Affection and Imagination in ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ and Hilton's ‘Scale of Perfection’

Abstract

How can a literary critic best approach texts which are living classics of religious literature? This question is being asked with increasing frequency by modern readers ofThe Cloud of Unknowingand Walter Hilton'sScale of Perfection. My own preference is for an historical-critical approach which, while recognising that these works are for all time, is concerned to relate them to the time in which they were written. It has recently been pointed out that certain studies of the English Mystics are marred by ‘the scholar's lack of adequate theological training to interpret the mystics’ teaching correctly,’ a defect which is particularly marked in the case of discussions of the influence of pseudo-Dionysius. As Colledge rightly says, before we can speak with certainty about the Dionysian elements in theCloudand theScale, ‘we need a clearer view of the Western medieval traditions which interpreted, glossed, and it may be distorted and exaggerated what the writer of theMystical Theologyhad in truth said.’ When this clearer view is attained, we shall be in a better position to understand more fully not only the theological content of our religious classics but also those facets of scholastic literary theory which crucially influenced their authors' attitudes to language and the way in which they wrote.