SILENCE AS AN INAUGURATING DISTANCE IN THE FACE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF IDOLATRY. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THEOLOGY

Abstract

The Christian God is a God who communicates and reveals himself through His Son, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh (Jn 1,14). In a world full of noises and alluring distractions, silence is a fundamental condition in an essential exercise of the theological act. Preceded by a contemplative and intellectual silence, the theological reflection has a very important role: to make the authentic Christian God more intelligible before other gods that we meet along the way. Theological silence makes a certain distance that gives an inaugural opening possible. It deals with the necessary space that opens the possibility of establishing a relationship with the other. If one of the parts is absolute, it would end up occupying the entire space, hence, transforming it as an idol. Idolatry is neither a petrified concept nor a thing of the past, but a latent temptation. It is a conceptual and practical falsification of the authentic God. The dynamic of idolatry rejects silence.

KEY WORDS: Silence. Idolatry. Otherness. Relationship.