Mystery Of Christian Faith

Preface
Acknowledgement

Who Is God? – What Are God’s “Personal Characteristics” As They Emerge From A Biblical Description?

Introductory Clarifications

Concepts Preceding God’s Self-Revelation

Ideas Of God’s Personality In The Old Testament

The Personality Of God As Revealed By Jesus Christ

Further Characteristics Of God, The “Quite Other”

God’s Personality: Witnessing After Jesus’ Ascension

The Definition Of God’s Personality

The Anthropological Characteristics That Enable Believers’ Communication With The Biblical God

The Problem Arising From God’s Transcendence

What Happened To Thomas?

What Can We Establish From The Biblical Account Of Thomas’ Conversion?

How Did Thomas Experience The Reality Of Jesus’ Resurrection?

The “Missing Link” Between Believers’ Conscience And The Spiritual God

Theologians’ And Philosophers’ Explanations

Biblical Revelation About The Spirit, The Soul, And Conscience

Conscience From An Experiential Perspective

How Does The Genuine Seeker Psychologically Experience The Reality To Which The Bible Bears Witness?

An Experiential Discernment Of Faith

Can The Human Mind Register That Which Is Scientifically Immeasurable?

The Concept Of Transempirical Discernment

The Epistemology Of Faith: How Do We Know That We Have Faith?

The Criteria For The Accuracy Of Transempirical Recognition

Transempirical Recognition Of The Truth And Values

Plurality In Discernment, Its Relevance To Faith Questions, And A New Chance For Ecumenism

The Transempirical And Faith Dynamics In Religious Fanatics

Are Non-Religious People Really Less Happy Than People Of Faith?

Revisiting Thomas’ Conversion

Living In A Tangible Union With The Invisible God

The Need For New Apologetics

What Might We Understand By God’s Call?

God’s Most Paradoxical Calls: Angst And Suffering

A Paradoxical Pattern In The Personal Calls Of Our Lord

The Human Response To God’s Call: When Does Mature Faith Begin?

The Transempirically Experienced Presence Of God In Mature Belief

God’s Personal Characteristics: His Love

God’s Personal Characteristics: “The Almighty, Eternal, And Ultimate”

The Phenomenon Of Jesus Christ: The Common Experience Behind The Biblical And The Transempirical

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

About The Author

Additional Info
Since the time of bloody persecutions right up to the post-modern age, each historical period posed its particular challenge to Christianity. Psychologically, Christians’ vitality in overcoming these challenges came primarily from what is perhaps the deepest mystery of faith itself-the believers’ union with God. The postmodern positivist questions this mystery, and rejects the possibility of communication with a non-sensorial and therefore “non-existing” God. Agnostics proclaim, “One man’s religion, is another’s delusion.” Therefore, the modern challenge for Christians is to explain how God, despite being invisible, is experientially present in the life of believers. Although the experience of living in a relationship with an invisible God is a profound one for Christians, it seems nonsensical to those who emphasize the primacy of sensory experience. Paul Ungar’s extensive scholarly training equips him remarkably well to explore where, when, how, and through which psychological functions communication with the spiritual God factually occur. Ungar’s The Mystery of Christian Faith: A Tangible Union with the Invisible God is an apologetic work on the borderline of theology, psychology and philosophy. It is written for Christian intellectuals regardless of their denominational background and rationally demonstrates what Franois Mauriac’s hauntingly poetic expression, “Nothing is more alien than living in a Godless world, and nothing is closer to humans than God.”