Cloud of Unknowing

''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.

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 mystics, from John Scotus Eriugena, Nicholas of Cusa, and John of the Cross. Prior to this, the theme of ''The Cloud'' had appeared in the ''Confessions of St. Augustine'' (IX, 10) written in AD 398."Introduction", ''The Cloud of Unknowing'', (Patrick Gallacher, ed.) (TEAMS Middle English Texts Series, 1997)
/ref> Concerning the placement of ''The Cloud of Unknowing'' in the trends of the Catholic Church at the approximate time of its writing, the work joins a broader medieval movement within Christianity toward a religious experience of a more individual and passionate view of relationship with God.

The author is unknown. The English Augustinian mystic Walter Hilton has at times been suggested, but this is generally doubted. It is possible the author 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 length of the ''Cloud'', appears to be the author's final work, and clarifies and deepens some of its teachings.McGinn, Bernard. ''The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism'', (New York: Herder & Herder, 2012), pg. 396. 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. Experience, in keeping with the mystical tradition, is considered the ultimate means by which a Christian can and should relate to God, and the practice of contemplation in ''The Cloud'' is thus focused on the experience of God by the contemplative. This relationship between God and the contemplative takes place within continual conflict between the spirit and the physical. God is spirit in the purest sense; therefore, no matter how intense one's desire or how fervent one's love, the movement toward God by body-bound contemplatives will ever be halted by the cloud of unknowing that hides God from our understanding and prevents the fullest and truest experience of God's being. The object of the contemplative experience is to know God, as much as possible, from within this cloud of unknowing.

Contents

''The Cloud of Unknowing'' is written specifically to a student, and the author strongly commands the student in the Prologue, "do not willingly and deliberately read it, copy it, speak of it, or allow it to be read, copied, or spoken of, by anyone or to anyone, except by or to a person who, in your opinion, has undertaken truly and without reservation to be a perfect follower of Christ."

The book counsels the young student to seek God, not through knowledge and intellect (faculty of the human mind), but through intense contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought. Experience of a "cloud of unknowing" is introduced Chapter 3:

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:

As one pursues the beating of the cloud of unknowing as compelled by spiritual stirrings of love in the heart, the intellect and sinful stirrings will often pull the contemplative's focus away from God and back to the things of physical world and of the self. The author thus enjoins the contemplative to "vigorously trample on ny new thoughts or sinful stirringswith a fervent stirring of love, and tread them down beneath your feet. And try to cover them with a thick cloud of forgetting, as if they had never been done by you or anyone else on earth. ..Push them down as often as they rise."

The author draws a strong distinction in Chapters 16-22 between the active and contemplative Christian life. He illustrates the distinction by drawing heavily from the account of Mary and Martha in the Gospel of Luke, writing that " yMary all contemplatives are understood, so that they should model their way of life on hers; and similarly by Martha, all actives, with the same consequent resemblance." While the author holds Mary as the superior example in the passage as a "model for all of us ho seek to be contemplatives" he clarifies that Martha's activity in service to God was nonetheless "good and beneficial for her salvation" but not the best thing.

Chapter 23 of ''The Book of Privy Counseling'' glorifies experience over knowledge:

Chapters 39 and 40 recommend the focus on a single word as the means to invoke the fullness of God:

While the author presents many methods of his own for effective contemplation of God, he often leaves the teaching of method to God himself. In Chapter 40, for example, he advises a contemplative who is struggling with sin to " ..feel sin as a lump, you do not know what, but nothing other than yourself. And then shout continuously in spirit, 'Sin, sin, sin! out, out, out!' This spiritual shout is better learned from God by experience than from any human being by word."

While the practice of contemplation in ''The Cloud'' is focused upon the experience of spiritual reality by the soul, the author also makes some provision for the needs of the body, going so far as to say that care for the body is an important element of spiritual contemplation if only to prevent hindrance of its practice. He writes in Chapter 41:

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:

* ''Deonise Hid Divinity'', a free translation of the ''Mystical Theology'' by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. A vernacular translation of the ''Mystical Theology'' was unprecedented; however, it was clearly not widely read, since only two manuscripts survive.Bernard McGinn, ''The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism'', (New York: Herder & Herder, 2012), p398.
* ''A Letter of Prayer'' (''A Pistle of Prayer''), which survives in seven manuscripts.
Online
;
* ''A Letter of Discretion of Stirrings'' (''A Pistle of Discrecioun of Stirings'').


* It is possible, but doubtful, that he wrote ''A Treatise of Discernment of Spirits'' (originally titled ''A Tretis of Discrecyon of Spirites''), a free translation of ''Sermones di Diversis'' nos 23–24, by Bernard of Clairvaux,
Online
.
* It is possible, but doubtful, that he wrote ''A Treatise of the Study of Wisdom that Men Call Benjamin'' (also called ''Pursuit of Wisdom'', and, in its original, ''A Tretyse of the Stodye of Wysdome that Men Clepen Beniamyn''), an abbreviated and free translation of the ''Benjamin Minor'' by Richard of Saint Victor
Online
.

