We devote years or even decades of our lives studying consciousness and constructing elaborate explanations of reality. I know because I’ve spent much of my adult life doing exactly that. And then, every so often, you come across a book that makes you wonder how much of your spiritual life you’ve spent thinking about the experience of God while avoiding the experience itself.
The Cloud of Unknowing was written by an anonymous Christian mystic in fourteenth-century England, and reading it felt like receiving a loving but very much-needed slap in the face.
The author has an almost comical impatience with our tendency to complicate things. Beneath the beautiful medieval imagery is a wildly simple teaching about the limits of intellectual knowledge and the possibility of approaching God through love.
In this introductory episode, I’m sharing why this text has meant so much to me and why I’ve decided to spend the coming months creating my own contemporary adaptation for our community. We’ll get acquainted with the Christian apophatic tradition, the writings of Evelyn Underhill, and a form of mysticism that has far less to do with collecting extraordinary or mystical experiences than with the difficult work of actually living what we claim to believe.
I’ll also explain how I’m approaching the adaptation, including my commitment to preserving the author’s Christian mystical teaching while making the language accessible to contemporary listeners.
This is something of a personal experiment, too. I’m curious about what spending sustained time with this book might teach me, and I love the idea of sharing that experience as we work our way through it together.
Reading guide: No reading necessary for this introductory installment. We’ll start with the author’s original prologue in our next episode. If you’d like to follow along, I’ve included links below to Evelyn Underhill’s public-domain edition of The Cloud of Unknowing.
Primary reference: The Cloud of Unknowing — Evelyn Underhill edition (Internet Archive)
Alternative PDF: The Cloud of Unknowing — Evelyn Underhill edition (1922)
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A NOTE ABOUT ACCESS: Subsequent episodes of this series will be available to members of my Votive House and Angel tiers on Patreon. If you’re already in either tier, you'll have full access. If you’re listening on Spotify or you’re a free Patreon subscriber, you can join Votive House or upgrade your membership to unlock future episodes and the rest of my premium audio collection. Check it all out at https://www.patreon.com/c/backfromtheborderline.
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