Dr. Christopher Roman is Assistant Professor of English at Kent State University Tuscarawas. He has published articles on mysticism and gender and has presented at several national and international conferences. His current scholarship focuses on space as a marker of identity in religious discourse.
2005 0-7734-6081-0 By using the familial relationship as a referent for their metaphors, mystics speak of the ways in which they understand God’s motherhood, fatherhood, childhood, brotherhood, sisterhood and spousehood. In the same way, these mystics indicate the spiritual possibilities of family relationships. Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe use metaphorical discourse that creates familial relationships between themselves and God, their community, and ultimately, their readers. For these mystics interested in seeing God in the everyday, the divine and secular cannot be separated.