Mihi magna quaestio factus sum: The Privilege of Unknowing

OUTLINE
I. Philosophy of religion should stand alongside with anthropology.
A. The question of what man truly is defines philosophy of religion.
B. Immanuel Kant sums up the whole system of philosophy (metaphysical,
moral, and religion itself) to the question of what man is.
C. Man is a knowing subject that cannot be simply known by and reduced to
any human sciences that aims to define and objectify man himself.
II. Man is question to himself.
A. Augustine asserts that though he has a knowledge of himself, still he is a
huge problem (magna questio) to himself.
B. Knowing man objectively does not warrant of knowing what man truly is in
himself.
C. Man remains a subject that is incomprehensible, a mystery.
III. Everything that can be known should be known.
A. Man can be known and should be known.
B. But to know man as an object is not worthy of knowledge.
C. Man should not be subjected to objectification and reduced to any
concepts.
IV. Man is nothing but a resemblance to the One who is rightly characterized by
incomprehensibility.
A. Man’s incomprehensibility resembles to the One who created him.
B. The depth of man’s incomprehensibility only points to the One who is
incomprehensible and yet has a full knowledge of Himself.
C. Man can only be known and comprehended as he truly is once the One
who created him makes Himself visible.
V. Man’s incomprehensibility is a privilege to himself.
A. Man holds a special and unique place in the order of creation.
B. Man’s incomprehensibility gives witness to the One who created him.
C. Any concept and knowledge that aims to define and objectify man does
not only delimit man himself, but also the One whom he resembles to.
VI. Philosophy of religion takes up the role of unravelling the incomprehensibility
of the human being and its relation to the One he resembles to.
A. Philosophy works as a discipline that aims to know and understand man
as a knowing subject at the expense of degrading him to what he knows.
B. Theology recognizes revelation as its object; and it accepts and aims to
understand the incomprehensibility of God who created man in his very
own image and likeness.
C. It is in this relation of philosophy and (revealed) theology that philosophy
of religion emerges and rightly called as a proper domain to unravel man’s
incomprehensibility in relation to God who makes Himself visible
(revealed).