What if Julian of Norwich was Approached by Campus Evangelists?: A Conversation About Sin, Love, and Spiritual Coercion

Spiritual coercion doesn’t always show up as pressure or argument. More often, it comes disguised as urgency, scripted metaphors, or the assumption that someone else’s spiritual life must be corrected.

Many college students, like my daughter Lainey, encounter this type of well-meaning evangelism on campuses—conversations built on fear of separation rather than the freedom of belovedness. Her own response was to bring up Original Goodness to the student evangelists, an ancient truth she has intuitively known since she was a child. 

After she told me about the frustration of the conversation (see last week's blog), I thought of Julian of Norwich—a 14th-century English mystic and anchoress known for her radiant trust in God’s love and her famous assurance that “All shall be well.”

Living a cloistered life during a time of pandemic, political polarization, and social upheaval, people sought out Julian's wisdom. One of her windows overlooked a busy, main road where she would counsel and pray with people who stopped by her cell.

During a near-death illness, Julian had a series of visions (showings) which she later wrote down, as well as offered theological reflection on, called Revelations of Divine Love (Showings). They revealed a God who is endlessly near, never wrathful, and always moving toward healing rather than condemnation. 

So I wondered what it would have been like if the students on my daughter's campus approached Julian with their scripted evangelism! With my own theological thinking on Julian's life and Showings, the help of ChatGPT to add a little humor and framework, and permission from my daughter, I decided to write a script for that imagined encounter.

Scene: Pickleball courts near a college campus.

My freshman daughter, Lainey, has been invited by two evangelical students she has been hanging out with, to meet at the pickleball courts. She walks toward the courts—strawberry lemonade in one hand, paddle in the other—when she notices a medieval anchoress sitting peacefully beneath a tree. 

"Wow, is that Julian of Norwich? Just… sitting there?" she wonders with awe.
Drawn to her, Lainey takes a seat beside Julian, who brightens when she sees Lainey.
Both slip into conversation as though life-long friends. 

Evangelical Student #1 (brightly):
Hey, Lainey! Would your friend like to join us for pickleball?
Lainey (under her breath):
Here it comes.
Julian (smiling kindly):
Pickle… ball?
Is this a game involving brine?
Lainey (suppressing a laugh):
Close enough.
 
After some playing, everyone sits down under the tree on a blanket.
 
Student Evangelist #1:
Can we talk to you about God?
Julian (smiling):
My dear, I have talked of little else for forty years.
But please—do continue.
Lainey (aside):
Oh this is going to be good.
 
Student Evangelist #2:
This is really important, it’s about where you’ll spend eternity (she pulls out a pamphlet from her pickleball bag)
Julian (smiles kindly):
What troubles your heart so that eternity must be spoken in haste?
Student Evangelist #2:
I’m not troubled—just concerned for you.
See, God loves you, but because of your sin, you’re separated from Him…
Julian (tilting her head with maternal amusement):
Separated? Oh, child.
I have seen that “between God and the soul there is no between.”
We may feel lost, yes--
but that is our fog, not God’s distance.
Lainey (sipping her drink, nodding):
She’s not wrong.
 
Student Evangelist #1:
Right, well, according to the Bible, everyone is sinful and separated from God--
Julian (gently interrupts):
Ah. You speak of separation as though it were the truest thing about us.
But child, love is the first truth.
Student Evangelist #1 (persisting):
Well, yes—God loves us, but people are sinful by nature. That’s why we need salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice. Jesus is the only way to bridge the great chasm between you and God (pointing to the two sides of separation in her pamphlet).
Julian:
Chasm?
Dear one, the only chasm I have seen lately
is the gap between your pamphlet and the vastness of divine love.
Student Evangelist #1 (blinks):
So… you think you’re already close to God?
Julian:
I think God could not be closer to any of us
if God tried.
And God does not need to try.
 
Student Evangelist #1 (looks over at Lainey):
But what do you believe?
Like, about sin?
Lainey:
I believe in Original Goodness. It’s God’s point of view.
Original Sin is the human one.
Julian (beaming):
Ah! Here is a theologian of divine courtesy!

Student Evangelist #2:
If you believe in Original Goodness, that’s a problem.
Again, we all start sinful.
Julian:
I like to begin where God begins.
And God begins with delight.
I have never heard God say,
“Let us start with depravity.”
Lainey (murmuring):
Preach.
 
