Letter 234: Do you worship what you know or what you do not know? If I answer, I worship what I know, they immediately reply, What is the essence of the object of worship? Then, if I confess that I am ignorant of the essence, they turn on me again and say, So you worship you know not what.

They ask: "Do you worship what you know, or what you do not know?" If I answer that I worship what I know, they immediately demand: "What is the essence of the object of your worship?" And if I confess that I do not know the essence, they pounce: "So you worship something you do not know." My answer is this: the word "know" has many meanings. We say that we know God's greatness, His power, His wisdom, His goodness, His providence over us, and the justice of His judgment. But we do not claim to know His very essence. The question is therefore asked purely for the sake of argument. The person who admits ignorance of God's essence is not confessing ignorance of God, because our understanding of God is drawn from all the attributes I have just listed. "But God is simple," they object, "and whatever attribute you claim to know belongs to His essence." The absurdities in this argument are endless. When we list all these great attributes, are they all just names for one and the same thing? Is there no distinction between His awesomeness and His loving-kindness, between His justice and His creative power, between His providence and His foreknowledge? If they say these are all identical with His essence, then let them stop asking whether we know His essence. Let them ask instead whether we know God to be just, or merciful, or awe-inspiring. Those things we readily confess that we know. But if they admit that essence is something distinct from these attributes, then let them stop accusing us of violating divine simplicity. They themselves are making the very distinction they deny. The truth is straightforward: God's works and attributes come down to us, but His essence remains beyond our reach. "But if you are ignorant of the essence, you are ignorant of God Himself," they retort. Turn it around: if you claim to know His essence, it is you who are ignorant of Him. A man bitten by a rabid dog who sees a dog in a dish does not actually see more than a healthy person does -- he is to be pitied for thinking he sees what he does not see. So do not admire these people for their bold pronouncements. Pity them for their delusion. They claim to know what no created being can know, and in their arrogance they prove only that they have never truly understood what it means to stand before the infinite God.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To the same, in answer to another question. Do you worship what you know or what you do not know? If I answer, I worship what I know, they immediately reply, What is the essence of the object of worship? Then, if I confess that I am ignorant of the essence, they turn on me again and say, So you worship you know not what. I answer that the word to know has many meanings. We say that we know the greatness of God, His power, His wisdom, His goodness, His providence over us, and the justness of His judgment; but not His very essence. The question is, therefore, only put for the sake of dispute. For he who denies that he knows the essence does not confess himself to be ignorant of God, because our idea of God is gathered from all the attributes which I have enumerated. But God, he says, is simple, and whatever attribute of Him you have reckoned as knowable is of His essence. But the absurdities involved in this sophism are innumerable. When all these high attributes have been enumerated, are they all names of one essence? And is there the same mutual force in His awfulness and His loving-kindness, His justice and His creative power, His providence and His foreknowledge, and His bestowal of rewards and punishments, His majesty and His providence? In mentioning any one of these do we declare His essence? If they say, yes, let them not ask if we know the essence of God, but let them enquire of us whether we know God to be awful, or just, or merciful. These we confess that we know. If they say that essence is something distinct, let them not put us in the wrong on the score of simplicity. For they confess themselves that there is a distinction between the essence and each one of the attributes enumerated. The operations are various, and the essence simple, but we say that we know our God from His operations, but do not undertake to approach near to His essence. His operations come down to us, but His essence remains beyond our reach. 2. But, it is replied, if you are ignorant of the essence, you are ignorant of Himself. Retort, If you say that you know His essence, you are ignorant of Himself. A man who has been bitten by a mad dog, and sees a dog in a dish, does not really see any more than is seen by people in good health; he is to be pitied because he thinks he sees what he does not see. Do not then admire him for his announcement, but pity him for his insanity. Recognise that the voice is the voice of mockers, when they say, if you are ignorant of the essence of God, you worship what you do not know. I do know that He exists; what His essence is, I look at as beyond intelligence. How then am I saved? Through faith. It is faith sufficient to know that God exists, without knowing what He is; and He is a rewarder of them that seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 So knowledge of the divine essence involves perception of His incomprehensibility, and the object of our worship is not that of which we comprehend the essence, but of which we comprehend that the essence exists. 3. And the following counter question may also be put to them. No man has seen God at any time, the Only-begotten which is in the bosom has declared him. John 1:18 What of the Father did the Only-begotten Son declare? His essence or His power? If His power, we know so much as He declared to us. If His essence, tell me where He said that His essence was the being unbegotten? When did Abraham worship? Was it not when he believed? And when did he believe? Was it not when he was called? Where in this place is there any testimony in Scripture to Abraham's comprehending? When did the disciples worship Him? Was it not when they saw creation subject to Him? It was from the obedience of sea and winds to Him that they recognised His Godhead. Therefore the knowledge came from the operations, and the worship from the knowledge. Do you believe that I am able to do this? I believe, Lord; and he worshipped Him. So worship follows faith, and faith is confirmed by power. But if you say that the believer also knows, he knows from what he believes; and vice versa he believes from what he knows. We know God from His power. We, therefore, believe in Him who is known, and we worship Him who is believed in. About this page Source. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3202234.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.