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The Short Text of the Revelation of Love was finished by 1413 because it was so noted in its introduction, which named her and spoke of her as still alive in the Amherst Manuscript of the fifteenth century, now in the British Library. She is not named in the Tudor Westminster Manuscript. She is named in the colophon to the Elizabethan Brigittine Long Text manuscript produced in exile in the Antwerp region, now known as the Paris Manuscript. In the seventeenth century some manuscripts which were written out and preserved in the Cambrai and Paris houses of the English Benedictine nuns in exile cite her and three of these give her Long Text in full or in part, the two complete texts being in the British Library Sloane Collection. It is believed these nuns had a preserved manuscripts of Revelations' Long Text. The first printed version of the Revelations was available to the public in 1670, and was edited by Benedictine Serenus Cressy, but it was not well known until the twentieth century. Cressy's edition was reprinted in 1843, 1864, and again in 1902. However, it was Grace Warrack's 1901 version of the book with its "sympathetic informed introduction" which introduced most early twentieth-century readers to Julian. After this, Julian's name spread rapidly as she became a topic in many lectures and writings. In 1979 an annotated edition of Julian's work was published, and after this her book really took off. As a result Julian is now recognized as one of England's most important mystics.

Although she lived in a time of turmoil, Julian's theology was optimistic, speaking of God's love in terms of joy and compassion as opposed to law and duty. For Julian, suffering was not a punishment that God inflicted, as was the common understanding. She believed that God loved and wanted to save everyone. Popular theology magnified by current events including the Black Death and a series of peasant revolts assumed that God was punishing the wicked. In response, Julian suggested a far more merciful theology, which some say leaned towards universal salvation. Because she believed that behind the reality of hell is yet a greater mystery of God's love, she has also been referred to in modern times as a proto-universalist, though she herself never actually claimed more than hope that all might be saved. Even though her views were not typical, local authorities did not challenge either her theology or her authority to make such religious claims because of her status as an anchoress. However, the lack of mention of her work during her period may simply indicate that religious authorities did not count her worthy of refuting, since she did not have much power as a woman [citation needed].

Julian's philosophy on theology was unique in three aspects: her view of sin, her belief that God is all love and no wrath, and her view of Christ as mother.

Julian believed that sin was necessary in life because it brings one to self-knowledge, which leads to acceptance of the role of God in one’s life. Julian taught that humans sin because they are ignorant or naive, not because they are evil, which was the common reason given by the church for sin during the Middle Ages. Julian believed that in order to learn, we must fail, and in order to fail, we must sin. The pain that is caused by sin is an earthly reminder of the pain of the passion of Christ. Therefore, as one suffers like Christ did, they will become closer to Him by experiencing similar suffering.

Similarly, Julian saw no wrath in God. She believed wrath only existed in humans, but that God forgives us for this. She writes, “For I saw no wrath except on man’s side, and He forgives that in us, for wrath is nothing else but a perversity and an opposition to peace and to love”. Julian believed that it was inaccurate to speak of God granting forgiveness for sins because forgiving would mean that committing the sin was wrong. Julian preached that sin should be seen as a part of the learning process of life, not malice that should be forgiven. Julian writes in Revelations of Divine Love that God sees us as perfect and waits for the day when humans' souls mature so that evil and sin will no longer hinder one’s life.

Lastly, Julian’s theology was controversial in regard to her belief in God as mother. In her fourteenth revelation, she writes of the Trinity in domestic terms and compares Jesus to a mother who is wise, loving, and merciful. (See Jesus as Mother by Carolyn Walker Bynum.) Julian’s revelation revealed that God is our mother as much as He is our father. She believed that the maternal aspect of Christ was literal, not metaphoric; Christ is not like a mother, He is literally the mother. Julian believed that the mother’s role was the truest of all jobs on earth. She emphasized this by explaining how that bond between child and mother is the only earthly relationship that comes close to the relationship one can have with Jesus. She also connects God with motherhood in terms of (1) "the foundation of our nature's creation, (2) "the taking of our nature, where the motherhood of grace begins" and (3) "the motherhood at work" and speaks metaphorically of Jesus in connection with conception, nursing, labor, and upbringing.

The saying, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well", which Julian claimed to be said to her by God, reflects this theology. It is also one of the most individually famous lines in all of Catholic theological writing, and certainly one of the most well-known phrases of the literature of her era. It, along with "the ground of our beseeching" from the 14th Revelation, also appears in "Little Gidding", the fourth of the Four Quartets poems by T.S. Eliot:

Whatever we inherit from the fortunateWe have taken from the defeatedWhat they had to leave us...a symbol:A symbol perfected in death.And all shall be well andAll manner of thing shall be wellBy the purification of the motiveIn the ground of our beseeching.