Student Evangelist #2:
Maybe this will help (takes off her ring and puts it on her palm), This ring is you. (covers it with other hand) And my hand is sin. This is what God sees when God looks down at you—you being covered by sin. This is why you need Jesus.
 Julian (with compassion): Ah, dear one… you speak from a teaching meant to stir urgency and fear, but it does not speak the truth my Lord showed me.
(Lifting the ring from the evangelist’s palm and replacing it with a hazelnut)

Student Evangelist #2 (staring at the round nut in her palm): 
What is this?
Julian (smiling): I asked the same of the Lord in my vision! Well, I knew it was a hazelnut but I wanted to know what teaching this hazelnut held. His response?—"It is all that is made." And the Inner Voice of Love went on: "It lasteth, and ever shall, because God loveth it." 
Lainey (whispering to Julian): Can you put that into 21st century English? 
Julian (whispers back): Indeed! My apologies.

Julian holds up her palm with the ring and points to the hazelnut in the palm of Student Evangelist #2

Julian: Whether ring or hazelnut, notice the holding. Thus is the soul! 
When God looks upon the soul, He does not see a thing covered in sin.
He sees His beloved creation.
I was shown through the hazelnut that all is made, loved, and kept by God.
From the beginning, it was shaped in love, held in love, and never separated from love.

Student Evangelist #1: But what about sin? 
Julian: Sin may trouble us, but it does not hide us from God nor hide God from us.
He does not look through sin to see you.
He looks at you with love—and because He looks with love,
He heals what harms you.

Lainey: So maybe we could say that Jesus does not remove a barrier so God can see us.
He reveals the truth that God has never looked away.
(pointing to the ring and hazelnut) God still holds and loves us.
 
Julian enthusiastically nods "yes" with a twinkle in her eye.

Jesus does not remove a barrier so God can see us.
He reveals the truth that God has never looked away.

Student Evangelist #2 (a little thrown):
But don’t you worry about whether you’re saved?
Julian:
No, dear heart.
For my salvation rests not in my certainty,
but in God’s unchanging love.

Student Evangelist #2 (turning to Lainey):
Well, if you just prayed this prayer, right now, you could be sure you’re saved and going to church is part of staying in relationship with God so we can help you with the church part, too.
Lainey:
Really I’m good. I'm not worried.
I know that God loves me at least as much as my family does, which is a lot!
And I FaceTime with my them on Sundays for reflection and prayer.
Student Evangelist #2:
That… doesn’t count.
Julian (squinting kindly):
Does not… count?
Is the Lord keeping score now?
Does God sit above with a tally:
“FaceTime prayer—one point only”?
My dear, the Lord has no use for your accounting system.
Lainey (laughing):
Julian, I just love you.
 
Julian turning to both Student Evangelists:
Tell me, children—who taught you that God is so hard to please?
Student Evangelists (quiet now):
I… I guess I don’t know any other way.
Julian (softly):
Then hear this once more:
Before ever we were made,
we were loved.
Our Maker is our Mother,
our Keeper,
our endless Home.
He will never be wroth, 
and never shall be.
Lainey: "Wroth" means "wrathful," by the way. 
Julian: Whoops, slipping into Middle English mode again!

Student Evangelist #1:
So… you’re saying I don’t need to convince people they need to be saved from a wrathful God?
Julian:
No, it's "Revelations of Divine Love" we're to share
So share love as freely as God shares it with you.
But never press a soul by force.
God works in all things with gentleness and joy.

Student Evangelist #2:
I’ve never heard God talked about like that.
Julian:
Then perhaps this meeting was needful for you.
And all shall be well, dear one--
not by your striving,
but by God’s tender keeping.

Student Evangelist #1:
Well… we just want to make sure you’re not deceived.
Julian:
Deception usually arrives with fear, urgency, and scripts.
Love arrives quietly.
​
Student Evangelist #1:
So you don’t think we’re doing the Lord’s work?
Julian (gently):
You are doing your best with what you have been taught.
But the Lord’s work is never done by force,
or by ambush tactics meant to trap lonely freshmen with sports involving pickles.
Lainey:
Thank you. And she means pickleball.
 
Julian (to both student evangelists):
Now go on, children.
Your calling is simply to love,
listen,
and let God be God.
And all shall be well.
And all shall be well.
And all manner of thing shall be well.
 
Lainey (grinning at Julian):
Can you come to campus more often?