Who helps you see God? What helps you see God? How do you experience God?

For Christians, the answer to the first question is Jesus. For many Christians, the answer to the second question is the Bible, although one need not believe that it is inerrant and infallible for it to help us see God. The answer to the third question can be quite varied for every Christian, but the doctrine of the trinity teaches us that God’s immediate presence in the world is represented in the Holy Spirit.

Some years ago, an Episcopal priest friend gave me a book on the theological concept of panentheism. Panentheism is the idea that God is both transcendent and imminent. This concept had great appeal to me, for like many Christians, I have sometimes experienced the immediate presence of God the Holy Spirit. It can occur in a number of settings but most often in church during the beautiful and reverent Episcopal liturgy at Trinity parish in Fort Wayne and also in the hospice setting where I volunteer.

My spiritual journey has led me to read theological works by such great contemporary writers as Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright and Roman Catholic theologian Hans Kung. Theologians, too, can help us see God.

Reason is a God-given gift. While we can never fully understand God, we can use reason to aid our comprehension of God and as a tool to deepen our faith. Not only can we learn about God from studying Scripture, but we can learn a great deal that may open our hearts and minds when we study theology, especially great Christian thinkers from the distant past up to the present.

One definition of theology by Webster is “the study of God and God’s relation to the world.” Medieval theologian St. Anselm of Canterbury defines theology as “faith seeking understanding.” One recent biographer of Anselm interpreted that famous quotation to mean something along the lines of “an active love of God seeking a deeper knowledge of God.”

A recent book I read helped me see God. The book is “Karl Rahner: A Brief Introduction” by Karen Kilby. Rahner was a 20th-century German Jesuit priest and theologian.

One image that Rahner uses to help us understand God is that of light in relation to objects.

“We need light to see, and when we look at a book, say, we also at the same time have a certain awareness of the light which allows us to see it. Our awareness of infinite being and of God can be thought of along the lines of a light which, in illuminating particular objects, makes them knowable. As light enables us to see, so the awareness of God, the mind’s reaching out towards God, enables us to know.”

Another of Rahner’s images of God is that of a horizon. We can recognize certain objects against the infinite horizon of God. In the foreground are objects capable of us to know, but in the background is the horizon, which is awareness of eternity and of God. God, in effect, becomes the ever-present horizon of our lives.

What is astonishing for Rahner is that the horizon can be approached by prayer. God draws near by grace and the ultimate embodiment of this grace, this self-communication of God, is Jesus. In prayer, we “tap God on the shoulder,” a wonderful image to contemplate. Rahner says that it is only because God has drawn near to us that we have the possibility of turning to him in prayer.

Theology is not just abstract study of God, the Bible and Jesus. Theological concepts can assist us with leading a Christian life. Theologians can help us see God.

At the end of his life, Rahner said, “…be ready again and again to realize once more, that the ineffable mystery we call God not only lives and reigns, but has the unlikely idea to approach you personally in love; turn your eyes to Jesus, the crucified one; come what may, you will be able to accept your life from him when all is said and done.”