The Cloud of Unknowing

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

—

Title

The Cloud of Unknowing

Language

en

Book source

Global Grey

Description max 80 words

A timeless guide to contemplative prayer and spiritual surrender, offering a path beyond intellect toward union with the divine through love and humility. This medieval treatise instructs the soul to tread down distracting thoughts under a 'cloud of forgetting,' replacing intellectual striving with a 'blind intent' of longing love. Written with vivid humor and psychological insight, it presents a robust common-sense approach to mysticism, emphasizing that true spirituality requires active virtue and charity rather than passive quietism. Ideal for seekers...

Summary up to 500 words

In *The Cloud of Unknowing*, attributed to an anonymous 14th-century English monk and presented by Evelyn Underhill, the author addresses a 'ghostly friend' with a profound treatise on the contemplative life. The text explicitly warns against reading for the curious or the lettered, reserving its message for those genuinely called to seek God. The central argument posits that God cannot be grasped by reason, intellect, or ascetic practices like fasting and silence alone. Instead, the Divine is found through the 'Cloud of Unknowing,' a state of Divine Ignorance reached not by passive waiting, but by an active, loving will that chooses the Divine with a 'true lovely will.' The spiritual journey is depicted as a struggle against the 'cumbrous cloud' of created things that obstruct the soul's union with God. To ascend, the reader must actively 'tread down' all memories of creatures and sins under a 'cloud of forgetting.' This is not a lazy state; love cannot be idle. The work distinguishes between human effort—treading down distractions and cultivating virtues like meekness and charity—and the divine work of grace, which stirs love and ravishes the soul. Using vivid, homely language, the author illustrates complex Neoplatonic theology, drawing on friendship, parental love, and even the antics of 'giggling girls' to describe spiritual distractions. A perfect soul, according to the text, loves all humanity equally, viewing everyone as limbs of the Body of Christ. Consequently, a contemplative must love foes even more than friends when necessary for universal salvation, seeing no distinction between kin and stranger. The author warns against judging others, noting that notorious sinners may attain perfection sooner than the seemingly holy, a mercy that should humble the reader. The text concludes by likening the soul's progress to biblical figures: Moses, who saw the Ark only after long travail; Bezaleel, who crafted it through effort; and Aaron, who saw it frequently through grace and custom. Ultimately, the book serves as a manual for the 'sovereignest point of contemplative living,' achieved not by escaping the world, but by uniting the will so perfectly with God's that the soul finds rest in the Cloud of Unknowing.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

Download URL

https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/ebooks/evelyn-underhill_cloud-of-unknowing.epub

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Categories

• Religion
• Philosophy
• Spirituality