C.S. Lewis famously noted that we do not know that the sun exists because we can see it, but because we can see all things in its light. Indeed, our world is dominated by the visual, the striking image. No society needs the image or simply, 'image', as our does. Without images, it often seems, we would be lost.
God illuminates the world and all things in it. Through his light, the light he created we are able to see all of his creation--and this vision is so powerful it inspires a metaphor that euphemistic for even our concept of knowledge, namely, what it means to understand. Yet, when it comes to God himself, we only see fragments and glimpses--wholly inadequate knowledge on our part--for understanding the divine: the Christian God remains an inscrutable mystery beyond apprehension.
In The Mystery of God: Theology for Knowing the Unknowable Steven Boyer and Christopher Hall explore not the attributes of God, but rather, ponder and think through the mystery of God, the hiddenness of God as a positive existential quality that enhances the way we think about God himself and in relationship to the Christian life.
Far too often God's mystery is seen as a burden to be overcome--and people often think this is the task of theologian. Yet, Boyer and Hall suggest that this is a characteristic to be embraced as a positive aspect of God himself. To that end they explore 'divine mystery' through both philosophical and theological categories drawing out how mystery helps to define both God's actions and his nature as a being.
