作者：凌蕙彤 Ling, Esther
THE DOCTRINE OF LOVE IN THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING (1)
I. Introduction
Love is the key element in Christian mysticism. In The Cloud of Unknowing, besides being the key element, love is also the basic and unifying theme underlying the whole teaching on mysticism, from the very initial stage of God's call and man's response to the ultimate intense moments of mystical union. The word love itself, which recurs in and threads through every page of the book, is the most important word in the author's vocabulary. Indeed, the prayer of the mystic is viewed as an act of love.
The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous work. As the information concerning its author's background is lacking in detail, critical studies have not been successful in discovering the real identity of the author. However, there is enough evidence for scholars to conclude that it is a work of an English mystic written in the 14th century, in the first full flowering epoch of English mysticism properly so called, when other mystics in England such as Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, and Julian of Norwich were writing their enduring classics of Christian mystical experience. If this dating is correct, our author must have been a contemporary also of great mystics in continental Europe including Meister Eckhart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, Jan van Ruysbroeck, Catherine of Siena, and Thomas a Kempis. It has been further proved, on linguistic grounds, that the book was written in a central district of the North-East English Midlands.(2)
It seems likely that this 14th century author was a priest, for he gives his blessings at the end of the book in chapter 75. He was certainly a theologian with a wide knowledge of patristic writings and other later works which lie behind his own book. Dionysius' influence is explictly acknowledged: "Anyone who reads Denis' book will find confirmed there all that I have been trying to teach in this book from start to finish" (chapter 70). The influence of Augustine and Aquinas is obvious; for instance, the idea of "naked intent" expounded in chapter 24 reflects the Augustinian and Thomistic concept of "chaste love". Similarly, much of Augustine's teaching has been integrated into the exegesis of Mary and Martha (chapters 16-23), and the title "The Cloud of Unknowing" itself, as Dr. Hodgson has rightly pointed out, is an imagery in Benjamin Major of Richard of St. Victor.(3) The author claims that the specific purpose for which he was writing was to give guidance to a young disciple of twenty-four who was seriously considering committing himself to a life of contemplation. But as one reads the book, one feels that in actual fact it could very well have been written for all those who aspired to contemplative prayer in general. Indeed, it has been acknowledged as "the most excellent work on contemplative prayer ever written in the English Language".(4)
1.In this paper the text we use is the edition by Johnston: JOHNSTON, W., ed., The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1973, 195p.
2.See P. Hodgson, ed., The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, London, Oxford University Press, 1944, pp. xxvii-1, especially pp. xlix and l.
3.Ibid., p. 1xii.
4.D. Knowles, "The Excellence of the Cloud", The Downside Review, LII (New Series Vol. XXXIII), 1934, p. 92.
II. Knowledge of God through love
If love is the essence of the mysticism of The Cloud of Unknowing, and if contemplation is an act of love in the view of our author, what precisely does this mean? And what exactly is our author's teaching on love? The purpose of our present paper is to look into this teaching , which is not easy to analyse despite the book's simple style.
We shall start with the noetic dimension or aspect of love. While being thoroughly influenced by the Dionysian tradition of the so-called negative theology, our author is by no means simply following the currents of tradition, but distinguishes himself from the main stream of "via negative" by his characteristic consistent emphasis on the primacy of love in his whole approach to mystical knowledge. As a matter of fact, while insisting on following Dionysius' doctrine that "The most divine knowledge of God is that which is known by not knowing" (chapter 70), he takes great pains from the very outset to make it clear that love is the essence of any contemplative activities, for it is "by love that he (God) may be touched and embraced, never by thought" (chapter 6). A contemplative should make continuous efforts to lift his heart up to God with "a gentle stirring of love" (chapter 6), abandoning all discursive thought, putting aside even the most pious images, covering them over with a "cloud of forgetting" (chapter 9). At the height of his effort, when the contemplative is face to face with a "cloud of unknowing', it is again love that is called upon to make a break-through: "Yes, beat upon that thick cloud of unknowing with the dart of your loving desire and do not cease come what may" (chapter 6)
In the above paragraph we have quoted a few phrases of key importance: "gentle stirring of love", "cloud of forgetting", and "cloud of unknowing ". These are recurrent imageries in which the author's concept of love is subtly embodied, and hence it seems in order to allow ourselves to indulge in some exegesis of these phrases with a view to bringing out their significance in full force.
