Unknowable in Early Modern Thought

Kevin Killeen is Professor in English and Early Modern Literature at the University of York. He is the author, most recently, of The Political Bible in Early Modern England (2017)

"Killeen's work brims with smart scholarship, sharp writing, and surprising discoveries. Deftly threading together the scientific and the mystical, the empirical and the unknowable, this remarkable book provides a new view of science, theology, and the literary forms tying them together."—Jess Keiser, Tufts University "Killeen corrects overly triumphant histories of science, where the new empiricism tames the old vitalism through reason, experiment, et cetera. This is an original book, eccentric in places, which is part of its charm, and full of stylistic flair."—Ryan J. Stark, Corban University "This new book is quite extraordinary, which I highly recommend.... Unique is a word that can describe Killeen's book. Many writers of the past wrote entire books about matters that were unknowable. Why they even bothered is the question that immediately comes to mind. This book answers that question."—Cliff Cunningham, Sun News Austin "For many decades now, literary critics and intellectual historians have traced the afterlife of medieval Catholic meditation in Protestant England. This fascinating new book aims to start the same conversation around another discipline generally associated with medieval Catholicism: apophatic theology."—Katie Calloway, H-Albion "Kevin Killeen's The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought: Natural Philosophy and the Poetics of the Ineffable offers a rich study of the unknowable—and related ideas of the unfathomable, inexpressible, ineffable, and unthinkable—which served as a generative resource for a wide range of seventeenth-century thinkers."—Debapriya Sarkar, Modern Philology "This book should come with a warning: read with care, as severe fits of dizziness and general existential disorientation may ensue. Dizziness, or vertigo (to use a recurring term in this book), indeed lies at the heart of Killeen's remarkably energetic foray into the intractable realms of the unknowable The strength of Killeen's argument is precisely that he allows the reader to remain grounded in solid scholarship and the comforting outlines of facts even as the vistas of the various chapters whirl the imagination into impossible conceptual and poetic mindscapes.... It is an important work of impressive scholarship and brilliant critical insight... the book's singular triumph, both as an important intellectual and cultural history and as first-rate literary criticism."—Noam Reisner, Milton Quarterly

• Introduction1. The Jobean Apophatic and the Symphonic Unknowability of the World2. The Theopoetics of Jacob Boehme3. Thomas Browne's Poetics of the Unspeakable4. The Bewildering Surface from Boyle to Cavendish5. Anna Trapnel's Aesthetics of Incoherence6. Miltonic Vertigo and a Theology of DisorientationEpilogue: Ordinary and Exquisite Bafflement