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Work #85

Revelations of Divine Love

Julian of Norwich
May 1373 (the showings); short text c. 1380; long text c. 1395 (revised over twenty years) · Middle English
Visionary theological text in 86 chapters (long version) · English mystical tradition / fourteenth-century vernacular theology

All shall be well — Jesus as mother, sin as nothing of being, and the universe held in the divine love that is the hazelnut

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Revelations of Divine Love
Time · Extent Both
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Both
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Finite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Multiple
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Personal
Observer · Moral Authority Scripture
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Revelations of Divine Love

Time is the medium of providence. The "great deed" God will perform at the last day is real future fact, even where its content is hidden. All shall be well — past, present, future.

Space

Revelations of Divine Love

The hazelnut held in the palm is the universe — small, contained, sustained. Standard medieval Christian cosmology.

Matter

Revelations of Divine Love

Created good and sustained by divine love. Julian's celebration of embodied existence is one of the most affirmative in any medieval mystical text.

Observer

Revelations of Divine Love

Julian as observer is embodied, conscious of being one among many ("alle myne even-Christians"), plural in her solidarity with all the faithful. Agency is both — divine grace and human cooperation. Moral authority is scripture, mediated by Julian's lived showings.

Energy

Revelations of Divine Love

Divine love is the central energetic principle, sustaining all creation continuously.

Information

Revelations of Divine Love

God's knowledge is total and personal; the inscribed record of every life is in divine love. Personal information is conserved across death; the resurrection is bodily.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Revelations of Divine Love

Julian's confident "all shall be well" sits in tension with the Church's teaching on damnation, which she acknowledges (ch. 32–33) but never reconciles. Her reading of sin as having no positive being is in continuity with Augustine's privation theory but expressed with extraordinary tenderness. Modern readers have sometimes pulled Julian toward universalism in ways the text does not unambiguously support.