At the core of Christian theology is the doctrine of the trinity, that God is one God in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the doctrine of the incarnation, that Jesus Christ is both fully divine and fully human. Both of these doctrines defy human logic and rational reasoning because: 1) they join two ideas that are normally held to be logically in tension with or opposed to one another (binary options), and 2) they do so without any other corresponding reality in the universe.
Thus, at the center of Christian theology is a profound mystery.
Many of the early church Councils and debates focused on deciding what precise words should be used to describe this divine mystery. They debated how to talk about God as one single God without straying into polytheism, reducing the full divinity of either the Father, Son, or Spirit, or creating some kind of hierarchy of divinity within God. They also debated how to talk about the divinity and humanity of Christ without reducing one or the other to a partial presence or making one part wholly subservient to or controlled by the other.
Over the first five centuries of the church’s existence, there were many leaders who attempted to move the church toward more rationally palatable doctrines of God or Christ by reducing or collapsing important distinctions in the Godhead or by separating out the unified aspects of God or Christ into multiple disconnected parts. It is fascinating to me that in all of their debates over particular words and phrases, the orthodox Christian position continued to uphold the utterly mysterious natures of God and Jesus Christ. In doing so, they placed the revealed truth of God in Christ over human reason.
I used to think all the trinitarian debates of the early church Councils were splitting hairs unnecessarily and choosing to divide over mostly irrelevant theological minutia. While that may be true in some isolated cases, I’ve come to appreciate that the bigger picture of what was at stake in these debates was very important, even essential, to one’s quest to know God. One might say that these early apologists of orthodox theology took upon themselves the responsibility of preserving the mysterious nature of the Christian God for future generations by defending it against the forces of reductionism, rationalism, and binary thinking.
A practical consequence of this history is that as we seek to grow in our knowledge of God and progress down the path of following Christ, we must start with mystery. Mystery is not a theological last resort or a place of theological failure, where one ends up reluctantly after one’s rational proposals and doctrines about God prove to have some logical flaws or weaknesses in them. Rather, mystery is a place of beginning. One must start with an appreciation of the bigness and awesomeness of that which we seek to understand and follow, the God who is most clearly yet mysteriously revealed in Jesus Christ. Whatever words or doctrines or principles we use to describe this God, we must begin with the understanding that they will never be exhaustive, and they will often prove to be grossly inadequate.
Starting with mystery does not mean that God is distant or unknowable. (In fact, one of the most mysterious aspects of God is his nearness and closeness to us.) Starting with mystery simply means assuming that our knowledge of God will always be partial and incomplete. Our quest to know God will ever lead us into new moments of awe and wonder. As Metropolitan Kalistos Ware says in his opening chapter of The Orthodox Way, “We see that it is not the task of Christianity to provide easy answers to every question, but to make us progressively aware of a mystery. God is not so much the object of our knowledge as the cause of our wonder.”(1) Starting with mystery keeps one humble, always open to new experiences and surprises from God that do not neatly fit into one’s past conceptions or definitions of God.
Although such surprises might lead to feelings of distance from God at first. Over time, they have the power to deepen our sense of intimate connection with God as they represent God’s self-disclosure that is truly, to quote Michael W. Smith’s 2003 hit, Above All:
Above all powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began
Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what You're worth
(1) Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way (Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018), 21.
About the Author
Aaron is a passionate seeker of God and truth, and he enjoys encouraging others in their own pursuits of the same. He especially likes to think about how God is at work in the most ordinary and mundane aspects of our existence. He loves going on adventures to new places with his wife, Heather, and four kids and his perfect day would involve an excellent cup of coffee (or two!), a hike to somewhere beautiful and serene, and some good conversation over a pint at a warm pub. He currently serves as an adjunct instructor at Portland Seminary and co-leads the CitySalt Kids’ Ministry along with his wife, Heather.