The Cloud of Unknowing  

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The Cloud of Unknowing (Middle English: The Cloude of Unknowyng) is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer in the late Middle Ages. The underlying message of this work suggests that the way to know God is to abandon consideration of God's particular activities and attributes, and be courageous enough to surrender one's mind and ego to the realm of "unknowing", at which point one may begin to glimpse the nature of God.

References in popular culture

• Leonard Cohen refers to The Cloud of Unknowing in the 1979 song "The Window" from Recent Songs
• James Blackshaw released an album in 2007 by the same name
• John Luther Adams' orchestral work Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing, completed in 1995, was inspired by The Cloud of Unknowing
• Steve Roach's album The Magnificent Void (1996) includes a track named "Cloud of Unknowing"
• J. D. Salinger's novel Franny and Zooey (1961) refers to The Cloud of Unknowing in a passage where the characters are discussing contemplative prayer.
• W. Somerset Maugham referenced The Cloud of Unknowing in The Razor's Edge.
• Todd Rundgren refers to The Cloud of Unknowing in the 1989 song "The Waiting Game" from Nearly Human
• Current 93's 1994 album, Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre, includes a song titled "The Cloud of Unknowing"
• In the album GHoSTYhead, Rickie Lee Jones' track 9 is titled "Cloud of Unknowing" © 1997 Reprise Records.
• In Don DeLillo's 1997 book, Underworld, Part 3 (of 6) is entitled "The Cloud of Unknowing: Spring 1978," and a character speaks about the book.
• Vasari Singers released an album in 2007 entitled "The Cloud of Unknowing" using texts from Biblical and poetic sources. This is an 89-minute eponymous oratorio [2005] by the British composer Francis Pott [b. 1957].
• The character Rev. Ames in Gilead (2004) by Marilynne Robinson refers to the book several times in an introspective journal/letter to his son.
• Gorillaz' 2010 album, Plastic Beach, includes a song titled "Cloud of Unknowing"
• Swans' 2016 album, The Glowing Man, includes two songs titled "Cloud of Forgetting" and "Cloud of Unknowing".
• Appears atop a stack of religious volumes on the desk of Rev. Ernst Toller in Paul Schrader's 2017 film First Reformed.