PEEKING THROUGH THE CLOUD

The Cloud of Unknowing: A Book Review

Janina Angeli M. Magundayao

(in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for Philosophy 111 [Medieval Philosophy])

Submitted to Dr. Mark Joseph Calano

September 2009
 Towards the end of the medieval period of philosophy, the views and thoughts
about how to reach God – about how to come to know God and about how to
comprehend God – is taking a radical shift. In the earlier parts of the medieval period
(and of the flourishing of Christianity), thinkers (philosophers, monks, priests, and
contemplatives alike) have been busying themselves with trying to prove the existence of
God by means of reason. With this attempt to prove the existence of God is the laying
down of the different notions of God, including his nature and characteristics. If I am
not mistaken, the earlier eras of the medieval world (which includes not only
philosophy, but the different sides and angles of the society which are directly or
indirectly, affected by the influences of the Holy Church) postulate that God can only be
known through His Holy Church, as described and preached by the clergy. However,
treatises and thoughts of the latter thinkers suggest that God cannot be known through
rational means and that God, in his infinite perfection and infinite greatness, cannot be
comprehended by our finite minds. Because of this, mysticism, or the belief that we can
be one with God through a direct experience of God, began to flourish and it is in this
era that the book, The Cloud of Unknowing, was written.

The Cloud of Unknowing: General Information

Coming from a mid-14th century (1375, to be precise), English monk who refused
to grace his masterpiece with the glory of having a named author, The Cloud of
Unknowing is a remarkable find. The Cloud is consisted of seventy-five (75) concise
chapters, with each chapter dealing with a specific topic ranging from the degrees of
Christian living and the purpose of which the book was written, to the details of how the
work of the book is to be carried out – the errors commonly committed by those who
undertake the work of this book and the ways to determine whether you are going down
the right path to achieve the goal of this book – to the verification of whether a man is
called to dedicate his life to the work explained by the book. Basically, the book is a
complete-in-itself guidebook – everything you need to know is given at the very time
you need to know them – for those who truly seek God in high hopes of being one with
Him. This is the very reason why the book is regarded as mystic.

According to the introductory commentary of the translator, Dr. Ira Progoff, the
original text of The Cloud of Unknowing is written using the daily language of the 14th
century England. Taking into account the thoughts and the perspective of the author,
not to mention the way they were presented, we can speculate (for we can do no more
than that) that this anonymous monk spent much of his time (at least while writing this
book) outside monastery walls. He was well acquainted with the downfalls of man, with
the ways of the world and most of all, with the things men (and women alike) are
concerned with. Only those who are living not in seclusion can be as well-acquainted
with the world as he was. Some parts of the text such as III:3 (chapter III, section 3
which shows references to the purgatory) suggest that even though the said monk is not
of seclusion, he is undoubtedly coming from a Catholic order – which order, however, is
not feasible to find out for sure.
 Regarding the anonymity maintained by the author, I believe that he has reasons
for doing so. The first and I believe the most obvious reason is the safety of his life.
During the author’s time, many people were accused of many “crimes” such as heresy or
sorcery or any other task which are not in accordance with the teachings of the Holy
Church, and as a result, were killed in many different yet equally humiliating ways. Even
though The Cloud, in its entirety, is an excellent spiritual guidebook for to coming to
know who (or what) God is, its mystical approach (at least during that time) is not
acknowledged by the Holy Church. The accusations and deaths of many mystics before
the writing of The Cloud can serve as proof to this. The second reason, I believe, has
something to do with the credibility of the book. If the author gave his name, say for
example, John, and John is a known wrongdoer in the past yet somehow, by the infinite
grace of God, was changed into a new person who is now trying to seek God and has
decided to follow a life like that of the contemplatives, can his book which he wrote
reach out to as many people as he intends to reach if they knew it was John who wrote
it? If, on the other hand, John was a known follower of the Scriptures, how can his book
reach out to the sinners? Would they not be intimidated or worse, would they not be led
to conclude that only those who have sinned less than they did are capable of carrying
out the task laid down by the book? Clearly, the identity of the author (if it were given)
will greatly affect the impact of the book to the people, and to the society, for that
matter.

