Abstract
The thesis attempts a portrait of The Cloud in the context of its
position in the history of Christian mysticism. That the
anonymous work owed much to spiritual writers of the preceding
twelve hundred years is not debatable; what it owed maybe
slightly less obvious. The Cloud is essentially a work of
Dionysian mysticism, and various writers within that tradition
who may have influenced or affected the teaching of The Cloud are
examined. At the same time, however, the anonymous writer owes
much to the western tradition of Augustinian theology, and the
role of this, complementary to the Dionysian mysticism, is also
considered. In Chapter II we look at the theological doctrine
underlying the mystical doctrine of the Cloud corpus. Chapter
III has two major parts, both concerned with the influence of
The Cloud on the subsequent development of spiritual writing in
England. The first considers the relationship with Walter
Hilton. The second examines aspects of Puritan thought which may
indicate that the influence of The Cloud, after the Reformation,
was not restricted to Catholic thought.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/