Paolo Cugini
In contemporary culture, the
term mystery is often reduced to an enigma or a gap in knowledge waiting to be
filled by science. However, in the theological tradition, Mystery is not what
we do not know, but what, while knowing itself, remains infinitely beyond our
capacity to exhaust. As Gabriel Marcel suggested, the fundamental distinction
lies between problem (something that confronts me and that I can solve) and
mystery (something in which I am involved and which overwhelms me). The
transition from the theology of mystery to the mystery of theology marks the
transition from a doctrine that possesses truth to a discipline that allows
itself to be possessed by Truth.
Mystery theology experienced a
golden age in the 20th century, especially thanks to the school of Maria Laach
and figures like Odo Casel. In this context, the mystery is the Mysterium
Paschale: the event of Christ making himself present in the liturgical action.
Casel defined mystery as
"a sacred action that carries within itself a salvific reality under the
veil of sensible signs." Here, theology has the task of describing the
economy of salvation. The key author in this field is Karl Rahner, who reaffirmed
that God is the Holy Mystery and the ultimate horizon of human
existence. For Rahner, man is the hearer of the word, structurally open to an
Infinite that he can never tame. The theology of mystery therefore teaches us
that dogma is not a cage, but a window onto the Invisible.
While the theology of mystery
focuses on the object (God and His works), the Mystery of theology concerns the
very status of believing thought. When the theologian realizes that his
language is inadequate, theology ceases to be merely a science and becomes a
spiritual act. Hans Urs von Balthasar masterfully expressed this tension. For
Balthasar, theology must be on its knees . There is no true
knowledge of God that is separate from love and adoration. The mystery of
theology lies in the fact that human intelligence, when it reaches the highest
peaks of speculation, must return to silence. In this transition, theology does
not lose its meaning, but transforms it: it becomes dialogue, listening,
endless research. This is what the Dionysian tradition calls negative or
apophatic theology: God is known more for what He is not than for what He is.
The mystery here is not only the content, but the very fact that a finite
creature can speak of the Creator without perishing or falling into the
idolatry of the concept.
The definitive shift occurs
when theology recognizes that its method is not demonstration, but ostension.
Jean-Luc Marion, a contemporary philosopher and theologian, speaks of the
saturated phenomenon: God is an excess of light that blinds the gaze, not from
a lack of clarity, but from too much splendor. From this perspective, theology
is no longer an explanation of the world, but a participation in divine life.
If the theology of mystery has given us content (Christ, the Trinity, Grace),
the mystery of theology restores to us the humility of method. As St. Thomas
Aquinas wrote at the end of his life, after a mystical vision: "Everything
I have written seems like straw compared to what I have seen." This is the
point of arrival: theology that denies itself to make room for the Presence.
In conclusion, moving from the
theology of mystery to the mystery of theology means understanding that it is
not we who scrutinize the Mystery, but rather the Mystery that scrutinizes us
through His Word. Theology ceases to be a discourse on Mystery and becomes a
discourse of the Mystery in humanity. The task of the theologian in the 21st
century, quoting Joseph Ratzinger, remains not to resign oneself to an arid
rationalism, but to maintain the capacity for wonder before the Logos made
flesh. The mystery of theology is, ultimately, the mystery of a reason that
discovers its true greatness only when it recognizes its love by the
Unknowable.
Bibliographic References
Odo Casel, The Mystery of
Christian Worship.
Karl Rahner, Hearers of the
Word.
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Verbum
Caro.
Jean-Luc Marion, Given That.
An Essay Toward a Phenomenology of Donation.
Paolo Cugini: God's name is no
longer God.
Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction
to Christianity.
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