Revelations of Divine Love is a beautifully written work by Julian of Norwich which draws the reader into a captivating description of the revelations shown to her by Jesus Christ.
Julian is the first known woman to have written a book in English and is held in high regard within English literature spheres and in the Anglican church. Additionally, her writings have been quite influential on women writers and even modern feminists. On this topic, Mark Herman remarks that “Her [Julian’s] book has drawn greater attention to the position of women in late Medieval England. Her description of Jesus as a mother, unusual and original although not unique to Christian writings, has led many scholars, especially feminists, to explore gender-related theological issues and may be one of the factors that has led to the usage of female pronouns and terms to describe the God mentioned in the Bible.”[1]
Julian of Norwich’s work was the perfect book assignment for me as she personally has positively influenced my life in difficult times. Not only does my family go to a Catholic Ordinariate parish which has a devotion to Julian, but my husband’s undergraduate theology advisor specialized in the spirituality and writings of Julian of Norwich and a personal friend has intensively studied Julian’s realm in mysticism. Regarding the book, there are sixteen total 'showings' and they start out with Jesus' Passion and end with the revelation that the Trinity dwells in our souls.[2] To make things simple for any reader, the first chapter of the book includes a summary of the whole work. This summary helped me understand the work as it provided a clear breakdown of each of her showings.
The story begins with Julian explaining to the reader that she an “unlettered” or illiterate woman “desired three gifts of God.” The second of these gifts came true when she fell deathly sick in her 30s.[3] She truly believed she was at the end of her life when God answered her first request which was to understand fully Jesus’ passion. This event leads to her sixteen revelations which left my heart feeling rapturous while the text. My only serious criticism of Revelations of Divine Love is that there are many chapters between Julian’s summary of the first fourteen revelations and the explanation of the fifteenth revelation. The sheer length of this section of text left me feeling anxious as I was eager to read about the last two revelations. I felt like I had received decadent chocolate, was teased with more though I could not reach it, and as a result tried to wait as patiently as possible for my next piece.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Mystical Theology as it captures the love that Jesus has for each one of us and the relationship He desires to have with us. This medieval mystic’s work touched my heart deeply and left me wanting to grow closer to God and be held forever in His love. I will leave you, reader, with one final quote from Revelations which I hope will bring you comfort, and also spur interest in this remarkable book, “But Jesus, who in this Vision informed me of all that is needful to me, answered by this word and said: It behoved that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”[4]
[1] Herman, Mark C.,“Julian of Norwich”, Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, 2013.
[2] Walsh, J. "Julian of Norwich." New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., vol. 8, Gale, 2003, pp. 49-50. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3407706151/GVRL?u=23009&sid=GVRL&xid=f2c0b5a4.
[3] Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, trans. by Grace Warrack,1901, at: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/julian/revelations.pdf.
[4] Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, trans. by Grace Warrack,1901.
Revelations of Divine Love is available for purchase on Amazon.com:
https://www.amazon.com/Revelations-Divine-Love-Julian-Norwich/dp/1537785907/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1520826983&sr=8-2&keywords=grace+warrack+revelations+of+divine+love
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