Book Corner: Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich
As I stated at New Years I would, I have read this book.
I found myself approaching this book guardedly. My mind was argumentative and contrary. Her theology was not my theology, and as such I found it hard to separate my impulse thought-reactions from my reading. I had to keep reminding myself that these were her words, and just because I was reading them didn't mean I had to have an opinion about them. I concentrated on letting my mind be open to her words even if my heart was rebelling against them.
It is saying something, then, to state that by the end of the book, I feel Mother Julian was a dear friend to me. Although I had not come to it in a state that allowed me to be receptive to her words, this book reached through with the beauty of Mother Julian's faith and touched my heart.
There were moments when I was uncomfortable with her understanding, and others where I wanted to stand up and scream 'YES!' right there in the middle of the crowded train to work. Some of what I read I was surprised to find in the writings of a woman so upheld by the Church. Hints of universalism, suggestions that there is no wrath of God, the scent that sin may not even be the evil that we thought.
Her submission to the word of the church, even if it contradicted her vision, probably did a lot in allowing these writings to be acknowledged by the church. But the contradictions, she acknowleldges: she never says that what was revealed to her, though perhaps opposite to the Church's teaching, made the Church wrong - it only made God more complex and vast and mysterious.
After my Philosophy class at university a few years ago, it was wonderful to read this mystic approach. It wasn't an intellectual conquest to prove anything or to justify anything. Julian does come through the pages as a woman who wants to share her joy in, thanks to and love of God.
And that was truly wonderful.
It warmed my heart to read her understanding of such a loving God, my theology or not (it was and it wasn't at different stages in the book).
This is a book I won't be rereading soon, but which I will keep and treasure as a beautiful understanding of the Divine.