"Originally recorded in 1993, this is a remastered digital audio of BBC TV's Sister Wendy Beckett's narration of Dame Julian of Norwich's Christian Classic Revelations of Divine Love. This is an abridged version from the translation by M. L. del Mastro published by Burns and Oates.
Sister Wendy said, 'When I was at Oxford I studied Julian in the original and it made a great impression on me. My copy was a very small, leather bound book, and it had the lovely smell of sandalwood that old books sometimes have. Julian is forever associated in my mind with the smell of sandalwood, and I hope that a sandalwood smell comes across in this recording!'
Sister Wendy Beckett was a British religious sister and art historian who became well known internationally during the 1990s when she presented a series of BBC television documentaries on the history of art. Her programmes, such as Sister Wendy's Odyssey and Sister Wendy's Grand Tour, often drew a 25 percent share of the British viewing audience. In 1997, Sister Wendy made her US debut on public television and that same year The New York Times described her as 'a sometime hermit who is fast on her way to becoming the most unlikely and famous art critic in the history of television.'
Julian of Norwich (1343 – after 1416), also known as Dame Julian or Mother Julian, was an English anchorite of the Middle Ages. Revelations of Divine Love is the first written in English by a woman."
"On 8 May 1373, 30-year-old Julian of Norwich, sick and near death, had a series of visions of Christ. In these 16 visions she learnt about God's loving nature. God in Julian's visions was not angry and wrathful. Instead, the three properties of God were presented as life, love and light, and all of His creation was good, including his servant, Man. In Julian's version, Man is not to blame for his sin; instead it is something that he must experience and overcome in his spiritual journey with God. The version of Christian theology presented in Revelations of Divine Love - the first published book in English attributed to a woman - was highly liberal and incredibly progressive for its time. The book contains some of the most profound spiritual writing ever written and remains a perennial favourite among Christians."
"Julian of Norwich (c. November 8, 1342 - c. 1416) is considered to be one of the greatest English mystics. Little is known of her life aside from her writings. Even her name is uncertain, the name "Julian" coming from the Church of St Julian in Norwich, where she occupied a cell adjoining the church as an anchoress. At the age of thirty, suffering from a severe illness and believing she was on her deathbed, Julian had a series of intense visions. (They ended by the time she overcame her illness on May 13, 1373.) These visions would twenty years later be the source of her major work, called Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love (circa 1393). This is believed to be the first book written by a woman in the English language. Julian became well known throughout England as a spiritual authority. (Summary from Wikipedia)"
