“… The depth and breadth of God’s love is more fully explored in Lamm’s book, God’s Kinde Love. It is a text that also offers fresh insight into the life and text of Julian as a theologian rather than a preacher. Lamm reminds us that theology is not merely created from intellectual exercises or discussions; our understanding of God is mediated by our experiences, and those who have gone before us. It is the classic “three-legged stool” of the Anglican tradition. We need scripture, reason, and tradition. Any of those alone do us and God a disservice. Lamm’s text is deep, thorough, and engaging. She begins by providing the background and context for her writing on Julian as a theologian and the context in which Julian lived and wrote. As with any theologian, while there is much that is universal in her texts, our understanding is enriched when we know something of Julian’s world – of plagues and life in medieval England. Lamm goes on to examine the theme of “Revelation as Exposure” and then ultimately to discuss Julian’s writings along- side Romans 5:5 and Augustine’s Doctrine of Grace. The most significant chapters, and the most significant impact of Lamm’s work, focus on developing a rich and deep understanding of God’s Grace and God’s Mercy.
Lamm notes, “Julian resisted the dominant religion-political understanding of mercy-as-amnesty . . . and retrieved instead a Biblical understanding of mercy-as-compassion,” and Julian’s understanding of grace is about God as “the cheerful gift-giver who delights in humanity” and a world where “human persons are equal to one another in dignity” (p. 177). It is this explication of Julian’s doctrines over the course of multiple chapters, as well as the engagement with longstanding theological traditions, that make Lamm’s text so compelling and important. It is not hard to argue the dam- age that has been done over the centuries from a theology embedded in patriarchy that emphasized power, sin, and punishment. How different might our world be if the starting place for understanding God, ourselves as individuals, and humanity, was the grounded belief that God is compassionate and delights in us, and we have an essential dignity that cannot be taken away? These may be understandings frequently found in contemporary theological texts, but they are not the dominant theme of patristic or medieval texts and their almost exclusively male authors.
Lamm’s understanding of Julian and her presentation of her as a theologian make God’s Kinde Love a text that should be a part of historical and systematic theology courses. So often students only encounter Julian along with the other mystics of her time – Rolle, Kemp, Cloud of Unknowing, etc. She does belong there. She also belongs in classes that discuss the doctrines of Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Luther, etc. Our world, institutions, education, and our own faith lives could all benefit from a theological understanding that emphasizes compassion, delight, and dignity….”
There have been a plethora of books on Julian of Norwich, both scholarly and popular, in recent decades, but none is as incisive theologically as Julia Lamm’s God’s Kinde Love. Drawing on the best textual editions of the Revelations, and shirking none of the challenges that are raised by the necessary comparison of its earlier and later versions, Lamm illuminates with wonderful clarity the thoroughgoing originality of Julian’s thought. In particular, there is simply nothing better in the existing secondary literature on the Julian’s distinctive account of grace, and its daring departures from the standard ‘Western’, Augustinian tradition. Through her meticulous, but fully accessible, rendition of Julian’s theological vision, Lamm gives Julian the systematic significance she deserves: not merely a ‘medieval woman mystic’, but a theological thinker of unique distinctiveness and contemporary relevance.
Based on his experience with breathing meditation and influenced by
Thich Nhat Hanh, Joseph Piccione’s book offers meaningful insights on
how to integrate contemplative breathing with prayer to enrich a Christian
practitioner’s Trinitarian spirituality. In a classroom setting, however, the
Christian perspective will need to be complemented with readings that
explain the doctrinal foundations of Buddhist breathing exercises.
Only with this balanced perspective can students sharpen their understanding
of interreligious dialogue and gain a fuller picture of the relationship
between Buddhism and the author’s argument for “a Trinitarian breathing
meditation.”
Piccione’s work aims to offer Christians a sensory method to deepen their
prayer through a breathing meditation, which is founded on his Trinitarian
framework. Piccione builds his framework with arguments drawn from
Scripture and theologians, such as John Ruusbroec, Yves Congar, and
Henri Nouwen. The analysis begins with the life-giving function of God’s
breath, which animated human beings (22-24). Piccione advocates that
through awareness of breathing in various activities in daily life, Christians
can find God’s presence (26).