Leaving out the speculations about the author and moving on to the book itself, I
can truly say that one of the strong points of The Cloud is its systematic way of
discussing things. Important points are presented first and then in the following
paragraphs, more commonly, in the following chapters the points are dealt with in detail
and in depth. It starts with the more basic, simpler things which you need to know and
then it moves on to the more complex and deeper things that follow. If I were to draw
the flow of discussion I would probably draw something that resembles a spring which is
broad on top and then gets narrower and narrower as it goes deeper and deeper until it
reaches the point (the purpose, the ultimate goal) upon which the whole of the
discussion is aimed at. It is, in a way, going back to the same points mentioned earlier in
the book, only that it was being elaborated and being explained in a more thorough
manner. It addresses questions in such a way that those which are in more need of
clarification are given priority than those questions which can be dealt with at a later
time. This, I believe is very essential to the learning of those who undertake the task of
the book.

The author begins the book with a prayer, The Prayer of the Prologue, which I
would like to commend for its depth and meaning (for a review of the prayer itself, see
Appendix), asking for his dirty heart’s cleansing and for the gift of God’s grace as well.
He then proceeds to end the book with something that qualifies as a prayer, asking for
God’s blessing and grace to fall upon not just to the reader, not just to the author, but to
everyone who loves God.

During the course of the book, the author gives definitions for certain words
which are quite different from the definitions of the same words in our usage today. I
believe that giving his clear-cut definitions to these words is very helpful to the present-
day reader in such a way that he is able to convey the real essence of the words in the
sense that he wants it to be understood. This, I believe, makes the book more effective.
In the event that we have finished reading the book, the author suggests that we read it
again, twice or thrice more, so that we can clear our thoughts and so that we can truly
grasp what he is trying to say. Also, the author suggests that we pass on the book to
others, provided that in our judgment, they are ready to receive the book in terms of
their intents.

Why the Book was Written and for Whom was it Written

In the first chapter, the author writes about four degrees and forms of Christian
living – the common, which is life spent in the company of our worldly friends, the
special, which is the life in which our desires were stirred into a longing to become a
special servant of God, the singular, which is the solitary form and manner of living, the
perfect, which is the last state of all where we are to share God’s perfection by being one
with Him. All four degrees and forms of living can be started in this finite life but only
the first three can be completed here. The fourth, which is the perfect, will continue to
be carried out for the rest of eternity, in the bliss of heaven, as the author puts it.
Basically, the purpose of this book is to illustrate and to point out the things that need to
be done to achieve this perfect form of Christian living. The concern is how to move up
from the singular form of living to the perfect, by means of living not just the active but
most especially the contemplative life. How this is to be done will be explained in the
next section.

The author is very clear and very meticulous in describing the target
audience of the book. In fact he dedicated the prologue for it and then rehashed it again
in the 74th chapter.

"In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost, I charge you
and beseech you with as much power and strength as the bond of charity
will permit, that whoever you may be who comes into possession of this
book, whether as your own property or by borrowing, that you neither
read it nor write it nor permit it to be read, written, or spoken by anyone
who has not as far as you can judge a full desire and intention to be a
perfect follower of Christ not only in his active life but in the ultimate
degree of contemplation to which it is possible to attain by grace in this life
by a perfect soul still dwelling in a mortal body …" (Prologue:1)

The above cited excerpt from the prologue of The Cloud makes it very clear that
anyone can encounter this book but only those who are willing to dedicate his whole life
in trying to achieve perfection are the part of the target audience. It is implied, however,
despite the fact that even though the book is open to all, only those with the right intent
can come and continue the work guided by this book, with the grace of God. However,
the right intent is not enough. Further into the prologue, we can see that the author
requires the reader to take time to read the book (leaving enough room for meditation
and contemplation) and to consider the book as a whole. The book is so well-crafted that
missing to read an earlier part of the text or skipping some parts of it can be a very great
loss to the reader. It is again implied that the reader must be patient and wise to fully
comprehend what is being said in the book. Moreover, the person who wishes to read
this book must have this “inward stirring toward the secret spirit of God,” for it is this
inward stirring that makes possible the completion of the task of this book. Basically,
the book is written for beginners who wish to live a life of contemplation, beginners who
desire to come to know God who is beyond reason, beginners who want to be one with
God.

