The Cloud of Unknowing

The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous fourteenth century Middle English text of Christian contemplative mysticism, advocating an apophatic form of prayer that sets aside images and concepts of God in favor of a direct, unknowing encounter. As a primary text of the medieval Christian mystical tradition, it is the direct source for this specific strand of apophatic spirituality within Western Christianity, distinct from and earlier than later devotional writing that developed different emphases. Its limit is exactly its anonymity: nothing is known of its author beyond what internal evidence suggests, so questions about its author's training, influences or exact circle of readership cannot be answered from the text alone and remain matters of scholarly inference rather than settled biographical fact.