Guider de

Hello,

I'm have a question about the "de" in the following sentence:

"Dieu la guide dans l'intimité d'une expérience qui ira au-delà de l'entendement et de la raison."

Two possibilities:

God intimately guides her out of an experience which will go beyond understanding and reason.

God intimately guides her through an experience which will go beyond understanding and reason.

So, does the "de" serve here as "from" (with the idea of exiting), or does it serve here as "of" (with an emphasis rather on the idea of accompanying)?

Many thanks.

I quite don't understand your question
what I can say is "de" is part of "au-delà" => "au-delà-de" which you correctly translate by "beyond"

My apologies for not being clear. I'm referring to the "de" of "d'une expérience," which I understand to complement the verb "guider." "[D]ans l'intimité" is modifying the verb "guider;" so if we take the modifier out, we have "Dieu la guide d'une expérience..." Therefore, the question becomes, for me, what is the quality of this "de"--is there an idea of "from" (i.e., away from) or "of" (the idea of which I've translated with "through").

Many thanks.

OK
"de" here is merely the preposition of what we call the "complement de nom"
"l'intimité d'une expérience" is -grammatically speaking - the same as "la maison de Paul", "le bonheur de vivre", "la joie d'une vie" .....
in this particular case, if you get rid of "l'intimité", you can't have "Dieu la guide d'une expérience", but "Dieu la guide dans une expérience ..." is that clearer ?

Thanks very much.

So "guider dans" in this case. The translation would have to be "God guides her in the intimacy of an experience"? Might you be able to think of another word for "l'intimité," or give a gloss of your understanding of it in this sentence?

well, what kind of experience does it referred to ?
even in french, it's a bit confusing, but since God is involved, it must be correct, so "intimacy of an experience" might be "the experience of absolute and pure love" (like love for God) for instance, love that she could keep secret (intimate)
what do you think of it Kate ?