Book Description
1901. Without any special study of the literature of mysticism for purposes of comparison, in reading Julian's book one is struck by a few characteristics wherein it differs from many other mystical writings, as well as by qualities that belong to most or all of that general designation. Julian does not set out to teach methods of any kind for the gradual drawing near of man to God, but to record and show forth a revelation, granted once, of God's actual nearness to the soul, and for this revelation she herself had been prepared by the stirring of her conscience, her love and her understanding, in a word of her faith.
Customer Reviews:
Classic work of English mysticism.......2006-11-15
Julian was an anchoress living in medieval England, before the turbulence of the English civil wars and Reformation tore the religious life of the country apart.
England was generally not a fertile ground for mysticism, compared with continental Europe or Greece. While there were some exceptions, generally England did not produce many religious thinkers who could be classified as 'mystics.'
Despite this, there were some great mystics such as Julian. Julian experienced a series of visions at the age of 30 when a serious illness almost killed her. Today we might call such experiences 'near death experiences' and write them off as unusual chemical activity in the brain occuring when it is close to death, but back then Julian interpreted it as God's revelation to her. These visions included visions showing the love God has for the creation, the possible universal salvation of all on the last day, and also about the nature of God's love for us despite the dangers of sin and divine judgement.
In a troubled age as our own we can hope with Julian that God's love will prevail and in the end 'All will be well.'
Profound and inspiring.......2000-12-06
Julian's utter devotion to God amazes me. Sure, the medieval imagery, symbols, and style of writing take a little getting used to--but her intense desire for intimacy with her Lord is inspiring.
As a devout (mostly Protestant) Christian, I highly recommend this work. Read it and you'll understand why people have been drawn closer to Him through Julian's writing.
Wordy and Obtuse.......2000-10-15
Julian of Norwich, an anchoress from 14th century England who is best known for this theological tract, sets out an interesting belief system in which she concentrates on the womanly nature of Christ and God. Julian had sixteen visions which she referred to as "showings" while she was suffering an illness. These showings revealed divine messages from God that Julian then set to paper through scribes.
In my opinion, most of her revelations are tiresome to slog through, and she is a master of reptition. Also, her descriptions of the crucifixition are pretty gory and unsettling, which might bother some readers. This book is probably best read in very short bursts so that it's easier to absorb the material and ponder what Julian is trying to say.
There are certainly good things to say about this book. Her parable about man falling in sin is excellent and fun to read. I'll probably read this section again and again. I'm also glad I read this as part of a class on the Middle Ages. The background I learned in this class makes some of the text a bit clearer. It's important to understand that Europe was being rocked by the Black Death and that the Church was wrapped up in a schism while Julian was pondering her visions. The upsetting descriptions of Christ's suffering and his motherly attention to man makes more sense when the reader understands that half of Europe was dying and faith was being seriously challenged. Be sure and look at the appendices, because there is a reprint of a brief selection of the Revelations written in Middle English. It's neat to read it as it was written and try and make sense of the words.
I won't read the whole book again, but I would say that it should be read once, especially for those studying European history or theological systems.
Julian is #1.......2000-09-03
I really liked her book. She made me feel good inside and she made me smile. I like to smile. My mom says everyone should read her book. Mommy's also helping me write this letter. I like her book and I wish everyone could read it.
Kristy
God as Lover.......2000-08-21
I enjoyed reading this book. It is an account of 16 visions which appeared to Mother Julian (1342-1416) along with her meditations of the experience. She was a recluse who lived in Norwich in what is now the British Isles. I had not considered the LORD my God as my lover until I learned this from Julian. In her natural style, she explained to me the love God has for each of us. This statement of hers has meant a great deal to me, " Some of us believe that God is almighty, and may do everything; and that he is all wise and can do everything; but that he is all love, and >>will
<
< do everything - there we draw back. And as I see it, this ignorance is the greatest of all hindrances to God's lovers." I feel that this is a message from which many may benefit, regardless of creed. In addition, I learned a bit about the solitary religious life which was popular in the Middle Ages. If you are interested in learning of the love God has for you, or in the religion of the Middle Ages, this book will be interesting to you.
