Sofia 2024 Call for Papers
The incomprehensibility of God is a divine attribute found either explicitly or implicitly in the text of the Old and New Testament. While God can be known as far as he reveals himself, the text of both the Old and the New Testament bears witness to the fact that his nature and work is ultimately unfathomable. In the Old Testament, for example, the Psalms attest that God’s knowledge is too wonderful (Ps 139:6) and his greatness unsearchable (Ps 145:3); Job declares that no one can understand the thunder of God’s power (Job 26:14); in Isaiah, God’s thoughts and ways are described as much higher than the thoughts of human beings (Isa 55:8-9). In the New Testament, Paul reflects that no one truly comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:10-11), that God dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16), and that God in his wisdom is ultimately incomprehensible (Rom 11:33-36).
The Research Unit “Biblical Theological investigations into the attributes of God” invites scholars to submit papers on biblical texts with explicit or implicit references to the incomprehensibility of God in its rich diversity, and to investigate these texts from a Biblical Theological perspective, that is, by reflecting on how these texts portray the attribute of God’s incomprehensibility as part of the developing, unfolding and progressive story line of the text. Preference will be given to papers which address the attribute of God’s incomprehensibility from lesser-known texts in the Old and New Testament.
