Anchorhold
Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage
National Cathedral, Washington DC
2023

Anchorhold is a site-specific installation with durational performances set in Washington’s National Cathedral Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage, 2023. It is also the name of a solitary residence, often attached to a church, where spiritual seekers live lives of prayer and devotion.

Over seven days, for a total of 40 hours, I stayed in the crypt reading aloud, copying texts, and making drawings in a 1949 edition of Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love. Like a servant to a recluse, I performed domestic labors while attending to visitors and protecting the seclusion of individuals inside the cell.

This exploration of contemplative and creative practices was inspired by Julian of Norwich (1343 - after 1416), a medieval mystic and Western Christian theologian. She lived in an anchorhold for twenty years and wrote the earliest surviving English language text by a woman.

Julian of Norwich: A Brief Reading Guide

James Estes, PhD
Submitted December 15, 2023

Where would a reader learn more about Julian of Norwich, her visions, and her theology? The first answer is always “her text, of course!” — but that easy answer is deceptive in its simplicity. There is no single canonical text to rely upon, and while theological reflection can be highly individual, attempting to understand and interpret Julian’s Showingsdemands study of the text in its context. In this brief guide, we will consider translations, studies, and textual resources that are valuable contributions to the study of Julian’s Showings. Within each category, resources are listed chronologically.

A cautionary note about this guide: As Julian’s text receives attention from a wide-ranging audience (linguists and literary scholars, historians and theologians, religious practitioners and spiritual seekers), resources discussed here might seem more suited to one audience over another. Reading Julian is inherently interdisciplinary, however, and readers will benefit from this wide range of resources. Further, the brevity of this guide also limits it: a sentence or two cannot adequately do justice to a text, and more resources deserve mention than are listed. This guide is only a starting point, and not the final word.

Translations

Julian’s text was written and scribed in Middle English, and though this form of the language can be close to modern English, the Showings still require translation. Grace Warrack’s modern English translation (1901) was instrumental in bringing Julian’s Showings to a modern audience, although her rendering may sound somewhat archaic to contemporary readers. There have been multiple translations throughout the twentieth century, and readers now have a wealth of options. Two editions that make Julian’s Long Text particularly welcoming to students of spirituality are the work of Fr. John-Julian (2009) and Mirabai Starr (2013). Fr. John-Julian founded the Episcopalian contemplative Order of St Julian, and his careful translation is accompanied by copious annotations, scholarly notes, and other resources. Starr is a teacher and practitioner of interspirituality; while her translation strategies sometimes lean closer to personal interpretation rather than faithful rendering, the result is a creative interpretation of the Showings that invites reflection and can be used for lectio divina or other forms of contemplative practice.

Two important, readily available modern scholarly translations are those of Elizabeth Spearing (1998) and more recently, Barry Windeatt (2015); both works translate Julian’s Short Text and Long Text, hew more closely to the original language while being eminently readable, and are accompanied by scholarly yet approachable introductions and notes. Readers interested in scholarly study of Julian’s text are advised to consider both editions, but Windeatt’s edition has the benefit of access to more recent scholarship and studies.

Warrack, Grace, ed. (1901). Revelations of Divine Love. Methuen.
Spearing, Elizabeth, ed. (1998). Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love (Short Text and Long Text).
Fr. John-Julian [John Swanson]. (2009). The Complete Julian of Norwich. Paraclete Press.
Starr, Mirabai. (2013). The Showings of Julian of Norwich. Hampton Roads Publishing.
Windeatt, Barry, ed. (2015). Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love. Oxford University Press.

Theological, Literary, and Historical Studies

A modern student of Julian has the benefit of numerous studies that examine Julian’s place in the history of Christian theology and spirituality. One could read the twentieth-century works which helped culvitave both academic and popular attention to Julian’s text; a sampling would include the work of Joan Nuth (1991), Denise Baker (1994), and Grace Jantzen (2000). Nuth’s work examines Julian’s text in terms of systematic theological categories, while Baker’s work treats the maturation of Julian’s writing from Short Text to Long Text (and thus Julian’s transformation from visionary to theologian). Jantzen’s work approaches Julian’s spirituality from the perspective of spiritual formation psychospirituality. Valuable for understanding  Julian’s historical and religious context, Nuth’s (2001) introduction to Middle English spirituality places Julian alongside her contemporaries, the “canon” of Middle English mystics: Richard Rolle, the anonymous author of the Cloud of Unknowing, Walter Hilton, and Margery Kempe. Similarly, it is important to recognize that though Julian’s work is often considered a classic of Western spirituality, it was not well-known in its own time, and only slowly grew to a wider audience and greater appreciation. Sarah Salih and Denise Baker’s (2009) volume collects the work of scholars studying Julian’s reception history and the text’s journey to becoming a modern classic.

