Theology
From the time these things were first revealed I had often wanted to know what was our Lord’s meaning. It was more than fifteen years after that I was answered in my spirit’s understanding. ‘You would know our Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well. Love was His meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did He show you? Love. Why did He show it? For love. Hold on to this and you will know and understand love more and more. But you will not know or learn anything else — ever.’
Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love.[70]
Julian of Norwich is now recognised as one of England’s most important mystics.[71]
For the theologian Denys Turner the core issue Julian addresses in Revelations of Divine Love is “the problem of sin”. Julian says that sin is behovely, which is often translated as ‘necessary’, ‘appropriate’, or ‘fitting’.[72][73]
Julian lived in a time of turmoil, but her theology was optimistic and spoke of God’s omnibenevolence and love in terms of joy and compassion. Revelations of Divine Love “contains a message of optimism based on the certainty of being loved by God and of being protected by his Providence.”[74]
The most characteristic element of her mystical theology was a daring likening of divine love to motherly love, a theme found in the Biblical prophets, as in Isaiah 49:15.[74][75] According to Julian, God is both our mother and our father. As Caroline Walker Bynum showed, this idea was also developed by Bernard of Clairvaux and others from the 12th century onward.[76] Some scholars think this is a metaphor rather than a literal belief.[77] In her fourteenth revelation, Julian writes of the Trinity in domestic terms, comparing Jesus to a mother who is wise, loving and merciful. F. Beer asserted that Julian believed that the maternal aspect of Christ was literal and not metaphoric: Christ is not like a mother, he is literally the mother.[78] Julian emphasized this by explaining how the bond between mother and child is the only earthly relationship that comes close to the relationship a person can have with Jesus.[79] She used metaphors when writing about Jesus in relation to ideas about conceiving, giving birth, weaning and upbringing.[80]Church of St. Julian in Norwich
She wrote, “For I saw no wrath except on man’s side, and He forgives that in us, for wrath is nothing else but a perversity and an opposition to peace and to love.”[81] She wrote that God sees us as perfect and waits for the day when human souls mature so that evil and sin will no longer hinder us.[82] “God is nearer to us than our own soul,” she wrote. This theme is repeated throughout her work: “Jesus answered with these words, saying: ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’ … This was said so tenderly, without blame of any kind toward me or anybody else”.[83]
Monastic and university authorities might not have challenged her theology because of her status as an anchoress.[84] A lack of references to her work during her own time may indicate that she kept her writings with her in her cell, so that the religious authorities were unaware of them.[85]
The revival of interest in her has been associated with a renewed interest in the English-speaking world in Christian contemplation.[86] The Julian Meetings, an association of contemplative prayer groups, takes its name from her, but is otherwise unconnected with Julian’s theology.[87]
Adam Easton‘s Defense of St Birgitta, Alfonso of Jaen’s Epistola Solitarii, and William Flete‘s Remedies against Temptations, are all used in Julian’s text.[88]
Commemoration
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Depictions of Julian of Norwich (clockwise, from top left): the rood screen at St. Andrew and St. Mary Church, Langham, Norfolk; as part of the Bauchon Window, Norwich Cathedral; Norwich Cathedral; St. Julian’s Church, Norwich; Church of St. Andrew the Apostle, Holt, Norfolk.
Since 1980, Julian has been commemorated in the Anglican Church with a feast day on 8 May.[89][90] The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church also commemorate her on 8 May.[91][92]
She has not been formally beatified or canonised in the Roman Catholic Church, so she is not currently listed in the Roman Martyrology or on the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.[93][94] However, she is popularly venerated by Catholics as a holy woman of God, and is therefore at times referred to as “Saint”, “Blessed”, or “Mother” Julian.[74][95][96] Julian’s feast day in the Roman Catholic tradition (by popular celebration) is on 13 May.[97]
In 1997, Father Giandomenico Mucci reported that Julian of Norwich is on the waiting list to be declared a Doctor of the Church.[98] In light of her established veneration, it is possible she will first be given an ‘equivalent canonization‘, in which she is decreed a saint by the Pope, without the full canonization process being followed.[99][100]
At a General Audience on 1 December 2010, Pope Benedict XVI discussed the life and teaching of Julian. “Julian of Norwich understood the central message for spiritual life: God is love and it is only if one opens oneself to this love, totally and with total trust, and lets it become one’s sole guide in life, that all things are transfigured, true peace and true joy found and one is able to radiate it,” he said. He concluded: “‘And all will be well,’ ‘all manner of things shall be well’: this is the final message that Julian of Norwich transmits to us and that I am also proposing to you today.”[101]
(Courtesy of Janet Cornwell, H.W., m.)