Julian of Norwich and the Ecological Crisis: Restoring Porosity

This book presents ecological insights drawn from a reading of Julian of Norwich, considering how effectively she can help us in our current plight. The argument is that to address the ecological crisis with the mindset that created it will only cause more problems, and that to really undo the harm humanity has done and continues to do will take a transformation of selfhood and hence of perception, from the Gestell, technological self that is the child of the Enlightenment to the porous self that we truly are, underneath our buffered, separated, controlling and lonely exterior. The author suggests Julian of Norwich’s text Revelations of Divine Love has the power to effect this transformation if we can learn to read it as disciples, not masters, just as Julian received and responded to her revelations as a performative, porous, receptive disciple. The chapters describe the technological mindset and its causal relationship with the ecological crisis, and articulate in detail how, if they are to transform us, we must read the Julian texts, taking first steps away from our technological selves as we do so. The book then takes significant passages from Julian and reads them in the performative, porous way that has been recommended. It will be of particular interest to scholars of theology and ecology, as well as medieval mysticism.

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Julian of Norwich and the Ecological Crisis: Restoring Porosity

This book presents ecological insights drawn from a reading of Julian of Norwich, considering how effectively she can help us in our current plight. The argument is that to address the ecological crisis with the mindset that created it will only cause more problems, and that to really undo the harm humanity has done and continues to do will take a transformation of selfhood and hence of perception, from the Gestell, technological self that is the child of the Enlightenment to the porous self that we truly are, underneath our buffered, separated, controlling and lonely exterior. The author suggests Julian of Norwich’s text Revelations of Divine Love has the power to effect this transformation if we can learn to read it as disciples, not masters, just as Julian received and responded to her revelations as a performative, porous, receptive disciple. The chapters describe the technological mindset and its causal relationship with the ecological crisis, and articulate in detail how, if they are to transform us, we must read the Julian texts, taking first steps away from our technological selves as we do so. The book then takes significant passages from Julian and reads them in the performative, porous way that has been recommended. It will be of particular interest to scholars of theology and ecology, as well as medieval mysticism.

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Julian of Norwich and the Ecological Crisis: Restoring Porosity

Julian of Norwich and the Ecological Crisis: Restoring Porosity

by Claire Gilbert
Julian of Norwich and the Ecological Crisis: Restoring Porosity

Julian of Norwich and the Ecological Crisis: Restoring Porosity

by Claire Gilbert

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Overview

This book presents ecological insights drawn from a reading of Julian of Norwich, considering how effectively she can help us in our current plight. The argument is that to address the ecological crisis with the mindset that created it will only cause more problems, and that to really undo the harm humanity has done and continues to do will take a transformation of selfhood and hence of perception, from the Gestell, technological self that is the child of the Enlightenment to the porous self that we truly are, underneath our buffered, separated, controlling and lonely exterior. The author suggests Julian of Norwich’s text Revelations of Divine Love has the power to effect this transformation if we can learn to read it as disciples, not masters, just as Julian received and responded to her revelations as a performative, porous, receptive disciple. The chapters describe the technological mindset and its causal relationship with the ecological crisis, and articulate in detail how, if they are to transform us, we must read the Julian texts, taking first steps away from our technological selves as we do so. The book then takes significant passages from Julian and reads them in the performative, porous way that has been recommended. It will be of particular interest to scholars of theology and ecology, as well as medieval mysticism.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781032623931
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 12/26/2025
Series: Routledge Science and Religion Series
Pages: 190
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Claire Gilbert is an author and visiting fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. She is founder of Westminster Abbey Institute.

Table of Contents

1. Defining the Ecological Challenge as Our Buffered, Gestell Subjectivity  2 .Developing a Post-Ricoeurian Hermeneutical Approach  3. Julian’s Wounds  4. The Eighth Revelation  5. The Fourteenth Revelation

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