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.
Coming from a society where women were barred from serious writing and teaching, Julian, an anchorite of the great medieval city of Norwich, nevertheless uses her womanlines and the English vernacular of the day to describe a series of revelations which she received from God in the year 1373. She identifies the female nature of Christ's suffering and the motherhood of God, using images from domestic daily life, emphasizing the homeliness of God's love. She writes in a lively and unpretentious manner and her theology is precise without ever being pedantic.
A fresh and contemporary translation of one of the best loved and influential mystical texts of all time, The Showings of Julian of Norwich brings the message and spirituality of this 14th century mystic to 21st century readers. Julian of Norwich, a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, was an English anchoress in East Anglia. At the age of 30, suffering from a severe illness and believing she was on her deathbed, Julian had a series of intense visions of Jesus, which she recorded and then expanded on later in her life. Her message for today's readers is simply this: She reveals the feminine face of the Divine and reminds us to see God there. All our failings are an opportunity to learn and grow; that they should be honored, but not dwelled upon. God's love has nothing to do with love and retribution and everything to do with love and compassion. In spite of all appearances, all is well.
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".
We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.
Julian of Norwich (ca. 1343&–ca. 1416), a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, and John Wyclif, is the earliest woman writer of English we know about. Although she described herself as &“a simple creature unlettered,&” Julian is now widely recognized as one of the great speculative theologians of the Middle Ages, whose thinking about God as love has made a permanent contribution to the tradition of Christian belief. Despite her recent popularity, however, Julian is usually read only in translation and often in extracts rather than as a whole. This book presents a much-needed new edition of Julian&’s writings in Middle English, one that makes possible the serious reading and study of her thought not just for students and scholars of Middle English but also for those with little or no previous experience with the language. &• Separate texts of both Julian&’s works, A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love, with modern punctuation and paragraphing and partly regularized spelling. &• A second, analytic edition of A Vision printed underneath the text of A Revelation to show what was left out, changed, or added as Julian expanded the earlier work into the later one. &• Facing-page explanatory notes, with translations of difficult words and phrases, cross-references to other parts of the text, and citations of biblical and other sources. &• A thoroughly accessible introduction to Julian&’s life and writings. &• An appendix of medieval and early modern records relating to Julian and her writings. &• An analytic bibliography of editions, translations, scholarly studies, and other works. The most distinctive feature of this volume is the editors&’ approach to the manuscripts. Middle English editions habitually retain original spellings of their base manuscript intact and only emend that manuscript when its readings make no sense. At once more interventionist and more speculative, this edition synthesizes readings from all the surviving manuscripts, with careful justification of each choice involved in this process. For readers who are not concerned with textual matters, the result will be a more readable and satisfying text. For Middle English scholars, the edition is intended both as a hypothesis and as a challenge to the assumptions the field brings to the business of editing.
Visions of Hell... In A Divine Revelation of Hell, over a period of thirty nights, God gave Mary K. Baxter visions of hell and commissioned her to tell people still alive on earth to reject sin and evil, and to choose life in Christ. Here is an account of the place and beings of hell contrasted with the glories of heaven. Follow Mary in her supernatural journey as she enters with Jesus into a gateway to hell and encounters the sights, sounds, and smells of that dark place of torment, including its evil spirits, cells, pits, jaws, and heart. Be an eyewitness to the various punishments of lost souls and hear their shocking stories. This book is a reminder that each of us needs to accept the miracle of salvation before it is too late—and to intercede for those who do not yet know Christ. Time is running out.