In Piccione’s proposed breathing meditation, the practitioner breathes in
to receive God’s breath and realizes their identity as beloved in the beloved
(52, 58). Through the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit, a practitioner
receives and responds to God’s gift through breathing in and out, respectively
(67). As breath travels through the body, the Christian meditator “rides” their
breath to access their core and find Jesus (39, 77). Piccione suggests that the
awareness of inhaling can be integrated with prayer and communion (88, 89).
He presents exhaling as a response to self-recovery of our identity in “God
Trinity” and to our brothers, sisters, and the cosmos (58, 62, 83). Through
the cycle of breath-in-and-out, a meditating Christian engages God’s loving
intimacy within themself.
Piccione presents the readers with an innovative application of breathing
techniques for Christian prayer and meditation (92, 93), influenced by his
practice of Cognitive Based Compassion Training (note 10, 18) developed
at Emory University, and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, shaped by
Jon Kabat-Zinn (8). These techniques are, in turn, derived from Buddhism.
His book provides Christian devotees with a practical guide to cultivate
Trinitarian spirituality and a perspective on the interior activity of God
(104). In terms of using the book for academic discussion on interaction
between Zen and Trinitarian contemplation, educators need to investigate
the following aspects further.
Piccione frequently mentions that his interpretation of Zen breathing
meditation is based on Nhat Hanh’s How to Sit (Berkeley, CA: Parallax
Press, 2014), which he primarily applies to set forth his own interpretation
of Christian dogma. Piccione’s references to Nhat Hanh’s work are principally
concerned with the techniques of Zen meditative breathing rather than its
philosophy. The author avoids examining the theological differences
between the two practices. For example, he does not explore the insights
embedded in Buddhist breathing praxis or engage with Mahāyāna philosophy
or the Zen tradition’s understanding of them.
To address Buddhist breathing in the classroom, I recommend providing
excerpts from Thich Nhat Hahn’s masterful book devoted to this subject,
Breathe! You Are Alive: Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing (Berkeley,
CA: Parallax Press, 1996). Here, Nhat Hanh translates and comments on
the early, canonical Buddhist meditation manual, Sutra on the Full
Awareness of Breathing, which instructs meditators on employing breath to
examine their physical sensations and investigate doctrines such as impermanence,
no-self, attachment.
Although Piccione’s cover mentions Zen, the author omits Buddhist doctrines
related to breath meditation. His imagined reader is a devout Christian.
There could have been fertile discussion in this interreligious area, such as
that explored by Rōshi Robert Kennedy, SJ, in his Zen Gifts to Christians
(New York: Continuum, 2000). Zen practice is tied to the Mahāyāna
Buddha nature theory that locates the potential for enlightenment in every
human being; it is indifferent to feeling a higher being’s love. To discern
how to negotiate the theological difference between Zen and Trinitarian spirituality
using the breath, educators could include the section “Sitting with the
Buddha” from Nhat Hanh’s How to Sit.
Piccione’s book gives readers concrete guidelines of Christian breathing
meditation interwoven in Trinitarian spirituality. With complementary readings,
this work can be used in class to examine Christian contemplation practice
influenced by techniques derived from Buddhism.
Considering the vast number of books in print on Julian one wonders if there is room for any more. Reading Julia Lamm’s God’s Kinde Love we hear a resounding “Yes!” Lamm is the editor of the acclaimed Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) and she has already published chapters on Julian: “Casting Out Fear: The logic of ‘God is love’ in Julian of Norwich and Friedrich Schleiermacher” (in Ann W. Astell, ed., Saving Fear in Christian Spirituality, Notre Dame Press, 2019); “Divine Lordship, Divine Motherhood” (in David Jaspers andDale Wright, ed., Theological Reflection and the Pursuit of Ideals: Theology, Human Flourishing and Freedom, Ashgate, 2013); and “Julian of Norwich’s Retrieval of a Biblical Notion of Mercy” (in V. Cottini et al. ed., Rab,ma. Muslim and Christian Studies in Mercy, Pontificia Universita Gregoriana, 2018). There is also an article on Julian: “Revelation as Exposure in Julian of Norwich’s Showings” (Spiritus 5, no. 1 (2005) 54-78). But God’s Kinde Love is not only her first solo monograph on Julian of Norwich, it is also the first in-depth study of Julian’s doctrine of grace.
