To explain the character of the relations between the man and God, it is necessary to answer the question of God’s mysteries and the nature of the human person with references to Lonergan, Loewe, and Miller. The importance of discussing the issues is based on the fact that the mysteries of God are associated with His existence and spiritual truths which form the person’s religious vision.
Moreover, to understand the character of the relations between the man and God, it is important to know the approach appropriate for characterizing the man as the human person. Thus, the human person can be discussed as a lover and as a knower (Maritain).
The theologians are inclined to state that the mysteries of God can be explained with references to the human heart and all the answers are hidden there because the human person is the man who in specific relations with God based on love and faith which roots are in the person’s heart.
The discussion is organized in two parts to answer the question of Lonergan, Loewe, and Miller’s views on the mysteries of God in the first part and to present their ideas on the human person in the second part.
The question of God and His mysteries is one of the most controversial points which Christians can face, but cannot answer strictly. Lonergan stresses that this question exists in the man’s horizon and can be answered only from the point of the inner interpreting.
Thus, the answer is based on the “transcendental tendency of the human spirit” (Lonergan 103). Moreover, the answers to the issue of mysteries can be found also through these mysteries with references the man’s religious experience, faith, God’s word, and religious belief (Lonergan).
Miller states that “God has never become real for us, has never ceased to be an abstraction; God is something we talk about because we have learned the word” (Miller par. 7).
Furthermore, Miller accentuates that it is possible to find the answers to the question in the inner person’s despair and depression which can teach a person (Miller). In contrast, Loewe discusses the interpretation of Jesus’ theme through Jesus’ parables and miracles as the way to comprehend the mysteries (Loewe).
The human person is a man who “achieves authenticity in self-transcendence” (Lonergan 104). Moreover, the human person is in love with God, his heart is open to God, and this love opens the new horizon for a man. In addition, “faith is the knowledge born of religious love”, and the faith helps find answers to understanding God’s mysteries (Lonergan 115).
Miller supports Lonergan’s idea to discuss the relations between the man and God which form the nature of the human person as the relations based on love. That is why, the human person is a lover who becomes a knower with references to the heart’s possibilities to know the spiritual truth (Miller; Maritain). In his turn, Loewe focuses on the human person’s task to interpret and learn Jesus’ lessons and messages (Loewe 79).
To conclude, it is possible to note that Lonergan and Miller are inclined to associate the issues of the mysteries of God and the human person’s nature regarding the relations with God.
Thus, the mysteries can be comprehended through the person’s heart in which there is love for God. On the contrary, Loewe pays more attention to discussing the question of God as the most problematic one than to interpreting the question of the human person.
Works Cited
Lonergan, Bernard. Method in Theology. New York, NY: Herder and Herder, 1972. Print.
Loewe, William. The College Student’s Introduction to Christology. USA: Liturgical Press, 1996. Print.
Maritain, Jacques. Man’s Approach to God. USA: Wipf & Stock Pub, 2011. Print.
Miller, Jerome. The Way of Suffering: A Reasoning of the Heart. 01 Apr. 1992. Web.