Recognition that some religious questions cannot be answered through doctrine alone, and that mystery and uncertainty may be theologically honest positions.
Sor Juana engaged directly with Scripture and theology, but she also recognized the limits of human understanding—that some mysteries belong to God alone. This is not capitulation but intellectual humility. A theology of limits permits believers to hold unresolved questions without interpreting them as signs of weak faith. It permits doubters to remain in community despite intellectual disagreement, because the tradition itself acknowledges that certainty is neither possible nor required. It permits leavers to honor what the tradition taught them about mystery and unknowing, even as they depart from its claims. Rather than demanding resolution—believe or leave—this framework honors the human condition as one of perpetual partial knowledge. In contemporary pluralistic contexts, a theology of limits becomes especially valuable: it permits interfaith respect, intellectual humility, and coexistence with contradiction. Sor Juana modeled this: rigorous questioning paired with acknowledgment that some answers lie beyond reason.
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