Imitatio in Julian of Norwich: Christ the Knight, Fruitio, and the Pleasures of Courtesy

An image Julian of Norwich uses to describe Christ on the cross is that of the warrior knight. Adapting this trope’s traditional application to God’s divine glory, Julian instead figures Christ’s humanity, and explores joy as an affective response to the Passion alongside traditional compassio. Through the related imagery of a knight’s feudal ties, Julian links this joy to both the culmination of contemplative ascent to God and the eternal delighting that is the perichoresis of the Trinity, in a discussion informed by Augustinian fruitio. Extending her imagery of nobility from Christ’s humanity to that of her readers, Julian insists that Christ’s humanity is a sufficient route to God, while her rhetoric teaches her readers to experience Christ’s joy, and learn an imitatio Christi characterized by trust and freedom.