Union with Christ in Walter Hilton’s and Julian of Norwich’s writings

Through the revelation of Christ as both Son of God and Son of Man, we are invited to enjoy the fullest consummation of the reality of our being: partaking in the triune life of God. This mystical union, the experience of the Godhead through the spiritual senses, is only possible by means of Christ. Walter Hilton and Julian of Norwich, both fourteenth-century mystics in England, understood being in Christ as an ontological union, thus interpreting the image of God in humanity as the ground for the prelapsarian union that binds Creator to creature. Hilton and Julian’s writings identified the outcomes of such a union with the Incarnate One as metaphysical, sacramental, and ecclesiological. In this way, they emphasized the participatory nature of union with Christ, and encouraged their readers − from the late fourteenth century to the present day − to invest their spiritual life with new meaning.

Tea and coffee in the Hood Room from 3.30pm