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The Writings of Julian of Norwich: A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and a Revelation of Love
Julian of Norwich (ca. 1343-ca. 1416), a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, and John Wyclif, is the earliest woman writer of English we know about. Although she described herself as "a simple creature unlettered," Julian is now widely recognized as one of the great speculative theologians of the Middle Ages, whose thinking about God as love has made a permanent contribution to the tradition of Christian belief. Despite her recent popularity, however, Julian is usually read only in translation and often in extracts rather than as a whole.
This book presents a much-needed new edition of Julian's writings in Middle English, one that makes possible the serious reading and study of her thought not just for students and scholars of Middle English but also for those with little or no previous experience with the language.
- Separate texts of both Julian's works, A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love, with modern punctuation and paragraphing and partly regularized spelling.
- A second, analytic edition of A Vision printed underneath the text of A Revelation to show what was left out, changed, or added as Julian expanded the earlier work into the later one.
- Facing-page explanatory notes, with translations of difficult words and phrases, cross-references to other parts of the text, and citations of biblical and other sources.
- A thoroughly accessible introduction to Julian's life and writings.
- An appendix of medieval and early modern records relating to Julian and her writings.
- An analytic bibliography of editions, translations, scholarly studies, and other works.
The most distinctive feature of this volume is the editors' approach to the manuscripts. Middle English editions habitually retain original spellings of their base manuscript intact and only emend that manuscript when its readings make no sense. At once more interventionist and more speculative, this edition synthesizes readings from all the surviving manuscripts, with careful justification of each choice involved in this process. For readers who are not concerned with textual matters, the result will be a more readable and satisfying text. For Middle English scholars, the edition is intended both as a hypothesis and as a challenge to the assumptions the field brings to the business of editing.
This book presents a much-needed new edition of Julian's writings in Middle English, one that makes possible the serious reading and study of her thought not just for students and scholars of Middle English but also for those with little or no previous experience with the language.
- Separate texts of both Julian's works, A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love, with modern punctuation and paragraphing and partly regularized spelling.
- A second, analytic edition of A Vision printed underneath the text of A Revelation to show what was left out, changed, or added as Julian expanded the earlier work into the later one.
- Facing-page explanatory notes, with translations of difficult words and phrases, cross-references to other parts of the text, and citations of biblical and other sources.
- A thoroughly accessible introduction to Julian's life and writings.
- An appendix of medieval and early modern records relating to Julian and her writings.
- An analytic bibliography of editions, translations, scholarly studies, and other works.
The most distinctive feature of this volume is the editors' approach to the manuscripts. Middle English editions habitually retain original spellings of their base manuscript intact and only emend that manuscript when its readings make no sense. At once more interventionist and more speculative, this edition synthesizes readings from all the surviving manuscripts, with careful justification of each choice involved in this process. For readers who are not concerned with textual matters, the result will be a more readable and satisfying text. For Middle English scholars, the edition is intended both as a hypothesis and as a challenge to the assumptions the field brings to the business of editing.
488 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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228 people want to read
About the author
Julian of Norwich
48 books257 followersJulian of Norwich was the most important English mystic of the 14th century. Her spirituality is strongly Trinitarian and basically Neoplatonic.
In her Revelations of Divine Love Julian relates that in May 1373, when she was 30 years old, she suffered a serious illness. After she had been administered extreme unction, she received 16 revelations within the span of a few hours. When she wrote her Revelations, she was a recluse at Norwich, supported by the Benedictine convent of Carrow. Anchorite seclusion was a rather common form of life in 14th-century England among Christians with high spiritual aspirations. A woman of little formal education - she calls herself "unlettered" - Julian writes in a beautifully simple style and shows a solid grasp of traditional theology.
