CONTRA FATUM

” The bottomless abyss of My hidden mysteries (in which I order everything according to My eternal providence), let no one explore, for no one can fathom it. And yet, in this abyss, what thou askest about and many things besides are possible, which yet never happen. However, know this much, that, in the order in which emanated beings now are, a more acceptable or more pleasing way could not be. The Lord of nature knows well what He can do in nature. He knows what is best suited to every creature, and He operates accordingly. How should man better know the hidden things of God than in His assumed Humanity? How might he, who has forfeited all joy through irregular lusts, be rendered susceptible of regular and eternal joy? How would it be possible to follow the unpracticed way of a hard and despised life, unless it had been followed by God Himself? If thou didst lie under sentence of death, how could He, who should suffer the fatal penalty in thy stead, better prove His fideli...

"Celsus thinks that God is known either by synthesis with other things, similar to the method called synthesis by geometricians, or by analytical distinction from other things, or also by analogy , like the method of analogy used by the same students, as if one were able to come in this way, if at all, 'to the threshold of the Good' (Pl. Phil. 64c, Clem. Strom. VII,45,3). But when the Logos of God says that 'No man has known the Father except the Son, and the man to whom the Son may reveal him', he indicates that God is known by a certain divine grace, which does not about in the soul without God's action, but with a sort of inspiration." (Con. Cel. VII,44)

"[...]human nature is not sufficient in any way to seek for God and to find Him in His pure nature, unless it is helped by the God who is object of the search. And He is found by those who, after doing what they can, admit that they need Him, and shows Himself to those to whom He judges it right to appear, so far is it is possible for God to be known to man and for the human soul which is still in the body to know God." (Con. Cel. VII,42)

"[...]because of his exceeding love towards man he was able to give the educated a conception of God which could raise their soul from earthly things, and nevertheless came down to the level even of the more defective capacities of ordinary men and simple women and slaves, and, in general, of people who have been helped by none but by Jesus alone to live a better life, so far as they can, and to accept doctrines about God such as they had the capacity to receive." (Con. Cel. VII,41)

"[...]since our will is not sufficiently strong for us to be entirely pure in heart, and because we need God to create it entirely pure, the man who prays with understanding says 'Create in me a clean heart, O God.'" (Con. Cel. VII,33)

"The knowledge of God is not derived from the eye of the body, but from the mind which sees that which is in the image of the Creator and by divine providence has received the power to know God." (Con. Cel. VII,33)

"[...]if by wisdom one understands Christ, since Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, we say not only that a man wise in this sense can come to the Father, but also that the man adorned with the spiritual gift called 'the word of wisdom', which is conferred by the Spirit, is far superior to people who are not so adorned." (Con. Cel. VII,23)

"Each person's mind is responsible for the evil which exists in him, and this is what evil is. Evils are the actions which result from it. In our view nothing else is strictly speaking evil. However, I know that the problem requires an extended discussion and argument which, by the grace of God illuminating the mind, can be done by one who is judged by God to be worthy even of knowledge of this subject." (Con. Cel. IV,66)

"[...] the divine voice is such that it is heard only by those whom the speaker wishes to hear it. [...] And since when God speaks He does not want His voice to be audible to all, a man who has superior hearing hears God, whereas a man who has become hard of hearing in his soul does not perceive that God is speaking." (Con. Cel. II,72)

"Jesus taught us who it was that sent him in the words 'No man has known that Father save the Son', and in this, 'No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.' He revealed to his true disciples the nature of God and told them about His characteristics. We find traces of these in the scriptures and make them the starting-point of our theology." (Con. Cel. 2,72)

”[...]just as the person who looks upon the perceptible cosmos and has grasped the Wisdom that is displayed in the beauty of these beings infers, on the basis of what the eye sees, the invisible Beauty and the wellspring of Wisdom, whose outflow contrived the natural order of what is, so too the person who attends to this new cosmos that appears in the creation of the church sees in it the One who is and is becoming ”all in all” (cf. 1 Cor 15:28) as, by way of the things our nature can take in and comprehend, he directs our knowledge toward that which cannot be contained.” (In Cant. 386, Norris p. 407) ”ὥσπερ τοίνυν ὁ πρὸς τὸν αἰσθητὸν ἀπιδὼν κόσμον καὶ τὴν ἐμφαινομένην τῷ κάλλει τῶν ὄντων σοφίαν κατανοήσας ἀναλογίζεται διὰ τῶν ὁρωμένων τό τε ἀόρατον κάλλος καὶ τὴν πηγὴν τῆς σοφίας, ἧς ἡ ἀπόρροια τὴν τῶν ὄντων συνεστήσατο φύσιν, οὕτω καὶ ὁ πρὸς τὸν καινὸν τοῦτον κόσμον τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν κτίσεως βλέπων ὁρᾷ ἐν αὐτῷ τὸν πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν ὄντα τε καὶ γινόμενον διὰ τῶν χωρητῶν τε καὶ κα...

"[...]whosoever searches the whole of Revelation ( θεόπνευστον) will find therein no doctrine of the Divine nature, nor indeed of anything else that has a substantial existence, so that we pass our lives in ignorance of much, being ignorant first of all of ourselves, as men, and then of all things besides. For who is there who has arrived at a comprehension of his own soul?" (Contra E. 2. book, NPNF, p. 261, GNO 106)