In this intriguing study, Justin M. Byron-Davies demonstrates that late medieval vernacular spiritual writing owed considerable, and still underacknowledged, debts to the defining work of Christian apocalypticism, the biblical Book of Revelation attributed to Saint John of Patmos. Working in an exegetical vein, Byron-Davies explores the influence of John's Apocalypse upon the poetics and theology of two canonical Middle English texts, Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Love and William Langland's Piers Plowman. A major strength of Revelation and the Apocalypse lies in its attention to the complex ends of apocalyptic thinking within Middle English religious writing. As Byron-Davies shows, Apocalypse foretold not only a final judgment for believers and nonbelievers alike, but also a new beginning, or repristination, instantiated in the New Jerusalem. This restoration completed the soteriological narrative of Christianity, from the Fall through the Redemption and beyond, and thus carried profound implications for how writers understood the nature of sin and the prospect of salvation.

Bracketed by an introduction and an epilogue, the book consists of four chapters divided between the two authors. In the introduction, Byron-Davies surveys medieval millenarian thought, focusing particularly on competing interpretations of Revelations 20, which describes Satan being bound for a thousand years after Christ's Resurrection until the end times would see him loosed again. One of the most influential interpreters of this passage, Augustine, read it allegorically; as an “amillennialist,” Byron-Davies writes, he considered the millennium already under way, with Christ currently at the head of the Church. For a postmillennialist such as Joachim de Fiore, by contrast, Christ's Second Coming constituted an imminent, prophesied phase of Church history. Julian of Norwich and William Langland present opportunities to explore the theological and literary implications of these two broad views across a shared historical context.

The book identifies several themes connecting Julian and Langland's interest in John's Apocalypse. First are the central theological questions of judgment and mercy: who will be saved at the end of time, and is Christ's sacrifice truly for everyone? Byron-Davies also interweaves discussion of revelation and authority, central to the visionary structures of both texts and to the gendered experience of Julian in particular. Finally, the study considers the “voicing of Apocalypse,” arguing that the kaleidoscopic drama of John's visions encourages a heteroglossic writing style, with Piers Plowman serving here as the primary example.

This brief review cannot do justice to the subtlety of Byron-Davies's theological engagement with Apocalypse and its undercurrents in the Revelations of Love and Piers Plowman. Chapters 1 and 2 present a convincing claim for reading Julian as an apocalyptic writer, deeply invested in the imagery as well as eschatology of Revelation. For Julian, Christ's Crucifixion and the Harrowing of Hell not only diminish Satan's power over humanity but undergird the essential optimism of her theology of universal salvation. In chapters 3 and 4, Byron-Davies looks to connect Langland's well-known poetic polyvocality to John of Patmos's self-styled role as scribe, recording the play of competing voices in his visions. The book employs Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia to theorize the mix of allegorical voices and language hierarchies across Piers Plowman. While the move to connect Langland's famously complex poetics to the temporal and linguistic asynchronies of Revelation is promising, the lack of engagement with the many recent, richly detailed studies in this area limits the persuasiveness of the discussion. Chapter 4 turns from poetics to genre, using allegorical dream vision to parse the enigmatic conclusion of the poem. Bryon-Davies argues that Langland, like Julian of Norwich, ultimately endorses a broadly liberal soteriology, in which Apocalypse theoretically offers salvation to the many rather than the chosen few.

Revelation and the Apocalypse in Late Medieval Literature unfolds as a close study of two writers’ engagement with the text of Revelation, and herein lies both its strengths and weaknesses. The book is densely argued, presuming a working knowledge of John's Apocalypse, as well as the Revelations of Love and Piers Plowman. Within this context, it offers subtle and often insightful readings of its texts. One wishes, however, for an occasionally broadened view, not just upon the other competing strains of apocalyptic thinking in late medieval England (engagement with the Revelations of Pseudo-Methodius would be useful, for example) but also upon the present field of Middle English studies, which is only selectively referenced throughout. As a searching theological study of two writers’ quest to reconcile God's mercy and judgment, however, Revelation and the Apocalypse offers the careful reader many rewards.