Despite the strange and distant nature of her life and subject-matter, the works of Julian of Norwich remain immediate and compelling. Her Revelations are recorded in two versions: the short text, or -first edition-, written near the time; and the better-known second version, which is both longer and more complex, completed some twenty years later. The short text, offering personal details edited out in her -second edition-, but which allow a better sense of Julian as a person, is presented here in translation. It includes also those chapters from the long text that describe Julian's doctrine...

A wholly feminine voice within Catholicism-they express the inexpressible better than any amount of rational thinking about God.' THE TIMESThe three women who are the subject of this fascinating study lefta rich legacy of medieval spirituality. Frances Beer explores their writings and draws on available historical evidence to bring the experience of all three women closer to a 20th-century audience. She sees Hildegard's perception of her Creator as informed by the heroic ideal, while Mechthild's erotic experience seems to show the influence of the minnesingers. Julian's experience of tender...