“There is little room for mysticism in biblical religion; we do not know God by having some sort of inexplicable ethereal communion with him, in which our feelings are used as the evidence for our closeness to him. We know him by learning his ways (i.e., his revealed standards, revealed methods, and revealed benefits)—in other words by objective, rather than subjective, emotional, means.”
Source: Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, New American Commentary, 2006, p. 701.
I agree mostly. But I don’t like “We know him…by objective, rather than subjective, emotional, means.” Objective means are the basis, but subjective knowledge and emotional connection can be entirely appropriate in a subordinate role.