The potentiality of ‘nought:’ Julian of Norwich’s understanding of the deity and the self through the apophatic matrices of love and dread
<p>This thesis explores Julian of Norwich’s poetics of understanding, situated on the continuum from cataphatic representation to apophatic symbolism, through a focus on her modi amandi et timendi. This methodological dualism bridges the chasm in current scholarship between her theologia negat...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English, Middle (1100-1500) English |
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2021
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| _version_ | 1797108438728179712 |
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| author | Rohrhofer, RS |
| author2 | Gillespie, V |
| author_facet | Gillespie, V Rohrhofer, RS |
| author_sort | Rohrhofer, RS |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis explores Julian of Norwich’s poetics of understanding, situated on the continuum from cataphatic representation to apophatic symbolism, through a focus on her modi amandi et timendi. This methodological dualism bridges the chasm in current scholarship between her theologia negativa, affectivity, and contemplative insight.</p>
<p>I argue that Julian’s correlational modalities of love and dread foster an intuited participatory sapience based on the unmediated joy of apprehending the transcendent and immanent mysterium. Until now, the significance of the apophatic concept of “nought” in her theology has not been generally acknowledged. In contrast, I contend that the reciprocal love knot with the divinity and both parties’ kenotic surrender culminate in several varieties of “nought.” These include the impossibility of attaining certain knowledge about the godhead or the self, the fundamental difference and enclosing of created and uncreated “nought,” and the hermeneutics of fragmentation and abundance that these aporias foster. </p>
<p>Expanding on these coincidences of opposites, the introduction and the first chapter explore the dynamics of the divine absence/presence dyad, proving that Julian’s partaking in the deity’s creative impulses initially fosters a literal and linear engagement with him but peters out into a receptive stillness that silences the discursive mind. Her theology of becoming invariably uses her human means to gesture to the beyond, and it is predicated on a profound sense of wonder, as well as on its analogue, humility. </p>
<p>The second chapter focuses on the anchoress’s conceptualisations of dread and their organic relationship to grace and spiritual security. Starting with an analysis of the paradox of reverent dread as an expression of love, I demonstrate that the Parable of the Lord and the Servant functions as an interpretive prism that tactically misleads any propensities towards narrative totality, instead privileging the sensus mysticus. Intricate processes of “noughting” also dominate Julian’s encounters with the devil and her treatment of sin. She balances both on the cusp of existent absence, and thus dissolves all forms of non-theocentric dread.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:29:14Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:a30e9b2e-8ccb-4933-8b53-08bc4a668ab0 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English, Middle (1100-1500) English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:29:14Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:a30e9b2e-8ccb-4933-8b53-08bc4a668ab02022-12-08T21:24:54ZThe potentiality of ‘nought:’ Julian of Norwich’s understanding of the deity and the self through the apophatic matrices of love and dreadThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:a30e9b2e-8ccb-4933-8b53-08bc4a668ab0Mystical unionPoeticsContemplationTheologyLiterature, MedievalNegative theologyEnglish, Middle (1100-1500)EnglishHyrax Deposit2021Rohrhofer, RSGillespie, VSutherland, ARenevey, D<p>This thesis explores Julian of Norwich’s poetics of understanding, situated on the continuum from cataphatic representation to apophatic symbolism, through a focus on her modi amandi et timendi. This methodological dualism bridges the chasm in current scholarship between her theologia negativa, affectivity, and contemplative insight.</p> <p>I argue that Julian’s correlational modalities of love and dread foster an intuited participatory sapience based on the unmediated joy of apprehending the transcendent and immanent mysterium. Until now, the significance of the apophatic concept of “nought” in her theology has not been generally acknowledged. In contrast, I contend that the reciprocal love knot with the divinity and both parties’ kenotic surrender culminate in several varieties of “nought.” These include the impossibility of attaining certain knowledge about the godhead or the self, the fundamental difference and enclosing of created and uncreated “nought,” and the hermeneutics of fragmentation and abundance that these aporias foster. </p> <p>Expanding on these coincidences of opposites, the introduction and the first chapter explore the dynamics of the divine absence/presence dyad, proving that Julian’s partaking in the deity’s creative impulses initially fosters a literal and linear engagement with him but peters out into a receptive stillness that silences the discursive mind. Her theology of becoming invariably uses her human means to gesture to the beyond, and it is predicated on a profound sense of wonder, as well as on its analogue, humility. </p> <p>The second chapter focuses on the anchoress’s conceptualisations of dread and their organic relationship to grace and spiritual security. Starting with an analysis of the paradox of reverent dread as an expression of love, I demonstrate that the Parable of the Lord and the Servant functions as an interpretive prism that tactically misleads any propensities towards narrative totality, instead privileging the sensus mysticus. Intricate processes of “noughting” also dominate Julian’s encounters with the devil and her treatment of sin. She balances both on the cusp of existent absence, and thus dissolves all forms of non-theocentric dread.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Mystical union Poetics Contemplation Theology Literature, Medieval Negative theology Rohrhofer, RS The potentiality of ‘nought:’ Julian of Norwich’s understanding of the deity and the self through the apophatic matrices of love and dread |
| title | The potentiality of ‘nought:’ Julian of Norwich’s understanding of the deity and the self through the apophatic matrices of love and dread |
| title_full | The potentiality of ‘nought:’ Julian of Norwich’s understanding of the deity and the self through the apophatic matrices of love and dread |
| title_fullStr | The potentiality of ‘nought:’ Julian of Norwich’s understanding of the deity and the self through the apophatic matrices of love and dread |
| title_full_unstemmed | The potentiality of ‘nought:’ Julian of Norwich’s understanding of the deity and the self through the apophatic matrices of love and dread |
| title_short | The potentiality of ‘nought:’ Julian of Norwich’s understanding of the deity and the self through the apophatic matrices of love and dread |
| title_sort | potentiality of nought julian of norwich s understanding of the deity and the self through the apophatic matrices of love and dread |
| topic | Mystical union Poetics Contemplation Theology Literature, Medieval Negative theology |
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