The idea of "gentle stirring of love" is repeated many times throughout the pages in various forms. It is referred to as "blind stirring of love", as "secret little love", as "naked intent of the will", as "blind outstretching", as "loving blind desire", and as "dart of loving desire''. It is re-echoed by Saint John of the Cross in The Living Flame of Love when he writes: "Oh, lamps of fire, in whose splendours the deep caverns of sense… were dark and blind".(5) According to our author, this "stirring" is founded on faith: "I prefer to abandon all I can know, choosing rather to love him whom I cannot know" (chapter 6), and this love is reflected symbolically in Mary who sits at the feet of Our Lord, all rapt in contemplation. This "stirring" is not something that can be acquired simply by means of human effort within the heart, rather, it is a response to God's call which is a divine gratuitous intervention. It is with this in mind that our author writes:
And so with great longing for him enter into this cloud. Or rather, I should say, let God awaken your longing and draw you to himself in this cloud while you strive with the help of his grace to forget everything else" (chapter 9).
Here, both passivity and activity are involved; passivity in terms of divine grace, and activity in terms of human will. On the human side, therefore, any "stirring of love" has to depend not only on the heart but also on the will. Finally, this "stirring" is "blind", because its origin is in darkness and its movement unconscious. But despite being "blind", it moves with love and is far superior to discursive reasoning, because the former goes directly to the essence and being of God while the latter cannot know God as He is in Himself. Hence our author insists:
Rational creatures such as men and angels possess two principal faculties, a knowing power and a loving power. No one can fully comprehend the uncreated God with his knowledge, but each one, in a different way, can grasp him fully through love" (chapter 4).
The "blind stirring of love", therefore, marks the beginning of an emerging enlightenment.
When the "blind stirring of love" has begun working, leading to a knowledge which is known by love, the contemplative has to be careful not to smother this love with conceptual thinking and meditation. Instead, he must enter into a "cloud of forgetting" which, according to our author, is the abandonment of all images and concepts so as to allow the soul to love mystically. In other words, while admitting that meditations on the Passion of Christ, on Our Lady, and on the saints are good in themselves and are excellent for beginners, the author insists on the necessity of relinquishing them lest they would be an obstacle to the work of supra-conceptual love, or would constitute a barrier between the soul and God. This is not so much rejection of reasoning, memories and the material world as detachment from all these. Images and symbols in religious traditions are not to be rejected in themselves, but the contemplative wishing to reach God as He is must overcome any attachment to all such symbols. This is a process of liberation in which man is liberated from the sensible and conceptual to find access to the realm of union of love.(6) It is in this sense we are to understand our author when he says "fashion a cloud of forgetting beneath you, between you and every created thing" (chapter 5).
The third imagery is "cloud of unknowing". Our author teaches that mystical knowledge is obscure, knowing that He is without knowing what He is. In other words, contemplation can only be in the "cloud of unknowing".
For in the beginning it is usual to feel nothing but a kind of darkness about your mind, or as it were, a cloud of unknowing. You will seem to know nothing and to feel nothing except a naked intent towards God in the depths of your being. Try as you might, this darkness and this cloud will remain between you and your God. You will feel frustrated, for your mind will be unable to grasp him and your heart will not relish the delight of his love. But learn to be at home in this darkness"(chapter 3).
