Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Day Two Reflections on the Patristic Period: Mystery Not Mastery


            Preserving mystery not presenting mastery was the point of theological philosophizing at Nicene and elsewhere.  It was the heretics, the outsiders, the atheists that insisted upon the simplicity of the Ideal/Divine.  Yet it was the church that sought to maintain the mystery even while explaining the scriptures to pagans.  Homoousios was not an attempt to scientifically, philosophically "nail down" what God was, but a rendering, a painting, an artistic impression of His nature.  It was a term for comprehension with mystery not for dogmatic mastery.

            Why press for Enlightened, dogmatic certainty in our faith and theology?  To become like the ancient pagans that believed only the simple, the certain and the unified could be true of the divine.  Don’t be like the pagans and Enlightened rationalists.  Listen the ancient fathers, and leave room for mystery in our faith, theology and discussion of the same.

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