This is a gateway to the spirituality of the 12th century English mystic offering groundbreaking feminine images of God and the assurance that in God's unbounded love and mercy "all things will be well".
The fourteenth-century anchorite known as Julian of Norwich offered fervent prayers for a deeper understanding of Christ's passion. The holy woman's petitions were answered with a series of divine revelations that she called "shewings." Her mystic visions revealed Christ's sufferings with extreme intensity, but they also confirmed God's constant love for humanity and infinite capacity for forgiveness. Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love have had a lasting influence on Christian thought. Written in immediate, compelling terms, her experiences remain among the most original and accessible expressions of medieval mysticism. This edition contains both the short text, which is mainly an account of the shewings and Julian's initial analysis of their meaning, and the long text, completed some 20 years later and offering daringly speculative interpretations.
Universalism runs like a slender thread through the history of Christian theology. Over the centuries Christian universalism, in one form or another, has been reinvented time and time again. In this book an international team of scholars explore thediverse universalisms of Christian thinkers from the Origen to Moltmann. In the introduction Gregory MacDonald argues that theologies of universal salvation occupy a space between heresy and dogma. Therefore disagreements about whether all will be saved should not be thought of as debates between the orthodox and heretics but rather as in-house debates between Christians. The studies in this collection aim, in the first instance, to hear, understand, and explain the eschatological claims of a range of Christians from the third to the twenty-first centuries. They also offer some constructive, critical engagement with those claims.
Drawing deeply from the wisdom writings of medieval English mystic Julian of Norwich, All Will Be Well welcomes even spiritual newcomers to the spirituality of this fourteenth-century visionary who was well ahead of her time. Each book in the Great Spiritual Teachers series provides a month of daily readings from one of Christianity's most beloved spiritual guides. For each day there is a brief and accessible morning meditation drawn from the mystic's writings, a simple mantra for use throughout the day, and a night prayer to focus one's thoughts as the day ends. These easy-to-use books are the perfect prayer companion for busy people who want to root their spiritual practice in the solid ground of these great spiritual teachers.
In this beautiful and broken world, God is here. The heavens declare the glory of God . . . but are we listening? Yes, God created this world, but sometimes we forget that he hasn’t left—that his redemptive, creative work happens still today, right here under our feet. So when we seek for God and study his truth, how much are we missing if we don’t awaken to all he has placed in the soil and sky? God made this world of light and darkness, summer and winter, life and death. What does he intend to teach us in these ever-repeating cycles and seasons? Seamlessly weaving biblical truths into everyday life, Catherine McNiel will help you discover an unbelievable reality: God meets and transforms you in the mess and abundance of every mundane moment.
Taking a unique approach to self-help, this guide demonstrates how conveying love and compassion to others—whether communicated through a simple smile or by holding a dying soul—can act as antidotes to the often painful human condition. Revealing the small steps that can be taken to improve the attitudes of others and therefore create happiness for the self, this handbook presents a collection of encouraging stories illustrating the strength of the human spirit. Emphasizing that all people have within them the ability to make a difference, this emboldened exploration argues for this power to be acted upon, thereby ensuring a dependable sense of well-being amidst the turmoil of today.
For centuries readers have comfortably accepted Julian of Norwich as simply a mystic. In this astute book, Denys Turner offers a new interpretation of Julian and the significance of her work. Turner argues that this fourteenth-century thinker's sophisticated approach to theological questions places her legitimately within the pantheon of other great medieval theologians, including Thomas Aquinas, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Bonaventure.Julian wrote but one work in two versions, a Short Text recording the series of visions of Jesus Christ she experienced while suffering a near-fatal illness, and a much expanded Long Text exploring the theological meaning of the "showings" some twenty years later. Turner addresses the apparent conflict between the two sources of Julian's theology: on the one hand, her personal revelation of God's omnipotent love, and on the other, the Church's teachings on and her own witnessing of evil in the world that deserves punishment, even eternal punishment. Offering a fresh and elegant account of Julian's response to this conflict--one that reveals its nuances, systematic character, and originality--this book marks a new stage in the century-long rediscovery of one of the English language's greatest theological thinkers.
Unlike other brief summaries of Julian's life in 14th-century Norwich, England, this book goes in-depth to uncover the political, cultural, social and religious milieu that formed and deeply influenced her development as a woman and a Christian mystic.
Burt Hecker is a 63-year-old medieval re-enactor (he dresses in medieval clothes, eats medieval food, thinks medieval thoughts). This is the story of his doomed attempt to come to terms with his own history.
Any book that weaves together allusions to both Julian of Norwich and Biddy Early is worth checking out! Add in a dash of mystery, Celtic romance, and wry Irish humor, and the result is this engaging novel from Lillian Lewis, All Shall Be Well. Carl McColman, author of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism and 366 Celt Morgan Kenny is many things, but she is definitely not a psychic. As she flies across the ocean to Ireland to bury her eccentric Aunt Mary, she has no idea that her last link to the old world is about to lead her straight into an intriguing Irish murder mystery. Even so, as Morgans plane settles into its cruising altitude, she is overcome with a feeling that her Aunt Mary is attempting to contact her with an important message. After Morgan deplanes, she receives a telegram that informs her that her aunt has already been buried. Perplexed by the strange unfolding of events, Morgan silently wonders who has taken care of the final details, since she is the last remaining relative in the family. As she begins a fruitless search to find her aunts burial site and the familys ancestral home, Morgan is flooded with memories and voices of the dead who tell her she needs to mine old ways in order to claim her inheritance. Morgan must break the cipher, but not without the help of a teenager, a fourteenth-century English saint, and a handsome archeologist. In this compelling tale rich with history and culture, an American woman embarks on an Irish adventure in which she will learn more about her ancestors and herself than she ever could have imagined.