Book Description
Julian of Norwich is among the most intriguing religious visionaries in Christian history. Carefully edited for the undergraduate reader, this Norton Critical Edition includes an informed introduction, focusing on Julian's theology and preparing students to understand the complex, controversial themes of the text, particularly Julian's solution to the problem of evil in Revelation XIII and XIV. Paragraph divisions have been organized to emphasize the thematic units of each chapter, and the sentences have been punctuated for clarity.
The text included is a Middle English edition, based on the Paris manuscript (1580—1650) of the long text, with language akin to Chaucer's and therefore more accessible than other Middle English editions.
"Contexts" includes contemporary texts that help students better understand Julian's originality, including selections from works by Margery Kempe, Augustine, Aelred of Rievaulx, and Walter Hilton.
"Criticism" brings together interpretations that address the themes and style of the Showings by Sandra McEntire, Lynn Staley, B. A. Windeatt, and David Aers, among others.
A Selected Bibliography is also included.
About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the
Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.
Customer Reviews:
Julian of Norwich, Showings.......2007-08-29
For the first half of the book comprising Julian's message, I would have
given 5 points, but the appendices are not on this level.
Julian's text is original and definitely inspiring. The way she deals with
Church dogma is ingenious, as she never denies it but makes credible state-
ments that transcend Church teaching without denying it.
She is, as far as I can know, a genuine mystic who experienced bona-fide
"private revelations" that enrich a reader's spirituality despite the time
gap of more than six centuries. The 14th-century English is not always easy
to uinderstand in depth, but the effort is very worthwhile.
Her statements on Christ, the Trinity, the soul and redemption are master-
pieces of lay theology.
difficult.......2007-02-22
this is a great religious book. Julian of Norwich asked God to suffer more inorder to see him and understand him and this is her story. I cannot imagine living like she did but she was doing it to be'closer to God.' I think that once you overcome the difficulties of the book (it's in mad crazy old english) that it is a good book.
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CCEL Classics CD: works by Saint Augustine, John Calvin, John Donne, Julian of Norwich, Brother Lawrence, Martin Luther, Saint Teresa of Avila, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas a Kempis, John Wesley, and more!
Dr. W. Harry Plantinga
Manufacturer: Christian Classics Ethereal Library
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Release Date: 2006-12-15 |
Product Description
The most important spiritual writings of Christian history are available on this Classics CD by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) at Calvin College. It contains 118 Christian classics, including three versions of the Bible, several commentaries, Bible dictionaries, readings, spiritual guides, sermons, poems and journals -- all in a convenient, searchable form. Books are available in HTML and PDF formats. The easy-to-use CCEL Desktop software powering the CD enables users to browse and print books and install additional books from the Web. The top-of-class search engine can search for words or phrases in books, in authors works or in the whole library. In addition, it can search for dictionary definitions of words and commentary or references to scripture passages. The interface is a Web browser. The CD is compatible with Windows 2000+, Macintosh 10.3+, and most Linux versions.
Customer Reviews:
Lady Julian's book changed my life.......2006-06-17
There have been only a few landmark books along my path but this is one of them. If you are fed up with all the misrepresentations of the nature and character of God, then read this. Lady Julian takes us into her depths of revelation as to His true nature and selfless love toward us.
Here is a brief except from the ninth showing:
"We are His bliss, we are His reward, we are His glory, we are His crown. It was a singular marvel and a thing most delightful to behold, that we are His crown. All of this is so great a joy to Jesus that for it He counts all His painful labor, His difficult passion, His cruel and shameful death, as nothing... I saw in truth that He would have died as often as He could have, and love would never let Him rest until He had done it. I looked with great diligence to learn how often He would die if He could, and in truth, the number exceeded the power of my understanding and my wits to such an extent that my reason might not and could not comprehend it or take it in. And even when He had died, or would have died, this many times, He still would count it as nothing for love, for all seems very small compared to His love."
Work of amazing depth and richness.......2000-08-13
Julian's work is a rich combination of ascetic, sacramental, and doctrinal theology, presented with a haunting simplicity and charm. Through referring entirely to her revelations, apparently a singular incident, Julian, with obviously burning love, manages to set forth truths with great understanding and depth. Readers will miss much of this, if they read it solely as a feminist statement - her treatment of God as Mother, for example, includes references to numerous doctrinal and sacramental implications.