Here our author is obviously speaking about a psychological condition in which the human mind is dark from a lack of knowledge. On the one hand all memories of creatures have been abandoned, and on the other hand no distinct knowledge of God has been possible. However, the "cloud of unknowing" is only "between" man and God, and is penetrable by constant "stirring of love''. If it is a matter of "between", man is both separated from and at the same time connected with God. The separation in question is not a physical one, but is man's awareness of his own finite existence－an awareness that constitutes a separation. To overcome this awareness, man must allow himself to enter into a state of total unconsciousness, a condition of unknowing, whereby the medium 'leading to a deep experience of God who is beyond ordinary human knowledge is provided. So, in effect, the obscurity or darkness is not hopelessness. It is a condition from which enlightenment may in due course emerge. The process, however, entails the will beating upon the dark "cloud of unknowing" with a "dart of longing desire" (chapter 6). And when the soul ceases from any effort to comprehend the incomprehensible, he is capable of raising himself up to the Being of God Himself, and becomes "oned" with Him in an inexpressible fashion. The union, therefore, is essentially an act of love and of will. This idea of a combination of love and will, as Dom Justin McCann has pointed out, is a major modification of our English author on Dionysian teaching.(7) Dionysius maintains that love is the essential element leading to the union, but he does not go on to give any explanation about this union; our author, however, insists that the union of love is an exercise of the will.
Sufficient has been said about the noetic aspect of love as taught in The Cloud of Unknowing; just another quote to round off this section:
…he may touch you with a ray of his divine light which will pierce the cloud of unknowing between you and him. He will let you glimpse something of the ineffable secrets of his divine wisdom and your affection will seem on fire with his love (chapter 26).
5.E. Allison Peers, ed., The Complate Works of Saint John of the Cross, Wheathampstead, England, A. Clarke, 1974, Vol. III p. 16.
6.Cf. N. O' Donoghue, "'This Noble Noughting and This High Alling': Self-Relinquishment in the Cloud of Unknowing and the Epistle of Privy Counsel", Journal of Studies in Mysticism, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1979, pp. 1-4.
7.J. McCann, ed., The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Treatsies, Westminster, Maryland, The Newman Press, 1952 (6th and revised edition), pp. xii and xiv.
III. Love is incarnational and Christo-centric
Love means union with God; but it also means union within oneself and union with one's fellow-men. Our author is quite explicit about this. He points out that man's "oneness" within himself has been destroyed by sin, he must either in this life or in purgatory undergo purification if this original "oneness" is to be recovered. In contemplation, the "stirring of love" burns out the very roots of sin, removes concupiscience as does the fire of purgatory. Thus man recovers his "oneness" within himself.
Parallel to this process of self-unitive purification is the process of communion. Plunged in the "cloud of unknowing" and stripped of all discursive thoughts, the contemplative Is by no means alone or isolated. On the contrary, he is in communion with the entire church, both the living and the dead. He is able to come to a closer and more real union with his fellow-men by means of the "stirring of love".
For when you fix your love on him, forgetting all else, the saints and angels rejoice and hasten to assist you in every way…Your fellow-men are marvellously enriched by this work of yours, even if you may not fully understand how; the souls in purgatory are touched, for their suffering is eased by the effects of this work…(chapter 3).
Moreover, this communion of love, as our author insists, is also true at a practical and incarnational level. Thus he writes:
…through contemplation he is so growing in practical goodness and love that, when he speaks or prays with his fellow Christians at other times, the warmth of his love reaches out to them all, friend, enemy, stranger, and kin alike (chapter 25 ).
In other words, the community is enriched by the act of love of contemplation in day-to-day life. This, however, is a mutual two-day road, for contemplative prayer has to depend on the prayer of the community and on the sacraments of the church for its spiritual food, without which it would certainly be stifled (chapter 28 and 35 ).
