Theological Language on the Incomprehensible and Ineffable God

Abstract

The article develops some reflections on the “theological” knowledge of God, conditions of its possibility, its nature, its tools, and its limits. The theological knowledge of God is that which springs from his free self-communication, and is therefore distinct, without being separated from it, from «natural» knowledge. In the first place, the article presents the theological concept of Mystery and then reflects the limits and models of the theological language on God; at the end he deepens the idea of analogy, as a Christian rule of language on God. The Christian conscience of God is not only knowledge of absolute Being, but also and properly of personal and interpersonal Being in dialogue with us. Personal knowledge certainly has a conceptual moment, as it is a strictly human knowledge, but also and above all an a-conceptual depth, as it is based on sympathy or more deeply on “connaturality” (Latin connaturalitas, to use the term of St. Thomas), which indicates a moment of free choice (basically reciprocal), and on the presence of the “You” as the reality of our life. Every theological language presupposes a religious experience as a personal encounter with the God of faith, incomprehensible and ineffable.