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Faith And Experience: X The incomprehensibility Of God
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
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Traditional Christian theology draws on a remarkable number of terms to express its conviction that God is beyond reach of human concepts and language. More than forty different words have been noticed in the works of Gregory of Nyssa, for instance, referring to the incomprehensibility of God in one way or another. Some of them derive from scripture, others from Philo, others from Greek philosophers; some of them find their way into the liturgical texts of eastern Christendom. They leave us in no doubt that it is radically impossible for the mind of man, or of any other creature, to fathom God. “The being of God is incomprehensible to the whole creation”, as Chrysostom concludes.
Not surprisingly, the theological tradition of divine incomprehensibility overlaps to a considerable extent with the kind of philosophical speculation we have been considering in the previous articles. But the theologians have their own slant on the matter, and it is with this that we shall be concerned in this article.
In the first place, the theologians are convinced that it is an essential part of Christian doctrine to assert that God is unfathomable; it is part of revealed truth.
This comes out in the orthodox response to the claim made by the Anomocans in the fourth century. Apparently they were saying, “I know God just as he knows himself’ Eunomius is quoted as saying, “God knows nothing more of his own essence than we do”. This provoked St John Chrysostom to preach a series of sermons in Antioch on the incomprehensibility of God's nature, as being an article of Christian faith. Though he does sometimes use simple arguments of a more philosophical kind, he concentrates chiefly on scriptural and doctrinal evidence.
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References
1 Cavabera, F. Darrféiou, A J., Introduction to lean Chrysostome, Sur L'Incompćthenttbtllé deDieu (Sources Chretienes, 1951), p. 19Google Scholar.
2 De Incomprehensibili Del Natura IV4.
3 Ibid. 11 3.
4 Socrates, H.E. IV 7.
5 Chrysostom, Op. cit. Ill 2.
6 Ibid. I 4.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid. I 6.
9 Ibid. I 4.
10 Ibid. I 5.
11 Ibid. 11 6.
12 Ibid. II 5.
13 Irenaeus, Adv.Haer IV 6,7.
14 Ignatius, ad Eph. 15, 2.
15 Irenaeus, Epid. 15.
16 Chiysostom, BI Gen. 13,4; 14,4.
17 E.g.Theophilus.ad Autol. II 25; Greg. Naz. Orat, 39,7f; 45,8.
18 OS 7,3. I have slightly adapted the translation by Charlesworth.
19 Trip. Tract. 64, 28ff, quoted from die translation in J. M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library m English.
20 Forster‐Wilson, Gnosis 1 p. 129.
21 Exc. Theod 31,3f.
22 Adv. Haer. IV 7,4.
23 1 Apol 63; Dial. 127.
24 I Apol. 5; 46.
25 C. Cels. VI 63.
26 Cf. St Thomas, Summa Theol. la q. 12 art. 12.
27 In Joh. II 29.
28 Ibid. II 24.
29 Ibid. II 10.
30 Tg. Neofiti ad loc.
31 Yet. 49b, quoted from the Soncino translation.
32 Cf. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews VI pp.44f.
33 All references to Ephrem, unless otherwise specified, are to the Hymns on Faith. Here 37,26.
34 J. P. Caussade, L 'Abandon à la Providence Divine, ed. M. Olphe‐Galliard, p. 27.
35 Ibid. p. 43.
36 Ephrern 44,10.
37 69,1‐9.
38 Commentary on the Diatessaron, 1 18‐19.
39 64, 11‐12.
40 44, 1.
41 54,11.
42 46,10.
43 67,15.
44 Eg.3,11; 41,7; 51,9.
45 37,12.
46 26,13.
47 31,3; cf. 31,3‐11; 26,8‐13.
48 31,11. Cf. Origen,Ser. In Mat. 100.
49 Hymns on Paradise 11, 5‐8.
50 44,2.
51 44,3.
52 19,5.
53 37,10.
54 37,22. Cf. my contribution to AffwHeovra? Nov furrt?
55 37,8.
56 25,4.
57 20,1‐2.
58 51,6.
59 23,6‐7.
60 E.g. 1, 11 I. 15‐16:3, M;56, 7. For the thought, cf. Gamatiel (quoted in Every‐man's Talmud, p, 7); Philo, Leg. All. 1 91; Theohilus, ad Autol. i 2; Basil, Ep. 235,2.
61 57,10.
62 54,2.
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