forget that the subject of his knowledge, the end that he pursues, is not the simple accumulation of objective facts about God the subject, but is rather the very knowledge of the living God of the history of salvation. In this regard, a mystic would naturally speak of a meeting with or experience of God; the theologian has no reason to repudiate such language. This second characteristic entails a third, concerning the nature of theology, which Thomas enunciates rather disconcertingly by saying that,