The Catholic novelist Flannery O'Connor has recently been very encouraging to me. It has been said that historic Protestant orthodoxy has more affinity with Roman Catholic dogma than with liberal Protestantism's theology. Without having had reason to doubt this assertion, I have now tasted it, and agree wholeheartedly.
I recently read her Spiritual Writings and was surprised at how much I resonated with her thought. With respect to dogma and mystery she writes, "Dogma can in no way limit a limitless God. ... For me a dogma is only a gateway to contemplation and is an instrument of freedom and not of restriction." (p. 87) Elsewhere, "Christian dogma is about the only thing left in the world that surely guards and respects mystery." (p. 97) What strikes me in such claims is how unabashed she is in asserting them and in doing it often. For many today, theology with both wonder and clarity is either impossible or unfortunate, but for O'Connor (as with her British contemporary C.S. Lewis) the two not only coexist but the one (dogma) protects the other (mystery).
In the end, it becomes a question of which framing of life is most compelling. One wonders how to marvel with the heart at that which is not apprehended with at least some clarity with the mind.
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