Summary
"Via negativa" by Patrick Modiano, translated from Albert the Great's "On Cleaving to God," argues that achieving spiritual perfection and closeness to God requires a process of divestment and internal focus. This involves "voluntary and counselled perfection" through renunciation of worldly things, including bodily and mental attachments, to approach God as Spirit through knowledge and love, stripped of imagery. The text emphasizes cultivating an "inner chamber" of the heart, disengaging from external distractions to achieve self-recollection and direct one's entire being—mind, desire, and love—towards God.
The book posits that love is the sharpest, most subtle, and penetrating force, naturally seeking unity with the beloved, which is God. This unitive and transforming power of love leads the lover to abandon all else to cleave to God alone. It defines deserts as a matter of will, with love itself being a "great will to serve God" and a "sweet desire to please God." The ultimate goal is to experience the "Now of eternity" and the "One Thing which the Lord calls necessary," achieved through "nakedness of mind and simplicity of heart."
Key concepts
- Voluntary and counselled perfection — A path to God through deliberate renunciation of worldly attachments.
- Inner chamber — A metaphor for the inner heart, where prayer and communion with God occur, away from sensory distractions.
- Unitive and transforming power of love — The force of love that makes the lover one with the beloved, in this case, God.
- Nakedness of mind — A state of mental clarity achieved by shedding imaginations and entanglements, allowing for direct communion with God.
- The One Thing — The essential spiritual focus, as described by Christ, which is necessary for a life devoted to God.
From the book
In fact everyone is obligated, to this loving cleaving to God as necessary for salvation, in the form of observing the commandments and conforming to the divine will, and the observation of the commandments excludes everything that is contrary to the nature and habit of love, including mortal sin. Members of religious orders have committed themselves in addition to evangelical perfection, and to the things that constitute a voluntary and counselled perfection by means of which one may arrive more quickly to the supreme goal which is God. The observation of these additional commitments excludes as well the things that hinder the working and fervour of love, and without which one can come to God, and these include the renunciation of all things, of both body and mind, exactly as one’s vow…
Popular questions readers ask
- Albert the Great describes "cleaving freely, confidently, nakedly and firmly to God alone." How would you explain each of these adverbs, and what specific challenges or disciplines might be required to embody them in practice according to this text?
- The text presents two levels of commitment: observing commandments for salvation, and additional commitments for evangelical perfection in religious orders. How would you explain to someone unfamiliar with Christian theology the distinct purposes and practices of these two paths, and why one is described as leading "more quickly to the supreme goal"?
- What does it mean to worship God "stripped of all images," as described in the text? If you were explaining this concept to a modern audience, what concrete examples or metaphors could you use to illustrate how one might achieve this state of "knowledge and love, that is, understanding and desire," free from mental constructs?
- The reference to Matthew 6:6, entering the "inner chamber" and "closing the door of your senses," is presented as a method for approaching God. How does this act of internal withdrawal facilitate the "abstraction from everything" and "recollection within himself" that Albert the Great emphasizes?
- The text suggests that "abstraction from everything" leads to "cleaving to God" with "yearning of love." How does detaching from worldly things, including renunciation of "both body and mind," paradoxically deepen one's capacity for love and sincerity towards the divine, rather than leading to an emptying of emotion?