ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some major intellectual and spiritual influences that shaped Petre Tutea's intellectual development. Tutea develops his categorial style' by employing Platonic–Socratic dialogue while critically assimilating and building on Immanuel Kant's 'table of categories' and methodology. Tutea was aware that Platonism – with its concept of this world as a shadow of the world of Ideas – lacks a dynamic, soteriological understanding of history. Tutea shows that Kant reduces the 'triangle' God–humanity–nature to a straight 'line', humanity–nature. Immanuel Kant's awareness of the 'moral law within' excludes everything except human reason from the conduct of life in the world. Divine knowledge is for Tutea a matter of the heart, which for those who are enlightened becomes the seat of divine presence, grace, and knowledge. He is primarily interested in 'mystical knowledge' or 'mystical contemplation' that is, knowledge or contemplation of the mystery.
