This session will explore the works of the anonymous fourteenth-century author of the Cloud of Unknowing. Written as an instruction manual for contemplative prayer, the Cloud guides a disciple through the author’s ‘apophatic’ or negative practice that he terms ‘unknowing’. The intention of this practice is to empty the mind of ‘all created things’, and place them ‘under the cloud of forgetting’; it is only in this emptiness and this darkness that the disciple may be able to encounter God. The session will fall into four parts: first, we will discuss what little we know about the Cloud-author—where and when he might have written, and which monastic order (if any) he may have belonged to. Secondly, we will look at the inventive, idiosyncratic, and often paradoxical ways that the Cloud-author uses language and metaphor to render the ineffable. Thirdly, we will focus on his monosyllabic method of prayer, for which he is perhaps most famous. Finally, we will turn to some of his other, shorter texts, to see how he responded to criticism about the difficulty of the practice that he teaches.

About the tutor

Rebecca Field is Research Fellow in Medieval Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge. She completed her PhD at Corpus Christi College Cambridge in 2023. She holds an MPhil in Medieval and Renaissance Literature from the University of Cambridge, and a BA in English Literature from the University of Oxford. She is currently working on a monograph entitled ‘Contemplative Apprenticeship’, which explores pedagogic models for contemplative practice in the Cloud of Unknowing and related texts. She has published on medieval rhetoric and pedagogy, and the role of sound in medieval contemplation. When not writing about mysticism, she conducts practice-led research on medieval manuscript illumination, and her first poetry collection, entitled Silvestris, was published earlier this year.

About the English Mystics Series

The Christian mystical tradition is vibrant and international. It brings a wide range of voices to our attention and shares insights about God (and our relationship with God) from their positions – often on the margins. Many of the key voices and texts from this tradition come from relatively far away – Francis of Assisi and his followers from Italy, Meister Eckhart from Germany, or Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross from Spain. But England also has a vibrant and rich mystical tradition. Many scholars have identified five “English mystics” all from the 14th century. In this series we will consider three of these figures and then two later mystics from England.

Each session will consist of an introductory lecture by an expert on the English mystic in question. After a short break we will then have a Q&A session with the speaker.

This series is jointly organised by Sarum College and the Church Times, and a list of discounted books from Church House Bookshop will be made available relevant to each webinar. The webinars will be recorded and made available to view after the live webinar for 30 days.

Schedule and speakers

26th January — Margery Kempe with Hetta Howes

23rd February — Richard Rolle with Tim Glover

30th March — The Cloud of Unknowing with Becky Field

27th April — William Blake with Mark Vernon

25th May — Evelyn Underhill with Jane Shaw