The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works

These four texts are at the heart of medival mystical theology in their call for contemplation, calm, and above all, love, as the way to understand the Divine.

Author:

Publisher: Penguin UK

ISBN: 9780141907598

Category: Religion

Page: 208

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Contains 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 contemplation, calm, and above all, love, as the way to understand the Divine.
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The Cloud of Unknowing

THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING and THE BOOK OF PRIVY COUNSELING are the first explorations in the English language of the soul’s quest for God.

Author: William Johnston

Publisher: Image

ISBN: 9780307809056

Category: Religion

Page: 208

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THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING and THE BOOK OF PRIVY COUNSELING are the first explorations in the English language of the soul’s quest for God. Written in Middle English by an unknown fourteenth-century mystic, THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING expresses with beauty a message that has inspired such great religious thinkers as St. John of the Cross and Teilhard de Chardin, as well as countless others in search of God. Offering a practical guide to the life of contemplation, the author explains that ordinary thoughts and earthly concepts must be buried beneath a “cloud of forgetting,” while our love must rise toward a God hidden in the “cloud of unknowing.” THE BOOK OF PRIVY COUNSELING, also included in this volume, is a short and moving text on the way to enlightenment through a total loss of self and a consciousness only of the divine. William Johnston, an authority on fourteenth-century mysticism and spirituality, provides an accessible discussion of the works, detailing what is known about the history of the texts and their author. In a new foreword, Huston Smith draws on his extensive knowledge of the varieties of religious experience to illuminate the relevance of these works for contemporary readers.
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The Cloud of Unknowing

See James Walsh, The Pursuit of Wisdom and Other Works by the Author of “The Cloud of Unknowing” (New York: Paulist Press, 1988), 66. Chapter 56 many who take it. For the gate is narrow and. 1 “They and their friends place too much ...

Author:

Publisher: Shambhala Publications

ISBN: 0834823667

Category: Religion

Page: 240

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This anonymous fourteenth-century text is the glory of English mysticism, and one of the most practical and useful guides to finding union with God ever written. Carmen Acevedo Butcher’s new translation is the first to bring the text into a modern English idiom—while remaining strictly faithful to the meaning of the original Middle English. The Cloud of Unknowing consists of a series of letters written by a monk to his student or disciple, instructing him (or her) in the way of Divine union. Its theology is presented in a way that is remarkably easy to understand, as well as practical, providing advice on prayer and contemplation that anyone can use. Previous translations of the Cloud have tended to veil its intimate, even friendly tone under medieval-sounding language. Carmen Butcher has boldly brought the text into language as appealing to modern ears as it was to its original readers more than five hundred years ago. Also included in the volume is the companion work attributed to the same anonymous author, The Book of Privy Counsel, which contains further advice for approaching God in a way that emphasizes real experience rather than human knowledge. To learn more about the author, visit her website: carmenbutcher.com
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The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Treatises The Epistle of Privy Counsel

Along with "The Cloud" were written six accompanying treaties. Chief among these is "Epistle of Privy Counsel" which is also reproduced in this text. "The Cloud" is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer.

Author: Justin McCann

Publisher:

ISBN: 1614275831

Category: Religion

Page: 252

View: 915

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2014 Reprint of 1952 Revised Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. "The Cloud of Unknowing" is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. Along with "The Cloud" were written six accompanying treaties. Chief among these is "Epistle of Privy Counsel" which is also reproduced in this text. "The Cloud" is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer. The underlying message of this work proposes that the only way to truly "know" God is to abandon all preconceived notions and beliefs or "knowledge" about God and be courageous enough to surrender your mind and ego to the realm of "unknowingness," at which point, you begin to glimpse the true nature of God. The book counsels a young student to seek God, not through knowledge and intellection (faculty of the human mind), but through intense contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought. This is brought about by putting all thoughts and desires under a "cloud of forgetting," and thereby piercing God's cloud of unknowing with a "dart of longing love" from the heart. This form of contemplation is not directed by the intellect, but involves spiritual union with God through the heart.
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Approaching Medieval English Anchoritic and Mystical Texts

6 Language and its Limits : The Cloud of Unknowing and Pearl A. C. SPEARING W : THEN I was a student reading English at Cambridge ... 2 The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works , translated with an introduction and notes by A. C. the ...

Author: Dee Dyas

Publisher: DS Brewer

ISBN: 1843840499

Category: Religion

Page: 213

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"Essays suggesting new ways of studying the crucial but sometimes difficult range of medieval mystical material"--Provided by publisher.
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The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Treatises

There is little more to be said about the teaching of the Cloud . The author , in this as in his other works , has one point and no ' more , and to this he keeps . All else in the book is concerned with its main work , either as ...

Author: Augustine Baker

Publisher:

ISBN: UOM:39015000582315

Category: Mysticism

Page: 406

View: 801

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The Cloud of Unknowing

... piercing this cloud of unknowing that is betwixt thee and Him; and show thee some of His privity, the which man may not, nor cannot speak," e o s Numerous copies of the Cloud of Unknowing and the other works attributed to its writer ...

Author: Evelyn Underhill

Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.

ISBN: 9781602064980

Category: Religion

Page: 164

View: 480

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"Unlike many mystics, who celebrate ecstasies, visions, voices, the scent of strange perfumes, [and] the hearing of sweet sounds, he believed that the key to a closer relationship with God required private thought and prayer, and the elimination of all other distractions. He distrusted psychic phenomena, believing they were the accidents rather than the substance of the contemplative life, and quite possibly the work of the Devil. He felt that such hallucinations led only to self-deception and brought the believer no closer to God. Humorous at times, and written in plain English, The Cloud of Unknowing is intended for the general reader, especially the beginner in contemplation unsure about how to overcome initial difficulties. British writer of prose and poetry EVELYN UNDERHILL (1875 1941) was a fellow of King s College for Women and King s College, and was the first woman to lecture to the clergy in the Church of England. Through her radio appearances and her stint as editor of the political magazine The Spectator, she was a familiar voice in British public life between the wars. She authored more than 30 books (some under the pseudonym John Cordelier), including Concerning the Inner Life and Radiance: A Spiritual Memoir."
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The Cloud of Unknowing

Numerous copies of the Cloud of Unknowing and the other works attributed to its writer are in existence. Six manuscripts of the Cloud are in the British Museum: four on vellum (Harl. 674, Harl. 959, Harl. 2373, and Royal 17 C. xxvii.) ...

Author: Anonymous

Publisher: e-artnow

ISBN: EAN:4064066500009

Category: Body, Mind & Spirit

Page: 171

View: 681

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The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer in the late Middle Ages. The underlying message of this work suggests that the way to know God is to abandon consideration of God's particular activities and attributes, and be courageous enough to surrender one's mind and ego to the realm of "unknowing", at which point one may begin to glimpse the nature of God.
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