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Carlo Emil N. Boado

T1 Semestral Project

Sensing God as the God of the Senses: an Article Review

About the Author

In one of the websites of Cambridge University, the following information about Irmtraud
Fischer was provided.1 She is a Professor of Old Testament Studies at the Catholic Theological
Faculty at the University of Graz, Austria. A Catholic theologian, she previously held the
Cathedra for Womens Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany, and worked as Visiting
Professor at the universities of Marburg, Vienna and Bamberg, and in Jerusalem and Rome. She
served as President of the European Society of Theological Research for Women from 2001 to
2003, and as President of the Working Group of Catholic Old Testament Researchers in the
German Speaking Area between 2005 and 2008. She is the general editor of the international
research project The Bible and Women (www.bibleandwomen.org), and her works include the
trilogy Gottesstreiterinnen, Gottesknderinnen and Gottelehrerinnen which has been
translated into French, with the first volume also having been translated into English and
published in several editions since 1995. She also wrote several journal articles including the one
to be reviewed in this paper.

The God of the Senses

Fischer's article is entitled Israel's senses for the sensual God which the reviewer
1

See Http://www.cambridgescholars.com/gender-agenda-matters. Accessed on September 10, 2016.

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gathered from the journal Theology Digest.2 The journal article was chosen by the reviewer since
it has connections to the course Revelation and Faith which he is currently taking up.
In our spiritual life, people often attribute God as only concerned to man's soul and his
spiritual needs. He is rarely introduced as a God who is also concerned of our physical body,
specifically of our senses since people's minds were greatly affected of past philosophies
concerning the dualism of the body and soul which views the body as made up of matter and so
it is evil and the soul is good principle, and so tends to separate the matters for the body from
matters for the soul. Introducing God who is but concerned also of our physical body's
experience him is somewhat interesting to discuss.

Strengthening the Senses

The journal talks mainly about directing man's senses to God since God reveals himself
to humanity through the five senses thus it is also he who desires men to encounter him with all
their senses.3 The author presented several proofs from the Old Testament readings that God
really uses man's five senses in order to reveal himself to all humanity, but first to his chosen
people, Israel.
This is a strong point of the author since he used a great number of proofs from a very
ancient and widely trusted source going back to humanity's first parents Adam and Eve, to the
patriarchs, the Exodus journey, the witness of the prophets, and also Israel's poetic literature.
Fischer argues that apart from the five senses, our understanding of God's revelation will be
incomplete since this kind of understanding will only be experienced as a purely intellectual or
mental, without any help of empirical data as bases.
2

Irmtraud Fischer, Israel's senses for the sensual God, Theology Digest 53, no. 2 (2006): p.137.

Fischer, 137.

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According to the 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church, man was created with both
body and soul united into a single nature. 4 This implies that it is really fitting to man that both his
body and soul be used to experience God's revelation of himself to man. This way we can say
that man's understanding of God will become more complete with the help of his physical
senses.
The author shows how the ancient Jews use their senses in experiencing God and
knowing him better as he unveils himself to them, though in a gradual manner. One strong
example given by Fischer is in the Old Covenant Exodus where God presents himself to his
people as the Transcendent one who wants himself to be sensed by his covenantal people.5 This
journey of God's chosen people is indeed an experience of the sensual God through the pillar of
cloud and fire, the rumbling thunder at Mt. Sinai, several covenant meals, smoke, and many
other.
Another strength of this article is that it recognizes the dignity of the human body as
fitting to worship God. It acknowledges the confluence of both body and soul in worshiping
God. It removes the notion of the dualism of the body and soul: that the body is sinful and that
the soul is the only one that can attain salvation. Adoring God through the senses is yet another
implication of lifting the dignity of the body as means of recognizing God's revelation of
himself. If God also reveals himself to the natural world by making himself be recognized by the
senses, then it is also proper to regard that the senses can also be used as a means to pray.
Praying with the senses then is a consummation of the use of the senses since it is directed to the
Highest Good that it can sense. To direct the senses to the Creator , their proper object, is already
worship in itself. Thus, praying with the senses should bring us to a fruitful and deeper spiritual
4

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., sec. 364.

See Fischer, Israel's senses, 139.

