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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Mystery |
 | | In the New Testament the word mystery is applied ordinarily to the sublime revelation of the Gospel (Matthew 13:11; Colossians 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:9; 1 Corinthians 15:51), and to the Incarnation and life of the Saviour and His manifestation by the preaching of the Apostles (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:4; 6:19; Colossians 1:26; 4:3). |
 | | Mystery, therefore, in its strict theological sense is not synonymous with the incomprehensible, since all that we know is incomprehensible, i.e., not adequately comprehensible as to its inner being; nor with the unknowable, since many things merely natural are accidentally unknowable, on account of their inaccessibility, e.g., things that are future, remote, or hidden. |
 | | Rationalists further object that the revelation of mysteries would be useless, since it is the nature of reason to accept only the evident (Toland), and since the knowledge of the incomprehensible can have no influence on the moral life of mankind (Kant). |
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