8.6 /10 1 Votes
Author | 4.3/5 Goodreads Country England Publication date Late 14th century | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Original title The Cloude of Unknowyng Subject Spiritual guide to contemplative prayer Similar Spirituality books, Philosophy books, Prayer books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Cloud of Unknowing (Middle English: The Cloude of Unknowyng) is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer in the late Middle Ages. The underlying message of this work suggests that the way to know God is to abandon consideration of God's particular activities and attributes, and be courageous enough to surrender one's mind and ego to the realm of "unknowing", at which point one may begin to glimpse the nature of God.
Contents
Into the cloud of unknowing
History
The Cloud of Unknowing draws on the mystical tradition of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Christian Neoplatonism, which focuses on the via negativa road to discovering God as a pure entity, beyond any capacity of mental conception and so without any definitive image or form. This tradition has reputedly inspired generations of mystical searchers from John Scotus Erigena, Nicholas of Cusa, and John of the Cross, to Teilhard de Chardin (the latter two of whom may have been influenced by The Cloud itself). Prior to this, the theme of The Cloud had been in the Confessions of St. Augustine (IX, 10) written in AD 398.
The author is unknown. The English Augustinian mystic Walter Hilton has at times been suggested, but this is generally doubted. It is possible he was a Carthusian priest, though this is not certain.
A second major work by the same author, The Book of Privy Counseling (originally titled Prive Counselling), continues the themes discussed in the Cloud. It is less than half the size of the Cloud, appears to be the author's final work, and clarifies and deepens some of its teachings. In this work, the author characterizes the practice of contemplative unknowing as worshiping God with one's "substance," coming to rest in a "naked blind feeling of being", and ultimately finding thereby that God is one's being.
Description
The book counsels a young student to seek God, not through knowledge and intellection (faculty of the human mind), but through intense contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought. This can be seen as an antithesis to the school of scholasticism common in Roman Catholic teaching from the 11th century onwards, and more inline with Orthodox Christian philosophy. This is brought about by putting all thoughts and desires under a "cloud of forgetting", and thereby piercing God's cloud of unknowing with a "dart of longing love" from the heart. This form of contemplation is not directed by the intellect, but involves spiritual union with God through the heart:
Quotations
From a description of how to practise contemplation (from chapters 39 and 40):
When we intend to pray for goodness, let all our thought and desire be contained in the one small word "God." Nothing else and no other words are needed, for God is the epitome of all goodness.. Immerse yourself in the spiritual reality it speaks of yet without precise ideas of God's works whether small or great, spiritual or material. Do not consider any particular virtue which God may teach you through grace, whether it is humility, charity, patience, abstinence, hope, faith, moderation, chastity, or evangelical poverty. For to a contemplative they are, in a sense, all the same.. Let this little word represent to you God in all his fullness and nothing less than the fullness of God.
From elsewhere (chapter 23, The Book of Privy Counseling):
Other works by the same author
In addition to The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counseling, the Cloud author is believed to be responsible for a few other spiritual treatises and translations, including:
Manuscripts
The Cloud of Unknowing has 17 known manuscripts. The two most well known are British Library MS Harleian 674 and Cambridge University Library Kk.vi.26. These contain all seven of the works attributed to the Cloud author, the former extensively glossed in Latin. Another important manuscript is British Library Harleian 2373, which contains all but Deonise Hid Divinity.
Later influence
Given its survival in only seventeen manuscripts, The Cloud of Unknowing was not as popular in late medieval England as the works of Richard Rolle or Walter Hilton, perhaps because the Cloud is addressed to solitaries and concentrates on the advanced levels of the mystical path. Two Latin translations of the Cloud were made in the late fifteenth century. One was made by Richard Methley, a Carthusian of the Charterhouse of Mount Grace in Yorkshire, and finished in 1491. The other is anonymous. Neither, however, enjoyed wide dissemination.
This work became known to English Catholics in the mid 17th century, when later ascetic and Benedictine mystic, Augustine Baker (1575–1641), wrote an exposition on its doctrine (today a transcript of this version of the work dated 1677 is at Ampleforth College). The original work itself, however, was not published until 1877. English mystic Evelyn Underhill edited an important version of the work in 1922.
The work has become increasingly popular over the course of the twentieth century, with nine English translations or modernisations produced in this period. In particular, The Cloud has influenced recent contemplative prayer practices. The practical prayer advice contained in The Cloud of Unknowing forms a primary basis for the contemporary practice of Centering Prayer, a form of Christian meditation developed by Trappist monks William Meninger, Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating in the 1970s. It also informed the meditation techniques of the English Benedictine John Main.
The contemplation method urged in The Cloud is similar to Buddhist meditation and modern transcendental meditation. For example, the last paragraph of chapter 7 says:
If you want to gather all your desire into one simple word that the mind can easily retain, choose a short word rather than a long one. A one-syllable word such as "God" or "love" is best. But choose one that is meaningful to you. Then fix it in your mind so that it will remain there come what may. This word will be your defence in conflict and in peace. Use it to beat upon the cloud of darkness above you and to subdue all distractions, consigning them to the cloud of forgetting beneath you.
Popular culture
Editions
Editions of related texts include