Divine Mystery and the Church of Rationality
Copyright 2003 by Shea Oakley.
All Rights Reserved.
American Evangelicals have a tendency to try and make Christianity conform to a rationalistic and systematized approach to knowing God. "Follow this formula and you will become truly spiritual’ we are told. The formulas vary. It may be anything from using a new method of Bible study to attending a seminar on any number of Christian topics. The implication is made that those who honestly want to grow in their spiritual walk should sign on to these programs. The programs will then, by telling them to put slot A into slot B, make these earnest seekers the kind of Christians they think they want to be.
It is not surprising that the Church in America has embraced such a formula. Our culture is all about finding a tidy little answer to any problem. Americans like no-nonsense, scientific solutions to the mysteries of existence. We also like telling ourselves that we, among all nations, know just what is going on. Hubris, not baseball, often seems to be the true national pastime. As with all other aspects of our culture, this combination of solution-oriented rationalism and sometimes not so subtle pride has influenced the Body of Christ in the United States.
What has sadly been lost is any apprehension of the glorious mystery of the Gospel. Truth is a sublime thing and it cannot be wholly captured either by Rationalism or Scientific inquiry. To behold the things of God is to behold that which will never be successfully put in any box. This holds true whether that container is called systematic theology or ‘Good old American know-how’.
Perhaps it is time for us to embrace a certain mysticism. Of course that word sets off many, if not most, Evangelical’s warning radar. ‘Mysticism? Isn’t that sort of New Age?’ is heard along with ‘All we need to do is read the Bible. God said it, I believe it and that settles it!’ If things are not making sense to us we tend to just sing another hymn, read another chapter and maybe consult the nearest Christian media personality. Barring that we just put the consciousness of mystery out of our heads.
But the heart is not so easily silenced. Deep is always calling deep and after doing all of the above a believer is still left with the vague sense that there has to be more to Christianity than this. The desire to know the Divine cannot encompass only that which can be thought out or even that which can be communicated. Most of us have had experiences with God that we simply cannot describe. As a pastor friend of mine adroitly puts it ‘you cannot comprehend the Lord but you can apprehend him’. Amen, and the way to apprehend Him is sometimes found in the act of joyfully embracing the mystery of His presence in our lives. We do this with our hearts, not our heads
Throughout the Christian centuries some believers have dared to seek Jesus Christ with their spirit as well as their mind. Read the works of ancient saints like Brother Lawrence and Madame Guyon, or modern ones like Brennan Manning and you will find individuals who sought and found God outside of Scientific Rationalism masquerading as spirituality. These are people who had the great joy of knowing God in sublimely experiential ways. Doctrine, no matter how good it might be, cannot substitute for experience. This is not to say that sound doctrine is unnecessary. Knowing the creeds intellectually will help keep us from attributing experiences of dubious origin to the Lord. But some conservative Evangelicals have written off mystical encounters with the Divine altogether and that is, I think, just as dangerous as its opposite. If we really want to know God we must seek Him in all His mystery. This is an important path to intimacy with the Lover of our souls and we ignore it to our own loss.