Julian of Norwich's nonviolent account of salvation

In this dissertation I argue that, in presenting her account of how Christ restores sinful human beings to wholeness, Julian of Norwich (1342--c. 1420) consistently opts for pacific rather than violent concepts and forms of expression. This is important because previous studies of Julian's soteriology have been partial, failing to account for the nonviolent concern than informs every aspect of the anchorite's thinking about salvation. Julian's strategy for producing this account has two main aspects: (1) the salvific efficacy of the incarnation, and (2) the ongoing formation of peaceful and loving habits acquired as humans share in God's trinitarian loving. First, Julian adopts a recapitulation-style explanation of Christ's saving work, suggesting that the incarnation as a whole (not just Christ's violent torture and death) accomplishes human salvation as God heals and restores human beings through Christ's representative humanity. Second, in Julian's view, humans receive the gifts of healing and wholeness made available in Christ as the quality of their affections is transformed in the present life through their participation in the peaceful love shared by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Both components of Julian's soteriology depend for their basic logic upon the peaceful nature of God. In other words, the recluse produces a theology of nonviolence in the strict sense, since her thought takes its shape from the nonviolent character of God's trinitarian life.; In support of these claims, I make use of six theological commonplaces to demonstrate the plausibility of the notion that Julian edited violent expressions that were current in her intellectual milieu, altering these commonplaces to give them a decidedly pacific character.; Given that Julian is successful in providing an account of how Christ remedies the problem of human sinfulness while avoiding the violent formulations that plague many ancient and medieval accounts of salvation, I conclude that her writing should be used as a model by contemporary theologians attempting to articulate a salvation teaching that does not perpetuate violent patterns of relating among humans.