The Censored Pulpit: Julian of Norwich as Preacher Donyelle C. McCray In partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Theology Degree Duke Divinity School The Censored Pulpit: Julian of Norwich as Preacher by Donyelle C. McCray Date: December 1, 2014 Approved: Charles L. Campbell, Supervisor ________________________ G. Sujin Pak ________________________ Susan J. Dunlap ________________________ Richard Lischer Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology in the Divinity School of Duke University 2014 ABSTRACT The Censored Pulpit: Julian of Norwich as Preacher by Donyelle C. McCray Date: December 1, 2014 Approved: Charles L. Campbell, Supervisor ________________________ G. Sujin Pak ________________________ Susan J. Dunlap ________________________ Richard Lischer An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology in the Divinity School of Duke University 2014 Copyright by Donyelle C. McCray 2014 Abstract This dissertation consists of a homiletical reading of Julian of Norwich’s life and work. While Julian is often classified as a mystic or theologian, she may be better categorized as a preacher in light of contemporary homiletical theory. Julian becomes decipherable as a preacher on a performative level when one attends to the apostolic dimensions of her anchoritic vocation and the particular ways John the Baptist serves as a model for medieval English anchoriticism. Her writings clearly fit within the ambit of the English medieval sermon genre, but censorship likely reduced her audience and contributed to her illegibility as a preacher. Julian displays proclamatory intent through direct statements and by aligning herself with celebrated preachers like Saint Cecelia, Mary Magdalene, and the Apostle Paul. Like Paul, Julian sees Jesus’ body has her primary text, places human weakness at the center of her theology, and uses her confined body as a rhetorical tool. Yet, more than anything else love for the church drives her preaching, and this love enables her to connect with her fellow Christians and counter those forces that would silence her. For the contemporary church, Julian bequeaths a liberative example of preaching outside the pulpit. This dissertation concludes with a contemporary example of a figure engaged in such a vocation, the African-American church mother. iv To Larry Donnell Stuckey October 18, 1950-January 9, 2011 v Table of Contents List of Figures vii List of Abbreviations viii Acknowledgements ix Introduction xii Chapter One: A Prophetic Vocation 24 Chapter Two: Genre and Power 56 Chapter Three: Preaching Like Paul 92 Chapter Four: Preacher as Lover 137 Chapter Five: In the Shadow of the Pulpit 198 Conclusion 229 Appendix A: Julian of Norwich 234 Appendix B: What is an anchorite? 240 Bibliography 253 Biography 278 vi List of Figures 1. St. John’s Head on Alabaster Tablet, 15th century, Fitzwilliam Museum 49 2. St. John the Baptist, Ronald Rae 50 3. Saint Cecelia icon, Joseph Brown 72 4. Mary Magdalene, 1994, Kiki Smith 80 5. Deposition, ca. 1435, Rogier van der Weyden 187 vii List of Abbreviations Throughout this dissertation I rely on two primary translations of Julian of Norwich’s writings: “Watson and Jenkins” refers to The Writings of Julian of Norwich: A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love, edited by Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006); and “Spearing” refers to Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love (Short and Long Text), translated by Elizabeth Spearing, with an introduction and notes by A.C. Spearing (London: Penguin Books, 1998). I also rely on the thirteenth-century guide to anchoresses: “Ancrene Wisse” refers to Anchoritic Spirituality: Ancrene Wisse and Associated Works, translated and introduced by Anne Savage and Nicholas Watson, with preface by Benedicta Ward (New York: Paulist Press, 1991). viii Acknowledgements I have written the vast majority of this dissertation before a 1978 Polaroid of my godfather, Larry Donnell Stuckey, affectionately known as “Stuckey.” In this photo we are together in my parents’ living room surrounded by a vinyl plant and a velvet portrait of Jesus. I am standing and he’s kneeling so that he can look me (just four years old at the time) in the eye. Stuckey taught me everything I know about the blues, irreverence, defiant laughter, and asking difficult questions. He never missed an opportunity to point out ways the world was off by fifteen degrees. After naming and exegeting one sham or another, he would build toward a crescendo and shout, “It’s rigged! It’s rigged!!” Even the church was subject to this searching critique. When I told him I felt called to ministry, he smiled and warned me that I was joining “the biggest racket in town.” And yet he had a quiet faith that sustained him in his most ferocious battle. The three years without Stuckey have been mostly winter, and I am still off-kilter by fifteen degrees, a sign, I