The Task of the Book and how is it to be done

What the task specifically is, was not said directly by the author but I believe that
it is the moving from the singular to the perfect form of living through living the
contemplative life while living in the active life (for the other life cannot exist without
the other – they are always connected in such a way that one cannot be fully lived
without participation in the other – but in order for us to complete the task, we must not
desire to live the active life alone). In trying to live this life, we must be meek – we must
truly know and feel what we really are (XIII:2), that is, we must never forget that we
have sinned and no matter what we do, we still are sinful mainly because we are souls
trapped in a body, trapped in corruptible matter (this body-soul duality, by the way, is
Platonic, and the author always asserts this duality). Also, we must be meek – if it were
not because of the overabundance of love in God, we will not be able to overcome our
awareness of our frailties – we can never truly live the contemplative life. Together with
meekness is the blind stirring of love towards God – we must have the unrelenting
desire to know Him and experience Him, be one with Him.

The task is not easy, especially in the beginning – we will first find nothing but
darkness, a certain “cloud of unknowing” between us and God. No matter what we do we
can not make this cloud go away, it will always be there mainly because the moment we
go over this certain cloud means that we are already one with God, and in that sense we
are God, only that we differ from him by nature. In carrying on the task, we must forget
all else, and think of God, in his nakedness. By nakedness, I mean God in itself, not
taking into account all the perceptions of him given to us by other people or by the
church. The author advocates for the personal knowing of God through direct
experience of him. It only when we experience him can we truly come to know him.
Although remembering what he has done for us in the past and remembering what is
told about him is helpful in devoting ourselves to knowing him, it is so much better if we
bury all out presumptions of him, and all thoughts of other creatures beneath this “cloud
of forgetting” which is below us.

From time to time, there will be thoughts that are persistent enough to pierce
through the cloud of forgetting, to disturb us in our contemplation about God. We must
stomp it back down the lower cloud by using a certain one-syllable word (ex: “God” or
“love” or anything that we can come up with that will remind us of the task at hand)
which serves as a call of help to God (call of help to send more grace to help us get rid of
this persistent thought of things other than God). As we get closer and closer to God, we
must pay more attention to the task, for the closer we are to Him, the bigger the chance
that we may be deceived by the devil, causing us to go farther away from God. To keep
us from being deceived, we must maintain three practices: reading (the Scriptures),
thinking (about the Scriptures), and praying. Praying necessarily comes last, according
to the author, because after we have heard or read about the Scriptures, after we have
come to think about it, only then do we find our shortcomings and only then can we
pray about it.

In the process of this task, we may face many errors, and we necessarily must
experience hardships. We must not forget that as long as we are here in this life, the
cloud of unknowing will never go away, but that does not mean that we cannot get a
glimpse of God’s perfection in this life. God, by his infinite grace and love, will allow us
to pierce through the cloud from time to time. We must strive to pierce through the
cloud with a meek and blind stirring of love towards God.

This is why devotion and perseverance is really necessary in this task.

Points of Interest

With regard to the author’s writing style, I have a few comments. First of which is
his flow of thoughts – everything starts with something bad and then, out of God’s grace
or of God’s love, it becomes better. Another thing that amazes me with his writing style
is the metaphors he uses. It is very creative yet very simple, very easy to grasp.

