Patrick J. Gallacher – författare

This study explores the art of interpretation in works of history, art, music, and literature from the medieval period. The authors demonstrate that the search for meaning was a primary concern of medieval authors and that the history of medieval thought from Augustine to Aquinas and Ockham illustrates the dialectic of question and answer that is the foundation of hermeneutics. This study is the first to offer a diversity of hermeneutic approaches and themes in the context of medieval works.The study's interdisciplinary approach to the medieval works considered invites analysis from scholars and critics in all areas of medieval studies. The breadth of scope in addressing the art of interpretation in the various disciplines also provides a valuable general introduction to medieval culture.

Drawing on the writings of St. Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and other theologians across centuries of Christian mystical traditions, the anonymous, fourteenth-century spiritual guide known as The Cloud of Unknowing invites Christian readers to develop a stronger, more intimate relationship with God through intense contemplation and the abandonment of all mental images or concepts that are not God. Only after abandoning the intellect and the imagination can one then encounter a “nothing and a nowhere” that leads to the mysterious and unfathomable being of God himself, beyond the capacity of mental conception and without definitive image or form. Distilling a complex mystical theology and practice into engaging and approachable prose, The Cloud of Unknowing reflects a larger trend in medieval Christianity toward a more individual, passionate religious experience of God while achieving a directness and simplicity uncharacteristic of even the most popular examples of fourteenth-century Middle English mystical literature.