Julian of Norwich
c. 1342 - after 1416 · English (Norwich) · Mystical Theology, Theodicy, Middle English Devotional Writing
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.
Julian of Norwich (c. 1342 – after 1416) was thirty and a half in May 1373 and lying, as everyone thought, at the point of death, when her curate set a crucifix before her face and she saw the blood run down from under the crown of thorns. Over that day and the following night she received sixteen showings: the bleeding head, a little thing the size of a hazelnut that was all that is made, the Passion, and the Lord's word that sin was behovely and that all shall be well. She recovered, and soon wrote a short account of them, the first book in English we can be sure a woman wrote.
Topics Julian of Norwich addresses
- the sixteen shewings of May 1373
- the three gifts and the three wounds
- bodily sight, words formed and ghostly sight
- the hazelnut, all that is made
- the bleeding head and the Passion
- affective devotion and the mind of the Passion
- from vision to book, the short text and the long text
- providence and sin
- God doeth all thing, and sin is no deed
- sin is behovely
- all shall be well
- the Great Deed at the last day
- two stories of sin, the shewing and the teaching of Holy Church
- the two dooms
- no wrath in God
- the parable of the lord and the servant
- Adam and Christ in the servant
- the godly will that never assented to sin
- substance and sensuality
- the motherhood of Jesus
- the Trinity as Father, Mother and Lord
- prayer and providence
- the Ground of our beseeching
- oneing
Questions to put to Julian of Norwich
The Sixteen Shewings of May 1373
- What were the three gifts you asked God for as a young woman, and why those three?
- Can you describe what you actually saw when the blood began to trickle from under the garland of thorns?
- What's the difference between a bodily sight, a word formed in your understanding, and a ghostly sight?
- What did the little thing the size of a hazelnut show you about creation?
- Why did you laugh when you saw the fiend overcome by the Passion?
- After the shewings ended, why did you tell the visiting religious that you had raved — and what do you make of that now?
Sin, Providence, and All Shall Be Well
- What do you mean when you say sin is behovely — that it was somehow fitting or necessary?
- How can you say God does all that is done, and yet sin is real and we are truly to blame for it?
- What is the Great Deed that God will do at the last day, and why were you not shown what it is?
- You were shown no wrath in God toward those who shall be saved — how do you hold that alongside the Church's teaching that many will be damned?
- Does your promise that all shall be well mean everyone will ultimately be saved?
The Parable of the Lord and the Servant
- Can you walk me through the parable — who is the lord, who is the servant, and what happens in the slade?
- How can the servant be both Adam falling into sin and the Son of God falling into Mary's womb at the same time?
- What does it mean that the lord sees no fault in the fallen servant — does that mean Adam bore no blame for the fall?
- What is the godly will that never assented to sin, and does every person have one?
- How do substance and sensuality differ, and what does Christ's taking on a body do to that difference?
Jesus Our Mother and the Trinity
- In what sense is God our Mother — is this a way of speaking, or a claim about who God actually is?
- How do you assign motherhood specifically to the second Person of the Trinity rather than to God as a whole?
- You say the Mother's service is nearest, readiest and surest — what kind of service do you mean?
- How does the image of a mother letting her child fall and learn connect to the way God allows us to sin?
- What does oneing mean, and how does Christ's incarnation bring about the oneing of our substance and our sensuality?
Prayer, Homeliness, and the Ground of Beseeching
- What do you mean when you say God is the ground of our beseeching — that he is somehow the source of our own prayers?
- How does prayer work if God already does all that is done and all shall be well regardless?
- What does it mean to you that God is homely — familiar, close — rather than distant and lordly?
- Who are your even-Christians, and why did you write for them rather than for learned clergy?
- What was the final answer you received about the meaning of everything you had been shown?
A Woman Writing Theology in English
- You call yourself a simple creature unlettered — do you believe that, or is it something you felt you had to say?
- In the short text you tell your readers not to take you for a teacher because you are a woman — why did you remove that passage from the long text?
- How did you come to write a long theological reflection over twenty years rather than simply recording what you saw?
- What does it mean to speak everything you say of yourself in the person of all — that your experience stands for everyone's?
- Why does it matter to you that the shewings add nothing to the faith of Holy Church, rather than going beyond it?
Converse with Julian of Norwich on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Julian of Norwich's own writing, cited to the page.