Conclusion
Notes
open‐ended, unfulfilled, and eschatological core to Julian's theology and to what she seeks to teach her audience of fellow Christians. As Julian had herself been told by God, so she affirms that every one of her audience were to "remain in this" (that is, the realization that love is God's meaning) while "more of the same" was offered throughout life and finally given conclusively at the end of time.
Conclusion It is true that Julian's Long Text does not merely describe her religious experiences but explains their theological meaning and implications. In the process, Julian touches on many of the most important themes and dimensions of Christian theology including the Trinity, Christology, grace, creation, anthropology, sin and redemption, and eschatology.
However, she is not compiling a theological textbook. Julian reflects on various theological areas in order to communicate a multi‐faceted and vital message to her fellow Christians about the true nature of God and of human beings "in God's sight."
Notes 1 See Thomas Merton, Mystics and Zen Masters, New York: The Noonday Press, Reprinted 1993, p 140.
2 See Janet Martin Soskice, The Kindness of God: Metaphor, Gender, and Religious Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, p 126.
3 Soskice, The Kindness of God, p 131.
4 See, Brian Davies, The Thought of Thomas Aquinas, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993; Mary Clark, ed., An Aquinas Reader: Selections from the Writings of Thomas Aquinas, New York: Fordham University
Press, 2000.
5 For a classic exposition of monastic theology, see Jean Leclercq OSB, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture, 3rd edition, English translation, New York: Fordham University Press, 1982, especially Chapter 9 "Monastic Theology."
6 See Edmund Colledge & James Walsh, eds., A Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval
Studies, 1978, Part One, Introduction Part IX "Theological Content of the Revelations," pp 59–198. Colledge & Walsh also offer a massive list of scriptural citations or echoes in Part Two, pp 779–788.
7 See Barry Windeatt, ed., The Book of Margery Kempe, London: Penguin Books, 1985, Chapter 18.
Julian's Theology
8 See Nicholas Watson & Jacqueline Jenkins, eds., The Writings of Julian of Norwich, University Park PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press,
2005, Preface, p ix and Introduction, pp 2–3.
9 Joan M. Nuth, Wisdom's Daughter: The Theology of Julian of Norwich, New York: Crossroad, 1991, Chapter 2 "Julian's Theology."
10 Grace Jantzen, Julian of Norwich, 2nd edition, London: SPCK 2000, Chapter 6 "Love was his meaning": Julian's Theological Method.
11 See Denys Turner, Julian of Norwich, Theologian, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011, p xi.
12 Turner, p xii.
13 See Turner, Chapter One "Julian the Theologian."
14 See Bernard McGinn, The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism: 1350–1550, New York: Crossroad, 2012, Chapter 12 "Julian of Norwich: 'Love is oure lordes mening'."
15 See Rowan Williams, Holy Living: The Christian Tradition for Today, New York: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2017, Part Five: Ways of Knowing,
Chapter 12: Julian of Norwich's Way.
16 Louis Dupré, "Spiritual life in a secular age," in Daedalus volume III, 1982, pp 21–31, quote from p 25.
17 See Bernard McGinn, "The future of past spiritual experiences," Spiritus:
A Journal of Christian Spirituality, volume 15, issue 1, Spring 2015 pp 1–17, especially p 3. In using the term "rupture," McGinn draws explicitly upon the important writings on mysticism by Michel de
Certeau, particularly his late work, The Mystic Fable, Volume One: The Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries, ET Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1992.
18 For an accessible modern translation of the works of Pseudo‐Dionysius, see C. Luibheid & O. Rorem, eds., Pseudo‐Dionysius: The Complete
Works, Classics of Western Spirituality, New York: Paulist Press, 1987.
For further remarks on the approach of Pseudo‐Dionysius to mystical theology, not least the balance between kataphatic and apophatic approaches, see Philip Sheldrake, Spirituality and History: Questions of Interpretation and Method, Revised edition, London: SPCK/Maryknoll,
NY: Orbis Books 1995, pp 199–206.
19 For a brief summary of this approach to and understanding of theology as it would have impacted on Julian of Norwich, see Philip Sheldrake,
Spirituality and Theology: Christian Living and the Doctrine of God, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1998/Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books
1999, Chapter 2 "The Divorce of Spirituality and Theology," pp 33–64.
20 For a summary overview of de Certeau's approach to mysticism, see Philip Sheldrake, Explorations in Spirituality: History, Theology and Social Practice, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2010, Chapter 6 "Mysticism and Social Practice: The Mystical and Michel de Certeau." For Michel de
Notes
Certeau's own writings on mysticism, see "'Mystique' au XVIIe siècle:
Le probleme du language mystique," in his L'Homme Devant Dieu:
Mélanges offerts au Père Henri du Lubac, Paris: Aubier, 1964, 2: 267–291; also de Certeau's essay in English translation "Mystic Speech" in his
Heterologies: Discourse on the Other, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1995; and most importantly the first volume of de
Certeau's The Mystic Fable: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
21 Turner, p 3.
22 See Ritamary Bradley, Julian's Way: A Practical Commentary on Julian of Norwich, London: Harper Collins, 1992, pp 94–97.