I am on a bit of a posting blitz, but here is a post I wrote quite some time ago that I really like; enjoy:
In commenting on Evangelical Calvinist, John Knox’s understanding of
God; Thomas Torrance offers a profound statement of what all of this
entails:
|
Young, Thomas Torrance |
[K]nowledge of the one and only God, as
far as it is true knowledge, enshrines the mystery of God, and so is
confessed and acknowledged as God eternal, infinite, immeasurable,
incomprehensible, omniscient, invisible. This God whom we know cannot be
fitted into our knowledge. God cannot be commanded by our
reasons — cannot be comprehended by our minds. It is certainly to our
minds that God reveals himself but only in such a way that he remains
eternal, infinite, incomprehensible, etc. Knowledge of God cannot be put
into precise words. God’s majesty defies definition or description —
all theological language is apocalyptic in so far as it is genuine. That
is true above all of the Trinity — knowledge of this God is infinitely
open. Thus in faith the human reason is opened wide to the infinite and
incomprehensible being and majesty of God as the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit. [Thomas F. Torrance, Scottish Theology: From John Knox to John McLeod Campbell, (T&T Clark: Edinburgh, 1996), 6 -- A review copy provided graciously by T&T Clark]
You will quickly notice which direction Torrance believes knowledge
of God comes from; not from our epistemological schemas, but from God to
us through Christ and into the Triune life of God himself. This
approach to knowing God runs against the construing God from thinking of
him through his works in creation or something. Or trying to find
analogies in creation, or in humanity that in latent ways allow us to
think and speak about God. No! Knowledge of God for Torrance, and as he
would contend, John Knox, is a gift from God in Christ for us through
the Spirit. There is never one-to-one correspondence between our
theological language and God’s being. Instead, theological language is
something that is constantly given to us anew as God continues to break
in on our world, on our conceptions; and re-orders and re-orientates our
grammar in a way that puts to death anything we had conceived of prior
to this encounter in Christ. He provides a ground for knowing him that
is completely out of this world (but decidedly and concretely in this
world); the God-Man. He presents us with concepts that breaks up and
re-orders our imaginations in ways that place us upon the precipice of
heaven’s throne; Ezekiel knows what I’m talking about.
Just a little reflection . . .
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