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The Challenge and Possibility of Theology

Written for Principles of Dogmatic Theology with Dr. Gerald P. Boersma, November 8, 2019


The theological challenge of knowing and speaking intelligibly about God is expressed by Dionysius’ statement that “we are united to God as to something unknown to us.” Even those of us who, by faith, state we know and love God understand that we can only know God in a limited way, only insomuch as our minds can grasp. Without faith, it is impossible to know God. With faith, by studying all that God has revealed to us, by properly applying methods of theological speech in our study, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can become able to do know and speak intelligibly about God. Revelation contains everything we need to study God; in fact, we know the existence of God by the evidence of creation. 

Aquinas tells us that God’s existence is not an article of faith but a preamble to the faith.  The famous praemubla fidei are literally those things that “walk” before the faith. The existence of God is not simply a faith claim, but a philosophical posit that can be debated, discussed, and Thomas believes, demonstrated.  Of course, someone with little philosophical ability might not be able to follow the argument.  But “someone who cannot grasp a proof” can still accept God’s existence on faith.

Faith is the first necessary component to our study of God. I do not here disagree with Aquinas, who holds that “God’s existence is not an article of faith but a preamble to the faith.”[1] However, once one accepts that God exists, they have faith, even if just the seed of faith. Further study will then grow that faith. But one who rejects the existence of God, who attempts to study scriptures to prove he does not exist, and closes their mind to the possibility that they could be in error, would not find their studies fruitful.

Without faith, we cannot presume to know God; we faith, we can know him, at least to the limits of our capacity to know him. It is by faith that we can state our belief that God is the creator of all good things. We know God by the existence of creation; if we claim to study God but not acknowledge him as creator, we are not studying God as he has revealed himself to us, but some being of our own creation. It is not simply that God is God, and we are not (although that is of course true), but that our drawing in to God begins by our first seeing God in the world around us, which then leads us to Scripture. As Nichols states, “all of Christian revelation is contained in Scripture in some manner. … It is the union of Old and New Testaments which definitively constitutes Scripture.”[2]  We come to know God by our study of what he has revealed to us. For, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, “God is the author of Sacred Scripture.” [3]  If we cannot acknowledge this, what good could our study be? We must first acknowledge that “The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."[4] 

To know God, we need to study all of Divine Revelation. Nichols states “Ecclesial faith precedes, enters into, and organizes the concrete knowledge which theology possesses.” [5] Boersma explains this further, “The objective content of faith is something that apart from revelation we could not come up with.  Revelation is an ‘in breaking.’  It is a response to divine revelation.  Drawing on Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, the theologian responds to God’s self-communication.”[6] Theology is approached as a whole. It may be fashionable to quote a verse of the Bible out of context, but when that is done, it is easy to fall into error as to its meaning. We cannot make statements about God based solely on what is said in one verse or another; we need to read Scripture, learn Tradition, and be attentive to the teachings of the Magisterium.

We cannot approach this study as we would, say, art history, for art history, like most subjects, can be understood by those who study it, whereas our study of God can lead us to greater understanding, yet we will never truly state we understand God. This is where we need tools, methods of theology, to help us in our task. Dionysius states that “Just as the senses can neither grasp nor perceive the things of the mind, just as representation and shape cannot take in the simple and the shapeless, just as corporal form cannot lay hold of the intangible and incorporeal, by the same standard of truth beings are surpassed by the infinity beyond being, intelligences by that oneness which is beyond intelligence.”[7] When we try to discuss God, we are like inhabitants of Plato’s cave, trying to grasp reality by studying the shadows which are all we see.  Dionysius thus presents us with “negative theology.” We cannot state anything positive about God, because we are incapable of comprehending the majesty of God. Boersma explains this: “If we say (positively) ‘God is wise,’ according to Dionysius, we have to negate that and say, ‘God is not wise, because he is not wise in any way that we understand by wisdom, but utterly and completely transcendence our understanding of wisdom.’  Dionysius’s ‘negative theology’ (sometimes known as via negativa) begins with the utterly unapproachable transcendence of God – the Being beyond being.”[8] 

