CONTRA FATUM

If there were no obscurity, man would not be sensible of his corruption; if there were no light, man would not hope for a remedy. Thus, it is not only fair, but advantageous to us, that God be partly hidden and partly revealed; since it is equally dangerous to man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness, and to know his own wretchedness without knowing God. (Pensees, 446/586) What can be seen on earth indicates neither the total absence, nor the manifest presence of divinity, but the presence of a hidden God. Everything bears this stamp. (Pensees, 449/556) “Let them at least learn the nature of the religion they are attacking, before they attack it. If this religion boasted of having a clear vision of God, and of possessing Him plain and unveiled, then to say that nothing we see in the world reveals Him with this degree of clarity would indeed be to attack it. But it says, on the contrary, that man is in darkness and far from God, that He has hidden Himself from man’s kn...

"after all, Mr Wittgenstein manages to say a good deal about what cannot be said, thus suggesting to the sceptical reader that possibly there may be some loophole through the hierarchy of languages, or by some other exit" (Russell, 2003, p. xxi)

There is some contradiction of terms, since, if that is ineffable which cannot be spoken of, a thing is not ineffable which can be called ineffable " (Christian Instruction 1.6.6)

"The light that is God is unmingled, no admixture comes in. This was a sign that it was the true light he saw, which is Nothing (niht). By the light he meant quite simply that with his eyes open he saw nothing. In seeing nothing, he saw the divine nothing." (Pr. 71).

” 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...

"[...]if we understand the words of which we know as applying to everything, we know of many characteristics which may be predicated of God. For He possesses virtue and blessedness and divinity. But if anyone were to understand in a more transcendent sense the words of which we know, since all that we know is inferior to God as He really is, it is not wrong that we also should accept the view that God has no characteristics of which we know. The attributes of God are superior to any which are known not only to human nature, but even by the nature of beings who haven risen beyond it." (Con. Cel. VI,62)

"It is 'holding down the truth', as our scripture testifies, when they think that the highest good cannot at all be expressed in words, and say that 'it comes suddenly by long familiarity with the subject itself and by living with it, like a light in the soul kindled by a leaping spark, which after it has come inte being feeds itself'." (Con. Cel. VI,3)