Our author's doctrine of love may be described as incarnational in another sense. It is interesting to note how he takes great pains to lay emphasis on the harmony between body and soul in man in paragraphs like the following:
God forbid that I should separate body and spirit when God has made them a unity. Indeed, we owe God the homage of our whole person, body and spirit together. And fittingly enough he will glorify our whole person, body and spirit, in eternity, (chapter 48)
It is in this light that chapter 16-23 concerning the symbolical story of Mary Magdalene should be interpreted, and the same concept of unity must be applied to our author's understanding of the whole person of Christ. While it is perfectly true that the exegesis of the gospel passages involves much more reading into the text than modern biblical cricism permits, yet it would be unfair to accuse our author of teaching a religion of pure spirit, rejecting all sensible feelings and imageries. On the very contrary, feelings do seem to play a part in Mary Madalene, the symbol of the ideal contemplative. She is described as weeping at the empty tomb on Easter morning, and her feelings and devotion to Christ are succinctly summed up: "Sweet was the love between Mary and Jesus. How she loved! How much more he loved her!" (chapter 22) Thus if our author, following the scholastic tradition, teaches that to love conceptually in meditation on the Passion of Christ precedes loving supra-conceptually in contemplation which is much higher, he is in fact saying that it is through the humanity of Christ that one finds access to his divinity, getting in touch with his Godhead. He also gives a clear theological basis to what he teaches about abandoning conceptualized images of Christ. The humanity of Christ is a creature, and true love does not stop at the human nature of Christ but rather terminates at the whole person of Christ which is God Himself. Therefore what concerns the contemplative is not a question of forgetting temporarily the humanity of Christ, as Mary does, rapt in contemplation at the feet of Jesus. At the height of mystical love the humanity of Christ may indeed be present as it is present to Mary Magdalene, but the fascination of the divine is so predominant that it may entail a temporary forgetting of the human. Thus viewed, mystical love in The Cloud of Unknowing is not only incarnational but also Christocentric.
IV. Love is Christian living intensified
One final observation. If our interpretation in the preceding pages is correct, it seems clear that the doctrine of love of our author is much more that a doctrine; it is a life of mystical love which is described as an intensification of ordinary Christian living. Contemplative prayer is nothing else but the fulfilment of evangelical charity in its most perfect form. In other words, the perfect following of Christ manifests itself in mystical love. Hence this love is not really distinct from the charity taught in the New Testament which calls all Christians to perfection: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48). It is the charity that includes all the virtues. And it is clear that our author does admit this when he writes:
…as the Ark contained all the jewels and treasures of the temple, so this little love intent upon God in the cloud of unknowing contains all the virtues of a man's spirit, which, as we know, is the temple of God.(chapter 71)
If it is identical with Gospel charity, and if it is an intensification of ordinary Christian living, then all baptized Christians are obviously called to the work of this "little love", to contemplative, and to become a mystic. Our author, however, insists over and over again that contemplation is not for everyone but for those have a special call from God. Moreover, by distinguishing the special vocation to perfection from the universal call to salvation, our author is saying implicitly that there is a hierarchy of Christian living with the mystics above the common daughters and sons of Mother Church. How can this conflict be reconciled? William Johnston, while disagreeing with the author that "the only way to perfection is by entering the sheepfold of contemplative prayer", sympathetically remarks that "the English author is a man of his age"－an age in which there was no other recognized path to perfection except that of contemplation. It was in fact very much later that a less monastic spirituality arose, raising the question of the possibility of other paths to Christian perfection.(8) We agree with Johnston. Furthermore, considering The Cloud of Unknowing as a whole, we feel that if the author were our contemporary today, his sound theology would certainly be potential enough to stretch further and deeper to arrive at some insight into the unity of contemplation and activity. If in the 14th century he could identify mystical love with an intensification of ordinary Christian living, as he really did, today in the 20th century he probably would have no problem in broadening his concept of mysticism to include other expressions of mystical love manifested outside contemplation in the strictest sense of the word.
V. Epilogue
St. John in the Fourth Gospel speaks about perfect love in terms of "indwelling", and St. Paul in his Epistles speaks in terms of "in Christ'. Our author, in effect, is speaking about the same in terms of "blind stirring". Just as both "indwelling" and "in Christ" are not merely symbolic language of mystical talk, but a call to a life of the Spirit, so the "blind stirring" is a reminder of this call. It is a reminder of a call that should be addressed to all Christians, for none may be excluded from this life under God's grace.
8.W. Johnston, The Mysticism of the Cloud Unknowing : a modern interpretation, New York, Desclee, 1967, pp. 262f.