The Dark Night of the Soul

Derek M Larson
Dr. Steven Fetke
BIOT 4123
December 9, 2010
The Dark Night of the Soul

Perhaps there is nothing in this world more beautiful than the treasured
connection between a mother and her newly born baby. The infant opens his eyes for
the first time and sees his motherʼs face—the person that has held him in her womb and
now holds him in her arms. For the next few months, she will continue to hold him close
to her breast, and an attachment of comfort and security is formed. There is nothing so
sweet as that motherʼs milk. And yet, there comes a time when it is proper and healthy
for this loving mother to hide her breast from the baby, who is quickly becoming a child.
Such an event—for a time—can be traumatic for the infant. He may not understand the
actions of the mother, nor will he continue to feel the comfort and security that the
mother has bestowed upon him. No, instead, he must be placed on the ground where
he is to feel the discomfort of change and learn to walk on his own. Such is true of the
Christianʼs own spiritual walk with the Father. The purpose of this paper is to address
the spiritual desert experiences and growing pains encountered in the the growth and
life of a Christian. Sixteenth century mystic, Saint John of the Cross, calls these
experiences “the dark night of the soul.” With a proper understanding of the times of the
apparent absence of the Father, a Christian—whether he or she be young or old,
educated or not—may learn to embrace such moments as progress and seek to gain a
greater awareness of the work of God within these seasons. The following sections
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draw heavily from the works of three authors, Søren Kierkegaard, Saint John of the
Cross, and Thomas Keating. First, the paper will identify the spiritual desert experience
within the context of Kierkegaardʼs philosophy for theology. It will then move to discuss
the precursors and points of necessity for such an experience to take place. The next
section takes selected lines from Saint John of the Crossʼ poem, The Dark Night of the
Soul, and discusses them within the context of such experiences, and following these
points will be a segment regarding the concept of theosis, or spiritual union with God, as
the goal of the dark night. Finally, a “call to action” will be given. An opportunity for
further study may be a deeper look at the influences these authors have had on one
another, and the relationship of Kierkegaardʼs “leap of faith,” Saint John of the Crossʼ
“dark night of the soul,” and Keatingʼs “crisis of faith.”
Søren Kierkegaardʼs Philosophy for Theology

The dark night of the soul is best understood within the framework of the
nineteenth century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who developed a series of three
stages or spheres of existence within humanity.1 The first stage, called the aesthetic, is
where the ego is most prevalent. In this stage a person will choose to live freely based
on his or her own desires and passions with no regard to morality—much less any form
of spirituality. Kierkegaard regarded such a stage to be most prevalent among the
majority of people in existence. Basically, the aesthetic does what he or she pleases.
For many that live in such a way, however, comes a time of crisis where a realization
arises that doing whatever one pleases still leaves an enormous amount of
dissatisfaction in life. The person facing this crisis will then adopt the societyʼs form of
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1
Louis P. Pojman, The Logic of Subjectivity (University, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1984),
76-86.
morality and ethics in search of finding meaning within a larger narrative rather than
simply in his or her own individual desires and passions. This change in direction is
called the ethical sphere or stage of existence. The ethical stage necessarily leads to
the incorporation of some sense of the Divine. Ethics, by nature, imply an ethics maker.
Such a person living in the ethical stage will soon be confronted by thoughts of the
Divine. It is at this point that a person enters into the final sphere of existence, the
religious. The religious stage incorporates the idea of God into the foundation of ethics.
All things are seen as related to God, and rituals, dogmas, and doctrines are adopted
into life in order to interact with the Divine. It is important to note here that these stages
or spheres are mutually interconnected. While the ethical life (consciously or not)
assumes God, it also is lived to gain some sense of satisfaction for the ego. The same
is true of the religious life. The religious person may live ethically under the doctrines
and dogma of the church, while doing so simply to find purpose and fulfill the hunger of
the ego. Because of this, Kierkegaard makes a distinction between what he calls
“Religiousness A” and “Religiousness B.” While Religiousness A is based on humanityʼs
own reason and passions, Religiousness B is based solely on God through a pure and
subjective faith. The distinction at its basic level is simply the shift from ego-based
spirituality to theos-based spirituality.
Religiousness Aʼs problem and the Leap

