The “Introduction” to The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church by Vladimir Lossky was an important turning point in my growing awareness of the importance of sound theology in the Christian life and in the Christian church. This is not to say we must become theological fundamentalists who have every question exhaustively resolved and/or permit no differences of opinion or expression on matters of Christian teaching or practice. But simply that sound theology cannot be skipped over in order to emphasize ethics or mission. Although one could quote several paragraphs perhaps this one captures most the spirit of the work:
Unlike gnosticism, in which knowledge for its own sake constitutes the aim of the gnostic, Christian theology is always in the last resort a means: a unity of knowledge subserving an end which transcends all knowledge. This ultimate end is union with God or deification, the theosis of the Greek Fathers. Thus, we are finally led to a conclusion which may seem paradoxical enough: that Christian theory should have an eminently practical significance; and that the more mystical it is, the more directly it aspires to the supreme end of union with God. (9)
Earlier in the chapter Lossky states:
We must live the dogma expressing a revealed truth, which appears to us as an unfathomable mystery, in such a fashion that instead of assimilating the mystery to our mode of understanding, we should, on the contrary, look for a profound change, an inner transformation of the spirit, enabling us to experience it mystically. Far from being mutually opposed, theology and mysticism support and complete each other. One is impossible without the other. (8)
If the ultimate end is x – it is important to articulate(?) a theology which supports and leads to x. Much of the book addresses how and why inadequate understandings of the Holy Trinity – particularly of personhood – call into question the possibility of our union with God or generate inadequate understandings thereof.
