Julian of Norwich

<p>Julian of Norwich was a fourteenth-century woman who at the age of thirty had a series of vivid visions centred around the crucified Christ. Twenty years later while living as an anchoress in a church she is believed to have set out these visions in a text called the <em>Showing of Love</em>. </p><p>Going against the current trend to place Julian in the category of mystic - a classification which defines her visions as deeply private psychological events - this book sets Julian’s thinking in the context of a visionary project used to instruct the Christian community.</p><p>Drawing on recent developments in philosophy that debate the objectivity and rationality of vision and perception Kevin J. Magill gives full attention to the depth and richness of the visual language and modes of perception in the <em>Showing of Love</em>. In particular the book focuses on the ways in which Julian presented her vision to the Christian society around her demonstrating the educative potential of interaction between the ‘isolated’ anchoress and the wider community. </p><p>Challenging Julian’s identification as a mystic and solitary female writer this book argues that Julian engaged in a variety of educative methods – oral visual conversational mnemonic alliterative – that extend the usefulness of her text.</p>