Mystical Theology and Christian Self-Understanding
The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology February 25, 2020 Rowan Williams 2 citations
Early Christian theology emerged from the conviction that through Jesus's death and resurrection, humans gained unprecedented access to God, entering the heavenly sanctuary as priests and becoming children of God. This prompted new doctrinal statements about God while also intensifying the sense of what cannot be said about God—that God cannot be treated as an object among others. This tension between speaking and silence about God became central to mystical writing. The encounter between finite and infinite action in Christ and his people, in both individual and corporate prayer, is understood as a present anticipation of eternal relationship, making the mystical essentially an eschatological category.