Manuscripts

''The Cloud of Unknowing'' has 17 known manuscripts. The two best known are British Library Harley MS 2373 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 the Benedictine monk Augustine Baker (1575–1641) wrote an exposition on its doctrine based on a manuscript copy in the library of the monastery of Cambrai in Flanders. The original work itself, however, was not published until 1877. English mystic Evelyn Underhill edited an important version of the work in 1922."Introduction", ''The Cloud of Unknowing'', (Evelyn Underhill, ed.) 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.''Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel'' (2006/1986). by Thomas Keating. Continuum International Publishing Group. paperback: , hardback: . 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.

References in popular culture

* Leonard Cohen refers to ''The Cloud of Unknowing'' in the 1979 song "The Window" from ''Recent Songs''
* James Blackshaw released an album in 2007 by the same name
* John Luther Adams' orchestral work ''Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing'', completed in 1995, was inspired by ''The Cloud of Unknowing''
* Steve Roach's album ''The Magnificent Void'' (1996) includes a track named "Cloud of Unknowing"
* J. D. Salinger's novel ''Franny and Zooey'' (1961) refers to ''The Cloud of Unknowing'' in a passage where the characters are discussing contemplative prayer.
*W. Somerset Maugham referenced ''The Cloud of Unknowing'' in ''The Razor's Edge''.
* Todd Rundgren refers to ''The Cloud of Unknowing'' in the 1989 song "The Waiting Game" from ''Nearly Human''
* Current 93's 1994 album, '' Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre'', includes a song titled "The Cloud of Unknowing"
* In the album GHoSTYhead, Rickie Lee Jones' track 9 is titled "Cloud of Unknowing" © 1997 Reprise Records.
* In Don DeLillo's 1997 book, ''Underworld'', Part 3 (of 6) is entitled "The Cloud of Unknowing: Spring 1978," and a character speaks about the book.
* Vasari Singers released an album in 2007 entitled "The Cloud of Unknowing" using texts from Biblical and poetic sources. This is an 89-minute eponymous oratorio 005by the British composer Francis Pott . 1957
* The character Rev. Ames in ''Gilead ''(2004) by Marilynne Robinson refers to the book several times in an introspective journal/letter to his son.
* Gorillaz' 2010 album, ''Plastic Beach'', includes a song titled "Cloud of Unknowing"
* Swans' 2016 album, ''The Glowing Man'', includes two songs titled "Cloud of Forgetting" and "Cloud of Unknowing".
*Appears atop a stack of religious volumes on the desk of Rev. Ernst Toller in Paul Schrader's 2017 film ''First Reformed.''

Editions

*Billy, Dennis J., CSsR (2014). ''The Cloud of the Unknowing'', Liguori Publications, Liguori, Missouri. ISBN 9780764-822889.
*
*
* ''The Cloud of Unknowing: And The Book of Privy Counseling'' (1944). ed., hyllis Hodgson Early English Text Society. Oxford University Press, hardback: .
* ''The Cloud of Unknowing'' (1957). translator, Ira Progoff. Dell/Doubleday. 1983 paperback: , 1989 paperback:
* (first edition, 1973)
*
* Translated by A. C. Spearing
* Translated by Clifton Wolters. Includes ''The Cloud of Unknowing'', ''The Epistle of Privy Counsel'', ''Dionysius' Mystical Teaching'', and ''The Epistle of Prayer''.
* Translated by James Walsh

Editions of related texts include
* ''Deonise Hid Divinite: And Other Treatises on Contemplative Prayer Related to The Cloud of Unknowing'' (1955). ed., Phyllis Hodgson. Early English Text Society. Oxford University Press, 2002 paperback: 0859916987
* ''The Pursuit of Wisdom: And Other Works by the Author of The Cloud of Unknowing'' (1988). translator, James Walsh. Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality. paperback: .

See also

*Apophatic theology (known also as the ''via negativa'')
*Lectio Divina

Notes

References

External links

The Cloud of Unknowing
read b
Carmen Acevedo Butcher


with analysis and bibliography
*

in Middle English, 2528 lines in 75 chapters on one html page
* John Watkins 192
London edition
with introduction by Evelyn Underhill
* John Watkins 1922, London edition, multiple format
CCEL
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cloud Of Unknowing
14th-century Christian texts
Visionary literature
Middle English literature
Neoplatonic texts
Works published anonymously
Roman Catholic mystics
English Catholic mystics
English Roman Catholics
Catholic spirituality
English religious writers
Middle English
English non-fiction books
14th-century English people
Works of unknown authorship

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