and-fro of this relationship the giving and receiving, but she offers an understanding of how it leads to healing and maturation — our birth into a life of intimacy with self, others, and God. In this chapter, I will trace the progression of Julian’s developing relationship with God as well as draw evidence from Julian’s Revelations of Divine Love for the personal development outcomes from this relationship. This will allow me to describe the kind of spiritual and personal maturity that Julian expects to flow from spiritual experience. I will show how Julian understands spiritual experience and maturation leading to a restoration of union between our everyday experiential selves with a depth of self that, Julian insists, is ‘knit’ lovingly to God from the moment of our creation. They key is surrender, and surrender in the context of intimacy and trust.