Cloud of Unknowing

[DBT]

The words “not for beginners” is not there but such is to be understood from the context.

The author makes the point in his prologue is that it is for those (in addition to other things he mentions) who really are very committed to following Christ and have set at full steam towards virtue and who have for a long time been doing all in their ability to live in virtue…

…and he stresses not to read it to or give it to etc any except such that one believes are doing such.

This is just an FYI for whoever might be interested (I know I’m beating a dead horse). From Chapter 1 of The Cloud of Unknowing … the author speaking directly to his student and setting the stage for all that follows:

Is there more? Yes, for from the beginning I think God’s love for you was so great that his heart could not rest satisfied with this (remaining at a “lower level” of Christian life). What did he do? Do you not see how gently and how kindly he has drawn you on to the third way of life, the Singular? Yes, you live now at the deep solitary core of your being, learning to direct your loving desire toward the highest and final manner of living which I have called Perfect.

Readers can decide for themselves whether this description is consistent with the notion of beginners.

The author, imo, makes clear here and elsewhere that he has in mind the mature Christian … one devoted to a life of prayer, self-denial and the practice of virtue. Yet, at the same time, contemplation (even in the acquired sense) is not held out as something esoteric or solely for the elite (as if there were such a thing). Quite the contrary … it is available to all. But the desire has to be awakened. And we can see with whom the author of The Cloud thinks this awakening typically occurs.

Much as in the teaching of St. Teresa and her mansions, we proceed to by degrees to a more simple way of prayer. These are who can be considered “ready.”

Dave

 

[notself]

Here is an online copy of the Cloud. Everyone can read the prologue and decide for yourselves what it says.

catholicspiritualdirection.org/cloudunknowing.pdf

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Here is an online copy of the Cloud. Everyone can read the prologue and decide for yourselves what it says.

catholicspiritualdirection.org/cloudunknowing.pdf

That’s a difficult translation.

I have the version edited by William Johnston. It’s in modern day English.

Jim

 

[AlanFromWichita]

Please see the following reference to Cloud of the Unknowing (highlight added) as a Catholic mystical text that is at times incorrectly imitated:

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19891015_meditazione-cristiana_en.html

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION*

October 15, 1989

…

1. With the present diffusion of eastern methods of meditation in the Christian world and in ecclesial communities, we find ourselves faced with a pointed renewal of an attempt, which is not free from dangers and errors, to fuse Christian meditation with that which is non-Christian. Proposals in this direction are numerous and radical to a greater or lesser extent. Some use eastern methods solely as a psycho-physical preparation for a truly Christian contemplation; others go further and, using different techniques, try to generate spiritual experiences similar to those described in ***the writings of certain Catholic mystics.***13
   …

Footnote 13: “See, for example, The Cloud of Unknowing, a spiritual work by an anonymous English writer of the fourteenth century.”