Four theories of negative theology

Heythrop Journal - Quarterly Review of Philosophy and Theology

Volumn 48, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 187-204

  Milem, Bruce ^a  

^a STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

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EID: 61149189965     PISSN: 00181196     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2265.2007.00311.x     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed, 1. 52, 58.
2. The Mystical Theology, 5. 1048B, in Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works, trans. Colm Luibheid (New York: Paulist Press, 1987), p. 141.
3. Michael A. Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 2.
4. Other kinds of theory are possible. One could offer a scriptural theory of negative theology, which justifies it on the basis of sacred texts that say God is beyond language.
5. See Sells' discussion of this point in Mystical Languages of Unsaying, pp. 1-2.
6. This problem was pointed out by Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 1. 6.
7. In presenting these theories, I draw primarily on recent thinkers and texts. Unfortunately, the rich history of negative theology, particularly its origins in ancient Greek speculation about a highest separate substance, is beyond the scope of this paper. For surveys of negative theology's history, including the contributions of ancient philosophy, see Deirdre Carabine, The Unknown God: Negative Theology in the Platonic Tradition: Plato to Eriugena (Louvain: Peeters Press, 1995);
8. and Ilse N. Bulhof and Laurens ten Kate, 'Echoes of an Embarrassment: Philosophical Perspectives on Negative Theology - An Introduction' in Ilse N. Bulhof and Laurens ten Kate (eds. ), Flight of the Gods: Philosophical Perspectives on Negative Theology (New York: Fordham University Press, 2000), pp. 1-57.
9. Carabine, The Unknown God. Ilse N. Bulhof and Laurens ten Kate discuss negative theology as an attempt to come to terms with the absolute reality that is the source of all things, in 'Echoes of an Embarrassment'.
10. Denys Turner, Faith, Reason and the Existence of God (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
11. Turner worked out many of the ideas expressed in his book in several articles: 'The Art of Unknowing: Negative Theology in Late Medieval Mysticism', Modern Theology, 14: 4 (October 1998), pp. 473-88;
12. 'Apophaticism, Idolatry and the Claims of Reason' in Oliver Davies and Denys Turner (eds. ), Silence and the Word: Negative Theology and Incarnation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 11-34;
13. and 'On Denying the Right God: Aquinas on Atheism and Idolatry', Modern Theology, 20: 1 (January 2004), pp. 141-61.
14. 'Cataphatic' is from the Greek word kataphasis, used by Pseudo-Dionysius, meaning 'affirmation'.
15. 'Apophatic' comes from apophasis, used by Pseudo-Dionysius and meaning 'denial'.
16. As I use them, 'cataphatic' means 'positive' or 'affirmative', and 'apophatic' means 'negative'.
17. This description of theology is consistent with the view that theological language is analogical: that the language we use for ordinary things can be used for God but only if we keep in mind that such language applies to God in a way that is different from but related to how it applies to things. For more on analogy, see Ralph M. McInerney, Aquinas and Analogy (Washington, D. C. : Catholic University of America Press, 1996).
18. Meister Eckhart, German Sermon 83. The German text is in Josef Quint (ed. ), Meister Eckhart: Die deutschen und lateinischen Werke: Die deutschen Werke (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1958-), vol. 3, pp. 437-48.
19. See p. 448: 'Du solt in minnen, als er ist Ein nit-got'.
20. For an English translation of the sermon, see Edmund Colledge and Bernard McGinn (eds. ), Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises, and Defense (New York: Paulist Press, 1981), pp. 206-8.
21. Pseudo-Dionysius, The Divine Names, 4. 10-14, in Pseudo-Dionysius, Complete Works, pp. 78-83;
22. Nicholas of Cusa, On the Vision of God, 16, in Nicholas of Cusa, Selected Spiritual Writings, trans. H. Lawrence Bond (New York: Paulist Press, 1997), pp. 265-7.
23. For more about On the Vision of God, see Clyde Lee Miller, Reading Cusanus: Metaphor and Dialectic in a Conjectural Universe (Washington, D. C. : Catholic University of America Press, 2003), pp. 147-79.
24. Adriaan T. Peperzak, 'Affective Theology, Theological Affectivity', in Jeffrey Bloechl (ed. ), Religious Experience and the End of Metaphysics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), pp. 94-105.
25. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2004), p. 329.
26. Jean-Luc Marion, 'In the Name: How to Avoid Speaking of "Negative Theology"' in John D. Caputo and Michael J. Scanlon (eds. ), God, the Gift, and Postmodernism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), pp. 20-53.
27. Marion's essay responds to Derrida's critique of negative theology, and Derrida's reply follows. John D. Caputo has written a useful analysis of Marion's essay that compares it to Derrida's view: 'Derrida and Marion: Two Husserlian Revolutions' in Religious Experience and the End of Metaphysics, pp. 119-34.
28. In The Idol and Distance, trans. Thomas A. Carlson (New York: Fordham University Press, 2001), pp. 139-95, Marion offers an extensive analysis of Pseudo-Dionysius.
29. For Husserl the situation is more complicated than I describe it here. The two possibilities really name two ends of a continuum. Few intuitions fulfill intentions completely. More often they give only partial fulfillment. See Caputo, 'Derrida and Marion', p. 121.