Superb work for anyone interested in Christian mysticism at its best.
Everyone's Favorite Mystic.......2000-05-05
At the time she wrote, Julian's "showings" were not considered completely compatible with Church doctrine. However, she was not censured by the people of Norwich or the Church. She is famous for her audacity, in that she claimed her writings were as inspired as the Bible. Moreover for her specific doctrine that God is our Mother as much as he is our Father. Meaning only that his character transcends the way we think of gender and especially the roles we have attribute to it. Julian also stated that in God there is no wrath. I recommend this book to anyone reading for fun, for theological insight, or for any combination of feminist or spiritual curiosity. She was an amazing woman whose work is perpetually relevant as a religious and as a feminist text.
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Revelations of Divine Love (Dover Value Editions)
Julian of Norwich
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Interior Castle
ASIN: 0486452441 |
Book Description
One of medieval mysticism's most original works, this book was written by a 14th-century anchoress whose fervent prayers triggered intense visions. Her message of God's love — written in immediate, compelling terms — continues to influence modern Christian thought. This edition features both the short text and a later, more complex rendering.
Book Description
Despite the strange and distant nature of her life and subject-matter, the works of Julian of Norwich remain immediate and compelling. Her Revelationsare recorded in two versions: the short text, or `first edition', written near the time; and the better-known second version, which is both longer and more complex, completed some twenty years later. The short text, offering personal details edited out in her `second edition', but which allow a better sense of Julian as a person, is presented here in translation. It includes also those chapters from the long text that describe Julian's doctrine of the Motherhood of God. The volume also contains an introduction, placing Julian in the larger context of the fourteenth-century English mystical tradition, and an Interpretative Essay. FRANCES BEERis Professor of English at York University, Toronto.
Customer Reviews:
A remarkable revelation neutralized in presentation?.......2007-06-24
Two things amaze me about this book: 1) Given the amount of critical study focused on Julian of Norwich (see the extensive bibliography), almost 10 years after publication, no previous reader has reviewed this book; 2) Given the time and place in which Julian wrote of her revelations--Wycliffe and the Lollards were being unspeakably persecuted and executed--it is amazing that Julian could articulate her revelations.
Perhaps no one can respond to the revelations as practical teachings for want of knowing how to judge such revelations except in a critical context? It may well be that over the millennia such revelations have not been unusual, but the confines of theology have prohibited their expression or caused the inspired one to distrust his/her revelations?
Surely, if the reader has never experienced a divine revelation and feels excluded from the process of revelation, then there is no personal basis for reviewing. The very fact of receiving divine revelations becomes an anomaly, whereas historical and literary criticism can be academically acquired. And that is where this book has its strength, in placing Julian's life and experience solely in a church-historical context.
As I read, I found myself wanting to have the revelations without commentary, and I also found myself questioning the translation into modern English,wondering how much theological doctrine had shaped the translation. After all, revelation as a mental process, does not require the articulated word.
My exceptions to the critical process come from a non-academic presentation of Lady Julian--as the crucial character in Anya Seton's "Katherine." Yes, it is a historical novel, but one that is meticulously researched. And yes, Seton had a redemptive purpose--to shed a fresh light on the mental and spiritual lives of its two main characters, Lady Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. After a tumultuous and disreputable love affair, even by the standards of Edward III's court, they eventually married and their legitimised children became the progenitors of England's Tudor dynasty.
Thus, I was familiar with a number of Lady Julian's sayings, but given as a course of teaching to Katherine Swynford, a teaching of God's unconditional love that altered Katherine's life. To have created that scenario, Seton had to see the usefulness of Julian's revelations. I believe she gave credit to author Marchette Chute for acquainting her with Julian.
Therefore, for me, the relation of her sayings in Beer's book to earlier writers and theologians comes across as merely academic, without practical value.
I would suggest that to the extent that writers attempt to examine Julian's revelations according to orthodox Christian doctrine, they lose the significance--these revelations are deeply heterodox and had Julian been a religious leader, they could have been dangerous in their time. They speak, however, even today to the reader who acknowledges divine revelation, without imtermediary, as every individual's privilege.
A footnote does indicate that Julian's treatment--and eventual dismissal of the concept of sin--stretches orthodox doctrine. I would suggest that it fully breaches it. And Julian's statements find a resonance in an unlikely time and place--19th century New England. A woman brought up in the Congregational [Trinitarian] Church, but uncomfortable with its rigidity, produced a similar statement on the nature of sin:
"All that is, God created. If sin has any pretense of existence, God is responsible therefor; but there is no reality in sin, for God can no more behild it, or acknowledge it, than the sun can coexist with darkness."
The work is titled "Unity of Good" and it was written in 1891 by no less than Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science and founder of the resultant church. While Eddy accepted and wrote of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, she rejected the concept of three persons in one. The form of Julian's discourse is of necessity shaped by the orthodox concepts of the trinity, but it can be usefully read quite apart from those concepts.
Julian's writing on the motherhood of God is the final essay in Beer's book. This concept is, for anyone who is not familiar with Eddy's writings, foundational in Christian Science, where God is described as Father-Mother and as Divine Love--not a punisher of the man He created and loved.
As a Christian Scientist, this reader cannot interpret Julian's revelations from an orthodox theological standpoint, nor can she fail to see the practicality of Julian's revelations and their frequent similarities to Christian Science.
Revelation obviously transcends time and place.
Book Description
Today more than ever, Julian of Norwich is considered by many to be one of the greatest Christian theologians and mystics of all time. And her book, "Revelations of Divine Love"--the first book ever written in the English language by a woman--is one of the greatest Christian classics of all time.
Now author Ralph Milton gives us the most accessible and lively translation of this sometimes obscure and difficult medieval masterpiece yet available. Condensed and paraphrased from the original, it stands as a testament to Milton's profound love and respect for Julian's words and ideas, and to his own ability as a craftsman of the English language. It will satisfy the first-time reader and the Julian aficionado alike for many, many years to come.
Product Description
Includes the translator's 68-page introduction.
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Introducing Julian Woman of Norwich: Woman of Norwich
Elizabeth Ruth Obbard , and
Julian
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Mystical teachings from a 14th century Norwich, England woman are featured in this book. Using selected illustrated excerpts from Julian's own Elizabeth Obbard has created a world where we learn about Julian, her life, insights, and hope at a time of widespread cynicism. Julian writes from her own experience with a directness of manner and speech that certainly appeals to contemporary readers. The selections give us a vivid view of life in 14th century England and Julian's confidence, hope, and love in an era of skepticism.
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Julian of Norwich's Showings
Denise Nowakowski Baker
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
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The first woman known to have written in English, the fourteenth-century mystic Julian of Norwich has inspired generations of Christians with her reflections on the "motherhood" of Jesus, and her assurance that, despite evil, "all shall be well." In this book, Denise Baker reconsiders Julian not only as an eloquent and profound visionary but also as an evolving, sophisticated theologian of great originality. Focusing on Julian's Book of Showings, in which the author records a series of revelations she received during a critical illness in May 1373, Baker provides the first historical assessment of Julian's significance as a writer and thinker.
Inscribing her visionary experience in the short version of her Showings, Julian contemplated the revelations for two decades before she achieved the understanding that enabled her to complete the long text. Baker first traces the genesis of Julian's visionary experience to the practice of affective piety, such as meditations on the life of Christ and, in the arts, a depiction of a suffering rather than triumphant Christ on the cross. Julian's innovations become apparent in the long text. By combining late medieval theology of salvation with the mystics' teachings on the nature of humankind, she arrives at compassionate, optimistic, and liberating conclusions regarding the presence of evil in the world, God's attitude toward sinners, and the possibility of universal salvation. She concludes her theodicy by comparing the connections between the Trinity and humankind to familial relationships, emphasizing Jesus' role as mother. Julian's strategy of revisions and her artistry come under scrutiny in the final chapter of this book, as Baker demonstrates how this writer brings her readers to reenact her own struggle in understanding the revelations.
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