Julian's revelations, a mixture of imaginary and intellectual visions, bear all the characteristics of true mysticism. According to her, her visions came in fulfillment of three petitions of her youth: to have in mind the Passion of Christ, to have a critical bodily sickness at 30 years of age, and to receive the wounds of "true contrition," "genuine compassion," and "sincere longing for God." The revelations consist mostly of visions of the crucified Christ occasioned by the sight of a crucifix which the priest had left at her bedside. But through the Passion, Julian is led to intellectual visions of the Trinity and of the universe as it exists in God. Thus she is confronted by the teachings of sin and damnation, which she finds hard to reconcile with God's grace in Christ. Nevertheless the accepts the traditional Church doctrine of the existence of an eternal rejection. Yet on the sinfulness of those who will be saved she hedges: "In every soul to be saved is a godly will that has never consented to sin, in the past or in the future. Just as there is an animal will in our lower nature that does not will what is good, so there is a godly will in our higher part, which by its basic goodness never wills what is evil, but only what is good." Obviously she finds herself unable to accept that divine goodness could ever allow the elect to be truly sinful. Her fundamental outlook is optimistic. The Lord tells her: "All shall be well," and "You will see for yourself that all manner of thing shall be well."
Little is known of Julian's later years, not even the date of her death. She is last referred to as a living person in a will dated 1416. Apparently even during her life she enjoyed a certain renown, for people came from afar to see and consult her.
Further Reading
There are two versions of the Revelations, one much longer than the other. It is not known whether the short one is merely an excerpt from the older one or whether it is the first authentic report on which Julian elaborated in the longer version. A critical edition is being prepared by Sister Anna Maria Reynolds and James Walsh. Meanwhile, a modernized edition of the short version is A Shewing of God's Love (1958) by Anna Maria Reynolds. Several modern translations of the longer version, under the title Revelations of Divine Love, are by Roger Hudleston (1927), James Walsh (1961), Anchoret Juliana (1966), and Clifton Wolters (1966). Important studies of Julian are Paul Molinari, Julian of Norwich: The Teaching of a 14th Century English Mystic (1958), and James Walsh, ed., Pre-Reformation English Spirituality (1966).
In her Revelations of Divine Love Julian relates that in May 1373, when she was 30 years old, she suffered a serious illness. After she had been administered extreme unction, she received 16 revelations within the span of a few hours. When she wrote her Revelations, she was a recluse at Norwich, supported by the Benedictine convent of Carrow. Anchorite seclusion was a rather common form of life in 14th-century England among Christians with high spiritual aspirations. A woman of little formal education - she calls herself "unlettered" - Julian writes in a beautifully simple style and shows a solid grasp of traditional theology.
Julian's revelations, a mixture of imaginary and intellectual visions, bear all the characteristics of true mysticism. According to her, her visions came in fulfillment of three petitions of her youth: to have in mind the Passion of Christ, to have a critical bodily sickness at 30 years of age, and to receive the wounds of "true contrition," "genuine compassion," and "sincere longing for God." The revelations consist mostly of visions of the crucified Christ occasioned by the sight of a crucifix which the priest had left at her bedside. But through the Passion, Julian is led to intellectual visions of the Trinity and of the universe as it exists in God. Thus she is confronted by the teachings of sin and damnation, which she finds hard to reconcile with God's grace in Christ. Nevertheless the accepts the traditional Church doctrine of the existence of an eternal rejection. Yet on the sinfulness of those who will be saved she hedges: "In every soul to be saved is a godly will that has never consented to sin, in the past or in the future. Just as there is an animal will in our lower nature that does not will what is good, so there is a godly will in our higher part, which by its basic goodness never wills what is evil, but only what is good." Obviously she finds herself unable to accept that divine goodness could ever allow the elect to be truly sinful. Her fundamental outlook is optimistic. The Lord tells her: "All shall be well," and "You will see for yourself that all manner of thing shall be well."
Little is known of Julian's later years, not even the date of her death. She is last referred to as a living person in a will dated 1416. Apparently even during her life she enjoyed a certain renown, for people came from afar to see and consult her.
Further Reading
There are two versions of the Revelations, one much longer than the other. It is not known whether the short one is merely an excerpt from the older one or whether it is the first authentic report on which Julian elaborated in the longer version. A critical edition is being prepared by Sister Anna Maria Reynolds and James Walsh. Meanwhile, a modernized edition of the short version is A Shewing of God's Love (1958) by Anna Maria Reynolds. Several modern translations of the longer version, under the title Revelations of Divine Love, are by Roger Hudleston (1927), James Walsh (1961), Anchoret Juliana (1966), and Clifton Wolters (1966). Important studies of Julian are Paul Molinari, Julian of Norwich: The Teaching of a 14th Century English Mystic (1958), and James Walsh, ed., Pre-Reformation English Spirituality (1966).
