Like Thomas À Kempis's The Imitation of Christ, The Cloud of Unknowing springs from an age when European mysticism was in full flower. Its author was probably an English country parson of the late fourteenth century; but his exact identity remains unknown. The book's main theme is that God can- not be apprehended by man's intellect, and that only love can pierce the 'cloud of unknowing' which lies between them. Its charm and serenity have always ensured it a place among the de- votional classics of the Church.