These are good things though, but I find his reference to the scriptures quite
problematic. It is very evident in the text that he well-acquainted with the Scriptures –
he refers to them from time to time and he gives really good, original interpretations of
it. I can honestly say that I have never seen the Scriptures the way he does. The problem
of this, however, is the fact that he never mentioned where exactly in the Scriptures can
we find that which he is talking about. If I would want to read further on a certain text
which he said was from the Scriptures, I have no other means of finding that specific
text but to read the whole Scripture. This takes time, not to mention takes away much of
my attention from my contemplation of God, thereby pulling me farther and farther
away from becoming one with God.

I find it weird though, that the author refers to the devil as if it was some kind of
an anti-thesis of God. If God has contemplatives, so does the devil. If God is in the cloud
of unknowing above us, the devil is in the cloud of forgetting below us. The devil is
always the opposite of God. This gives me the impression of equality of God and the
devil, which is quite problematic since the devil is a creation of God (technically because
the devil is a fallen angel), and no matter what happens it will still be below God.
 The greatest bother I have encountered as I was reading this book was the
author’s way of regarding us and God. He always says “you and your God.” It gives me
the implication that his God is different from mine.

The Cloud of Unknowing and my Contemporary Existence

Growing up a Protestant, I have always been used to the idea that a personal
relationship with God is much more important than the deeds you do. After reading this
book, I realized that there are a lot of things that I am missing out. Although I have not
the enough desire to pursue the life of contemplation at this moment, I believe that I will
someday, by the grace of God. This book has truly been helpful not only in my spiritual
life but in the physical too. I started to see many things in a different light, using a
different pair of lenses. I have now a greater understanding of things – of our will, of the
importance of time in this life, of the sins, of the things that lead us to sin. Honestly, the
in-text definitions of words have truly enlightened me. Say for example, the author
defined the word “prayer” as “nothing else than a devout intention directed toward God
to receive good and remove evil” (XXXIX:3). Out of tradition, I see prayer only as a call
to God for supplication. After reading this book, I realize that receiving good is more
than just supplication, in fact, prayer is a very powerful tool not just to resist the devil,
but to remove it.

The book is very good in its entirety – the language and the usage of words
(except for the “you and your God” part), combined with the author’s distinguished
point of view – and I believe that it would have made a greater impact to me if I were
ready to carry on the task.
 APPENDIX

THE PRAYER OF THE PROLOGUE

"God unto whom all hearts are open and unto whom every will speaks,
and from whom no secret thing is hidden, I pray Thee to cleanse the
intent of my heart with the ineffable gift of Thy grace, that I may
perfectly love Thee, and perfectly praise Thee. Amen."

This is a very powerful way of starting a book of this kind. Although it might be
perfectly natural to start with a prayer in books of this kind, what makes it powerful, at
least for me, is the author’s choice of words. Let me dissect the prayer in parts.

The first clause is enlightening. It suggests that everyone – including their hearts
and their wills – is receptive and is speaking to God. The very usage of the words “all”
and “every,” I believe suggests that there is no exception when it comes to coming into
the presence of God. Anyone can come and speak to God as much as God can come and
speak to anyone.

The second clause affirms God’s omnipotence. God is all-knowing.

The third clause tells us that it is only through the gift of God’s grace that we can
be forgiven of our sins and it is only by the gift of God’s grace that we can purify our
hearts. This clause indeed tells us of how great and powerful the gift God’s grace can be.
By the use of the word “ineffable,” we are led to conclude that the gift is so great that
words are not enough to describe it.

The fourth and concluding clause of the prayer suggests that God ought to receive
perfect love and perfect praise mainly because He is perfect. Perfection is what he
deserves.

Overall, the prayer did not conform to the “ACTS” form. Although it started with
adoration – when the author implied that God is all-knowing and God is welcome in
every heart – and confession follows (although it barely passes as such) – when the
author recognized that nothing is hidden from God – thanksgiving falls short and the
author directly comes to the supplication part of the prayer where he asks for
supplication, that is, God’s grace to endow him with perfect love and perfect praise.