Paperback: One of the first woman authors, Julian of Norwich produced in Revelations of Divine Love a remarkable work of revelatory insight, that stands alongside The Cloud of Unknowing and Piers Plowman as a classic of Medieval religious literature.
After fervently praying for a greater understanding of Christ's passion, Julian of Norwich, a fourteenth-century anchorite and mystic, experienced a series of divine revelations. Through these 'showings', Christ's sufferings were revealed to her with extraordinary intensity, but she also received assurance of God's unwavering love for man and his infinite capacity for forgiveness.
Written in a vigorous English vernacular, the Revelations are one of the most original works of medieval mysticism and have had a lasting influence on Christian thought. This edition of the Revelations contains both the short text, which is mainly an account of the 'showings' themselves and Julian's initial interpretation of their meaning, and the long text, completed some twenty years later, which moves from vision to a daringly speculative theology and in which we can recognise her development into the most remarkable English theologian of her time.
This volume is a major work of religious devotion, of theology and of English literature; their beauty and originality have won them many modern admirers (including T S Eliot), and in recent years they have attracted special attention for their female authorship and their attribution of feminine characteristics to God.
Elizabeth Spearing's translation preserves Julian's directness of expression and the rich complexity of her thought. An introduction, notes and appendices help to place the works in context for modern readers.
About the author: Julian of Norwich (c1342-after 1416) is the first writer in English who can be certainly identified as a woman. Nothing is known of her background, not even her real name. On 8 May 1373, when seriously ill and apparently dying, she received an extraordinary series of 'showings' or revelations before God, beginning when her parish priest held up a crucifix before her and she saw blood trickling down Christ's face. After her recovery, she spent many years pondering the significance of the showings, which she believed to be messages to all Christians.
They taught, among other things, that God is our mother as well as our father, that he cannot be angry with us and that no Christian will be damned - doctrines which Julian had great difficulty in reconciling with the Church's teachings. In later life, she lived as an anchoress at St Julian's Church, Norwich (from which she adopted the name by which she is known) and became famous as a spiritual adviser.
About the translator: Elizabeth Spearing holds a DPhil from the University of York. Her previous publications include an edition of The Life and Death of Mal Cutpurse and articles on the Amadis cycle and on Aphra Behn.
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