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THE THOMIST A SPECULATIVE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY EDITORS: THE DoMINICAN FATHERS oF THE PRoviNCE oF ST. JosEPH Publishers: The Thomist Press, Washington, D. C. 20017 VoL. XXXII JANUARY, 1968 No.1 TO KNOW THE MYSTERY: THE THEOLOGIAN IN THE PRESENCE OF THE REVEALED GOD PART! T HE CHURCH lives and contemplates the Mystery o£ the Father, Son and Holy Spirit communicated to her. Even though a certain knowledge o£ the revealed God is possible (Denz.-Schon. 3016), there will remain necessarily an overall darkness, because it is the real God who is known: thus one who is infinite sheer Act and, therefore, incomprehensible . (Denz. 167; 367; 525; 616; 2669; 3016) . God, in being known, must at the same time remain unknown; otherwise, it would not be God who was known at all. The problem o£ the transcendence and the immanence o£ God examined in the noetic sphere presents a bewildering number o£ issues and aspects which will always exact rather delicate treatment. This is so especially today when one finds all varieties o£ opinions steadily gaining acceptance, ranging£rom the hyper-immanence o£ Teilhard to the extreme tran1 ANTHONY J. KELLY scendent accentuation of J. B. Metz.1 The aim of this study is to consider our theological knowledge of the Mystery of the revealed God precisely as affected in its modalities and dynamism by the divine transcendence. In this way we hope to make a contribution to the theory of our theological knowledge and so help to clear away false problems, to alert the theologian to the dignity and the mystery of his task, and finally to throw light on some principles of theological pedagogy which will form the student in a true sense of the transcendent God. A general Thomistic standpoint recommends itself as a flexible viewpoint from which to assess and interpret the multiple problems that confront theology in this area. A good deal of work has been done on allied topics, and certain problems have arisen in the general area which will determine, each in its own way, our precise problematic. These points of difficulty and discussion can be isolated under three headings: 1. Here we isolate, as a special point o£ recent discussion, the Thomistic approach to the Mystery o£ the revealed God and the modem criticism of this approach. This comes from those who would favor a more radical salvation-historical method in theology. This latter, though it appreciates the orthodoxy of the Thomistic schema of approach, finds it also strangely removed and cut off from the concrete terms of revelation.2 It is felt that, when too large a stress is laid on the Unity of the divine essence, the saving Mystery of the Trinity is excessively underplayed in theology and life. 1 Cf. H. Urs Von Balthasar, "Die Gottvergessenheit und die Christen,"Hochland 57 (1964-5), 1-11. Also J. B. Metz, "Die Zukunft des Glaubens in einer Hominisierter Welt," Weltverstandniss im Glauben, edited by Metz himself (Mainz, 1965), 45-6~. • G. Martelet, "Theologie und Heilsiiconomie in der Christologie der 'Tertia,'" Gott in Welt II (Freiburg, 1964), 3-43; K. Rahner, "Dreifaltige Gott als Transzendenter Urgrund der Heilsgeschichte," Mysterium Salutis II (Einsiedeln, 1967), 3~3-347. TO KNOW THE MYSTERY s Whereas this study does not intend to "' solve " this problem, it cannot but be influenced by it, as will be seen. 2. In recent years, there has arisen quite an intense debate on the personalism of St. Thomas's trinitarian theology. If the problem is accepted as it has been expressed, it seems that A. Malet in his much-quoted work, Personne et Amour dans la Theologie de S. Thomas d'Aquin (Paris, 1956), had decisively vindicated the theology of St. Thomas in this respect.3 However, at this later date, when one reflects back on the issue, it can be suspected that the problematic in the framework of which the discussion took shape may not have been in every way genuine.4 Consequently it can be asked whether a clearer understanding of the special character of our theological knowledge would not have precluded the possibility of such a problem arising in the first place, or at least...

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