I'm new the board so "hello" everyone! I am considering an idea on the relation between revelation and mystery in light of God. I imagine a small circle of knowledge containing those things about God that have been revealed to me in various ways. Just beyond the boundary of this small circle lie the mysteries of God of which I am currently aware. My small amount of knowledge corresponds to the scope of the mysteries in my awareness. As more is revealed of God, the mysteries in my present awareness also grow. Since God is an infinite being, this process could continue on till my spiritual capacities are filled to the brim or nothing new is revealed. As what I know of God grows, the boundaries of what I know I don't know (mystery of God) expands as well. Does this ring a bell with anyone out there?

Welcome, Dan.

Sounds like what you're describing is a fairly typical growth dynamic: as we learn about something, what we don't know about it decreases in sum. When it comes to God, I'm sure this is the case as well, although the realm of mystery seems inexhaustible.

Are we on the same page,here?

quote:

Dan wrote:
As what I know of God grows, the boundaries of what I know I don't know (mystery of God) expands as well.

Yes, this belongs still to the realm of mind. 'Knowing' and 'not knowing'. Maybe, the way to go a little deeper, would be by practicing:

"If I know...I don't know,

if I don't know...I know"

It's always seemed that the nature of a mystery is the magnetic pull, perhaps at the same time, the drive to know in such a way as to be able to relate one experience to all the others experienced in life. In a way, it's an on-going attempt to make sense of and process what happens to us. However, there is a strange place when it comes to this sort of issue that reminds slightly of the unmoved mover concept.

While all the things you know now are within the grasp of your mind and you can quickly relate one thought to another (via memory or insight) there are other bits of knowledge, other things you have already figured out, that are slightly further away from your mind's grasp. You can recall them, but, it takes a little more work than the more "immediate" revelations. In the same way, things you have experienced and integreated long ago are but a memory to your conscious mind while at the same time a part of it as it uses (or used) those experiences to become what it is now.

The other aspect that is reminiscent of the unmoved mover is the fact that you consciousness, while changing, is always only aware of the mysteries. In and of itself, your experience is a mystery by itself, but, when you are considering something other than yourself (in this case God) you remain fixed in your observer mode. By reflecting on the mystery of God, you are both part of the mystery and independent of the mystery. While you are experiencing it, you are part of it. While you are reflecting upon it, you are no longer a part but an observer. Similarly, you are moving and being moved (to continue to analogy with the old Aristotlean example).

Nevertheless, I have found that the revelation aspect of the Christian life is not something that has a limit unless that is what God chooses to do. Words of revelation are given to people by the Lord at all times. More often when you start living your life more and more out of the realm of what we know and understand God reveals more and more in order to help us navigate life.

This isn't necessarily a super- al thought, but, it does have very spiritual, practical implications. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul outlines several basic manifestations of God's spiritual gifts. Words of revelation fall under the Utterances category. I like to look at it this way: the more we fully give ourselves to God the more we have to rely on his guidance in order to survive. Jesus frequently seen holding himself out for the words (I'm readig in between the lines a little) so he would only do what God wanted. More clear examples might be several of Paul's accounts where he would be praying and the Lord would show him what he needed to at the "last" minute.

For ordinary people they would not have the faith or patience to wait for God to reveal what needed to be know and they would act on their own judgement thereby not allowing God to act in their life. However, it happens that God acts in our lives, sometimes at seemingly odd or inopportune moments to "speak" to us in new ways. I believe that is the essence of revelation as I experience it.

A couple of bells are ringing for me.

First, in the realm of closed systems of formal logic, such as in math or such as in human biosemiotic/cognitive capacities, there is Godel's Incompleteness Theorem and its implications for our always to be expanded knowledge of physics and metaphysics. Next, in meta-metaphysics and theology, certainly analogically related to this godelian dynamic, there is Rahner's Infinite Horizon .

These concepts of Godel and Rahner may go beyond the scope and depth that would be desirable for this present discussion, but I toss them out for those passers-by who might be rewarded by what a search-engine could turn up where they are concerned

pax,
jb