The Cloud of Unknowing: A New Translation (Paperback)

~ (Translator)
Key Phrases: blind awareness, contemplative work, naked intent, The Cloud of Unknowing, The Book of Privy Counsel, Holy Church (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

About the Author

Carmen Acevedo Butcher is Associate Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Shorter College, Rome, Georgia, where she is also Scholar-in-Residence

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1 edition (April 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590306228
• ISBN-13: 978-1590306222
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,153 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Butcher opens a door for the non scholar, April 28, 2009

By	Wilson Hall PhD - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In her beautiful translation of The Cloud of Unknowing and Book of Privy Counsel, Dr. Carmen Butcher does what every good scholar should do from time to time: she writes a very readable, knowledgeable and probing book for the non scholar. This is not to say that her book is beneath the professional scholar. It is not. All of her ability as a scholar is obvious in the book. But she makes it clear in simple language how one goes about addressing and communicating with God, how one becomes aware of the presence of God, all in understandable, modern English. Whether the reader is a university Ph.D, minister or a workaday Christian, serious about his or her religion, all will find the book to be an excellent, carefully written translation.

For me personally, it was was one of those books that I have been seeking for years, but did not realize it until I had read the book's first few pages. Then I found it rich in ideas that I had confronted but had never heard articulated.

I recommend it highly for all who are interested in Christian thought and literature. When you put the book down, you will not be the same person who picked it up.

Wilson Hall, Ph.D.
Professor retired

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The answer to your troubles, big or small, April 29, 2009

By	Benjamin P. Mcfry - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having studied the Cloud of Unknowing and Book of Privy Counsel in the original Middle English and through its many subsequent translations, I confidently say that Dr. Carmen Butcher's is the most accessible book to the layman yet still retains all the mystique of the contemplative genre. Her introduction contextualizes this book both historically and in our own times, giving the reader an objective view of its place in the Middle Ages as well as a personal understanding of why this book is still so important to our daily lives and current times.

Many of us wish we could only strengthen our relationship with God and have sought numerous, often unfufilling methods for accomplishing that goal; however, this text is a spiritual guidebook for coming to know God in the only way He can be known, rendered in the most transparent language for a most mystical subject. I can say no more about the specifics of the text, and anyone who reads it will know why I cannot.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, April 25, 2009

By	Peter Faile (Ghana, West Africa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Carmen Butcher's exhaustive knowledge of Middle English, and her extensive etymological knowledge of Modern English supports her ability to write this beautiful, easily readable translation, which is both a pleasure to read, as well as extremely insightful into the contemplative practices.

I would recommend this to any laymen, clergy, ministers, scholars, and students who are serious about seeking and loving God, and only God, acknowledging their inability to "think their way to God."