take it, that he is always with me. This dissertation is dedicated to him. And yet, there would be no dissertation to dedicate without the extraordinary teachers at Duke Divinity School who have shaped me. These teachers include the Rev. Dr. Esther Acolatse, who teaches pastoral care both inside and outside the classroom with her gentle spirit and deep wisdom, and the Rev. Dr. William C. Turner, Jr., who generously shared one of the most precious gifts a scholar has: time. I am grateful for ix his example as a pastor-scholar, for his wealth of insight on teaching homiletics, and for the many questions he put before me to sharpen my analysis. I am also thankful for the Rev. Dr. Lauren F. Winner who has been a blessing to me throughout my program at Duke. It was in her office one February afternoon that I first voiced my plan for this dissertation. Her encouragement in that moment urged me forward. I was propelled still further by Dr. Susan Eastman’s inspiring scholarship on the Apostle Paul. Dr. Susan A. Keefe was an invaluable conversation partner on medieval spirituality and served on my dissertation committee until her death in August of 2012. The current members of my dissertation committee started sowing the seeds for this project long before its proposal stage. Dr. Grace Sujin Pak was my first conversation partner on Julian of Norwich. Her amazing course on medieval women mystics provided the opportunity for close reading and critical reflection. The Rev. Dr. Susan Dunlap’s course, “Pastoral Care & Women’s Bodies,” helped me think about incarnation and ecclesiology in entirely different ways. That course stirred my interest in embodiment and enlarged my vision of what the church can be. Similarly, my interests in the history of preaching and the relationship between preaching and rhetoric were nurtured by the Rev. Dr. Richard Lischer. I began reading his work in my first homiletics course as an M.Div. student at Virginia Theological Seminary, and he has set the coordinates for my odyssey in homiletics. Pursuing this project would have been impossible without these earlier experiences with my committee members. I am all the more grateful to them now as they invest even more in my growth. x I am especially grateful for my dissertation advisor, the Rev. Dr. Charles L. Campbell, for helping me re-imagine Christian proclamation. Our conversations gave me eyes to see Julian’s contribution to homiletics, and helped me claim my own voice in the discipline. His gifts of time, energy and insight have been monumental. As a wise preacher once said, “Who could ask for anything more?”1 Finally, this project would have been exponentially more difficult without the support of the loving community at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, and the prayerful support of Sarah Friday Peters. I have also been continually showered with encouragement from my dear friends, the Rev. Caron Gwynn, the Rev. Dr. Denise Thorpe, Dr. Angelisa Gillyard, and Ms. Geralyn Richard. I am upheld by the three greatest joys of my life: my parents, Karl and Janice McCray, and my brother, Korey. 1 Eugene Lowry, How to Preach a Parable: Designs for Narrative Sermons (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989), 115. xi Introduction While having breakfast at a large conference, I mentioned that I was working on this dissertation about Julian of Norwich. One of my dining partners, Benjamin Twinamaani, mentioned that he had heard the name but did not know why she was significant. I explained that Julian witnessed a miraculous vision of Christ while on her deathbed on May 13, 1373, and that the vision consisted of sixteen “showings” that unfolded over the course of a day and a half. I noted that the visions filled Julian with so much joy that she felt convinced they were intended for the entire church, and she was determined to share them despite power dynamics designed to silence women and the laity. I also explained that at some point Julian became an anchoress, meaning she voluntarily confined herself to a cell in the church in order to devote herself to a life of prayer and proclamation. I do not remember whether I mentioned the titles of her works. What I do remember is Benjamin’s response. “Quality control,” he said, “She sounds like quality control—one of those people whose job is to test and see whether what the church does in worship is real or not” (Benjamin Twinamaani, personal communication, July 2, 2013). The notion of Julian as quality control has grown on me. It counters the dreary image of Julian huddling in the shadows or the tired portrayal of yet another woman whose holiness is rooted in docility. “Quality control” captures the prophetic tenor flowing through Julian’s life and work and suggests that she has something in common with the biblical prophets who offered words of grace, edified the faithful, and stood on the periphery proclaiming visions from on high.