Recent work with Julian reveals the attention Julian now receives by scholars outside literary studies or historians of spirituality. Theologian Denys Turner’s (2011) text is a philosophical study of Julian’s teachings on sin and salvation but is not intended as an introduction to her thought. Christian ethicist Amy Laura Hall (2018) treats Julian’s writing as words of hope-filled resistance to dread; at times irreverent, her work is penetrating in its deployment of Julian’s perspective in light of contemporary exigencies. Veronica Rolf (2018) presents a lively non-academic introduction to Julian for a religious audience; while the author’s historical speculation on Julian’s (ultimately unknowable) life should be read cautiously, the text’s reflections on the Showings demonstrate a deep reading and passionate engagement with Julian’s writing.

Particularly valuable is the work of Phillip Sheldrake (2018), a historian of spirituality, who offers a contextual study of Julian as a late medieval vernacular theologian. He examines contemporary studies of Julian, assesses attempts to ascertain Julian’s background and identity, and provides a thorough historical and social context for approaching Julian’s teachings and vision. Further, he provides a succinct discussion of the few texts which present Julian’s visions, as well as a robust bibliography of Julian studies. Sheldrake’s work is comprehensive yet concise, and an important contribution to Julian scholarship for both new and advanced readers.

Nuth, Joan. (1991). Wisdom’s Daughter: The Theology of Julian of Norwich. New York: Crossroad.
Baker, Denise N. (1994). Julian of Norwich’s Showings: From Vision to Book. Princeton University Press.
Jantzen, Grace M. (2000). Julian of Norwich: Mystic and Theologian. Paulist Press.
Nuth, Joan. (2001). God’s Lovers in an Age of Anxiety: The Medieval English Mystics. Orbis Books.
Salih, Sarah, and Denise N. Baker, eds. (1994). Julian of Norwich's Legacy: Medieval Mysticism and Post-Medieval Reception. Palgrave Macmillan.
Turner, Denys. (2013). Julian of Norwich, Theologian. Yale University Press.
Hall, Amy Laura. (2018). Laughing at the Devil: Seeing the World with Julian of Norwich. Duke University Press.
Rolf, Veronica. (2018). An Explorer's Guide to Julian of Norwich. IVP Academic.
Sheldrake, Philip. (2018). Julian of Norwich: In God’s Sight. Her Theology in Context. Wiley-Blackwell.

Middle English Texts

Returning to the text(s) of the Showings: having now read translations into modern English and engaged with scholarship and commentary, some readers might desire to encounter Julian’s words in Middle English. Julian’s language is quite approachable, unlike the Middle English of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a poem contemporary with Julian’s work. Still, there are still areas of the language which require assistance, such as Julian’s use of the terms behovely or homely. There are multiple resources to assist in this endeavor, including edited versions of the text’s few extant manuscripts, such as Georgia Crampton’s  (1994) edition, part of the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies (TEAMS) Middle English Text Series, or Denise Baker’s (2005) edition for the Norton Critical Edition Series. Both volumes are student-centered. They focus on Julian’s Long Text, contain introductions, linguistic and textual notes, and other scholarly apparati. Crampton’s edition is available online (via the University of Rochester’s Robbins Library). Baker’s edition, like other volumes in the Norton series, also adds sections on “Contexts” and “Criticism”: the former section includes excerpts of other primary medieval sources relevant to Julian’s world, and the latter offers excerpts from modern scholarly treatments of Julian’s writing.

Finally, the work of Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins (2006) is a feast. Watson and Jenkins synthesize materials from the extant manuscripts of the Long Text to create a hybrid text, presented alongside Julian’s Short Text and accompanied by copious textual notes, a robust introduction, and an annotated bibliography (by Amy Appleford ). Thoroughly grounded in theological, literary and linguistic scholarship, and invaluable for advanced scholars, this edition is aimed at Julian’s readers at any stage of their journey through the Showings.

Crampton, Georgia R., ed. (1994). The Shewings of Julian of Norwich. Medieval Institute Publications.
Baker, Denise N., ed. (2005). The Showings of Julian of Norwich. A Norton Critical Edition. W.W. Norton and Company.
Watson, Nicholas, and Jacqueline Jenkins, eds. (2006). The Writings of Julian of Norwich: A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love. Pennsylvania State University Press.