Summary of The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross

Introduction

In The Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross (1542–1591) provides a profound theological and mystical exploration of the journey toward union with God. Composed during his nine-month imprisonment in a Carmelite monastery in Toledo in 1577, this work uses poetic and theological language to describe the stages of passive purification, or “dark nights,” necessary for divine union. While The Ascent of Mount Carmel focuses on the active preparations for union with God, The Dark Night of the Soul explains how God passively prepares the soul through two distinct purgations: the night of sense and the night of the spirit.

Theological Foundations of the “Dark Night”

St. John employs the metaphor of “night” to describe the experience of divine purification. This imagery captures the obscurity, pain, and transformative nature of the process. The “night” consists of three key aspects:

1. The point of departure: The soul is stripped of attachments to finite things, which feels like a “night” for the senses.
2. The means: The journey is guided by the “dark light of faith,” described as a “ray of darkness” (381), which transcends human understanding and operates as a “night” to human reasoning.
3. The point of arrival: God, who is infinite light, is perceived as darkness because He utterly surpasses the soul’s capacity for comprehension. St. John writes, “The more clear and self-evident Divine things are, the more obscure and hidden they are to the soul naturally” (381). Drawing on the analogy of the sun blinding an owl, he explains, “When the Divine light of contemplation shines into the soul… it causes spiritual darkness, because it not only surpasses its strength, but because it obscures it and deprives it of its natural perceptions” (381).

These purifications are necessary because “no matter how much an individual does through his own efforts, he cannot actively purify himself enough to be disposed in the least degree for the divine union of the perfection of love. God must take over and purge him in that fire that is dark for him” (348). St. John grounds this necessity in the theological principle that man cannot achieve ultimate purification through his own powers, but only through God’s grace.

Characteristics of the Dark Night

St. John emphasizes that the “dark nights” are distinct from ordinary human suffering. While illnesses, failures, or depression may purify when borne with love, these experiences differ fundamentally from the contemplative purification of the dark nights.

1. Contemplative in Nature

St. John warns against conflating ordinary hardships with the dark night. Commenting on this, Fr. Thomas Dubay states, “One of the most common mistakes spiritual directors and confessors tend to make is the easy diagnosis of ordinary sufferings as ‘dark nights.’ This mistake has, of course, unfortunate consequences for the directee” (160).

2. Painful Yet Transformative

The divine purification is likened to a spiritual surgery in which God’s penetrating light exposes and purges the soul’s deepest imperfections: “The very fire of love which afterwards is united with the soul, glorifying it, is that which previously assails it by purging it, just as the fire that penetrates a log of wood is the same that first makes an assault upon it” (382).

3. Necessary for Union with God

St. John insists on the indispensability of the dark night: “Until a soul is placed by God in the passive purgation of that dark night, which we shall soon explain, it cannot purify itself completely from these imperfections… God must take over and purge him in that fire that is dark for him” (348). He compares this process to fire consuming a log of wood, which must first burn away impurities before transforming it into flame.

Book One: The Night of Sense

The first stage, the night of sense, begins early in the spiritual life when God purifies the soul through aridities and detachment from sensory satisfactions. St. John describes it as “a re-formation and bridling of the appetite rather than purgation” (378), emphasizing that it harmonizes the senses with the spirit, preparing the soul for deeper purification.

Signs of the Night of Sense

St. John identifies three key signs that indicate entry into this stage:

1. No consolation: The soul finds no comfort in spiritual or earthly things: “The first is when men find no comfort [or consolation] in the things of God, and none also in created things” (348).
2. Faithfulness: Despite aridities, the soul persistently turns toward God: “The second sign… is that the memory dwells ordinarily upon God with a painful anxiety and carefulness” (349). This longing for God signifies the soul’s readiness for purification.
3. Inability to meditate: The soul can no longer engage in discursive meditation: “The third sign… is an inability to meditate and make reflections, and to excite the imagination, as before” (352).

Benefits of the Night of Sense

This stage produces profound spiritual growth:

• Knowledge of self: The soul recognizes its incapacity and misery, fostering humility: “The soul will see its own misery and have no satisfaction in itself because it sees that of itself it does and can do nothing” (360).
• Knowledge of God: Enlightened by divine grandeur, the soul communes with God with “more reverence and gentleness” (360), leading to purity of devotion and the fruits of the Spirit.
• Growth in virtue: The soul advances in heroic virtues, particularly humility and patience, as it undergoes the “mortifications” that silence the senses and allow spiritual liberty (369).

Book Two: The Night of the Spirit

The second stage, the night of the spirit, is a deeper purification that targets the soul’s faculties of intellect, memory, and will. This stage is far more painful but yields a greater transformation, preparing the soul for perfect union with God.

Experience of the Night of the Spirit

St. John describes this stage as an “oppressive undoing,” where the soul feels abandoned by God: “The soul seems to perish and waste away, at the sight of its own wretchedness, by a cruel spiritual death… suffering the pangs of Jonah in the belly of the whale” (384). Despite this anguish, the soul’s longing for God intensifies, blending the pain of absence with a foretaste of divine love: “In the midst of these dark conflicts… it is being wounded by a strong divine love, and it has a certain feeling and foretaste of God” (392).

Effects of the Night of the Spirit

1. Heroic virtue: The soul, purified by divine love, now exhibits heroic virtues that reflect its transformation: “All their actions and all their faculties being now rather Divine than human” (378).
2. Complete purification: All imperfections are burned away, likened to fire consuming wood: “The Divine fire of contemplative love purges away all the soul’s contrary qualities before it unites it with Himself” (402).

Conclusion: The Goal of the Dark Night

The culmination of the dark nights is perfect union with God, where the soul, stripped of all imperfections, radiates divine love. St. John concludes with profound hope: “O happy lot! Forth unobserved I went, My house being now at rest” (418). This rest signifies the soul’s liberation from attachments and its entrance into the freedom of divine love.

Practical Guidance

St. John advises perseverance and trust during these trials. The soul must not revert to discursive meditation but remain quietly attentive to God’s transformative work: “Let them in nowise have recourse to meditations… and let them leave their soul in quietness and repose” (354).

Final Reflections

The Dark Night of the Soul remains one of the most challenging yet illuminating texts on Christian mysticism. St. John’s precise theology and vivid imagery offer a roadmap for spiritual ascent, emphasizing that only through divine purification can the soul attain union with God. In his words, “The life of the spirit is true liberty and riches, involving innumerable blessings” (418).

Resources Used:

1. John of the Cross. The Dark Night of the Soul. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1864. Print.
2. Dubay, Thomas. Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel—On Prayer. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989. Print.
3. Study Guide on St. John of the Cross by Dr. D. W. Ekstrand Introduction