Abstract
Abstract
This article examines the role of empathy in the writings of the fourteenth-century anchoress Julian of Norwich, focusing on the short version of the
Revelations of Divine Love
. The article highlights how the concept of empathy allows a better understanding of Julian’s narrative, emphasizing both the desire to experience Christ’s Passion through a deep imaginative process and the maintenance of the self-other distinction. It argues that for Julian, empathy understood as a shared experiential participation in another person’s suffering, in particular the suffering of Christ in the Passion, is the necessary foundation for personal moral development. The paper shows how Julian’s account departs from scholastic views by prioritizing emotional experience over purely cognitive understanding. Her emphasis on bodily suffering makes the identification with Christ more immediate and thus makes the divine experience attainable by human beings.