Review

Reviewed Work(s): Mind Out of Time by Sheila Upjohn

Review by: Ritamary Bradley
Source: 14th Century English Mystics Newsletter, Vol. 7, No. 1 (March 1981), pp. 38-40
Published by: Penn State University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20716324
Accessed: 30-11-2023 13:47 +00:00

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Penn State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to 14th Century English Mystics Newsletter

This content downloaded from 193.163.91.251 on Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:47:51 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Bernhard W. Scholz. "Hildegard von Bingen on the
Nature of Woman. American Benedictine Review, 31
(1980), 361-83. An assessment of Hildegard's writ
ings to evolve her assumptions about the image of
woman in her time. Scholz finds that, despite her
activism and visionary experiences, Hildegard
largely subscribed to the pejorative received view
of women, but departed from her age in her attitude
toward human sexuality and toward the equality and
interdependence of the sexes.

Roger J. Vanden Busch. "Bernard of Clairvaux:

Love and the Movement of the Soul." Contemplative
Review, 13 (1980), 1-9. An enlightening overview
of Bernard's spiritual doctrine, which is based on
the theme of union with God in love in three move
ments: Kiss of the Feet, Kiss of the Hand, Kiss of
the Mouth.

NEWSLETTER BOOK REVIEWS:

Sheila Upjohn? Mind Out of Time. With a Foreword

by the Dean of St. Paul's. Norwich: Julian Shrine
Publications, 1979. 36 pp. 75 pence.
This is a one-act play in three scenes about
Julian and Grace Warrack, an early editor of the
Showings, and the meaning of their work for our day.
The plan takes less than an hour to perform.
The author's interest in Julian stems from the
1973 sexcentenary* when Ms. Upjohn joined with Canon
A. M. Allchin and Rev. Alan Webster, then Dean of
Norwich Cathedral, to form the core of the Julian
Celebration Committee. The celebration stimulated
further questions about the history of the Julian
manuscripts, and also about Grace Warrack, whose
edition of the Showings appeared In 1901. This was

38

This content downloaded from 193.163.91.251 on Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:47:51 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
the genesis of Mind Out of Time.
According to Ms. Upjohn, very little could
be unearthed about Ms. Warrack, and nothing at all
about her education:

She lived in Edinburgh, so the chances

are she got her training there. But
women weren't admitted to Edinburgh Uni
versity until 1892, when she was 37.
There is no record of her taking a de
gree, or even of matriculating. It's
possible she attended classes run by the
Edinburgh Association for University
Education for Women.
So there she is, third daughter of the
late John Warrack, an obscure spinster
who, suddenly at the age of 46, produces
this amazing book: a solid piece of in
dependent research with excellent foot
notes and cross references, a lucid intro
duction, and, above all, a fine feeling
for the strengths and rhythms of Julian's
prose. (p. 6)
The opening scene is expository, with a spritely
interchange between an accountant, who had been a
monk before the Dissolution, and a young boy, curious
about the old times. In the second scene, Grace
Warrack is portrayed, first as she is imagined to
have been in her own time, and then as a woman speak
ing in the later 20th century. The final scene
introduces Julian, speaking from her book, flanked by
Beelzebub and St. Michael as two genial clerics.
They engage in a dialogue reminiscent of the debate
for man's soul, but focussed on contemporary chal
lenges to Julian's message, such as the promise of
peace through possessions, discreditors of truth and
the bearers of truth, false substitutes for inward
ness such as drugs, and the spreading of confusion

39

This content downloaded from 193.163.91.251 on Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:47:51 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
and hate. Julian's wisdom seems to prevail in all
instances
The play, both in the printed text and the taped
recording, is effective in language and structure.
It was first presented for the May 8, 1980 celebra
tion of Julian's entrance into the calendar of the
Church of England. A copy may be ordered from the
Chaplain, Julian's Shrine, All Hallows, Rouen Road,
Norwich NRl 1QZ England. There is an additional
request by Ms. Upjohn that five percent of proceeds
from any performance be donated to Julian Shrine
Publications.
Mind Out of Time is warmly recommended for both
youth and adult groups in churches, schools, and
other associations.

Ritamary Bradley

Marion Glasscoe, ed. The Medieval Mystical Tradition

in England. Proceedings of Exeter Symposium I,
July, 1980. Exeter: University of Exeter Press,
1980. Pp. 1-249. 4.50 pounds sterling.
This collection of thirteen papers is likely to
prove seminal. It is fecund in creative thought
which could extend the general students' understand
ing of Middle English literature, as well as incite
some of the specialists already in the field of
medieval English mystical writings to think again.
It leaves an impression of freshness, and often of
the excitement of individual exploration and dis
covery, which the generous accompanying Notes
establish to be based on sound scholarship.
It is difficult to generalize, however, since
diversity is everywhere the norm; in approach and
presentation the papers1 authors differ from each
other almost as much as do their chosen medieval
English mystics. A few consider in some depth the

40

This content downloaded from 193.163.91.251 on Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:47:51 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms