Impossible Recovery: Julian of Norwich and the Phenomenology of Well-Being

Hannah Lucas

Published by Columbia University Press 2025

Impossible Recovery

Julian of Norwich and the Phenomenology of Well-Being

Hannah Lucas

In the series Gender, Theory, and Religion

https://doi.org/10.7312/luca21867

About this book

Hannah Lucas explores the entanglement of illness and revelation in the writings of Julian of Norwich, illuminating the unexpected commonalities between the medical and the mystical and their significance for philosophies of health.

Author / Editor information

Hannah Lucas is the Newby Trust Research Fellow at Newnham College, University of Cambridge.

Reviews

Nicholas Watson, author of Balaam's Ass: Vernacular Theology Before the English Reformation, Volume 1: Frameworks, Arguments, English to 1250 :
Hannah Lucas has written a learned, immersive, intellectually wide-ranging, and often exhilarating analysis of Julian's book and the 'theory of human existence as an ongoing process of seeking understanding.' Impossible Recovery is one of the most original and compelling studies of a medieval contemplative text of the past twenty-five years.

Julie Orlemanski, author of Symptomatic Subjects: Bodies, Medicine, and Causation in the Literature of Late Medieval England:
An astoundingly original book. Its interpretive project blasts away the rote conventions of writing about the Middle Ages to chart a new sense of “recovery” in the writings of Julian of Norwich and beyond. Lucas has forged a luminous study that unites philosophy, theology, the history of mysticism, and poetics.

Liz Herbert McAvoy, author of The Enclosed Garden and the Medieval Religious Imaginary:
Lucas’s highly adept use of contemporary theories of being, wellbeing, language, and existentialism in this study is both arresting and effective in offering new insights into Julian’s work and her writerly mission. It comprises one of the most important recent interventions into the field of Julian studies and will be an essential book for those interested in the interplay between theory, women’s writing, and the mystical encounter.

Rowan Williams, former archbishop of Canterbury, author of The Edge of Words: God and the Habits of Language:
This is a deeply creative and fresh study of one of the greatest medieval visionaries by a scholar who combines first-class historical and textual acumen with keen awareness of the way in which modern philosophies of embodied (and gendered) consciousness open up new questions and insights in the reading of premodern texts, especially around issues of suffering and healing. It is an invaluable contribution to the study of Julian of Norwich, but is also a brilliant intervention in a range of contemporary debates.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
ABBREVIATIONS Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
NOTE ON EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
INTRODUCTION Then and Now: Recovering Julian of Norwich Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 MAPPING THE JOURNEY HOME A Phenomenology of Well- Being Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
2 LEARNING TO LIVE Julian’s Illness and the Craft of Dying Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
3 BEARING WITNESS Revelation, Suffering, and the Fiend Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
4 SEEKING UNDERSTANDING Julian’s Mystical Text Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
5 THE CONTEMPLATIVE WAY The Performance of Prayer and Homlyhede Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
6 MAKE STRAIGHT THE PATHS Christ, Providence, and Salvation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
CONCLUSION Not Yet Performed: Julian in Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	357
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	387

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: January 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780231562409

Impossible Recovery

Julian of Norwich and the Phenomenology of Well-Being

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