Julian of Norwich
Her visions taught her that God is pure love, as much mother as father, and that in the end all shall be well.
Placement
Anchoress in Norwich and the first known woman to write a book in English: twenty years of reflection on sixteen visions led her to a theology of love in which “all shall be well”.
Key ideas
- “All shall be well”
- God as mother
- Sin and divine love
Influence
Influenced by 1
Augustine
influenced by disputed
Colledge and Walsh note parallels to Augustine, Bernard and William of St-Thierry in Julian’s Showings; whether the self-described ‘unlettered’ Julian read Augustine herself is disputed. Julian of Norwich, A Book of Showings, ed. E. Colledge and J. Walsh (Toronto, 1978), introduction
Evidence: AI draft
Augustine › 354–430
Works
- c. 1393Revelations of Divine Love
The sixteen “showings” of May 1373, in a short and a long text: sin is “behovely”, God is our mother, and all shall be well.
Position
“Revelations of Divine Love” is the earliest surviving book in English by a woman. The central problem is sin: if God is all love and all power, why does sin exist, and how can those who sin be saved? Her answer reinterprets the Church’s teaching: sin is “behovely” – fitting or necessary – because through it the soul comes to know itself and God’s mercy; there is no wrath in God; and the parable of a lord and his servant, which she pondered for twenty years, shows the fall as an accident that love repairs. “All shall be well” is not optimism but a promise she tests against her own doubts.
Life & context
Julian of Norwich (1343–after 1416) is known by the name of the church in Norwich, England, where she lived as an anchoress – a recluse enclosed in a cell. In May 1373, aged thirty and seriously ill, she experienced sixteen visions of Christ. She wrote them down soon after and then, over some twenty years, composed a much longer meditation on them. Her birth name and the date of her death are unknown.
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