Julian of Norwich and the Problem of Evil

Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Lovegrapples with the same fundamental question that has vexed philosophers andtheologians since the advent of monotheistic religion, and continues as abarrier to belief for many today. Namely, if God is so good, how can naturaldisaster, genocide, trauma - and my present suffering - occur? Historically,there have been two apparently very different approaches to the problem: thepastoral, or practical, on the one hand and the systematic on the other.

Richard Norton, however, suggests that these twolines of thought may not be as separate as they seem, and may indeed bedependent on one another for their cohesion. Drawing on Julian's medievalexperience of personal and population-wide suffering, alongside that of morerecent theologians such as Dorothy Solle and Jürgen Moltmann, Norton constructsa compassionate model of theodicy that can be of use to both pastoral andsystematic theologians. Throughout, he remains sensitive to the raw atrocity ofevil, while preserving a vision of God as the one who ensures that all shallbe well.