Comfort and Certitude in Julian of Norwich
Why I chose this topic for my PhD studies
In my last post, I shared why I decided to go back to school to pursue a PhD in my 40s. In this post, I will share more about my specific topic.
The main difference between pursuing a PhD in the U.S. vs. the U.K. is your research topic. Typically, students who enroll in PhD programs in the U.S. do not need to have their research topic decided upon application. In the U.S., you’re required to take coursework before you hone in on a research topic. In this way, you become a generalist before you become a specialist. The U.K. programs are all research-focused. Therefore, you need to know what you want to research and have a fair grasp on the field before you apply. Then, before applying to the school, you must find someone to supervise your research topic. You can only apply to the school after one of its faculty members has agree to supervise you. The U.K. programs are designed to make you an expert on your topic.
Both U.S. and U.K. programs have different benefits. The reason I chose the U.K. model is because I am ready to jump into research. I did not want to take any more coursework in addition to the 3.5 years I spent in my M.Div. Finally, because your supervisor(s) shape the scholar and theologian you become, I wanted to be shaped by the best in my field—those who will encourage me to think critically, engage with the primary sources, and produce original research—and I believe the best ones to shape me happen to teach in the U.K. system. (There are wonderful experts who teach in the U.S. system, too.)
Why Julian?
When I began working for Dr. Timothy George, a Reformation scholar, at Beeson Divinity School in 2015, he ignited in me a love for church history. I became particularly interested in women of the Reformation. A year prior, my husband had begun reading the theological works of Karl Barth, and in 2015, I, too, started reading Barth. Since this time, my passion and interests have met at the intersection of these two disciplines—church history and theology. How do I determine my passions and interests? I look at how I spend my free time. Whenever I have free time—early mornings before anyone else is awake, Sunday afternoons when family members are napping, weekends between cleaning the house and shopping—I am reading, thinking, and writing about history and doctrine. Like my coffee, it’s what gets me out of bed in the morning and fuels my work.
Within this context, I finally read the work of Julian of Norwich two years ago (even though I had heard about her years prior) . She interested me for historical reasons for she lived in the century just prior to the Reformation. But it was her theology—the multi-dimensions of her thought—that intrigued and captivated me. I love the way Denys Turner describes her theology. He writes, “Julian’s theology is distinctly spiral: it moves forward, as one does along a straight line. It constantly returns to the same point, as on does around a circle. The repetition is therefore never identical, for it has always moved on—it has a progressive trajectory, up or down, into higher reaches or greater depth.”
Julian does for me what Barth’s theology does for me. Although I have disagreements and concerns with various aspects of both theologies, I find their writing and theology to be very devotional and pastoral. Ultimately, they point me to Jesus.
There’s more I could say about why I chose Julian, but here’s one more reason which is practical, not theological. My husband recommended that I study the theology of a figure who wrote in English given my age and situation in life. While Julian wrote in Middle English and therefore some translation is required, it’s easier for me to learn Middle English than to become proficient in say, German or French.
Why this topic on comfort and certitude?
To answer this question, I have copied and pasted portions of my research proposal.
In Julian of Norwich's revelations or shewings, she describes the visions of the crucified Jesus and his subsequent teachings as having two primary purposes: to bring comfort and to produce sekerness or seker trust (certainty or surety). Comfort and seker (and their variants) feature prominently in her theology. The main thrust of this thesis is to explore the development of Julian's Christology in relation to the concepts of comfort and certitude. Naturally, we would need to understand how she viewed the correlation between certitude and comfort. Having reached a working hypothesis on the correlation mentioned above, the thesis would then seek to put her in conversation with key dialogue partners on certainty and comfort, namely St. Augustine, Martin Luther, and Thomas Cranmer. The end result, I hope, is to show that comfort and certitude are not merely peripheral effects of one's Christology but rather are central aspects of the work of Christ for us, which bears fruit in ecclesial, pastoral, spiritual, and devotional ways.
