Contemplating Divine Realities

When attempting to explain the relation between faith and vision, many theologians have appealed to some account of “contemplation” (θεωρία, theōria) to wed the movements of reason in this life to its rest in the next. The difficulty with the concept of contemplation is just how varied, and sometimes elusive, treatments of it are. That said, within most treatments one may find a common conviction that whatever else it entails and consists in, contemplation of divine realities is a spiritual vision of spiritual truth (cf. 1 Cor. 2:13). Generally, contemplation is a form of “spiritual perception,” and we can understand it better by unpacking that phrase.

Spiritual Vision

First, contemplation is a spiritual vision (θεωρία πνευματική, theōria pneumatikē) because it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a divine sense for divine truth. Something very much like this is suggested by Paul after he discusses the glory of the new covenant in contrast to the old. When he situates his own ministry within this glorious new covenant, he acknowledges that the gospel is more than veiled to some: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4). The vision in question is to a significant extent intellectual, for it is the unbelievers’ minds that have been blinded to the light by Satan and who therefore have no sight of the truth. Contemplation seeks to know and enjoy God in Christ for his own sake, because it begins in astonishment and is restless until it finds its rest in him. Click To Tweet

Contemplation’s character as a gift has at least two corollaries worth mentioning. On the one hand, it is not reserved for a religious elite or only those with certain intellectual abilities. Contemplation involves the intellect in accordance with an individual’s capacities rather than bypassing them for a mystical escape from self-consciousness. On the other hand, contemplation in the minimal sense defined above is not reserved for those whose ascetical heroism especially ennobles them to the light. Beholding Christ’s glory in faith is a possibility freely given to us on account of Christ’s objective work and our union with him by the Spirit. United thus to Christ, “we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him” (Eph. 3:12). Contemplation should center our attention on the drama and power of God’s objective work in Christ rather than on the subjective dramas, or putative powers, of the human soul. But such concentration on this objective reality is possible only for saving faith, which works by love.

Spiritual Perception

Second, contemplation is a spiritual perception in the sense of sight, not with the physical eyes but with the mind’s eye. When theologians describe contemplation as an “intuitive knowledge,” they mean something like an apprehension of the truth rather than the acts of reasoning that lead us there. This is why contemplation is also like a “gaze”: we do not have to reason about the colors we perceive in a painting because they are present to us in the mere act of gazing. When Jesus expresses his desire for his disciples to see him, he promises a future vision of his glory of which we have a foretaste in faith. However, the perception of contemplation is a form of spiritual insight into Christ’s person that joins knowledge and affection together through faith. In this sense, “everyone who looks [θεωρῶν, theōrōn] on the Son and believes in him” will have “eternal life” (John 6:40). And Stephen is able to suffer like Jesus because he “gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God” (Acts 7:55).

Christ is the Truth

Third, contemplation is determined by our telos and therefore focuses on God’s truth in and through Christ, in whom “all things hold together” and “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 1:17; 2:3). Christ is the Truth. Therefore truth’s unity may be perceived in his light: “Everything which faith ought to contemplate is exhibited to us in Christ.” The telos of contemplation is the apprehension of truth, and Truth himself reigns as the Alpha and Omega. Therefore, contemplation beholds the Truth as an end in itself, needing no further justification, such as “practical” benefits (though there are such benefits). God uses contemplation to purge us of idolatry. This idolatry includes an idolatrous utilitarian rationality, according to which anything, even God, is interesting to us only insofar as we can “get” something more important out of it. In this respect, beholding Christ’s glory in faith is supremely “useless.” But uselessness is not the same as worthless- ness, because God is the fountain of all goodness, truth, and beauty. Beholding God is infinitely worthwhile because he is infinitely delightful. There is nothing more true, more interesting, or more worthy of our attention than God. Contemplation seeks to know and enjoy God in Christ for his own sake, because it begins in astonishment and is restless until it finds its rest in him.

The above excerpt is from Chapter 1 of Biblical Reasoning by R. B. Jamieson and Tyler R. Wittman.

Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group © 2022 Used by permission.