The Reformation · c. 1578–1585
The Dark Night of the Soul
La Noche Oscura del Alma
John of the Cross · 1542–1591
What it is
A poem and its commentary on the two nights the soul passes through — of the senses and then of the spirit — in which God withdraws every consolation precisely in order to purify love of its self-interest.
Why it lasted
The tradition's definitive treatment of spiritual desolation, and the reason a phrase for a private crisis of faith exists in ordinary English at all.
Scripture it works from
Read it here
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1 sections · complete, from seed/library-translations/dark-night-of-the-soul/ai-en.
Elsewhere
Part of this work is held here; the rest can be read at the archives below.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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