Last summer, I finally graduated from my Master’s in Christian Spirituality. But it was an odd experience. I had submitted my dissertation the summer prior. I received my final grade the following November. Then, I received my certificate a few months later in the March. To be honest, it was an anti-climax. Spending three years striving to outperform my classmates and impress my professor culminated in my name being read out in a half-empty chapel with minimal applause – not even my two children cheered! The only real positives were a nice, rather expensive family photo and the desire to revisit some of the assignments I had written. Over the course of my studies, I had grown very fond of a Spanish fellow called Juan, who many of us know as St John of the Cross.
This fondness is due to the fact that John’s context was so different to the Sussex, middle-class, Charismatic context I had inhabited for over a decade. Yet, there is a clear desire in his writings for encounter with the Spirit of the living God as well as wisdom about the spiritual challenges of the Christian life. In particular, the mystical phenomenon he is most famous for, the so-called, ‘dark night of the soul’.
Numerous articles, books and dissertations have been written on John, and I would argue that one of the reasons for this is that his writings on the dark night experience can be interpreted in a number of ways. This has created an academic kaleidoscope of interpretation, meaning that, much like the turn of a child’s kaleidoscope, each different interpretation creates a different picture. The consequence of these differing pictures is that it allows those from outside the Catholic tradition, like myself, to interpret John’s writing for their own tradition. If you were to take a broad sweep of Charismatic literature, you would be hard-pressed to find a mention of John or the dark night experience. This is because the narrative found within much of this literature is victorious in tone, with many words written on topics like revival. Even if you did, the exegesis of John’s writing and the subsequent application would be vague. The downside of this is that the dark night experience is not something that Protestants are immune from and only Catholics are susceptible to. Thinking back, I would say that I have experienced something akin to the experience John writes of in his prose works The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night (not to be confused with his poem of the same name). With some reframing, I think that St John of the Cross, a 16th-century Spanish Carmelite friar, can be seen as a Charismatic pastor who offers sage advice for today.
John the Charismatic
Mark Cartledge, a scholar of Charismatic spirituality, highlights that ‘inspired speech’ is a central feature of Charismatic practice.[1] He categorises seven different types of inspired speech, including speaking in tongues, which demonstrate the Holy Spirit is active both within the individual and the church community. The practice of speaking in tongues and interpretation of a tongue and/or tongues is an important feature of a Charismatic gathering because it facilitates encounter with the Holy Spirit (see 1 Cor 14). It is also seen as a sign of what is known as ‘Baptism in the Spirit’, which, for some denominations, is evidence that a person has truly become a Christian. Interestingly, at various points in his works, John either explores, or makes mention of, extraordinary words and thoughts of others. For example, John writes in The Ascent of Mount Carmel:
For it sometimes occurs that a person, while not thinking at all of the matter, receives in spirit a vivid perception of what he hears or reads, and that with greater distinctness than the words involve; and sometimes, too, even when he knows not the language to which the words belong, the knowledge of the matter is conveyed to him without his being able to explain the terms that imply it.[2]
Even though I am not an expert on 16th-century Spanish or 1st-century Koine Greek, from my reading, it appears that John is referring to speaking in tongues, where he writes ‘…even when he knows not the language to which the words belong, the knowledge of the matter is conveyed to him without his being able to explain…’. Furthermore, the encounter also appears to be passive as the person is ‘not thinking at all of that matter’, and there is a need for interpretation of both the language and the knowledge. This appears to correlate with Paul’s discussion on tongues in 1 Corinthians 14:27-28. Yet, this is not the only way that John can be seen as a Charismatic Christian.
John is known for his beautiful poems, such as The Living Flame of Love and The Spiritual Canticle. In each of these poems, encounter is the central theme. For example, in his poem, which is also entitled The Dark Night, a woman is searching for her lover. Initially, the steps she takes are hesitant, but with growing confidence, she meets her lover and the poem climaxes with encounter and transformation. John writes in the fifth stanza:
O, guiding night; O, night more lovely than the dawn; O, night that hast united the lover with His beloved, and changed her into her love. [3]
Mark Cartledge observes that the central motif of the Charismatic tradition is encounter with the Holy Spirit and that the purpose of this is transformation from who we are currently, to whom God has called us to be. In particular, the importance of encounter and transformation can be seen within the songs written and sung by Charismatic worship leaders. Many, many lyrics from these songs could be quoted at this point, but in particular, one stands out:
Your love has ravished my heart and taken me over, taken me over. And all I want is to be with you forever; with you forever. [4]
The focus on encounter and transformation in John’s poems is paralleled in the songs that I regularly sing on a Sunday morning in church. I would suggest that if John’s poems were put to a contemporary musical arrangement with an anthemic chorus, electric guitars and ambient synthesisers, they would not be out of place.
John the Pastor
John was a Carmelite friar who, over the course of his ministry, served as a prior, superior and vicar provincial. John also served the communities he was a member of as a confessor and spiritual director. Such terms are not used in the lexicon of Charismatic church structures. Typically, leaders are referred to as pastors and/or elders. The reasons for this are drawn from a reappraisal of Paul’s letters. If you had a biblical dictionary to hand, even though the words are different, the definition of an elder and the definition of a pastor are almost identical.[5] Importantly, though, the defining thread is that they are someone who cares for the Christian community, and this is something John obviously did during his ministry.
