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Julian of Norwich's Showings: From Vision to Book. By Denise Nowakowski Baker. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994. xi + 215 pp. $29.95.

Baker's work is a detailed exposition and analysis of the theology of Julian of Norwich. Baker makes clear her method on page 12: "Since I am not interested in assessing the ontological or epistemological validity of Julian's showings, I will not attempt to describe or evaluate her raw experience. Rather, I will concentrate on the interpretation that Julian incorporates into her account of the revelations." Baker makes an excellent case for Julian's erudition and theological sophistication. Of the latter there can be no doubt. Of the former Baker makes this modest claim: "I hope to prove that she was conversant with the issues and assumptions informing such [theological] discourse, though not necessarily the specific texts I cite" (p. 14). Chapter 1 situates Julian in the tradition of affective spirituality. In chapter 2, Baker shows Julian's development of the theme of compassion in the context of the high medieval meditative tradition. Chapter 3 is the heart of the book: in it Baker explicates Julian's formulation of "her own original response to a theological dilemma at the center of Christian belief: the problem of evil" (p. 63). In the process Julian advocates a decidedly positive anthropology quite at odds with that of Augustine. Julian exhibits an "optimism about the large number of the elect and the possibility of salvation even for those not predestined" (p. 82). Baker shows, in chapter 4, that Julian rejects the position that Adam was disobedient or that God is wrathful; God's response to sin is compassionate mercy rather than justified anger. In chapter 5, "Reconceiving the Imago Dei: The Motherhood of Jesus and the Ideology of the Self," Baker concludes: "According to Julian of Norwich, then, Jesus is thrice a mother, closely associated with the human body as the principal life giver in creation, redemption, and restoration. By creating God in the androgynous images of Father and Mother, Julian thus reconceives the essential self as the complete humanity of male and female, body and soul" (p. 134). Chapter 6 is an analysis of the structure of the Showings. Baker's two-page conclusion situates Julian's insights in the theology and spirituality of such diverse modern authors as Friedrich Schleiermacher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Thomas Merton.