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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October 25, 2023This is a fantastic edition that really highlights Julian as writer in addition to Julian as mystic and anchoress. The gloss to the Middle English text is meticulous and goes beyond just being helpful in terms of translation (where translation is even necessary). Revelations of Love remains probably the most important book I've ever read as a religious person - Julian's wrestling with the questions of who will be saved and why sin must exist is evergreen, and her meditations on God's expansive love are just as clever as they are tender.
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October 28, 2018Run...run away from Julian. The only reason you are reading her is that she's the first woman to write a surviving text in English. As we used to say in elementary school - first is the worst.
February 5, 2017
Julian's brilliance is a given. Brief snippets from her have become broadly known thanks to Eliot and others, but even aside from those moments (which lose nothing by familiarity) the whole of her achievement is simply astonishing. She combines a language of almost poetic specificity, a tremendously lucid emotional sensibility, and a theological gift for-- call it faithful catholic invention. Kierkegaard might be comparable, or Job.
Watson & Jenkins present here an authoritative modern edition of Julian in Middle English. Their introductory material is fulsome and precise about Julian, level-headed about her cult, which seems about right. The strictly scholarly parts (bibliography, textual apparatus, et al) are of course first-rate. Certain features of the editing (e.g. consistently preferring the "-hede" ending to "-ness" in defiance of some of the textual evidence) have a sentimental flavor to them, but really, that just boils down to loving the medievals for being medieval. I can hardly fault that. A little silliness is a price most of us will gladly pay for love.
More lovers of Julian, I think, should try her Middle English. It forces a slower and fuller reading and preserves the precise character of her paradoxes. Take her most famous line: "Sinne is behovely, but all shalle be wele . . . ." The word "behoove" remains in the lexicon of modern English, and its resonances are true, I think, to Julian's meaning in this passage. The standard translation, "Sin is necessary", is very twentieth-century, a more straightforwardly tragic irony. Julian's actual language, even as we read it as moderns, retains subtleties that defy paraphrase, possibilities deeper and stranger and happier. Watson & Jenkins point to the Exsultet ("O felix culpa, O necessarium peccatum"); I'm not sure that's exactly right either, but that context is at least relevant as as Eliot's Blitz. To read Julian in the original is to confront not standard untranslatability (this is still English after all) but the limits and potential of linguistic and prayerful memory.
My rule of thumb has been that anyone who reads Shakespeare easily and Latin or French a little bit can handle Chaucer without hand-holding. Julian is less French than Chaucer and less Norse than, say, the Pearl poet (whom I struggle with), which is to say she's more English than either. Watson & Jenkins provide the perfect opportunity to find out for yourself.
Addendum 12/16: I hadn't read the Short Text in ages till this past week. It's a bit slept-on but shouldn't be. The analogy is to the Second Gospel: Punchy, direct, and exhilarating.
Watson & Jenkins present here an authoritative modern edition of Julian in Middle English. Their introductory material is fulsome and precise about Julian, level-headed about her cult, which seems about right. The strictly scholarly parts (bibliography, textual apparatus, et al) are of course first-rate. Certain features of the editing (e.g. consistently preferring the "-hede" ending to "-ness" in defiance of some of the textual evidence) have a sentimental flavor to them, but really, that just boils down to loving the medievals for being medieval. I can hardly fault that. A little silliness is a price most of us will gladly pay for love.
More lovers of Julian, I think, should try her Middle English. It forces a slower and fuller reading and preserves the precise character of her paradoxes. Take her most famous line: "Sinne is behovely, but all shalle be wele . . . ." The word "behoove" remains in the lexicon of modern English, and its resonances are true, I think, to Julian's meaning in this passage. The standard translation, "Sin is necessary", is very twentieth-century, a more straightforwardly tragic irony. Julian's actual language, even as we read it as moderns, retains subtleties that defy paraphrase, possibilities deeper and stranger and happier. Watson & Jenkins point to the Exsultet ("O felix culpa, O necessarium peccatum"); I'm not sure that's exactly right either, but that context is at least relevant as as Eliot's Blitz. To read Julian in the original is to confront not standard untranslatability (this is still English after all) but the limits and potential of linguistic and prayerful memory.
