No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2024
The theory of contemplative prayer put forward in Abbot Chapman’s Letters was examined in the June, 1935, issue of Blackfriars, but since then certain passages in the letters themselves have been the subject of controversy. The question of the soundness of a widely read book of spiritual instruction is obviously an important one, and it merits some further consideration. One learned writer has recently suggested that, since we have nothing but incidental phrases by which to judge the Abbot's correctness in stating the problem of contemplation, it is unnecessary to assume that he intended to express general principles in the passages that have caused misgivings. This view does not accord with the fact that one of the published letters, dated as early as 6th April, 1913, explains fully the theory of mysticism which the Abbot had worked out for himself. The same theory appears in his article on Catholic Mysticism in the Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, published in 1917, and it is further elaborated and defended in the Downside Review article of 1928, which is reprinted as an appendix to the Letters. This theory, then, and its practical implications must claim attention.
The Church has had no occasion to make a solemn judgment on the nature of contemplative prayer, but two pronouncements of her ordinary magisterium require careful consideration by anyone who would study the subject. The first is the Encyclical Letter Divinum illud of Pope Leo XIII (9th May, 1897), a document that was clearly inspired by, and well sums up, St. Thomas’s general teaching on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, as indeed the teaching of St. Thomas sums up and explains the Catholic tradition, scriptural, patristic and liturgical.
1 Letters, p. 249.
2 Ibid., p. 297; cf. also pp. 69–70.
3 Ibid., pp. 71, 306–7.
4 Ibid., pp. 308–9.
5 The suggestion (p. 71) that Dominican theologians “are inclined to look upon ‘Mysticism’ as some freak on God's part” is hardly a happy one.
6 Sunima., II–II, q. 182, a. 4 ad 3.
7 Letters, pp. 301, 309–10, 315.
8 Ibid., p. 313.
9 Ibid., p. 306. He speaks of the unconscious character of contemplation in the letter already referred to, and in the Hastings Encycloprædia article writes: “This lofty angelic knowledge is utter ignorance (until it is perhaps symbolically and tentatively translated) to the intellect itself, but it inflames the will with intense love and desire. The soul loves and desires without understanding; it longs for and partially enjoys it knows not what. This is the ‘ray of darkness’ of Dionysius, the wisdom which is ignorance, the ‘cloud of unknowing,’ the obscure night of the spirit, the anagogical way to the unseen and incommunicable.”
10 Letters, pp. 316–7. In his reply to Archbishop Goodier (pp. 7–8) Dom Hudleston quotes passages from Père Poulain's Chapter on the Ligature, which apparently say very much the same as Abbot Chapman about the quasi-impossibility of making “additional acts” during contemplation. Père Poulain, however, had given an earlier warning against any exaggerated idea of the incomprehensibility of the mystic states which would imply that the soul itself did not know that it was in communication with God, or even that it was praying —The Graces of Interior Prayer, London, 1912, p. 119.
11 Letters, pp. 317–8. Here the Abbot sees a solution of the difficulty that mystics commonly experience more love than knowledge; the love, he thinks, is greater than their conscious knowledge of God, but not greater than their unconscious knowledge (cf. also p. 72). He curiously misunderstands St. Thomas's doctrine on the point (p. 318 footnote). The question has several aspects. In the article Abbot Chapman quotes St. Thomas is pointing out that knowledge is the condition rather than the cause of love; the cause is the goodness or lovableness of the object itself. A very lovable object may cause perfect love even when it is incompletely known. By Charity God is loved perfectly, i.e. above all things, although the knowledge of Faith is imperfect.
12 Letters, p. 317.
13 Blackfriars, June, 1935, pp. 434–9.
14 St. John of the Cross, by Fr. Bruno (London, 1932), p. 38.
15 It is printed at the end of Professor Allison Peers' recent translation of St. John's works.
16 Letters, p. 72; cf. sup. footnote, 9.
17 Ascent, II, c. 14, no. 9Google Scholar; Night, II, c. 8, no. 3Google Scholar—all references are to the Peers translation.
18 Letters, p. 250.
19 Ascent, II, c. 14, no. 10Google Scholar—this with the exception of a phenomenon he calls “a great forgetfulness”—which happens very seldom, ibid., no 12.
20 Letters, pp. 254, 317.
21 Ascent, II, c. 13, no. 7Google Scholar.
22 Night, I, c. 9. no. 6Google Scholar; cf. L. Flame, Stanza III, 30 sq., passim.
23 Night, II, c. 17. Google Scholar
24 A gratia operans. St. John says contemplation is also secret in that it is indescribable.
To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.