julian of norwich revelations of divine love pdf

After she had been administered extreme unction, she received 16 revelations within the span of a few hours. In her Revelations of Divine Love Julian relates that in May 1373, when she was 30 years old, she suffered a serious illness. Her spirituality is strongly Trinitarian and basically Neoplatonic. Julian of Norwich was the most important English mystic of the 14th century. An introduction, notes and appendices help to place the works in context for modern readers. 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.Įlizabeth Spearing's translation preserves Julian's directness of expression and the rich complexity of her thought.

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. 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. 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 literatureĪfter 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.

Julian of norwich revelations of divine love pdf