The move from the ethical sphere to the religious is a great one that should not
be done without great joy and celebration. As a new believer enters the faith, he or she
is engrossed with joy and comfort. The believer exclaims, “I once was lost, but now am
found,” and nestles his or herself in the safe and secure doctrines and charges of the
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Christian faith. This moment can be compared to that infant being nursed at the breast
of his mother mentioned earlier. The beginning Christian (beginning—although this may
last for many years) eagerly desires to do the will of the Father in heaven and takes
great joy in learning the great things of the faith. There may or may not be a sense of
humility in this time, but deeply rooted continues to lie the motivation of self-preservation
and self-satisfaction, hence the need for the shift from ego-based spirituality to theos-
based spirituality. Despite this simple comparison between Kierkegaardʼs two levels of
religious existence, such a “leap” to theos-based spirituality is not a walk in the park.
The self is deeply engrained with sin. Even as the individual becomes more aware of
God and the desires He has for a person, it becomes more apparent at how deeply the
problem of the ego lies. It is within every action committed; it is in every word spoken.
Religiousness A is the place where most Christians live their entire lives. The worshiper
cannot help but worship for the satisfaction that it gives him or her; the good-deed doer
cannot help but give charity for the satisfaction of being looked upon favorably; the
preacher preaches, loving his own voice as it comes from his own lips. The problem
seems inescapable! In Saint John of the Crossʼ book, The Dark Night of the Soul, he
addresses how the seven deadly sins (pride, greed, luxury, wrath, gluttony, envy, and
sloth) affect the infant of faith—even within the charitable actions of good deeds.2 Jesus,
himself addresses these problems in his sermon on the mount. “Be careful not to do
your ʻacts of righteousnessʼ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no
reward from your Father in heaven.”3 Although a religious life of piety and good deeds is
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2
Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, trans. E. Allison Peers (Radford, VA: Wilder
Publications, 2008), 20-55.
3
Matthew 6:1 (NIV)
being lived, the problem that arises here is the slippery and sly nature of the ego that
hides itself even in the identification of these problems. One may think to his or herself,
“Look at how godly I am for realizing that I should not do my acts of charity before men;
I must be the humblest person I know!” Contemporary songwriter and poet, Aaron
Weiss, captures exactly this point. “But I walk heavy on delicate ground as I go showing
off again, self-impressed by how well I can put myself down! And there I go again to the
next further removed level of that same exact feigned humility! And this for me goes on
and on to the point of nausea.”4 The leap which Kierkegaard speaks of, eradicates this
problem of the ego by putting it in its right place.5 It takes on the prayer of John the
Baptist, “He must become greater; I must become less.”6

Such an emphasis on the problem of the ego can be found not only in
Christianity, but also in the mystic sect of Islam called Sufism. Robert Frager writes,
“The self is a product of the self-centered consciousness—the ego, the ʻI.ʼ The self must
be transformed—this is the ideal. The self is like a wild horse; it is powerful and virtually
uncontrollable. As the self becomes trained, or transformed, it becomes capable of
serving the individual.”7 Frager later compares this transformation to a major operation.
It cannot be done without pain and much work. Often times, the spiritual seeker may
recognize this problem and pray for God to remove such faults and imperfections. Saint
John of the Cross points out, “but they do this that they may find themselves at peace,
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4
Aaron Weiss and mewithoutYou “Wolf Am I (And Shadow)” Lyrics. Brother, Sister (Seattle: Tooth & Nail
Records, 2006), Track 3.
5
True, Kierkegaard focuses on the philosophical problems of reason and the non-access of objectivity for
a person rather than the ego per se as the problem that necessitates the need for the leap, but even in
the heart of these philosophical issues lies the problem of self-based spirituality, i.e. reason based faith.
6
John 3:30 (NIV)
7
Robert Frager, ed., The Essential Sufism (Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 1997), 20.
and may not be troubled by them, rather than for Godʼs sake; not realizing that, if He
should take their imperfections from them, they would probably become prouder and
more presumptuous still.”8 And so to purge his children from these deep issues of pride
and selfishness, the Father removes his presence and becomes apparently absent from
the individual, thus bringing on a “dark night of the soul.”
The Leap/ Dark Night/ Crisis of Faith

