Sponge in water vs water in sponge how to understand St. Teresa properly?
score:6
The key understanding for this is that God is present everywhere (omnipresence) but He is not Present (capital intentional) everywhere. That is, God doesn't make His Presence manifest everywhere.
With that in mind, the quote becomes a bit clearer. At the outset, a sponge doesn't have any water. Put it in some water though, and the water will start seeping into the sponge. The water fills up the tiny voids present all throughout the sponge and at the end, the sponge is saturated. (Note also that the sponge expands a little; it doesn't drastically change size.) Similarly, most human souls (Christians included) are dry like a sponge, but if we spend time in the Presence of God, His Divinity will slowly fill us up until we are saturated.
There are many, many attributes of God that we don't have vocabulary for, so we say it is like this or like that, which typically implies that the two are not the same (nor do they even have to correspond fully). St. Teresa here uses "as" in the same function. She says God's Divinity filling up the soul is like water filling up a sponge, which is her intended comparison. She didn't intend to imply that God's Divinity had other characteristics of water or that God fills up the world like a sponge; both are out of the scope of this metaphor.
Upvote:0
I feel St. Teresa is describing the experience of the finite becoming one with the infinite. The infinite is undivided. It is one, but it has the ability to be infinite and finite because it contains duality within its unity. In Christianity we symbolize the infinite as God the Father and in the infinite we find duality or Jesus representing the unity of God the Father in human form. A oneness with an infinity that is endless. It is not a number and doesn't do anything; it just is without end for Eternity. Infinity plus one is still infinity because it is endless, which we Christians substitute the word God. We have many numbers in infinity just like we have an endless number of things in God. Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." He is in infinity and a part of it, but united wholly or totally with it. We are also in infinity, but we are not aware of being totally united with it. The mystics of every religion have pointed to this experience of unity where duality becomes aware of it. The Bible says, “One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” We are finite, but we are in God who is infinite if we break up the word infinite we get in the finite, in- finite; therefore, in the infinite we have the finite or duality. John Kuykendall's author page
More post
- 📝 Does the parable of the Unforgiving Servant have implications re: "once saved, always saved"?
- 📝 Is there a good alternative word to “performance” to describe an evangelical worship team's actions?
- 📝 Does yearning to know more about God for a stronger relationship leave us hanging in confusion?
- 📝 Why does Catholicism have priests but Protestantism does not?
- 📝 How was Moses able to speak to over 600,000 people at once?
- 📝 What is the right word, Jesus assumed a human soul or have a created rational soul?
- 📝 What is the Arminian view of God's providence?
- 📝 Are there other Christian authors besides WLC who believe that all Christians have access to a direct, self-authenticating experience of God?
- 📝 Are Catholic Trunk-or-Treat parties considered Halloween or All-Saint's-Day parties?
- 📝 Important Western Soteriological Works
- 📝 Does the Bible provide any passages that might help in understanding how Satan became sinful?
- 📝 Why did God hide away the fact that He had the Son in the Old Testament times?
- 📝 Why are verses missing in the Psalms in my Bible?
- 📝 Does the Bible tell us who should be interpreting its message?
- 📝 What did Calvin think about Knox's "Monstrous Regiment"?
- 📝 Can a divorcee get married in a Catholic Church?
- 📝 What is Matt Redman's denominational background?
- 📝 Before anything was created, did God already know the events that would unfold?
- 📝 According to Catholicism, how did Clement of Rome become a Pope?
- 📝 Looking for an apologetic to the "Cosmic Child Abuse" objection
- 📝 Are there any passages in Early Christian literature that discuss angels and pagans?
- 📝 Who did God talk to in Scripture?
- 📝 In Catholicism, what does it mean for a priest to bless an object or person?
- 📝 Doesn't the Trinitarian reading of Genesis 1:26 violate hermeneutical principles?
- 📝 Does anyone remember prophecy of beast with thousand names or possible Mandela effect?
- 📝 Is there an argument that God, as a self-proving entity, is necessary for logic?
- 📝 What is the argument and Biblical basis that it is possible to know God from nature?
- 📝 Can Prince Harry marry his fiancée by the Church of England's precepts?
- 📝 Are Christians bound to the laws of their country?
- 📝 How are spirits born?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Sponge in water vs water in sponge how to understand St. Teresa properly?
- 📝 How do Christians understand the omniscience of God in relation to the Uncertainty Principle?
- 📝 How should I understand the emphasis on "begotten, not made" in the Nicene Creed?
- 📝 How do modalists understand the role of Jesus as mediator?
- 📝 How did Noah preserve fresh water fish?
- 📝 How do churches that have indefinitely suspended in-person services understand Hebrews 10:25?
- 📝 How does the Catholic Church understand the priesthood of all believers?
- 📝 How do Methodists understand the Apostle's Creed?
- 📝 How much water is necessary for baptism (Catholic perspective)?
- 📝 How much can holy water be diluted?
- 📝 How do Protestants who say Catholicism doesn't teach the true Gospel understand a Catholic person’s faith in Jesus?
- 📝 How do Protestants understand the "unforgivable" sin?
- 📝 How do Roman Catholics understand salvation in light of Romans 3&4?
- 📝 How do Jehovah's Witnesses understand Hebrews 1?
- 📝 "How do I get more faith?" - how to understand Jesus' answer?
- 📝 How can I understand the rise of the Egyptians as a race in the Old Testament?
- 📝 How and when did the water come into being?
- 📝 How do protestants understand Jesus' statement that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man we will have no life?
- 📝 How does Swedenborgianism understand Amos 3:2, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth"?
- 📝 How do Trinitarians understand what it means for Jesus to grow 'in favor' with God?
- 📝 How do Christians understand the existence of God in relation to the scientific concept of energy?
- 📝 Question on John 4:13-14 - How do we drink of the water from Jesus?
- 📝 How do Protestants understand major differences in doctrine between denominations?
- 📝 How do Trinitarians understand what Jesus said in the garden of Gethsemane?
- 📝 What arguments do adherents of a global flood give for how water was able to cover the entire earth?
- 📝 How do Biblical Unitarians understand what some theologians refer as the Kenosis in Philippians 2?
- 📝 What is this ‘water’ in ‘wells of salvation’ that Isaiah speaks of here, and how is one to draw such water up?
- 📝 How do Arminians understand the doctrine of Unlimited Atonement in a way that does not make God unjust?
- 📝 How do Evangelicals understand "holy children" in 1 Cor 7:14, with respect to the salvation of children dying in infancy?
- 📝 How do Mormons understand 2 Nephi 5:16 in light of 2 Nephi 5:15?