What is your theological interest?

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I was wondering this the other day. As I’m reading more and taking more classes on Catholicism and Christian theology, my interest is peaked at a particular area of study:

*God is the Creator and created us for communion with Him. We can use creation as a means to Him (from Fr. Alexander Schmemann). The thing is to view creation as not merely material but as a means of communing with God. Misuse of creation is sin. That was the sin of Adam and Eve, they viewed creation as an ends and as only material.

From that, I go into the development and entering into what C.S. Lewis calls the “Christ-life”. And living through Christ.*

I am very interested in this and when I read about Christianity this specifically stands out to me.

So I was wondering, do you have a specific area of theology or thought that interests you that you notice pops up whenever you read? What is it?

God bless!
 
My favorite would probably be Theology of the MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT. I also would love to study Mariology and Josephology. I will pray for You!!
 
Mysticism, Dark Night of the Soul, contemplative prayer.
 
My main area of study was in liturgy but I am also very interested in spirituality.
 
Mysticism and contemplative prayer, the writings of the Catholic mystics.

Here’s a taste from one of my favourites, Blessed John Ruusbroec, from his work “The Sparkling Stone” (which you can read online on this Catholic website: catholic-forum.com/saints/stj2c001.htm )
"…THROUGH THREE THINGS A MAN BECOMES GOD-SEEING
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Further, you must know that if this spiritual man would now become a God-seeing man, he needs must have three other things. The first is the feeling that the foundation of his being is abysmal, and he should possess it in this manner; the second is that his inward exercise should be wayless; the third is that his indwelling should be a divine fruition.
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Now understand, you who would live in the spirit, for I am speaking to no one else. The union with God which a spiritual man feels, when the union is revealed to the spirit as being abysmal—that is, measureless depth, measureless height, measureless length and measureless breadth—in this manifestation the spirit perceives that through love it has plunged itself into the depth and has ascended into the height and escaped into the length; and it feels itself to be wandering in the breadth, and to dwell in a knowledge which is ignorance. And through this intimate feeling of union, it feels itself to be melting into the Unity; and, through dying to all things, into the life of God. And there it feels itself to be one life with God. And this is the foundation, and the first point, of the God-seeing life.
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And from this there arises the second point, which is an exercise above reason and without condition: for the Divine Unity, of which every God-seeing spirit has entered into possession in love, eternally draws and invites the Divine Persons and all loving spirits into its self. And this inward drawing is felt by each lover, more or less, according to the measure of his love and the manner of his exercise. And whosoever yields himself to this indrawing, and keeps himself therein, cannot fall into mortal sin. But the God-seeing man who has forsaken self and all things, and does not feel himself drawn away because he no longer possesses anything as his own, but stands empty of all, he can always enter, naked and unencumbered with images, into the inmost part of his spirit. There he finds revealed an Eternal Light, and in this light, he feels the eternal demand of the Divine Unity; and he feels himself to be an eternal fire of love, which craves above all else to be one with God. The more he yields to this indrawing or demand, the more he feels it. And the more he feels it, the more he craves to be one with God; for it urges him to pay the debt which is demanded of him by God. This eternal demand of the Divine Unity kindles within the spirit an eternal fire of love; and though the spirit incessantly pays the debt, an eternal burning continues within it. For, in the transformation within the Unity, all spirits fail in their own activity, and feel nothing else but a burning up of themselves in the simple Unity of God. This simple Unity of God none can feel or possess save he who maintains himself in the immeasurable radiance, and in the love which is above reason and wayless. In this transcendent state the spirit feels in itself the eternal fire of love; and in this fire of love it finds neither beginning nor end, and it feels itself one with this fire of love. The spirit for ever continues to burn in itself, for its love is eternal; and it feels itself ever more and more to be burnt up in love, for it is drawn and transformed into the Unity of God, where the spirit burns in love. If it observes itself, it finds a distinction and an otherness between itself and God; but where it is burnt up it is undifferentiated and without distinction, and therefore it feels nothing but unity; for the flame of the Love of God consumes and devours all that it can enfold in its Self.
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And thus you may see that the indrawing Unity of God is nought else than the fathomless Love, which lovingly draws inward, in eternal fruition, the Father and the Son and all that lives in Them. And in this Love we shall burn and be burnt up without end, throughout eternity; for herein lies the blessedness of all spirits. And therefore we must all found our lives upon a fathomless abyss; that we may eternally plunge into Love, and sink down in the fathomless Depth. And with that same Love, we shall ascend, and transcend ourselves, in the incomprehensible Height. And in that Love which is wayless, we shall wander and stray, and it shall lead us and lose us in the immeasurable Breadth of the Love of God. And herein we shall flee forth and flee out of ourselves, into the unknown raptures of the Goodness and Riches of God. And therein we shall melt and be melted away, and shall eternally wander and sojourn within the Glory of God. Behold! by each of these images, I show forth to God-seeing men their being and their exercise, but none else can understand them. For the contemplative life cannot be taught. But where the Eternal Truth reveals Itself within the spirit all that is needful is taught and learnt…"
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***- Blessed John Ruusbroec (1293 - 1381), Flemish mystic & Catholic priest ***
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The Queen of Angels and the Mother of the Son of Man: Family Theology