Just as the infant is nursed and nurtured at the breast of his mother, the new
Christian is nurtured with the joy and presence of God within the church. This security
lasts for a time, but as maturity beckons, the mother hides her breast. In the infant
phase of Religiousness A, the believer bases faith on his or her own rational beliefs
about God, the great satisfaction felt in serving Him, and the divine presence felt within.
The goal of faith must reach beyond this so that faith is built not on rational beliefs about
God, but on God himself; it is not motivated by the satisfaction of serving, but in serving
itself; it is not based on internal feelings of joy, but on God—even in the midst of pain. To
reach this level of faith, a person must be broken of these ego-based notions. This is
the movement from Religiousness A to Religiousness B, something Kierkegaard calls
“the leap of faith,” but it can only be done through this dark night of the soul, or what
Keating calls, “the crisis of faith.” There comes a time in every Christianʼs spiritual walk
when God is known to hide his presence. In such a time a person may go through a
sense of depression or an existential crisis. Often times, the Christian may begin to
doubt his or her purpose or even the existence of the God that was once felt so near
and deep. This, however, is the normal progression of faith in the life of a Christian.
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8
Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, trans. E. Allison Peers (Radford, VA: Wilder
Publications, 2008), 23.
Thomas Keating writes, “The absence of the felt presence of The Lord is his normal
means of increasing our faith and of getting us to the point of believing in the power of
his word alone, without ʻsigns and wonders,ʼ that is to say without the feeling of his
presence or external props.”9 Saint John of the Cross reflects on this dark night in his
poem, “The Dark Night of the Soul,” which can be found in the Appendix of this paper.
The following selects portions of this poem and expands more on these concepts.
“On a Dark Night”

The poem begins with this mysterious phrase. “On a Dark Night” does not imply
a spiritual awakening nor some new spiritual insight, instead it gives the image of
mystery, fear, and the unknown. As a person walks into this dark night, there is
aloneness and lack of direction felt. Saint John of the Cross writes, “and when they
believe that the sun of Divine favour is shining most brightly upon them, God turns all
this light of theirs into darkness, and shuts against them the door and the source of
sweet spiritual water which they were tasting in God whensoever and for as long as
they desired.”10 Job felt such a dark night when he felt the pain of loss in his life and
called out to the Lord, and was given no answer. Abraham felt this dark night when he
was told to sacrifice his only son upon the altar in Moriah, not being given a reason or
any consolation in the command. Mary and Martha, too, faced such a dark night when
they called on Jesus as their beloved brother was sick and dying, but were given no
response until much later after Lazarus had died and been in the grave four days! Such
a time is filled with grief, despair, and confusion. The suffering bestowed on Job did not
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9
Thomas Keating, Crisis of Faith, Crisis of Love (New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1995),
16.
10
Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, trans. E. Allison Peers (Radford, VA: Wilder
Publications, 2008), 37.
fit the character of the God he served, neither did the command given to Abraham, nor
the silence given to Mary and Martha, and yet, here it was. Every Christian must go
through such a dark time in their life, being provoked to humility and pushed towards
dependence. At such a time, the individual is placed in the hand of an unpredictable
God and at his complete mercy. Keating, too, reflects on this experience,

There comes, then, this mysterious silence. Call it aridity, dryness, desolation,

whatever you want. The terrible, inner realization grows that no matter how hard

we try, or how loud we cry, there is not going to be any response from the other

side of eternity...[but] The Lord does hear. The silence of Jesus is the ordinary

means he uses to awaken in us that perfect confidence which leads to humility

and love—and to gaining all that we ask.11
“My house being now at rest.”

The house that John of the Cross speaks of here is the Religiousness A that the
new Christian has built a home and secure foundation in. This house represents all of
the reasonable notions about God and the formulas given in order to interpret his
actions and predict the outcomes of any spiritual deed performed. It is the well defined
doctrines and dogmas where God is predictable and well-tamed. Being freed from such
false notions about the life of God, an individual becomes liberated to experience the
true God apart from all preconceived ideas about him. The house also represents those
seven sins that are slowly being washed away and left behind, freeing the Christian to a
more honest and pure relationship with the Divine. The real point of this phrase beckons
its reader to become independent of those things which have been grasped a little to
tightly, so as to move towards a real dependence upon God.
“Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart. This light guided me.”
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11
Thomas Keating, Crisis of Faith, Crisis of Love (New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1995),
32 and 34.

