Synopses & Reviews
In the fourteenth century there was a great flourishing of religious writings in English, both orthodox and heretical. Many of these works focused on Christ's Passion and humanity, whereas
The Cloud of Unknowing describes an abstract, transcendent God beyond human knowledge and human language. Drawing upon radically different traditions, it is a rich work full of intriguing contradictions that speaks to us with liveliness and wit even today. The unknown author, thought to be a priest and Carthusian monk, is also believed to have written the other three works in this volume:
The Mystical Theology of Saint Denis,
The Book of Privy Counselling, and
An Epistle on Prayer, which, together with
The Cloud of Unknowing, are the four texts at the core of medieval mystical theology.
This Penguin Classics edition includes full explanatory notes, suggestions for further reading, an appendix that reproduces the Middle English text of a section of The Mystical Theology of Saint Denis, and an introduction that places the texts within the context of medieval religious writing.
Synopsis
This collection includes The Cloud of Unknowing, The Mystical Theology of Saint Denis, The Book of Privy Counselling, and An Epistle on Prayer. Against a tradition of devotional writings which focussed on knowing God through Christ's Passion and his humanity, these texts describe a transcendent God who exists beyond human knowledge and human language. These four texts are at the heart of medival mystical theology in their call for contion, calm, and above all, love, as the way to understand the Divine. This collection includes The Cloud of Unknowing, The Mystical Theology of Saint Denis, The Book of Privy Counselling, and An Epistle on Prayer.
About the Author
A. C. Spearing is professor of English at the University of Virginia. He has published widely on medieval literature and edited Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love for Penguin Classics.
Table of Contents
The Cloud of Unknowing Acknowledgments Introduction Further Reading Note on the Text The Mystical Theology of St. Denis The Cloud of Unknowing The Book of Privy Counselling An Epistle on Prayer Notes Appendix: Middle English text of The Mystical Theology of St. Denis, chapter 2 |