The question then, is how do we apply this via negativa? Dionysius holds that “the things of God are revealed to each mind in proportion to its capacities”[9]; that “we can only use what scripture has disclosed”[10] and that “With our minds made prudent and holy, we offer worship to that which lies hidden beyond thought and beyond being.”[11] Aquinas states “Our natural knowledge begins from the senses.”[12] As he explains, our natural knowledge can lead us to know of God, but our mind cannot be led by sense so far as to see the essence of God. We cannot fully know God, for we are not equal to him. God created everything, and he exceeds all things. We must acknowledge this “transcendent Goodness transcendently there”[13] if we are to do any type of theological thinking. Aquinas posits there are five ways the existence of God can be proved, one of which is referred to as “contingency .” A very brief description is that there must be a first cause, and that first cause, the cause that has no cause, is what we call God. God has no beginning. All of humanity can trace their parentage for at least several generations; some can trace their ancestors back centuries. We can see out immediate cause in our parents; their cause in our grandparents, and so on, as far back as we can go. But God has no ancestors; God has no beginning. He has no parentage, no ancestors; for he always was and always has been. Applying via negativa to this, I would then need to say that I cannot state that God had no beginning, because I cannot comprehend the existence of anything that had no beginning. Yet, although I cannot comprehend it, I can believe it, through faith. We must, however, remain mindful of Barron’s caution that we need to be careful not to place God in the position of “highest being”, but rather as Aquinas does, ipsum esse (to be itself) or qui est (the one who is). [14] St. Anselm describes God as “that than which nothing greater can be thought,” but that does not mean, cannot mean, that God plus all he created is greater than God alone, for the paradox is that nothing can be greater than God, not even God plus other things. [15] 

As in all things, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to discern and study God. Dei Verbum states that after much time of preparation by the prophets, God “sent His Son, the eternal Word, who enlightens all men, so that He might dwell among men and tell them of the innermost being of God … To see Jesus is to see His Father. For this reason Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of making Himself present and manifesting Himself: through His words and deeds, His signs and wonders, but especially through His death and glorious resurrection from the dead and final sending of the Spirit of truth. Moreover He confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed, that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal.”[16] What is revealed in no less than everything we need for our salvation. God didn’t just send his Son, and expect us to figure out everything on our own. “To bring about an ever deeper understanding of revelation the same Holy Spirit constantly brings faith to completion by His gifts.” [17] Augustine takes this further, showing how the Holy Spirit uses people to teach others. His De Doctrina Christiana “is a concise handbook Augustine wrote for teachers and preachers – those responsible for expositing and interpreting the Scriptures to others.”[18] Augustine’s concern was to explain how to read Scripture, not just for one’s own knowledge, but to pass that knowledge on to others. Augustine specifically points out that at the conversion of St. Paul, Christ spoke directly to Paul, and directed him to Damascus, where Ananias was told by Christ to go to Paul to instruct him.[19] “Such is the nature of God’s dealing with people: he desires that ‘men supply His word to men.’”[20] Here we must remember that it is by the working of the Holy Spirit that one man is catechized, and is thus called to catechize others – and how much more so is this true when we go beyond catechesis to theological thought and exegesis.

Dei Verbum states that it is not simply through the Gospels, nor the Old Testament, nor the New Testament that we come to know God. Our bishops, followers in the line of Apostolic Succession, and thus having the authority to teach us, are tasked with the correct interpretation of the Bible for us. “This sacred tradition, therefore, and Sacred Scripture of both the Old and New Testaments are like a mirror in which the pilgrim Church on earth looks at God, from whom she has received everything, until she is brought finally to see Him as He is, face to face.”[21] Dei Verbum specifically states that what is “handed on by the Apostles includes everything which contributes toward the holiness of life and increase in faith of the peoples of God; and so the Church, in her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes.”[22] In short, we have been given everything we need to be the Church of Christ, without the loss of any knowledge over time. Dei Verbum specifically states that both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are “to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence,”[23] and that together, they “form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church.”[24]

We speak of “knowing God” when in reality, we can only glimpse him. We approach God much as a five year old approaches a favorite Teddy Bear, pouring out our heart, our dreams, our fears, our tears, to something we ascribe power to. But while the five year old knows that Teddy Bear will never really answer her, God does answer us: while we may love the Teddy Bear, it cannot love us back. God not only loves us, he loved us before we even knew him. It is that love that makes any discourse we have about God possible; that love that is revealed to us in Scripture, in tradition, and by the teachings of the magisterium. That love, which manifests itself in our faith in God, permits us to know God, within the limits of our humanity, particularly when we properly applying methods of theological speech in our study.

 


[1]  Boersma Week 1 Discussion 4 Response

[2] Nichols 22

[3] CCC 105

[4] CCC 105

[5] Nichols 16

[6] Boersma, Week 1, Discussion 1 Response

[7] Dionysius 588B

[8] Boersma, Week 1, Discussion 2 Response

[9] Dionysius 588A

[10] Dionysius 588A

[11] Dionysius 589B

[12] Bauerschmidt 62

[13] Dionysius 593C

[14] Barron 62

[15] Barron 63

[16] Dei Verbum 4

[17] Dei Verbum 5

[18] Boersma, Week 2, Discussion 2 Response

[19] Acts 9:3-18

[20] Boersma, Week 2, Discussion 2 Response

[21] Dei Verbum 7

[22] Dei Verbum 8

[23] Dei Verbum 9

[24] Dei Verbum 10




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