The Contemplative Threat

"Keep your human objections to yourselves, you half-hearted folk! Here is a person so touched by grace that he can forsake himself in honest and unreserved self-forgetfulness. Do not tell me that by any rational appraisal he is tempting God. You say this only because you dare not do so yourselves. No, be content with your own calling to the active life; it will bring you to salvation. But leave these others alone. What they do is beyond the comprehension of your reason, so do not be shocked or surprised by their word and deeds."
--Privy Counsel Ch. 8

Way back at the beginning of the Cloud of Unknowing, the author distinguishes between the active life and the contemplative life. The majority of people, he says, will be called to the active life: a lifestyle of ethical conduct, discursive prayer and conformity to religious and social expectations. This is the lifestyle championed by the institutional church, and there is no harm or inadequacy in this calling. However, a certain number of faithful will be called to the contemplative life, which is what the author spends the rest of Cloud and all of Privy Counsel describing: a lifestyle of deep silence, wordless meditation, spiritual knowing through "unknowing" and a sense of vast peace and infinite love.

Unfortunately, the contemplative tradition has always been misunderstood and often persecuted by the institutional church. I think there are many reasons for this, primarily that the contemplative breaks into an inner space that is marked no longer by conformity and submission, but to freedom and understanding. This freedom, while appealing and mysterious to anyone who spends time in the presence of a real contemplative person, can also be threatening to those in power, and confounding to those who are not prepared to follow that path themselves.

Hopefully, through the work of groups like Contemplative Outreach, an appreciation for the mystical traditions of the faith is now being nurtured within the institutional church, but we have a long way to go. In the long-run, Christianity will continue to lose its relevance to the modern world unless the contemplative spirit can be revived and brought to the center of Christian faith and practice.