GARDNER\u00adWEBB UNIVERSITY
JULIAN OF NORWICH
SUBMITTED TO PROF. S. STEIBEL

Julian of Norwich\u2019s work,Showings, should not be viewed in a vacuum of time and
space. Rather, her work should be approached with an understanding of the particular
context in which she lived and worked. Relegating this background material obfuscates
the text to an entity of purely spiritual, rather than practical, reflection and instruction,
which doesn\u2019t allow for the text to adequately represent its worth.

Julian was born in November of 1342 during what can only be described as a chaotic
time in the history of Western Europe. Fourteenth century England was especially being
pulled and pushed by a torrent of change and upheaval. Following the relative calm of
the previous two centuries, the feudal system had firmly established itself as the norm of
life in England. However, the Great Famine of 1315-1317 started a chain reaction of
events that would pay out during the next century and have irrevocable consequences for
church and politics in England. Following an unseasonably wet Spring and Summer in
1315 followed by unseasonable temperatures, the agricultural rhythm of England and
most of Western Europe was upended. Hunger, crime, infanticide and even cannibalism
were occurrences around the continent and severely challenged the claims of the then-
dominant Catholic Church that put a premium on the providence of God.

Coupled with this horrendous famine of biblical proportions, a new and lethal threat
swept through Europe and England in the mid fourteenth century (when Julian was a
young girl of approximately ten years old), which would be called the black plague. This
outbreak of bubonic plague would go on to further cut the population of Europe and
England by more than half, and further lower population numbers after the Great Famine.

These two events would prove not only disastrous in terms of human capital but they
would also contribute to the growing challenges against the political and religious
structures that would play themselves out during the lifetime of Julian in the fourteenth
century. Due to the decreased population following the Great Famine and the outbreak of
the plague during Julian\u2019s early years, there was a growing concern over the inability of
the churches in local situations to supply aid or answers to suffering congregants. As a
result, the pre-reformation movement known as Lollardy (or the Lollards) became a
serious threat to the Catholic establishment in England. This movement sought to cast

aside notions such as transubstantiation, the prohibition against the use of vernacular in
worship and Bible translation, the baptism of infants, the heavy education of clergy and
the hierarchical nature of the Church itself. Throughout Julian\u2019s life, this Lollard
movement would infuse itself into the religious and political life of England and combine
with a lower population to bring about the Peasant\u2019s Revolt in 1381 when revolutionaries
infused by Lollardy and a deeper sense of workers\u2019 rights sought to bargain with the King
of England for better working, living and legal conditions for those not of the aristocratic
class.

While Julian does not directly mention this chaotic background context of fourteenth
century England, her work\u2019s abounding optimism and notions of love for all of humanity
and creation are even more astounding given this political, societal and religious strife
going on all around her. This theme of optimism flows throughout the recorded visions
in theShowings. Over and above all of the other streams of theology, philosophy and
mysticism, Julian\u2019s constant optimistic emphasis on the love that God has for all of
humanity and the creation and the results of this (ultimate victory over and through
suffering) can be seen as the main theme of the work. This is most evident in Julian\u2019s
refrain that \u201cAll is well\u201d as in Chapter 31\u2019s:

\u201cI may make all things well, I can make all things well, I will make all things
well, and I shall make all things well; and thou shalt see thyself that all manner of
things shall be well.\u201d

To have such an optimistic message about the love of God during a time of so much
suffering and discord is extraordinary. Unfortunately, what we know about the person of
Julian is only available through the words ofShowings. We know when she was born and
when she had her onset of illness at age 30. She begins theShowings with the self-
identification (with a self-deprecation based on the rhetorical tool often employed by
philosophers and other writers such as Chaucer):