My interest in this topic finds its footing in my own spiritual life: in my questions, anxieties, dobuts, and fears. Can I be certain that Jesus has truly forgiven me of all my sin? Can I be certain that the gospel is true for me? Can I be certain in the truth-claims I confess, such as there is now no condemnation for me in Jesus Christ, that I will be raised from the dead, that Jesus never leaves nor forsakes me? My search for certainty in these beliefs and realities is a search for comfort. I desire to be comforted by the truth and certainty of these realities. In much of evangelicalism, comfort is spoken of negatively. God is not concerned for your comfort. Or, Jesus died for more than just your comfort. In these instances, a working definition of comfort entails some kind of physical, material well-being and blessing. And yet, we are constantly searching for comfort in points of pain, fear, loss, and sin. From where I sit, I see that discussions of certainty are relegated to apologetics and discussions of comfort are relegated to therapy. I want to bring these together and think about certainty and comfort theologically, thereby showing their import for pastoral ministry, spiritual formation, and discipleship. To put it more directly: I pray that my work will help Christians, people like you and me, to be certain of and to be comforted by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here’s a longer discussion of my research topic as included in my prospectus:
In her book, Are You Alone Wise? The Search for Certainty in the Early Modern Era, Susan E. Schreiner argues that despite the classification of the seventeenth century as "the age most concerned with certainty," epitomized by René Descartes, "the question of certitude emerged repeatedly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries." The Reformation, she continues, solidified the question of certainty as the central issue. Throughout her book she pulls on the thread of "the anxiety about certainty," beginning with figures in the fourteenth century and culminating with first generation of reformers in the sixteenth century, writing, that "the underlying problem that concerned this era [late medieval era, i.e. fourteenth-sixteenth centuries] and which dictated the terms of the discussions, spirituality, and debates, was that of the anxiety about certainty.” She details various uncertainties that seemed to dominate Christian sermons and writings in these years, such as certainty of forgiveness, salvation, grace, and the theological answers that theologians provided. One dominant approach was to provide comfort concomitant with warnings of hell and wrath. “Late medieval piety was both a theology of judgment and a theology of comfort.”
Schreiner’s work provides a helpful context from which to begin a study on Julian of Norwich’s use of comfort and certitude in the two accounts of her shewings or revelations, insofar as it helps situate Julian's contribution historically and theologically and contrasts Julian's theology of comfort and certitude with her contemporaries in the fourteenth century. Furthermore, Schreiner's research has to some extent legitimatized the place of and the need for certitude, and consequently comfort, in theological discourse and research for today.
Even though Julian of Norwich has become a popular focus of study, especially among Roman Catholics and feminists; and even though much has been explored about Julian the theologian, no work has been done on the themes of comfort and sekerness in her shewings, even though these words and related concepts feature prominently in her writings.
Julian’s first account begins with an editorial comment that the vision she received contains “fulle many comfortabille words.” According to Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins, Julian employs the word comfort and its variants forty times in the short text. In my own count, seker and variants appear approximately 85 times in both the long and short texts and comfort (not including its variants) occurs more than 60 times in the long text.
Additionally, as Julia Lamm noted in her book, God's Kinde Love: Julian of Norwich's Vernacular Theology of Grace, Julian is a biblical theologian. However, this aspect and her use of Scripture have received very little scholarly attention: just what does it mean to call Julian a biblical theologian? Thus, Lamm strongly claims: "What is most needed in Julian studies now are full-scale investigations of her use, interpretation, and translation of Scripture." In this light, the project will consider Julian's employment of Romans 5, Philippians 2, and John 17 in arriving at her Christology and the themes of comfort and certitude.
Hence, this research project seeks to show the centrality of comfort and sekerness in Julian's accounts of her revelations, how the theologian herself was driven by her own need and search for comfort and certainty, and how as a biblical theologian comfort and certitude spring forth from Julian's reading of Scripture. Only then can we begin to consider Julian's contribution in this area, place her in dialogue with other theologians, and construct a biblical and systematic theology of comfort and certainty for today.
In my next post, I’ll give the unexpected story as to how I ended up being accepted to Durham, challenges women like me face, and what’s next. Thank you for following along and praying for me!
For those who are asking how you can best support or help me, the following are several ways:
Pray. I am currently studying Latin at Samford to prepare for PhD work. I also have a 30-page assignment to turn around by October for PhD, and I am still writing a book with Dr. Timothy George. Pray for me to stay focused, that I won’t self-sabotage by being overcome by thoughts of imposter syndrome or can-nots. Pray for me to have energy. Pray for me to be self-disciplined and not distracted. Pray for me to continue to trust God (there’s much struggle with faith that God will provide in various ways). Pray for my family as they support me. Pray for God to provide for my tuition. I have failed to find any scholarships that will apply to students studying part-time and from a distance. Also, I am not eligible for a FAFSA loan since I will not be studying in person.
Help me build my library. I do not like to ask for financial help or fundraise. It feels awkward and wrong. And yet, the cost of this degree is great and will be paid out of pocket for the next six years, and some of you are asking how you can help in addition to praying. If that is you, then, one small way that you can help me is with the cost of books I need for research. I’ve begun making a book list on Amazon.