30. See also Jean-Luc Marion, 'The Saturated Phenomenon', in Dominique Janicaud et al. , Phenomenology and the 'Theological Turn': The French Debate (New York: Fordham University Press, 2000), pp. 176-216.
31. Marion, 'The Saturated Phenomenon', pp. 213, 216.
32. Marion discusses Anselm's formula in 'Is the Ontological Argument Ontological? The Argument According to Anselm and Its Metaphysical Interpretation According to Kant', in Bulhof and ten Kate, Flight of the Gods, pp. 78-99.
33. This theory coincides with important themes in Eckhart, such as his idea of 'acting without why', i. e. without thought of compensation. The theory overlooks Eckhart's metaphysical discussion of the relation between God and creatures. I discuss both themes in Bruce Milem, The Unspoken Word: Negative Theology in Meister Eckhart's German Sermons (Washington, D. C. : Catholic University of America Press, 2002), pp. 144-72.
34. Meister Eckhart, German Sermon 2. The German text is in Meister Eckhart: Die deutschen Werke, vol. 1, pp. 24-45.
35. The passage is on pp. 24-25: 'Juncvrouwe ist alsô vil gesprochen als ein mensche, der von allen vremden bilden ledic ist.
36. ' The word ledic means both 'empty' and 'free'.
37. For a translation of the sermon, see Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, pp. 177-81.
38. For a commentary on it, see Milem, The Unspoken Word, pp. 50-85.
39. Benno Schmoldt, Die deutsche Begriffsprache Meister Eckharts: Studien zur philosophischen Terminologie der Mittelhochdeutschen (Heidelberg: Quelle und Meyer, 1954), pp. 27-33;
40. and Reiner Schürmann, Meister Eckhart: Mystic and Philosopher (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), pp. 10-13.
41. German Sermon 1, in Die deutschen Werke, vol. 1, pp. 4-20.
42. Eckhart uses the German word koufliute.
43. For an English translation, see Bernard McGinn (ed. ), Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher (New York: Paulist Press, 1986), pp. 239-44.
44. In The Unspoken Word, pp. 54-5, I argue that Eckhart was aware of this consequence and proposes his definition of spiritual virginity as a way to help his listeners realize how self-interested their spiritual ambitions are.
45. Turner, Faith, Reason and the Existence of God, p. 55.
46. 'Transcending nothingness (ein uber wesende nitheit)' comes from Eckhart's German Sermon 83.
47. See Meister Eckhart: Die deutschen Werke, vol. 3, p. 442
48. The 'still desert (stillen wüeste)' where 'no one is at home (dâ nieman heime enist)' is from German Sermon 48.
49. See Meister Eckhart: Die deutschen Werke, vol. 2, p. 420
50. Michel de Certeau, 'Mystic Speech' in Heterologies: Discourse on the Other (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986), p. 80.
51. Certeau is actually quoting Marguerite Duras' novel Le Vice-Consul, translated into English as India Song.
52. As reflected in the title of Turner's essay, 'On Denying the Right God'.
53. This is true for Marion as well. His book God Without Being (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991) draws a key distinction between the idol, which holds the gaze or mind to something visible or thinkable, and the icon, which permits the gaze or mind to pass beyond it and acknowledge something that cannot be seen or thought. Any positive concept of God will function for Marion as an idol.
54. For Marion, the definition of God as causa sui is idolatrous (God Without Being, pp. 33-37)
55. though Turner might well distinguish between the first cause of Aquinas and the causa sui of modern philosophers.
56. See also 'In the Name', p. 27, where Marion discusses the Greek word aitia, which Pseudo-Dionysius often equates with God. This word is usually translated as 'cause', but Marion thinks this rendering misunderstands Pseudo-Dionysius' meaning.
57. This is a major theme of his book, The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). See pp. 1-8.
58. 'How to Avoid Speaking: Denials' in Harold Coward and Toby Foshay (eds. ), Derrida and Negative Theology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), p. 73.
59. See also Derrida, 'Sauf le Nom' in Derrida, On the Name (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), pp. 35-85.
60. Derrida's complex and ambivalent view of negative theology is beyond the scope of this paper. Marion's essay 'In the Name' is a reply to Derrida, and Turner discusses Derrida at several places in Faith, Reason and the Existence of God, 'The Art of Unknowing', and 'Apophaticism, Idolatry and the Claims of Reason'.
61. The theory of negative theology one endorses will affect one's response to Derrida. What John D. Caputo calls the 'messianic' aspect of Derrida's thought, his fervent desire for an impossible future that will never come, suggests that Derrida could represent the atheist version of the desire theory of negative theology. Derrida himself says that he 'rightly passes for an atheist,' but 'the constancy of God in my life is called by other names. ' See 'Circumfession' in Geoffrey Bennington and Jacques Derrida, Jacques Derrida (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), p. 155
62. and also John D. Caputo, The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida: Religion Without Religion (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997).
63. For their comments and encouragement on this paper, I am grateful to Barbara S. Andrew, F. Eugene Heath, Karmen MacKendrick, Peter Manchester, John Milem, Clyde Lee Miller, and The Heythrop Journal's anonymous referee.