Is it possible to have an unmediated experience of God? A direct encounter with the divine that transcends any use of the senses or even the intellect? The classical answer is – yes! And its pursuit is the goal of the mystic tradition (an element of the spiritual life that is accessible to us all,...
Tag: cataphatic
Loving God 401, Part 4: Experiencing God in the World (i.e., Kataphatic-Affectives)
Just as some people need faith to make intellectual sense, so others need to feel it – to have the emotional experience of God’s presence, to know in the manner of the heart and not the head. These are the “affectives.” (And all of us are affective to a degree, some just more so than...
Loving God 401, Part 3: Thinky World-Affirmers (i.e., Kataphatic-Speculatives)
We begin our study at the four basic attrait combinations (think “spiritual personality types”) with an in-depth look at the kataphatic-speculative quadrant. In short, these are people who relate to God primarily by means of connection to the created world (kataphatic) and for whom things need to “make sense” (speculative). If you are listening to this podcast, odds are...