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August 01, 2005
Ch.VII. Q.40. Divine Inscrutability
GOD is inscrutable. That is, His nature is too great for man to acquire an exhaustive knowledge or understanding of Him or of His ways.1
2. It should not be supposed, however, that no knowledge of God is possible. We have a true and adequate knowledge and understanding of God which will be greater, although not exhaustive, hereafter. There is a true theologia viatorum et beatorum.2
3. The possibility of revelation depends upon the fact that God is apprehensible and at least partially comprehensible. We say partially, not as meaning knowledge of a part, for God must be known in toto if at all. He is simplex. We mean that our knowledge is imperfect. We know relatively little of Him, but that little knowledge is of the whole of Him. Yet the terms of revelation are symbolic, using analogies which the Divine nature transcends. But as used in revelation these symbols and analogies are true. They do not misrepresent unless we misinterpret them.x
1 Hooker, Eccles. Polity, I., ii., 2; Pearson, De Deo, xiii., pp. 128-136; St. Thos., Summa, I., xii.; Suarez, Summa, Tr. I., lib. ii., ch. 5-31; Petavius, De Deo , vii., 3, 4; Wilhelm and Scannell, Manual, Vol. I., pp. 197-202; Flint, Agnosticism, pp. 578-585; cf. Job xi. 7-9; xxxvi. 26; Psa. Ixxvii. 19; cxxxix. 6; Prov. xxx. 4; Isa. xlv. 15; Iv. 8, 9; Rom. xi. 33, 34; I. Cor. ii. 11. For the Invisibility of God, see Exod. xxxiii. 20; Job ix. 11; John i. 18; v. 37; I Tim vi. 16; Heb. xi. 1.
2 Petavius, T. I., lib. vii.; Suarez, ch. 8-30; Calderwood, Phil. of Infin., pp. 145-148, 207-233; Wilhelm and Scannell, Bk. II., ch. i. Cf. Rom. i. 20; I. Tim. i. 17; ii. 16; I. John iv. 12; I. Cor. ii. 9-10; xiii. 12; John xvii. 3.
3 Martensen, Dogmatics, §45; Fiske, Idea of God, viii., xii.
Posted by Debra Bullock at August 1, 2005 09:07 PM
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