Creation and Revelation Page 1 of 22 PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: Loyola Marymount University; date: 11 December 2020 Print Publication Date: Feb 2020 Subject: Religion, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Online Publication Date: Apr 2020 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198722380.013.27 Creation and Revelation Douglas E. Christie The Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology Edited by Edward Howells and Mark A. McIntosh Abstract and Keywords The Christian mystical tradition gives expression to a varied, ambiguous, and shifting un derstanding of creation. The dialectical tension between kataphatic and apophatic mysti cism frames this complex attitude towards creation. On the one hand, mystics regularly affirm the sacramental character of the created world, its capacity to reveal and make present the reality of God. Central to this theological intuition is the presence of the logos, the very principle of creation that also becomes the deep source of sacramental spiritual experience. On the other hand, mystics show deep respect for all that cannot be known, especially all that remains hidden under the shroud of loss and suffering. The image of the crucified Christ and Christ dead in the tomb is not only an emblem of salvation, but also a call to pause, in humility, before all that can never be known or understood of God. Creation reveals. But it also conceals. Keywords: kenosis, sacrament, kataphatic, apophatic, hesychia, contemplation, wonder, humility Introduction PAIN and beauty. Or beauty in pain. This is perhaps the best place to begin reflecting on the meaning of creation in the Christian mystical tradition. Also for thinking about how and in what ways creation can be understood and experienced as revelatory of divine presence. There is a deep dialectical tension in the Christian attitude towards the created world and one finds this tension reflected often in the Christian mystical tradition. On the one hand, Christians have long sought and discovered God’s presence within the simple beauty and goodness of the created world. The ancient Christian understanding of the cosmos as brought into being through the creative power of the Logos or Word (John 1), and the Word made flesh (John 1: 14) is crucial to the way Christians behold and experi ence the created world. It is a sacramental vision, in which all of creation is understood as having been imbued with an inherent and enduring stamp of divinity. But Christians have also long grappled with the ambiguous character of embodied existence, with the harsh reality of suffering and death, and with the often-inscrutable character of the cos