Feminism: Julian of Norwich & Anne Sexton
/During the long stretch of the Christian year from Advent to Pentecost, we are invited to ponder the mysteries of Christ: incarnation, atonement, resurrection. The remainder of the year, Ordinary Time, turns to the generations of every day saints, the Jesus-followers who keep pushing the Divine Story forward. In an age where American Christianity seems to have lost the plot, we can turn to the stories and examples of mystics and poets, women and outsiders who have kept the way of Jesus alive in times ancient and modern. This series will explore pairs of saints whose lives and writings inspire us to keep moving forward today.
This week, Mike turns to two women six centuries apart—the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich and the poet Anne Sexton—who each embodied the work of feminism in their writing. From Julian's vision of Jesus as a nursing mother to Sexton's poems on grief, addiction, and an irreverent, card-playing God, both found their own language using the experience of women to illuminate the Divine.
