Summary
This work focuses on the "cloud of unknowing," a spiritual state that lies between the individual and God, which can only be apprehended through love, not thought. The central argument is that to reach God, one must abandon intellectual striving and willful remembrance of earthly or even spiritual things, instead directing one's love towards this divine obscurity. This process involves actively forgetting all things that press against one's will, including memories of God’s kindness or even the Passion of Christ, in favor of a simple, devout stirring of love that seeks to pierce the darkness.
A reader learns that true spiritual progress requires a detachment from conventional understanding and a reliance on a grace-given feeling. This approach to contemplation distinguishes active living from contemplative living by emphasizing the inadequacy of natural wit and intellectual knowledge. The text argues that God can be loved and held, but not thought, and that persistent striving to recall specific divine attributes or experiences actually hinders, rather than aids, the journey towards experiencing God's love. The ultimate aim is to hang one's love and desire in this cloud, learning to love what cannot be clearly seen or fully felt by the intellect or affections.
Key concepts
- Cloud of Unknowing — A spiritual state between the individual and God, apprehended by love rather than thought.
- Naked Remembrance — A remembrance of any thing that is not God, which presses against one's will and hinders closeness to God.
- Cloud of Forgetting — The concept of actively casting down and covering intellectual thoughts and specific memories with a cloud.
- Sharp Dart of Longing Love — The tool used to pierce the darkness of the cloud of unknowing with intense desire.
- Degrees and Parts of Active Living and Contemplative — The distinction between the active life and the contemplative life within spiritual practice.
From the book
Title: Cloud Nine (album, 1987) by George Harrison← The Cloud of Unknowing ( 1922 ) translated by Evelyn Underhill Introduction → 4564063 The Cloud of Unknowing 1922 Evelyn Underhill A BOOK OF CONTEMPLATION THE WHICH IS CALLED THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING, IN THE WHICH A SOUL IS ONED WITH GOD Edited from the British Museum MS. Harl. 674 With an Introduction BY EVELYN UNDERHILL SECOND EDITION London JOHN M. WATKINS 21 Cecil Court, Charing Cross Road 1922 Introduction Glossary Prayer on the Prologue Prologue Table of the Chapters Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25…
Popular questions readers ask
- What are the "four degrees of Christian men's living" described in Chapter 1, and how would you explain their progression and purpose to someone completely unfamiliar with the text?
- How does the description of these "four degrees" in Chapter 1 conceptually prepare the reader for the overarching theme of "The Cloud of Unknowing" and the idea of a soul being "oned with God"?
- The text states that three degrees "may be begun and ended in this life," while the "fourth may by grace be begun here, but it shall ever last without end." What are the significant spiritual implications of this distinction for understanding the nature of Christian "perfection" according to this work?
- Considering Evelyn Underhill's 1922 translation of this ancient text, what might have been the particular relevance or appeal of reintroducing a structured path to contemplation, involving stages from "Common" to "Perfect," to a 20th-century audience?
- If the "everlasting love of His Godhead" calls an individual from the "common degree," what challenges or specific shifts in focus might one anticipate in moving through the "Special" and "Singular" stages toward the "Perfect," based on this initial insight?