Through close readings of both the Long and the Short Texts, and an analysis of Julian’s use of the word “grace” which developed profoundly between the two, Lamm discovers three clearly articulated yet interrelated aspects of Julian’s doctrine of grace, the cause of “the joyful raising of our humanity.” In concentrating on the connection between grace and love, Lamm
argues for a closer bond, not only between humankind and God, but also between one human and another. God’s Kinde Love is both an outstanding achievement in its own right and an invitation to its readers to deepen their own compassionate lives.
With this last in mind, we have a contextualizing introduction and first chapter in which the thesis of God’s Kinde Love is stated, its relationship to other areas of scholarship outlined, and its place within vernacular theology described. We have scene-setting sections on Julian the anchoress, England and, in particular, Norwich before, during, and after the plague, and the state of the church afthe end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries.
What Chapter One has done for the history of the period – Lamm makes the point that “[Julian’s] theology makes more sense when it is seen as a contribution to the larger conversation” (84)-Chapter Two does for the theology of Julian. Lamm . argues that “[Julian’s] doctrine of grace both presupposes and is closely intertwined with her understanding ofrevel ti n” (18).
When we arrive at the third chapter, then, specialists and the general reader have the historical and theological backgrounds in place and are enabled to begin reading and reflect g on this study of Julian’s doctrine of grace. Lamm starts with Romans 5:5, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us,” and, therefore, “hope does not disappoint.” It is not long before Lamm shows that “not only was [Julian] in line with Augustine himself and with h . dominant Augustinian tradition, but she was also familiar with some of the scholastic debates on the issue” (138). (There is, additionally, an appendix on Romans 5:5 in Augustine’s doctrine of grace). Lamm contrasts Julian’s use of scripture in the Short and Long Texts, and, specifically, her use of Romans 5:5 s a “leitmotif’ throughout her Showings. Lamm goes on to wnte about God’s “excessive” love for all his evencristens (159), and its “cosmic dimension” (164).
Chapter Four, “Mercy and Grace: God’s Compassion and Joy ” examines the distinction made between mercy and grace (w; recall the psalmist’s description of the Lord as “m:rciful and gracious” in Psalm 103:8), “a distinction that set them m dynamic relation to each other” (19), the parable of the lord and
servant from Chapter 51 of the Showings, and the concept of God as mother in Chapters 52-63 of the same, and all this is made vivid when set against the backdrop of the 1381 Revolution.
In the penultimate chapter, I think the finest and most original so far, Lamm explores Julian’s use of the word “kynde” which flew in the face of patristic and medieval understandings of the word. Lamm posits three doctrines which, she convincingly argues, God made manifest to Julian: about himself, about Christ, and about humanity. First, God reveals that his nature is kindhede (kindness), his kinde love is his motherhood, and the Trinity as kinde, mercy, and grace. Second, Christ is substantial kindness, the ground of humanity’s union with God, and Christ as our Mother is substantially and sensually kinde. Third and fmally, God’s kinde (nature) as kindness determines human kinde (nature) as kinde (good).
The final chapter considers some of the implications of Julian’s doctrine of grace as a whole, especially in regard to predestination, divine foreknowledge, the divine will, and salvation. Lamm’s conclusions to this chapter and to the book as a whole are as beautiful as they are authentic. At the time of her writing, the prevailing view of mercy was seen as the forgiveness of a wrathful God. What Julian succeeded in doing was to retrieve “a Biblical·understanding of mercy as compassion and as the renewal of an intimate relationship. In the process, she redefined the twinned terms mercy and grace and set them into dynamic relationship, as the two operations of the one divine love.”
Lexically, the word kinde held several latent possibilities.
God’s nature (kinde) is kindness (kindhede). God’s kinde love is the source of goodness. Human nature (kinde) is fundamentally good. Thus, we see that Julian’s doctrine of grace was made manifest and shaped “her belief in God’s kinde love” (327).
Lamm perceived that Julian’s use of Romans 5:5 acted as a leitmotif, that she encoded this leitmotif within the parable of the lord and the servant and developed it more fully in her theological summary.
God’s Kinde Love is a fine contribution to Julian scholarship. Perceiving the significance of one of the major aspects Julian’s writing hitherto little explored, Lamm offers us much upon which to ruminate. One of the many joys of this publication is that it will be of equal interest to the student of Julian and to the general reader. Lamm’s readers are further assisted by a superb bibliography and a detailed index.