The woman known as Julian of Norwich was a mystic and a visionary who offered a theology that was focused on God’s love. She is a somewhat obscure figure, but one who is worth learning about. To that end, Fiona Givens discussed Julian of Norwich in a recent post at the Latter-day Saint history blog From the Desk. What follows here is a copost to the full interview.

Who was Julian of Norwich? Fiona Givens offered some insights into this remarkable woman’s life:

Both her given name and her surname have been lost to time. She acquired the forename Julian because that was the name of the small Benedictine church to which she was attached. Her surname, Norwich, is the name of the city in Norfolk located in the region of East Anglia where she resided her entire life. Hence, she is known as Julian of Norwich. Based on her writings it is believed that she was born in the year 1342 or 1343. …

If the speculated date of Julian’s birth (circa 1343) is correct, she would have been a child of five or six years old at the onset of the first wave of the pandemic [the Black Death].

In 1373, aged about thirty years old, Julian of Norwich suffered a very severe illness. Whether it was the Plague is disputed. When it was thought her death was near, a priest was summoned to perform the rite of Extreme Unction, the Catholic sacrament given just before the death, dating back to the eighth and ninth centuries.

As the priest raised the cross for her to see the face of Jesus before her demise, Julian experienced a series of extraordinary visions in which the Savior was manifested.

During this first manifestation, Jesus makes Julian a promise, which she recognizes is not just for her. She has been called to be the messenger. The revelation ends with Christ sitting enthroned in each human soul. As she felt a charge to contemplate upon and share this vision and all future visions she received with all God’s children, she retreated to the seclusion of an anchorhold.

This vision led her to live as a mystic in the solitary confinement of a cell in a monastery.

The records of her visions were a stark contrast to much of the theology surrounding her:

With the advent of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the twelfth century, new foundations were thoroughly in place that emphasized merit rather than transformation as the precondition of salvation and Christ’s sacrifice as the satisfaction of justice rather than the healing of human sin.

The miracle of Incarnation began to take second place to focus on Christ’s suffering and death. Optimism about the new creation initiated by the resurrection of Jesus took second place to pessimism about the corrupt human condition. Sermon and art alike instilled fears of a threatening judgment awaiting us all.

It is against this background that Julian’s supernal visions appear on the scene like a sunburst in a darkened cathedral. In her book, “Showings,” she taught the reality and absolute consistency of God’s love.

Rather than the eternal separation from God, which many Christians feared awaited almost all the end of time, Julian teaches that at the end of our messy, painful lives, God reveals to her that “For since I have made well the greatest harm, then it is my will that thou know hereby that I shall make well all that is less.”

In her writings, Julian of Norwich compares Jesus to a mother. At her hands, the fundamental Christian drama shifts in focus from the kingdom of heaven to the plight of humanity. Christ is more approachable, and the concept of a permanent universal conflict shifts toward a journey toward a kinder, gentler God with emphasis on Jesus’s perceived human and/or feminine traits such as mercy, sorrow, and tears.

Against the contemporary backdrop emphasizing sin and judgment, God as king and judge, and original sin as enveloping and incapacitating the human family, Julian provides a vision of hopefulness and optimism. To read her visions is to sense a dramatic rupture with the church of the Middle Ages.

The writings of Julian of Norwich are beautiful in the vision of God’s attributes that they share.

Her impact began to be felt during her own lifetime:

Surprisingly, Julian’s work was not only countenanced—she became renowned as a holy woman, and her counsel and presence were also sought out by the powerful and the mighty. The unparalleled influence of this mystic—an influence that endures and seems to grow daily in our own time—can be best explained as the striking in the readers’ hearts of familiar chords, radically resonant with undeniable truth and appeal. …

Her optimistic view of God and his relationship with humankind implies that the image of God within us is, at worst, tarnished but never destroyed. The human experience is not one of rebellion against God. Rather, it is one of emptiness, loneliness, alienation, and suffering. She radically reconstructs the story of the fall into a version taught by the early Christians Irenaeus and Gregory of Nyssa. …

To her surprise and joy, God does not respond with anger or disappointment but with loving concern. God then promises Adam (representing all of humanity) a reward greater than if the servant had never attempted to do his Father’s will. With hints of a premortal past and projecting a future glory greater than paradise, Julian of Norwich refashions the human saga as one of continual growth and spiritual maturity under God’s loving direction.

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For more on Julian of Norwich, head on over to the Latter-day Saint history blog From the Desk to read the full interview with Fiona Givens.