Order,Freedom,and “Kindness”

Abstract

This essay argues that Julian of Norwich is particularly relevant today because she, like us, lived in a point of transition: between the ancient-medieval world in which order was the primary value and the modern world in which freedom is the dominant value. With the critique of modernity undertaken in the last forty years, Julian's theology becomes of interest once again—in particular, her notion of God's “kindness,” encompassing as it does both the notion of God's nature and God's benevolence, offers a third alternative to ideologies of either order or freedom.