The Cloud of Unknowing

by Bangley, Bernard

• ISBN13: 9781557254450
• ISBN10: 1557254451
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-01
• Publisher: Paraclete Pr

Summary

Very few spiritual classics from centuries past offer real guidance for entering into the darkness and light of Christian mysticism. Notoriously difficult to understand, this contemporary translation of one of the most popular texts from the late Middle Ages is different: It offers an accessible invitation to the reader to enter into an engagement with God, through this "cloud of unknowing." Mystical concepts are explained in everyday language. Written by an anonymous fourteenth-century author,The Cloud of Unknowingwas originally prepared for cloistered monks. Yet it has found centuries of readers from all walks of life. Each brief chapter offers the spiritual seeker a way to enter into the life of prayer and appeals to the reader's common sense in beginning steps on the path to knowing a God beyond all knowing.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Prayer	p. 2
Preface	p. 3
Four degrees of Christian living	p. 5
Spiritual preparation	p. 6
A superior discipline	p. 7
Knowledge and imagination	p. 8
The cloud of forgetting	p. 13
A brief dialogue	p. 14
Intellectual curiosity	p. 14
Regarding uncertainties	p. 17
Contemplative prayer	p. 20
Discernment	p. 21
Evaluating thoughts	p. 22
Results of contemplation	p. 22
Perfect and imperfect humility	p. 24
Begin with imperfect humility	p. 25
Understanding humility	p. 26
Contemplative humility	p. 27
A critical world	p. 29
Ignorance	p. 30
Complaining	p. 31
God responds	p. 32
The text	p. 33
Love and contemplation	p. 34
God's spiritual provision	p. 35
Contemplative love	p. 36
Details	p. 37
When difficult prayer becomes possible	p. 37
Who should attempt contemplation?	p. 38
Begin by seeking forgiveness	p. 39
Endurance	p. 40
Critics	p. 40
Beginners and temptation	p. 41
Spiritual devices	p. 42
Perfect rest	p. 43
God's gift	p. 44
Reading, reflection, and prayer	p. 46
Meditation	p. 47
Special prayers	p. 48
Why short prayers pierce heaven	p. 49
The nature of prayer	p. 50
Forgetting virtue and vice	p. 51
Contemplation and indiscretion	p. 52
Indiscretion produces discretion	p. 53
Forgetting the self	p. 54
Suppressing the self	p. 54
Spiritual illusions	p. 56
Spiritual enthusiasm	p. 57
Approaching God	p. 58
Physical aspects of prayer	p. 60
Essence of perfection	p. 61
Pure love	p. 62
Misinterpretation	p. 63
Beginners' mistakes	p. 65
Outward behavior	p. 66
Controlling the body	p. 68
Condemning others	p. 69
Common sense and common doctrine	p. 71
Presumptuous beginners	p. 72
Forcing imagination	p. 73
Time, place, and prayer	p. 76
Desire	p. 77
Spirit and flesh	p. 78
Understanding spiritual activity	p. 79
Mind	p. 80
Reason and will	p. 81
Imagination	p. 82
Sensuality	p. 83
The spiritual way	p. 84
Nowhere is everywhere	p. 85
Nothingness and love	p. 87
Comprehending God	p. 88
Variety of experience	p. 89
Differences	p. 91
Contributions	p. 91
Recognition	p. 92
Certainty	p. 94
Essay on The Cloud of Unknowing	p. 97
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