Editing Dominican Order (section)

====Saint Albertus Magnus====
[[File:Albertus Magnus Painting by Joos van Gent.jpeg|thumb|upright|Painting of [[Albertus Magnus]] (1206–1280) by [[Justus van Gent]], {{c.|1475}}]]

Another member of the order who contributed significantly to its spirituality is [[Albert the Great]], whose influence on the brotherhood permeated nearly every aspect of Dominican life. Albertus Magnus championed the idea, drawn from [[Dionysius the Areopagite]], that positive knowledge of God is possible but obscure. Thus, it is easier to state what God is not than to state what God is:

{{Blockquote|[W]e affirm things of God only relatively, that is, casually, whereas we deny things of God absolutely, that is, with reference to what He is in Himself. And there is no contradiction between a relative affirmation and an absolute negation. It is not contradictory to say that someone is white-toothed and not white.{{sfn|Tugwell|1982|p=153}}}}

Albert the Great wrote that wisdom and understanding enhance one's faith in God. According to him, these are the tools that God uses to commune with a contemplative. Love in the soul is both the cause and result of true understanding and judgement. It causes not only an intellectual knowledge of God, but a spiritual and emotional knowledge as well. Contemplation is the means whereby one can obtain this goal of understanding. Things that once seemed static and unchanging become full of possibility and perfection. The contemplative then knows that God is, but they do not know what God is. Thus, contemplation forever produces a mystified, imperfect knowledge of God. The soul is exalted beyond the rest of God's creation but it cannot see God himself.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1975|p=299}}{{sfn|Tugwell|1982|pp= 40–95, 134–198}}