In his prose work, The Dark Night, John keeps the person who has entered the dark night experience central. In the opening chapters, we see John’s clear concern for the spiritual welfare of others. He warns his readers to be wary of beginners who, for their own selfish reasons, decide to ignore their pastoral oversight because their supposed pious actions are not being praised. His concern is that the consequence of such a selfish motive is that they may find themselves on a path which will not lead them into union with God, which is John’s primary pastoral focus.[6] Also, John uses analogy and metaphor throughout his writings to present his own revelation and theology to others. John uses analogy to compare God’s actions during the dark night experience to a mother attempting to wean her child because milk is only a sufficient source of nutrients for our early development. Later, John uses the metaphor of a burning log to explain the benefit of the purgative contemplation which occurs during the dark night experience. He explains that as a log burns in a fire, eventually, the log and the fire become one and the same. These real-life, tangible examples are given to better help those who are pastorally responsible for others.
The Implications of The Dark Night Experience for Charismatic Spirituality
This led me to ask the question, ‘What are the implications when a member of a Charismatic church enters into something akin to a dark night experience?’ This is not an undue question to ask because the felt experience of the Holy Spirit, both corporately and individually, is incredibly significant within Charismatic spirituality. The loss of such would create a void and could cause someone to question themselves, others or even God. And, it could even cause them to leave their church or abandon their faith altogether! This is where I think that John, the Charismatic pastor, is incredibly helpful.
An aspect of the dark night experience John explores most in his prose work, The Dark Night is the passive night of the spirit. The passive night of the spirit is a place of encounter and transformation. However, this is very different to the encounter and transformation typically understood by Charismatics. John describes the passive night of the spirit as ‘an inflow of God into the soul that purges it of its habitual ignorance and imperfections…’.[7] The reason why the passive night is described as ‘passive’ is that it is brought about by the activity of the Holy Spirit and not the effort of persons themselves. John writes later that it is painful, afflictive, dark for the soul, has many extreme miseries and individuals feel so far from all favour.[8] The use of such language is because anything that is opposed to the holiness of God cannot coexist within a person. Let’s be honest, this doesn’t sound like a lot of fun!
Using the analogy of a ladder, John explains that the purpose of the dark night experience is to begin to prepare the person for the last step of this ladder, which is full union with God upon death or, in other words, meeting our Maker.[9] The first step of John’s ladder is the dark night experience, and as the person climbs, step by step, they are being formed into greater Christ-likeness. The person emerges from the entire dark night experience when the deepest purification has accomplished its work. [10] Now, they are able to recognise that everything they sought before has lost its sense of importance because they can now see that ultimately, God is enough.[11] It is from this point that the person may again recognise the activity of the Holy Spirit within them as He brings both joy and love.
What John of the Cross means to me
Here we arrive at the crux of this article. The dark night experience is forming the person to identify that it is not the gifts of the Holy Spirit – miracles, dreams, tongues and prophecy – that are important but the Giver of those gifts. The benefit of this encounter with the Holy Spirit, and the subsequent transformation that occurs, is that it enables the person to move forward in their faith with a deeper sense of purpose, holiness and awareness of the Holy Spirit. This is why, as horrible as it sounds, John described the dark night experience as a ‘happy night’.[12]
Therefore, St John of the Cross, the Charismatic pastor, provides for Charismatic Christians, like myself, a vital understanding of the nature and purpose of a dark night experience. What this means is that a 16th-century Carmelite friar can help elders and pastors of Charismatic churches to support those with empathy because, from my own experience, there is little to no reference point within Charismatic spirituality for a felt absence of the Holy Spirit – let alone the feeling of being so far from all favour. But also, reading works by faithful followers of Jesus Christ from outside of our own traditions helps us to broaden our own perspectives of this thing we call, Church. God is at work today as He has been in centuries past, and He will be until His Kingdom is fully established on the earth. Our responsibility, as followers of Christ, is to work towards this by drawing on the wisdom passed on to us by those who have gone before. And I’m pretty sure that John would feel the same way too.
[1] Cartledge, M. J. (2006) Encountering the Spirit: The Charismatic Tradition, London: Darton, Longman & Todd, pp. 78-83.
[2] John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Ch 26, 15. (All quotations are taken from John of the Cross: Selected Writings, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh, The Classics of Western Spirituality, vol. 53 (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1987).
[3] John of the Cross, The Dark Night (poem), Stanza 5.
[4] Cook, A. (2012) Closer (LIVE) – Bethel Music & Steffany Gretzinger: For the Sake of the World [YouTube]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jas8siNG3Bo (Accessed 19th December 2022).
[5] Strong. J. (2001) The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Red-Letter Edition, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, G4245 & G4166.
[6] John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 1, Ch 8, 1.
[7] John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Ch, 5, 1.
[8] John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Ch, 5, 2-7.
[9] See John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, Book 2, Chapters 19–20.
[10] John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Ch, 9, 4.
[11] John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Ch, 9, 5.
[12] John of the Cross, The Dark Night, Book 2, Ch, 9, 1.
