We seldom come across a piece of literature that has remained anonymous over the years. So, let’s begin with the later, and probably lesser-known, book. This topic that each work treats-Christianity and knowledge-renders chronological sequence unnecessary, moreover. These texts have struck me as fitting together nicely in their themes, but also contrasting one another significantly in how they present the role of knowledge in Christianity. The second, the better-known 6 th century text, Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy, will be the topic of my next essay. Two works will be introduced under this theme of the “two ends of knowledge.” The first, a 14 th century text known as The Cloud of Unknowing, will be discussed and analyzed in this installment. The anonymous author, a cloistered monk, is not priggish, nor is it his goal to inculcate an excessively holy attitude on his readers. The 14th-century work of Christian mysticism, “The Cloud of Unknowing,” represents the first expression in English of that great mystic tradition of the Christian Neoplatonists that combined the spiritual wisdom of the ancient world with Christianity.
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