Teologia wierna misterium według Odona Casela OSB (1886-1948)

Abstract

The article is an attempt at collecting the most important motifs of Odo Casel’s mystery theology. The author compares the thought of the Benedictine monk of Maria Laach with St Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine, finding in the works by both these theologians a common idea of attachment to Christ’s mystery that is best revealed in liturgy. They are also connected by the conception of a mystical cognition of God, according to which the way of this cognition leads from contemplation of the mystery (mysticism) through theological explanation to metaphysics. According to Casel, the mystery of Christ is the revelation of God in the Son’s salutary work for the redemption and sanctification of the Church. Man is included in the mystery by cult mysteries, that is by liturgy. The process of contemplation of this mystery is defined here as mysticism, and the initiation in the mystery through liturgy is mystagogy. Theology serves the mystery. It is a mystical cognition, as it comes from God and it is participation in His revelation. It is born from the experience of the cult mystery, i.e. from liturgy, hence it is gnosis in the patristic understanding of the word, consisting in existential experiencing God. In this meaning theology is mystagogy, or initiation in the mystery of Christ that goes on in liturgy. It does not only focus on the cult mystery, but it introduces one into the eschatological mystery of God. In the conclusion the author describes the way in which Casel’s thought has influenced the development of the theology of mysteries, that is of the system based on understanding theology as mystagogy (mystery theology), pointing to its effect on the documents of the Church, including the Constitutions of the Vatican Council II.