My rule of thumb has been that anyone who reads Shakespeare easily and Latin or French a little bit can handle Chaucer without hand-holding. Julian is less French than Chaucer and less Norse than, say, the Pearl poet (whom I struggle with), which is to say she's more English than either. Watson & Jenkins provide the perfect opportunity to find out for yourself.
Addendum 12/16: I hadn't read the Short Text in ages till this past week. It's a bit slept-on but shouldn't be. The analogy is to the Second Gospel: Punchy, direct, and exhilarating.
November 29, 2022
Very repetitive, but pretty soothing to read, with so many timeless sentiments. I especially appreciated this given its resonances in Eliot.
May 5, 2015
This Watkins and Jenkins edition of Julian's two texts: "A Vision.." and "Revelation..." has parallel, facing pages with modern spelling where needed and explanatory notes which makes the Middle English text very accessible while keeping its tone intact. An introduction, separate textual notes and historical explanations of various translations by the editors, two professors of English, are extremely helpful.
Julian (c. 1343 - after 1416), if that is indeed her name, has found popularity in the 21st century. She wrote her theology for fellow Christians, and was herself neither a nun nor worldly, but a woman who lived on the margins, involved with the people of Norwich, a bustling city in her time.
She is wrestling with the puzzle of the Goodness of GOD and the evil in which we find ourselves immersed. Maybe the briefest illustration I can offer is in her explanation of the familiar parable of the prodigal son. Both sons in the story have a quid pro quo mentality. The father, in contrast, has reckless, unconditional love for both of them. That love is always present. A banquet for the elder son would never have the joy of the prodigal's banquet. And so, sin is 'behovely'.
That takes some time to swallow, because we are like the sons. God's goodness is beyond our understanding.
Julian sees the creation of the world, the fall, the redemption as one single act of God's love. How this is so involves some hefty contemplation on causality and on time. And for help with that, I read Denys Turner's book on Julian's theology.
Hers is a soteriolgy beautiful and positive beyond that of Augustine, Anselm, Scotus. Hers is a style meant to be read vocally, meditatively by ordinary people, not as in many medieval texts, for students and in Latin. She arrived at it by living, by reflecting, by apparently being very knowledgable of other texts, and by praying. It is far from simplistic for all the hard-won comfort it offers. Her familiar saying, "All will be well, and all manner of things will be well"is not easily arrived at outside of Disneyworld. Rather it is one that someone who has been raised Christian probably needs to visit again and again, because we come with other ingrained explanations.
There is no question of its orthodoxy. It illustrates instead that a diversity of theologies are welcome and needed in all times, without slipping into relativism. It resides in the very nature of the tradition.
Julian (c. 1343 - after 1416), if that is indeed her name, has found popularity in the 21st century. She wrote her theology for fellow Christians, and was herself neither a nun nor worldly, but a woman who lived on the margins, involved with the people of Norwich, a bustling city in her time.
She is wrestling with the puzzle of the Goodness of GOD and the evil in which we find ourselves immersed. Maybe the briefest illustration I can offer is in her explanation of the familiar parable of the prodigal son. Both sons in the story have a quid pro quo mentality. The father, in contrast, has reckless, unconditional love for both of them. That love is always present. A banquet for the elder son would never have the joy of the prodigal's banquet. And so, sin is 'behovely'.
That takes some time to swallow, because we are like the sons. God's goodness is beyond our understanding.
Julian sees the creation of the world, the fall, the redemption as one single act of God's love. How this is so involves some hefty contemplation on causality and on time. And for help with that, I read Denys Turner's book on Julian's theology.
Hers is a soteriolgy beautiful and positive beyond that of Augustine, Anselm, Scotus. Hers is a style meant to be read vocally, meditatively by ordinary people, not as in many medieval texts, for students and in Latin. She arrived at it by living, by reflecting, by apparently being very knowledgable of other texts, and by praying. It is far from simplistic for all the hard-won comfort it offers. Her familiar saying, "All will be well, and all manner of things will be well"is not easily arrived at outside of Disneyworld. Rather it is one that someone who has been raised Christian probably needs to visit again and again, because we come with other ingrained explanations.
There is no question of its orthodoxy. It illustrates instead that a diversity of theologies are welcome and needed in all times, without slipping into relativism. It resides in the very nature of the tradition.
