This webinar will be divided into three parts. The first will be a lecture by Hannah Lucas introducing Julian, her theology of wellbeing, and how it relates to the present day. Hannah will present the little we know of Julian’s life, focusing especially on her account of her illness that preceded her revelations. She will then outline the major theological insights that Julian gleaned from this extraordinary event. Finally, she will explore how, despite the historical distance between medieval and modern, Julian’s approach to illness and well-being might be of help for readers today – in our current age of pandemic and deep uncertainty.

The second part will be a lecture by Claire Gilbert on the way in which Julian of Norwich’s writing can transform our perception if we let it, springing the trap of our enslavement to a technological mindset and restoring our porous selves, as a necessary response to the ecological crisis. Claire will also speak personally about how this approach transformed her response to her cancer diagnosis.

The third part will be a conversation between Hannah and Claire, finding connections between their two approaches and thinking about how we might implement some of Julian’s insights in our own contemplative practice and how we live and act in the world.

With Claire Gilbert, a writer and mentor. Her books include Sharing God’s Planet (CHP 2004); The Moral Heart of Public Service (JKP, 2017); Julian of Norwich and the Ecological Crisis: Restoring Porosity (Routledge 2024); Miles to Go Before I Sleep (Hodder 2021); and I, Julian (Hodder, 2023). She was founding Director of Westminster Abbey Institute for ethics in public life, lay canon of St Paul’s Cathedral, adviser to the Church of England on medical ethics and environmental issues and research fellow of King’s College London in the ethics of medical research on humans. She was a visiting fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.

Hannah Lucas is a Humboldt Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and the Technical University, Berlin. Her research focuses on the intersections of literary history, the medical humanities, theology, and philosophy in medieval contemplative texts. She has published academic articles on Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Thomas More, and various aspects of medieval devotional life and literature. Her book, Impossible Recovery: Julian of Norwich and the Phenomenology of Well-Being was published by Columbia University Press in January 2025.