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Monday, November 1, 2021

How can the invisible God be seen? -- Bishop Augustine of Hippo wrote to Noblewoman Paulina (413/414 CE)

 from essay by Iain Gardner, "Mani, Augustine, and the Vision of God" (p. 84 - 85)

. . .we believe God can be seen because we read so in scripture,

i.e. Matt. 5:8.  God is not seen in a location, but by a clean heart.

He is not sought by bodily eyes, nor held by touch, heard by words, or perceived

by his walk.  God dwells in accessible light where only the clean of heart can approach

(I Timothy 6:16).  For blessed are the clean of heart because they shall see god,

not when he will appear to them like a body at some distance in space

but when he will come to them and make his dwelling with them.

For in that way they will be filled with the fullness of God, not when they

are fully God but when he will come to them and make his dwelling with them.

from AUGUSTINE & MANICHAEAN CHRISTIANITY (ed. Johannes van Oort)

5th of the selected papers from the first South African Conference on 

Augustine of Hippo (2012) -- published by Brill, 2013 ISBN 9789004254770

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