Genesis 3:15, the divine mandate, authorization and empowerment for Woman & Seed to crush the head of Lucifer, and his seed; as complemented by the divine mandate, authorization and empowerment preceeding this, the life stewardship unto death of Adam undergirded by the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world; is the theological root of the Church Militant in union with the Church Triumphant. The Woman & Seed fulfillment was first announced by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary; revealed to Joseph, the Adamic steward of life; then heralded by holy angels to despised shepherds in the tradition of shepherd-kings like David; then to foreign wise men as the prophesied universal blessing to all people through the line of David.

It is in the public presentation at the Temple (February 2nd feast) with the prophecy of Simeon of: Christ’s being a sign of contradiction and effecting the rise and fall of many; and the Virgin Mary’s own terrible charism, being pierced with a sword of sorrow that the thoughts of all may be revealed; that is shown the union of the salvific sacrifice of the Second Adam; and the unity of the Body of Christ under the motherhood of the Woman in prosecuting war on the Father of Lies and Murder and his minions. Here is the history of hope; faith in action; and total love for God evidenced in that obedience even in sorrow and unto death we are called to honor and emulate.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a centuries-old shaping of the clay that is the Body of Christ, and first revealed by the prophecy of St. Gertrude the Great as promised to be of vital importance for a later time. Christ calling us to always avail ourselves of His mercy before He must come as the Lord of Judgment was repeated in a geo-political context in France, where the consecration of France to the Sacred Heart was rejected with tragic consequences in the fall of the monarchy and mass murder. Sister Faustina again repeated Christ’s call with the Divine Mercy message.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary, purity of intent yielding a whole-hearted faith response to God’s call to perfect obedience, is another divine course correction, a reshaping of spiritual emphasis to honor a maternal gift promising “peace.” Revealed through despised shepherd children formed by the Angel of Peace at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917 and beyond, the geo-political consequences of not promoting a world-wide devotion to the Immaculate Heart; and imperfectly consecrating Russia to her Immaculate Heart with her promised conversion and as the “only” means to a period of peace; has yielded the loss of souls and deaths of millions. The conquests for the Father of Lies and Murder, who ensnares the hapless who do not have recourse to that exalted warrior personifying purity of intent, the Immaculate Heart, flourish in that vacuum created by hard-hearted indifference and refusal to hear and obey.

The theology of Adamic stewardship unto death with its atoning, salvific priesthood; united with the Woman & Seed mandate to crush the Father of Lies and Murder; are both fulfilled in Christ. Christ took up Adamic stewardship for life in obedience unto death; and adopted the Body of Christ as His brothers and sisters, children of the Woman. The merciful Sacred Heart of Jesus and the gracious Immaculate Heart of Mary call us to yield our necks to that gentle yoke of love effecting our earthly and eternal bliss in the peace of Jesus Christ. Call it the Theology of the Body of Christ. Call it Family.

Immaculate Heart, Blessed Virgin Mary pierced with a sword of sorrow that the thoughts of all may be revealed, expose all secret thoughts, cleansing them in the fire of love which is your divine Son and our Brother Jesus Christ’s Sacred Heart. Thanks. AMEN
 
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