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To: Kolokotronis
No human understands God. The Fathers are quite clear on this.

I understand that we can never fully understand God. That said, if there were to be NO understanding, then why bother with Revelation or Scripture at all? He gave us the ability to understand, did He not? Christ speaks of understanding quite often.

146 posted on 05/06/2009 10:39:01 AM PDT by TradicalRC (Conservatism is primarily a Christian movement.)
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To: TradicalRC
"That said, if there were to be NO understanding, then why bother with Revelation or Scripture at all? He gave us the ability to understand, did He not?"

Indeed He did. By dying to the self, the nous becomes clear and we can experience the "light" which is the uncreated energy of God. To the extent that we can experience that Light, as the apostles did at Mount Tabor, we come to understand something about God and "participate" in Him, though not in the sense of a hypostatic union. By the use of apophatic theology, we can understand a bit about God by perceiving what He is not. But beyond that, or in point of fact even then, what we see and understand,

"βλεπομεν γαρ αρτι δι εσοπτρου εν αινιγματι"

148 posted on 05/06/2009 11:11:52 AM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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To: TradicalRC

***I understand that we can never fully understand God. That said, if there were to be NO understanding, then why bother with Revelation or Scripture at all? He gave us the ability to understand, did He not? Christ speaks of understanding quite often.***

For those who have not achieved a full state of Grace, there is the Church to guide. Jesus says to go to the Church; He left Peter as the steward and the Apostles as the first bishops. Understanding is for no one man, but the Body of Christ and the Church which guides it, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.


153 posted on 05/06/2009 4:18:31 PM PDT by MarkBsnr ( I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
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