I think it does. Else our belief is nebulous and ill-defined. I think the Church spent many a General Council trying to achieve an exacting definition.
If it comes down to it, define electricity; or electromagnetism, or matter, or energy, or the universe itself, for that matter
How we relate to electricity, electromagnetism, or matter is qualitatively different and incomparable with how we relate topersonal relationshi ; with the latter we do. I believe it is only proper that we know exactly who we have that intimate relationship with, to know exaclty who that person is.
What does it mean that one of the key adjectives used is ineffable?
I think it does. Else our belief is nebulous and ill-defined. I think the Church spent many a General Council trying to achieve an exacting definition.
It is certainly galling for the intelligent and intellectual to admit defeat in understanding. The Church had to come with as good a definition as they could, but throughout the centuries, it has always admitted that God is unknowable. The Orthodox have even branched out into defining what God is not. That by itself is an admission that we are nowhere near up to the task of defining God.
If it comes down to it, define electricity; or electromagnetism, or matter, or energy, or the universe itself, for that matter How we relate to electricity, electromagnetism, or matter is qualitatively different and incomparable with how we relate topersonal relationshi ; with the latter we do.
You are sounding positively Evangelical here. What kind of personal relationship does a rotifer have with the Creator? The relationship we have (if any) is with the lowered hand of the Creator reaching way down to us.
I believe it is only proper that we know exactly who we have that intimate relationship with, to know exaclty who that person is.
God is on the other side of the gulf that is unknowable and uncrossable for us until our death. We have inadequate descriptions and man made 'maps' of God. The map is not the thing. Descriptions are not the thing. We attempt to make sense out of the infinite and to know the unknowable. We try to create some sort of definition so that we can deal with God in some sort of way. God may have some kind of personal relationship with us, but the other thing that we can have a relationship with is the lowered hand of God reaching out to us.