As a young adult I enrolled in an introductory astronomy course. I worried that it would require a lot of advanced math, but the challenge proved to be more of a conceptual nature. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around what was being taught about the incomprehensible sizes and distances of stars, nebulas, galaxies, and light-years.
The images from the James Webb Space Telescope have rekindled that sense of wonder in me. The official website displays these images in high definition, providing an immersive experience that was once impossible. Viewing those radiant hues, ethereal glows, and swirls of cosmic dust brings to mind all the symbolic and spiritual associations that clouds inspire: transience, change, unpredictability, mystery, inspiration, and dreamlike states. In scripture, clouds signify divine presence: God guides the Israelites in a pillar of cloud or makes the clouds his chariot, and it’s certainly something to imagine Jesus being received by a cloud after appearing to his disciples following his resurrection.
In this essay, I explore the symbolic associations we bring to clouds, drawing connections between the paintings of Georgia O'Keefe, the images produced by modern science, and the concept of the internet cloud. I approach these diverse subjects from the apophatic theological perspective articulated in the renowned text The Cloud of Unknowing.
This piece was originally published in print in the August 2024 issue of The Christian Century. Now, it's also available on The Christian Century's website.
Commentaires