Anonymous, The Cloud of Unknowing

Rebecca Hill (Independent Scholar - North America)

Ed. by Jamie McKinstry, University of Durham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1350 - c. 1400

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Religion and Spirituality (any)
- Religious writing

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Produced in England in the second half of the fourteenth century, the

Cloud of Unknowing

is a Middle English devotional manual designed to teach an novice, or someone relatively new to a life of Christian devotion, how to achieve union with God by means of negative or apophatic theology. The anonymous author’s main tenet is that if one stops contemplating God’s manifestations, one may know him by surrendering to nothingness; in other words, one must quiet the mind in order to give way to the workings of the heart. Despite relying on some positive (kataphatic) language and imagery, the most salient of which is the cloud-piercing love-dart, to assist the reader in this achievement, both image and rationality collapse. Instead, love helps the novice merge with the divine. Though…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

3258 words

Citation: Hill, Rebecca. "The Cloud of Unknowing". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 July 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16094, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Anonymous, The Cloud of Unknowing

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback