The Philosophical Foundations of Le Royaume

Phase 4 – The Kingdom Blessed of St. Joan and St. Thérèse

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The fourth phase of Le Royaume is symbolic theology. We move further into the mysteries of our faith. Our journey through the heart in phase three moves us toward the unknowable, toward the dark light of faith in phase four. We cannot understand the kingdom toward which St. Joan and St. Thérèse are leading us other than through an analogous relationship with the sensible world we know. Symbolic theology starts with a literal understanding of the sensible and goes beyond it to demonstrate a reality we could never know. It reveals something to us about God. Its purpose is to draw us closer to God.

“{Symbolic theology, however, is intended for a select circle and intends more than instructing its members in the faith: it would raise up further those who are striving for holiness (since they have already experienced a higher enlightenment). Through its images it unveils mysteries of a suprasensible world for them. Through these images it would help them to free themselves from the sensible world more and more and bring them to the point where they no longer have need of sensible images at all.}*”

~ Stein, Edith. Knowledge and Faith (The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 8) . ICS Publications. Kindle Edition.

Symbolic theology also serves the purpose of drawing others to God. Our symbolism reaches deeply into the souls of those  so inclined by good will. Our great commission is to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and to evangelize the world. Our symbolism plays a part by evoking a good will response from others. This is the goal of Le Royaume and her French Catholic symbolism.

“It is possible that the very images of symbolic theology evoke the enlightenment, and that its making facts that witness to a higher effectiveness intuitable for us may awaken faith in a higher reality. Clearly, from such faith springs the desire to come into personal contact with this higher world now. This is precisely the aim of symbolic theology. It would be a cheirogogia, a ‘leading by the hand.’ Through the mediumship of a sense expression, one mind speaks to another in order to lead it into a spiritual realm and to form it therefrom into a purely spiritual understanding.”

~ Ibid. Edith Stein