Divine illumination and the limits of explanation

Abstract

This article argues that divine illumination is best understood not as an explanatory mechanism in competition with naturalist theories of knowledge but as a theological boundary concept governing truth-recognition. By returning to Augustine’s analysis of language and understanding in De Magistro and his wider account of dependence in De Trinitate, the study clarifies why illumination functions grammatically rather than causally: it names the condition under which mutable minds may answer to immutable truth without becoming self-grounding. The argument then traces a pattern of conceptual restraint across the theological tradition, showing how illumination persists by limitation rather than expansion – preserved through constraint in medieval, Reformation and post-Reformation developments. The article concludes by proposing that illumination remains viable precisely insofar as it resists explanatory overreach, securing theological judgement without rejecting rational inquiry.