January 3, 2024
Revelações divinas por Julian Norwich, pode ser controverso crer ou não, talvez delírios, tal qual Teresa de Ávila e outras místicos, mas a sua devoção é verdadeira. A forma que foi escrito soa repetitivo e inexperiente com as letras, o que demonstra a sua ânsia de ser compreendida,através desta experiência espiritual, que sua mensagem fosse recebida para os crentes da sua época. De tudo dito, o amor é a grande revelação, algo já bastante explícito e nos revelado nas tábuas mandamentos de Moisés: amar a Deus acima de todas as coisas e amar o próximo.
Seu grande trunfo foi conseguir ser publicada com a "benção " das autoridades da Santa Igreja do século XIV.
"Nossa vida está fundada em amor sem o qual perecemos..."
Seu grande trunfo foi conseguir ser publicada com a "benção " das autoridades da Santa Igreja do século XIV.
"Nossa vida está fundada em amor sem o qual perecemos..."
April 7, 2021
Meh. Its literary & historical significance is not to be understated, but I wouldn’t have stuck with it were it not for my course. Marginally better than Margery Kempe; more of a mystic than hysteric. Some nice lines about nuts and Christ’s head-wound herrings, but unless you’re interested in the musings of Catholic anchorites I would avoid. Middle English will always be a trudge but this edition was one of the easier ones.
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December 10, 2025li esse por causa de uma disciplina na pós e foi mt legal conhecer e aprender sobre essa mulher. o texto é denso, mas importante e foi interessante conhecer a juliana e a visão inovadora (até hoje) que ela tem sobre a religião.
March 23, 2023
Giving my queen five stars because she’s my fav late medieval author <3
February 5, 2017
I had read Julian a few years ago and was kind of disappointed, probably because I wasn't properly prepared for the experience: I had ideas about mysticism that she didn't match with. It turns out that her mystical 'showings' are kind of just the subtext for a relentless intellectual probing which is the basis of the text. This edition is excellent in that it gives a suitable introduction and provides helpful notes to the modernized text (I had trouble thinking of a good adjective to go with "modernized": it's still got its olde speling, which is cool and gives it the flavor of the period, but it's readable).
Thus one opens the book and finds that Jesus "endlesly wonneth in our soule, worshipfully rewling and yeming all thinges," and titters, then looks at the notes (lives in our souls, ruling and governing) and takes pause. This happens quite a lot; something that seems quaint or simplistic turns into a powerful and haunting image.
If God is good, why is there sin? This is the backbone of the whole intellectual and visionary pursuit, and it gets to the depths of the relationships between God and people. "And what may make us more enjoye in God than to see in him that he enjoyeth in us, highest of alle his workes?"
Julian is fascinating: CS Lewis said she was "dangerous" in a letter to a friend, but was drawn to her nevertheless. She's wholly lovable and a powerful teacher (and the first recorded female author in the English language).
Thus one opens the book and finds that Jesus "endlesly wonneth in our soule, worshipfully rewling and yeming all thinges," and titters, then looks at the notes (lives in our souls, ruling and governing) and takes pause. This happens quite a lot; something that seems quaint or simplistic turns into a powerful and haunting image.
If God is good, why is there sin? This is the backbone of the whole intellectual and visionary pursuit, and it gets to the depths of the relationships between God and people. "And what may make us more enjoye in God than to see in him that he enjoyeth in us, highest of alle his workes?"
Julian is fascinating: CS Lewis said she was "dangerous" in a letter to a friend, but was drawn to her nevertheless. She's wholly lovable and a powerful teacher (and the first recorded female author in the English language).
August 4, 2014
This is tough to read since the context is so dense and it is written with little adaptation to current English language. I enjoyed The Complete Julian of Norwich better than this adaptation.
Julian of Norwich is incredible and makes you think much more than "Heaven is for Real".
Julian of Norwich is incredible and makes you think much more than "Heaven is for Real".
December 10, 2022
Only one in my class who enjoyed this but I think it was SO feminist of her to lie to get the bishop to believe her!!!! And the references to god as a woman??? Trailblazer!!! I love religious studies!
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October 3, 2007I've read some of her poetry by her in anthologies, and I think Julian of Norwich is amazing.
November 5, 2016
The Writings Of Julian Of Norwich: A Vision Showed To A Devout Woman And A Revelation Of Love (Brepols Medieval Women) by Nicholas Watson (2006)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews