Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 274

;

250

§ 59.

THE DEPENDENT CHARACTER

[Div.

HI

which you can never fathom, but as a rule you can obtain considerable knowledge of a man, even when he does not purposely disclose to you the mystery of his person. If, now, on the other hand, you turn from the knowledge of man to the knowledge of God, you perceive at once that almost nothing of these five means of help is at your disStanding before God you do not find an analogy in posal. your own being to His Being, because He is God and you The closer knowledge of your fellow-man which are man. you acquire from your sharing his modality of existence falls entirely away, since the distance between you and the Eternal Being discovers itself the more overwhelmingly as your selves,"

existence

equally

specifies

itself.

little service,

The

therefore no conclusion can be individual.

into kinds but one God, of

division

because there

is

drawn from the

Unintentional somatic unveiling

possible with God, since asomatic

and only

is

of

whom

species to the is

equally im-

spiritual exist-

Him as God. And finally, the casual dropping of a remark does not occur with respect to the Eternal Being, since the casual and unconscious doing of a thing is not predicable of God. The dilficulty which the biographer encounters when he undertakes to sketch the development of a character that belongs to another age, land and surroundings, and of which almost no personal utterances are handed down in writing, repeats itself with the Theologian, only in an absoHis aim and purpose is to acquire knowledge lute measure. of a Being which is essentially distinguished from himself and from all other creatures a Being which, by no amount of investigation, he can compel to give knowledge of itself which as such falls entirely outside of his reach and over against which he stands absolutely agnostically, in accordance with the true element of Spencer's Agnosticism. Let it not be said, that an infinite number of things are manifest and knowable of God, in the works of creation, in ence characterizes

;

;

history,

and

in the experiences of our

this leads to a certain

begun

to reveal Himself to

me

own

inner

life

;

for all

God, only when God has as a God, who exists and exists

knowledge

of

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