An English anchoress's account of sixteen mystical visions ('showings') received during a near-fatal illness in 1373, theologically reflected upon over the following decades. Julian's central image is of God as both mother and father, and her best-known line — 'all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well' — frames a confidence in divine love that holds even with the question of damnation explicitly unresolved.
The book exists in two versions: a Short Text written shortly after the visions, and a longer Long Text completed some twenty years later that moves from the visionary accounts into speculative theology. The Long Text, 86 chapters, is the standard modern edition. Julian is identified as the earliest known woman to write a book in the English language. Her work was largely unknown until the twentieth century, when it entered university curricula and became a touchstone for both academic mysticism scholars and practising contemplatives.
All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
Chapter 27, Thirteenth Showing
First lines
THIS is a Revelation of Love that Jesus Christ, our endless bliss, made in Sixteen Shewings, or Revelations particular.
Contents
The First Showing: Crowning with Thorns
The Second Showing: His Face in the Passion
The Third Showing: God Does All Things
The Fourth Showing: The Scourging
The Fifth Showing: The Fiend Overcome
The Sixth Showing: God's Thanking of Blessed Servants
The Seventh Showing: Weal and Woe
The Eighth Showing: The Last Pains of Christ
The Ninth Showing: Pleasing of the Blissful Trinity
The Tenth Showing: The Heart of Christ
The Eleventh Showing: Our Dearworthy Mother
The Twelfth Showing: God Most Worthy
The Thirteenth Showing: All Shall Be Well
The Fourteenth Showing: God Is Ground of Our Prayer
The Fifteenth Showing: Taken from All Pain
The Sixteenth Showing: The Trinity Dwells in Our Soul
Reception
First book in English known to be written by a woman, and one of the most intensively studied medieval mystical texts in 20th-century scholarship. Cited by Thomas Merton, T.S. Eliot, Iris Murdoch, and contemporary contemplative writers. Theologians have flagged tension between Julian's universalist instinct ('all shall be well') and the orthodox Catholic doctrine of hell — a tension Julian acknowledges and leaves unresolved rather than reconciles. Standard text in Christian mystical theology programs.
Frequently asked
What is Revelations of Divine Love about?
It is Julian of Norwich's account of sixteen visions she received during a near-fatal illness in May 1373. She spent the following decades developing a theological interpretation of those showings, producing a shorter and a longer text. The central theme is divine love: Julian argues that God's love is unconditional and holds even the problem of sin and damnation in an unresolved but confident trust that 'all shall be well'.
Who was Julian of Norwich?
An English anchoress (c. 1342–after 1416) who lived as a recluse in a cell attached to St Julian's Church in Norwich. She is identified as the earliest known woman to write a book in the English language. Almost nothing is known of her personal history beyond what she records in her text; she chose the enclosed life of an anchoress and devoted herself to prayer and theological reflection.
What does "all shall be well" mean in Julian's work?
The phrase appears in the Thirteenth Showing (Chapter 27 of the Long Text). Julian presents it as a direct assurance from God, addressed to the unresolved tension between the reality of sin and the possibility that all souls will be saved. She does not reconcile this with the Church's teaching on hell but holds it open as a mystery she trusts God will resolve — her position is one of confident unknowing rather than doctrinal assertion.