It is important to note that even in Godʼs apparent absence, he is secretly guiding
and directing the happenings of his child within the dark night. The infant may not sense
the warmth of his motherʼs bosom, and yet what he does not realize is that she is
continually present and ever involved in the formation of her child. Such is the case with
“your Father who knows what you need before you ask him.”12 However much it feels
that God has abandoned the Christian, God is ever present, hidden in the
circumstances, building a stronger faith in the believer. He did not hide himself from Job
forever, nor did he continue to let Abraham live in his despair, nor did he ignore Mary
and Martha for more than a few days. These seasons of silence are carefully enacted
upon the believer for a specific reason and for a specific time. Even in the darkness, His
light is even present—however hidden it may be.
“With his gentle hand he wounded my neck”

More often then not, the dark night of the soul is instigated by a season of not
only silence, but suffering. This is most apparent in the case of Job. The cause of
suffering may or may not be God himself, but He uses such events as a catalyst for
spiritual growth. It is in the vulnerability of suffering that God is able to do his best and
most transforming work. Saint John of the Cross reflects on the story of Job.

Even so likewise the preparation which God granted to Job in order that he

might speak with Him consisted not in those delights and glories which Job

himself reports that he was wont to have in his God, but in leaving him naked

upon a dung-hill, abandoned and even persecuted by his friends, filled with

anguish and bitterness, and the earth covered with worms. And then the Most

High God, He that lifts up the poor man from the dunghill, was pleased to come

down and speak with him there face to face, revealing to him the depths and
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12
Matthew 6:8 (NIV)

heights of His wisdom, in a way that He might have never done in the time of his

prosperity.13
It is exactly this point that Paul makes in his metaphor of jars of clay. As the Christian is
formed into whatever his or her God so desires, it is a time of intense discomfort. “We
are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck
down, but not destroyed.”14 Perhaps this is also what Jesus implied when he said,
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.”15 Keating makes the point that within such times of suffering, little
or no progress is actually felt. “If you felt you were getting somewhere, it would cease to
be suffering; it would be consolation,”16 but “this is the disposition God waits for in the
crisis of faith: trust in his mercy no matter what kind of treatment he gives you.”17
“All ceased and I abandoned myself.”

This last phrase of Saint John of the Cross contains in it the deep meaning and
goal of the dark night of the soul, namely, the eradication of ego-driven spirituality. In
this last phase of the dark night, the Christian does not find God any longer in his own
hand (indeed, such a god that can be held is not worth holding), but rather that person
finds him or herself in the hand of God. This is exactly what happened in the trial
imposed on Job. In chapter 42 of the story, Job speaks one last time. “Surely I spoke of
things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know...Therefore I despise
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13
Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, trans. E. Allison Peers (Radford, VA: Wilder
Publications, 2008), 48.
14
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NIV)
15
Matthew 5:10 (NIV)
16
Thomas Keating, Crisis of Faith, Crisis of Love (New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1995),
48.
17
ibid, 29.
myself and repent in dust and ashes.”18 No matter how spiritual Job seemed to be at the
beginning of his story, his strength was increased all the more after having gone through
the intense amount of suffering and silence from God. The same was the case of
Abraham when the angel grabbed his hand, and of Mary and Martha when their brother
was restored to them. No matter how dark the night, no matter how long the journey,
there is hope of restoration, although this restoration must necessarily come
independently of the Christianʼs expectation of it. Keating writes, “We have no true right
to anything in the order of grace. It is precisely by facing up to this reality that we pass
from confidence in our own merits to faith in his mercy.”19 This last phrase leads to the
next topic under discussion.
Theosis as the Goal

Within the evangelical tradition, it seems that there is a great emphasis on the
salvation experience above all others. The center point and goal of every life is this
event. Within the deeper historical traditions of the Christian faith is found a different
emphasis and culminating point, that is, theosis. In such a tradition, salvation, although
celebrated and highly praised, is seen only as the beginning of a long process of
katharsis leading to the ultimate union with God. Some theologians refer to this union as
a metaphorical marriage of the human and divine wills, and yet others quite literally
believe that the existence of the Christian is caught up into the identity of God in the
same way that Jesus embodied the Word. This belief continues to have a larger
influence, especially in Greek Orthodoxy. Michael J. Christensen writes, “What God is in
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18
Job 42:3, 6 (NIV)
19
Thomas Keating, Crisis of Faith, Crisis of Love (New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1995),
28.
nature, it is commonly argued and debated in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, humanity
can become by participation, first in image and then in likeness, following the prototype
of Christ, ʻthe first born of a large familyʼ (Rom 8:29).”20 This is the belief that Saint John
of the Cross adopts as he writes, “after passing through [the dark night of the soul], they
may arrive at the state of the perfect, which is that of the Divine union of the soul with
God.”21 Without getting into the debate of the ontological specifics of this union with
God, it can be said in a deeply scriptural based reality that the goal of every human is to
be united once again with his or her creator, to walk in the garden together once more.
This is what Jesus had in mind just a few moments before his arrest in the garden of
gethsemane as he prayed to the Father, “May [those that believe] also be in us so that
the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave
me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought
to complete unity...”22 It is important to understand that the dark night of the soul is
leading not just to some better form of Christianity, but to God himself. The process of
this dark night plays a role in uniting humanity back with its creator. Pastor and author,
Brian D. McLaren illustrates this process with the image of a fireplace and the iron poker
used to move around the burning wood. As the iron poker is left in the fire, it begins to
deny its own solid and cool properties to take on that of the fire itself. The pole begins to
glow with light the longer it is left in the fire, and if left there long enough, it may become
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20
Michael J. Christensen, “The Promise, Process, and Problem of Theosis,” in Partakers of the Divine:
The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions, ed. Michael J. Christensen and
Jeffery A. Wittung (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 25.
21
Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, trans. E. Allison Peers (Radford, VA: Wilder
Publications, 2008), 20.
22
John 17:21-23 (NIV)
difficult to distinguish what it left of the pole, and what is the fire. The dark night of the
soul is this process. “As we place ourselves in the light and fire of God through the
practices of fotosis or illumination, we are overpowered by the nature of God, and we
begin to glow with Godʼs radiance.”23 With this in mind, that dark night that invades the
soul of the Christian with despair, suffering, and silence is what Saint John of the Cross
has declared, “oh, happy night!”
Call to Action

There are two major calls or implications to action that may be received from all
of this. The first is for the individual experiencing the dark night of the soul. All Christians
must at some time experience such darkness—sometimes more than once— but for the
individual facing this night in the moment, may he or she embrace and treasure his or
her own misery! Of course no operation can be performed without the complication of
cutting and stitching, poking and prodding; no clay pot can be formed without being fired
and cooled, kneaded and pressed, and yet such processes are crucial to the
development of maturity and good character, and necessarily lead up to Divine union
with God! It is crucial then for the patient—for the clay—to let God do his work in the
midst of suffering and silence. If the Christian cannot learn to put his or her faith in God
and his mercy, that Christian prolongs the process of purification. Keating puts it this
way, “It is just as if some painter were painting or dyeing a face; if the sitter were to
move because he desired to do something, he would prevent the painter from
accomplishing anything and would disturb him in what he was doing.”24
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23
Brian D. McLaren, Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices (Nashville: Thomas
Nelson Publishers, 2008), 173.
24
Thomas Keating, Crisis of Faith, Crisis of Love (New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1995),
43.

The second application comes in the realization that theosis is a communal
event. Often times the believer cuts his or herself off from the community, thinking that
God is only doing this work in his or her own life. The reality is that this process of
katharsis and theosis is happening to all of humanity. This is why in Jesusʼ prayer
mentioned earlier, he speaks of the believers not only uniting with God, but with one
another! Paul also references this event in 1 Corinthians 15, “God will be all in all.”25
Since this event is a process being poured out on all humanity, the Christian should
encourage his and her neighbors as they each go through the process of the dark night
of the soul. They should call out to one another, “We are in this together, and God is
working for the good of us all!”

The dark night of the soul is no easy process, but it must be known that is a
beautiful and purposeful act of God. In fact, this felt absence of the Father becomes his
presence to the hurting, leaving with the Christian the hope of a greater faith leading to
the reuniting of God and humankind. With this understanding, Saint John of the Cross
embraces the night best when saying,

“I remained, lost in oblivion

My face I reclined on the Beloved.

All ceased and I abandoned myself,

Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.”
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25
1 Corinthians 15:28b (NIV)
Appendix
“The Dark Night of the Soul” by Saint John of the Cross
On a dark night,
Kindled in love with yearnings
—oh, happy chance!
I went forth without being observed,
My house being now at rest.
In darkness and secure,
By the secret ladder, disguised
—oh, happy chance!
In darkness and concealment,
My house being now at rest.
In the happy night,
In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide,
Save that which burned in my heart.
This light guided me
More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me
—A place where none appeared.
Oh, night that guided me
Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed in the Beloved!
Upon my flowery breast
Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him
And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze
The breeze blew from the turret
As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck.
And caused all my senses to be suspended.
I remained, lost in oblivion
My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself,
Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.26
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26
Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, trans. E. Allison Peers (Radford, VA: Wilder
Publications, 2008), 17-18.
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Larson, 16