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life.
The next good point that the author presented in the article in explaining the use of the
five senses as means of knowing God's revelation is the parallelism she made between the
Catholic Church and the Jewish religion of the Old Testament. Comparing the Jewish sanctuary
to a Catholic Church, together with their respective Jewish ritual sacrifices and Catholic
Eucharist, is really a feast for the senses.6 From the beautiful architectures fitting to be called
God's dwelling places, to the mysterious and heavenly chants, fragrance of incense filling the
sacred space, very expressive gestures and postures, and a holy meal, it can be truly a revelation
of a God who desires a valuable loving relationship with his people.
By mentioning the Christian liturgy as a part of the sensual God's revelation of his love to
humanity, the author affirms that Catholics are descendants of the Jewish religion, or we can
somehow call it as the religion of the continuation of God's love story with his people which
includes all of humanity in a very universal manner, hence the term Catholic. In the Church itself
are many manifestations of that continuity of using the five senses as means of God to
communicate himself to his people. In countries whose Christian faith are still in its high vigor,
the faithful involve themselves to popular religiosity which the Church also encourages to be
practiced since she calls it as the religion of the poor.7 In Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation
Evangelii Gaudium, he reiterates that popular piety is a manifestation of people's thirst for God. 8
This popular piety, especially here in the Philippines, involves the senses a lot since people uses
'miraculous' images and icons as objects of their devotions. Their strong desire to experience the
divine can be observed in their different expressions like the punas-punas, pahalik, religious
6

Ibid., 140.

See Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 48.

See Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 123.

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dances, religious chants, religious processions, religious dramas, among many others. This use
of the senses in popular religiosity is a very significant proof that the senses are inclined in
sensing the divine.
It is much appreciated that the author did not only focused on the Old Testament Judaism
but also leaped to the New Testament Christianity. The author made a very important parallelism
of both Traditions which never fail to recognize the use of all senses in their worship of the one
true God. But it is better if the author also made a connection to Jews and Christians through
Jesus Christ, the perfect expression of the sensual God since he is the Word incarnate, the Godwith-us in flesh and bones experiencing the five senses of man himself. It is better if Christ is
presented in the article as both the fulfillment of the God who wants to have a fuller relationship
with his people, and the bridge of the two great Traditions of faith, the focal point in which the
two meets.
To present Christ as the fulfillment of the God who desires to have a fuller relationship
with his people is indeed a very significant topic to deal with since one is presenting a God who
reveals himself through humanity's empirical senses. As the fulfillment, Jesus' incarnation is the
peak of God's desire to relate himself to his beloved creation: the human being. In this way, man
can now really sense the God who is supposed to be metaphysical, supernatural, and
transcendent. By becoming man, the whole world can now behold the Face of God instead of a
pillar of fire and cloud, the whole creation can now hear his Voice instead of thunder rumblings
or a whispering wind, people can now approach to touch him. In the same manner, God now
experiences and even use personally the physical senses of the creation that he had made.
Through Jesus, God now looks at each people with eyes of Love (even weeps with those human
eyes), he hears the joyous laughter and painful cries of everyone, he enjoy the tasty meal as he

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feasts with the sinners and the rejected group of the society, he not only touches but also embrace
with acceptance those who need his healing touch, and smells with new fragrance those whom
the self-righteous people rejected. This is truly the fulfillment of God's revelation of himself to
humanity.
Jesus is also the bridge of the two great traditions. He is the connection of the two. He is
the God of the Jews who himself chose to be born as a Jew, yet founded the Church of the New
Covenant which brings to fulfillment the prophecies of the Jewish Tradition. 9

Conclusion: Sensing the Sensual God

To conclude, the reviewer of the article showed several strengths which may lead readers
in the realization of the importance of the five senses as very important in sensing God's
unveiling of himself. These strengths also makes the readers discover that the God of the
Israelites and of the Christians is a sensual God who has always wanted to relate with his people
not only in spiritual matters but also physically by letting himself be sensed by the human senses
thereby letting also the body and soul find their physical and transcendental fulfillment of their
purpose in him. Furthermore, the reviewer also suggested only one single point in order for the
article to be more encompassing, that is the presentation of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the
Old Testament sensual God who became man; that by being an incarnate God, he indeed was
experienced by the whole creation as a God who can be truly sensed, and that this God is also a
God who experienced firsthand the gift of senses in experiencing his creation especially his
beloved children.
Knowing these facts gives the faithful a better perspective on how to deal properly with
9

See Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., sec. 486, 763.

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their senses since past modes of thinking presented the sensual body as the evil matter which
must be purified by the good soul in him. By being aware of God's revelation and relationship
with his people by using the senses, readers may conclude at least two realizations: that their
senses' full use can be best achieved if directed towards its Creator, and in connection to this the
faithful may then enrich their faith and spiritual life by using all their senses in worshiping the
Creator of man's sensible faculty.