The Loving Search for God : Contemplative Prayer and the Cloud of Unknowing

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps Trappists are best off keeping silent
Review: As one who loves the Cloud of Unknowing, my impression was that the author indeed understood that work very well - and assumed that readers would as well. Wishful thinking, indeed! This book is a series of loving, sweet, but rather unsatisfying meditations. It is obviously an attempt to make the Cloud understandable to any reader, but that is a task doomed to failure. The Cloud was written for one the author had judged to be called to the contemplative prayer that is a sheer gift of grace, and therefore assumed a strong liturgical and prayer life, an understanding of sin and virtue, etc. One could read this entire book and not have a clue.

Rating:
Summary: Great for understanding
Review: Easy to read. Easy to understand. It demonstrates God's love and grace thru the gift of contemplative prayer.
A must read for anyone starting the journey. Of course everyone is in one of the 'stages' of the loving search: a "beginner, only a beginner, or just a beginner".
Provides examples on understanding Scripture at the allegorical level.
Warm, friendly, loving. Much more effective than 'great' theological disertations.