Dionysius writes that “we are united to God as to something unknown to us.

”  In
many ways this expresses the challenges of theology – the challenge of knowing and
speaking intelligibly about God.  Discuss this challenge as well as the possibility for
theology by drawing on our class readings of the first two weeks (Augustine;
Aquinas; Dei Verbum; Dionysius; etc).
Please be sure your essay has a clear argumentative thesis in bold.  Subsequent
paragraphs should serve to advance your thesis, and each paragraph should have a
topic sentence.  Be sure to engage deeply and critically with the texts we have read in
developing an argument.
Your essay should be six full pages; double spaced; font: Times New Roman (size 12);
1-inch margins all around.

This essay aims to respond to the question what difficulties and possibilities do theology
as a study face? The essay will discuss how we can come to know God through different
types of revelation. How we can know that God exists and how can we talk about God
and understand His meaning. Finally, this essay will discuss how these three questions
show us the challenges and possibilities of theology.
 Piere Yves Cogar says “theology is the highest habit of the mind that a Christian man

or woman can acquire. (Nicholas pg 1). What Cogar means by this is that pondering

questions about God is the best habit a Christian person can acquire. Theology can also be

thought as like a science. You have an area of study, and you study it through a medium. For

theology it is God, and we can use the universe, scripture and Jesus as a medium. But just

like any science you have question that you must answer and the more you try to answer

these questions the more difficult it becomes to answer them. For example, how do I really

know that God exists outside of what scripture told me? Or how does the trinity work? These

types of questions can pose challenges for theologians because answering them requires the

right semantics and getting it wrong can create issues. However, finding the correct way to

answer these questions opens a world of possibilities into how we can understand God and

the mysteries around him. Theologians try to find ways to answer these questions and help

others to understand their meaning.

One question that always is posed to theologians is does God exist? One of the best

responses to this question are the five ways of Thomas Aquinas (summa Q2 A3). Aquinas

does not seek to use scripture to answer this question but rather that it is possible to know

God exists by natural intuition. The first way Aquinas talks about potency and actuality. An

object has the potency to be something actual and an object can be actual. But to be actual

you need to have potency. Aquinas writes “Therefore, whatever is in motion must be put in

motion by another,” (). Aquinas is showing how nothing can just be actual and potential at

the same time. Furthermore, there must be a higher power which is the first actuality to give

potentiality to all other things. The second way is similar to the first but where it differs in

motion. Rather than it being about the potency and actuality about what causes motion. And

Aquinas proposes the idea of the “first mover,” () someone who cause the first motions. The

third way is contingency. Contingency is that everything seems to want to not exist or have
an unlikely probability of existing. Aquinas writes “But it is impossible for these always to

exist, for that which is possible not to be at some time is not. Therefore, if everything is

possible not to be.” () This statement shows that Aquinas is believes that everything has the

possibility to not exist. Thus, leading him on to conclude that there must be some higher

power that makes things exist. The fourth way is of the grading of things. We all have a

natural sense for what is good or bad but where does the grading for this kind of moral

compass come from. Aquinas writes “Therefore there must also be something which is to all

beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.”

() Aquinas is describing how there must be a perfect thing that is what we base all our

grading of things off of. This Aquinas says is God. Finally, the fifth way Aquinas writes

“Now whatever lacks intelligence cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some

being endowed with knowledge and intelligence.” () Here Aquinas shows that there must be

something that leads things to an end and that is what we call God. What Aquinas has done

here is his own intuition to show how it is possible to know God exists without the need for

scripture. That we can come to know that God exists just through human reasoning. Now

theology has the possibility of showing that God exists and establishing a way of thinking

and talking about revelation.

The next challenge that arises is how do we find revelation? Revelation has many

parts to it. Dei Verbum mention the different ways in which we can receive revelation and

how we must think about each type of revelation. First the Die Verbum talks about natural

revelation. It says that “God, who through the Word creates all things and keeps them in

existence, gives men an enduring witness to Himself in created realities” () This statement is

saying that God created this world, and we partake in it and by partaking in it we can receive

God’s natural revelation. Moreover, Die Verbum continues onto Jesus and how God reveal

himself through Jesus to us. In the document “the Word made flesh, was sent as "a man to
men." () this part of the passage shows how Jesus the accumulation of God’s Word so that

God could reveal himself to us through medium (man) we could understand. Finally, God

reveals himself to us through scripture. Through his teaching in scripture, he can come to see

God’s revelation. Die Verbum has helped solve the challenge theology faces when it comes to

revelation. It gives us language to describe what revelation is. It gives passage from scripture

to and explanations of them to help us speak and understand God’s revelation. Theology has

created this possibility that we can now share God’s revelation to others because we have the

language to talk about it and understand it in a human sense.

The next challenge that theology faces is a more complex one. It is understanding

mysteries of God and understanding his word. As humans we are not capable of fully

understanding these divine mysteries. Furthermore, we are also not fully capable of fully

understanding God’s Word. And to try and understand these things humans create analogies

for divine mysteries. But these analogies cannot capture the fullness of the divine mystery. A

perfect example is the Trinity. In St Augustine sermon he tries to use analogies to help

understand the Trinity. His best analogy is the one of the person (). He describes humans as

having a will and an intellect, two separate things that we can quantify and different, yet we

know they are still a part of the whole person. This is similar to the Trinity. It is three

separate entities, yet they are one. This mystery of the Trinity we can never fully understand

but Augustine analogy helps us grasp the concepts of the Trinity. Augustine is giving us a

way to understand God. He is using human language to help us understand the Trinity. St

Agustine also discuss how we should interpret scripture. Augustine argues that when reading

scripture, one must always read it with seeing the message of love in the scripture. One must

not take what is said for face value rather find the underlying meaning of love in it. Augustine

uses the example of heading home. He says if I am traveling home, I can take the direct and

fastest route or I can take the scenic route. Both routes take me home (). Augustine is
showing that taking scripture for face value is not required if you are finding the underlying

meaning of love. Here again we see the challenge theology faces we cannot truly understand

scripture, but Augustine is helping us find a way to understand the teaching of God.