In this book, Denys Turner explores the philosophical development of a number of theological metaphors central to the mystical traditions of medieval Christian West. These metaphors, of interiority, of light and darkness and of ascent, play a crucial role in defining the negative or apophatic style of mysticism, best known in the writing of the author of these metaphors from Augustine to John of the Cross, through Denys the Aeropagite, Hugh of St Victor, Thomas Gallus, Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, the Cloud author and Denys the Carthusian. He concludes that whereas the classical medieval tradition maintained a close connection between the metaphors and the negative dialectics of Neoplatonism, the contemporary reading of the tradition retrieves the metaphors but severs their relationship with the dialectics.