Customer Reviews

The Cloud of Unknowing: A New Translation of the Classic 14th-Century Guide to the Spiritual Experience

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This is a sort of humanistic psychology book that speaks of Western Christianity. Ira Progof has done just a fantastic job of captivating his audience. It is a translation of one of the classics of Christianity, but it is written in laymans terms and just absolutely brilliant. Ira Progof does the best job of translating this classic guide to spiritual experience that I am now looking for other books written by him. The translation speaks so well of inner depths and souls and things you may have always wondered but were never really sure of spiritually. I found myself staying up late at night, anxious to finish, but not anxious to end it! I may just read it again. There are passages that are so deep and so meaningful that I found myself reading them over and over. Some may find these passages I speak of vague, and they are. Yet they are worth understanding. This book takes effort and the pay-off is astounding.

I would say that until a person has read The Psyche As Sacrament: A Comparative Study of C.G. Jung and Paul Tillich (Studies in Jungian Psychology), and has become familiar with both the leanings and orientations of both, then the Cloud of Unknowing would remain an esoteric and more or less inscrutable account of the inner life of a mystical relationship between man and God. This would remain true unless of course a person had already attained a particular view on the mystical and spiritual by experience, through which then his/her understanding will unfold as granted according to the need.

I was disappointed in this book, it was weird and I got very little information out of it. Maybe I thought it was going to be about something else but in my opinion, it's not very spiritual or informative unfortunately.