Jarosław KUPCZAK, OP – From Encounter to Cognition: On Karol Wojtyła’s Song of the Hidden God

The article presents the theology of the early poem of Karol Wojtyła/John Paul II Song of the Hidden God from 1944. The poem contains a description and analysis of the many dimensions present in the human encounter with God. Respecting the analogical nature of theological knowledge, the author describes the Christian experience of God using the natural experience of man, especially of: the sea, the light, and the sun. The internal dynamics of the encounter with God is described by Wojtyła as a transition from natural longing and natural cognition to a knowledge through faith, and finally to a knowledge through love. This development leads the human person from a solitude of the cognizing subject to an experience of friendship with God which is described by Wojtyła in terms of the mystical theology of Saint John of the Cross. For every Christian this encounter with God starts with and culminates in the sacramental order, especially in the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist.