Post by hibernicus on Sept 27, 2010 17:04:09 GMT
Here is a fine piece by Fr Dwight Longenecker discussing how modern theologians who emphasise the unknowability of God differ from the classical strand of mysticism which emphasises the mystery of the divine - the classical exponents subscribed to and took for granted an orthodox theology of the Incarnation, without which the moderns are really preaching a form of agnosticism. Although he applies it to Anglicans, I can think of some contemporary Irish Catholic commentators when I read this:
EXTRACT
Don’t get me wrong. There is a fine strain of spirituality and theology that does emphasize the via negativa or the way of negation. Apophatic theology is the way of talking about God that looks beyond all created categories of sensation and thought to the God who is beyond all our mental concepts and images. This way of doing and praying theology has a venerable history stretching back to Gregory of Nyssa and Evagrius Ponticus in the fourth century. However, there is an important difference between the genuine apophatic theologians and the modern Anglicans. The Church fathers spoke of their inability to know the essence of God himself, but they did so within an orthodox understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation. When we study the writings of contemporary Anglican theologians this orthodox understanding of the Incarnation is missing. Instead Jesus is ‘that human person who most fully shows us what God is like.’
That Anglican theologians should end up in agnosticism is logical, because when you deny the reality of the Incarnation you do end up with a distant God who is cut off from humanity, and it is right that, from a human perspective, we can know nothing about him. Because of this human inability Catholic spirituality and theology has always insisted that an orthodox Christology is vital to everything else.
It is true that God is beyond all our human understanding. But it is also true that God reveals himself to mankind. God was always distant, but he also spoke to his people and ‘In these ‘latter days he has spoken to us by his Son.’ (Heb. 1:2) At Christmas we celebrate the fact that the Word was made flesh and came to dwell among us. (Jn. 1:14) Contemporary Anglican theologians write beautifully at times. They offer a tragic, post-modern vision of Christian belief. It is a belief that seems fated to die a lonely, poetic death. Happily, there is an option. The Catholic theologian, John Saward writes even more beautifully of the wonders of the incarnation. In his books, The Mysteries of March, Redeemer in the Womb and Cradle of Redeeming Love Saward helps us to meditate on the Christmas mystery. He does so with great erudition and a wonderful spirituality. His books deserve the widest readership in theological circles because they are the perfect antidote to the sweet poison of Anglican agnosticism.
The antidote is not only theological. Contemplative prayer is vital for a fervent faith. In his encyclical Into the New Millennium the Pope says that the new evangelisation must be motivated and fuelled by the contemplative life. We engage in contemplation not by emptying our minds or by staring at the ‘dazzling darkness’, but by gazing on the face of Christ. Jesus is the Way to Truth and Life, so it is through the rosary and by contemplation of the Holy Face that we enter into the mystery of the Incarnation and therefore into the mystery of God himself. This is Christianity with both form and content, and the pope recommends this because he realises that while God is unknowable, ‘Christ is the image of the unseen God’ (Col. 1:15). The Christ child in the stable is not a dark absence, but ‘God from God, Light from Light, Very God of Very God.’
ttp://www.dwightlongenecker.com/Content/Pages/Articles/CatholicIssues/TheDazzlingDarknessOrTheLightOfLife.asp
EXTRACT
Don’t get me wrong. There is a fine strain of spirituality and theology that does emphasize the via negativa or the way of negation. Apophatic theology is the way of talking about God that looks beyond all created categories of sensation and thought to the God who is beyond all our mental concepts and images. This way of doing and praying theology has a venerable history stretching back to Gregory of Nyssa and Evagrius Ponticus in the fourth century. However, there is an important difference between the genuine apophatic theologians and the modern Anglicans. The Church fathers spoke of their inability to know the essence of God himself, but they did so within an orthodox understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation. When we study the writings of contemporary Anglican theologians this orthodox understanding of the Incarnation is missing. Instead Jesus is ‘that human person who most fully shows us what God is like.’
That Anglican theologians should end up in agnosticism is logical, because when you deny the reality of the Incarnation you do end up with a distant God who is cut off from humanity, and it is right that, from a human perspective, we can know nothing about him. Because of this human inability Catholic spirituality and theology has always insisted that an orthodox Christology is vital to everything else.
It is true that God is beyond all our human understanding. But it is also true that God reveals himself to mankind. God was always distant, but he also spoke to his people and ‘In these ‘latter days he has spoken to us by his Son.’ (Heb. 1:2) At Christmas we celebrate the fact that the Word was made flesh and came to dwell among us. (Jn. 1:14) Contemporary Anglican theologians write beautifully at times. They offer a tragic, post-modern vision of Christian belief. It is a belief that seems fated to die a lonely, poetic death. Happily, there is an option. The Catholic theologian, John Saward writes even more beautifully of the wonders of the incarnation. In his books, The Mysteries of March, Redeemer in the Womb and Cradle of Redeeming Love Saward helps us to meditate on the Christmas mystery. He does so with great erudition and a wonderful spirituality. His books deserve the widest readership in theological circles because they are the perfect antidote to the sweet poison of Anglican agnosticism.
The antidote is not only theological. Contemplative prayer is vital for a fervent faith. In his encyclical Into the New Millennium the Pope says that the new evangelisation must be motivated and fuelled by the contemplative life. We engage in contemplation not by emptying our minds or by staring at the ‘dazzling darkness’, but by gazing on the face of Christ. Jesus is the Way to Truth and Life, so it is through the rosary and by contemplation of the Holy Face that we enter into the mystery of the Incarnation and therefore into the mystery of God himself. This is Christianity with both form and content, and the pope recommends this because he realises that while God is unknowable, ‘Christ is the image of the unseen God’ (Col. 1:15). The Christ child in the stable is not a dark absence, but ‘God from God, Light from Light, Very God of Very God.’
ttp://www.dwightlongenecker.com/Content/Pages/Articles/CatholicIssues/TheDazzlingDarknessOrTheLightOfLife.asp