5. Religious Language: Via Negativa/The Apophatic Way
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 17-06-17 13:54
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- 5. Religious Language: Via Negativa/The Apophatic Way
- Positive statements about God will be inaccurate as we cannot comprehend Him.
- Language is too weak (against via affirmativa/the cataphatic way)
- Describe God in terms of what he is not, e.g. God is not malevolent
- 1. Psuedo Dionysius the Aeropagite
- God doesn't exist, as exist is a physical object disciption
- God doesn't exist in the same way we do, exist is the wrong word
- 'God is the universal cause of existence, while itself existing not, for it is beyond all being' - On The Divine Names
- Used via negativa to emphasise the transcendence of God
- 2. St John of the Cross
- A mystic, emphasises non-verbal experiences of God (mysticism)
- Tried to express in words the experience of mystical communication with Christ in poetry form
- 3. Moses Maimonides
- A Guide for the Perplexed
- "God has no positive attributes...the negative attributes of God are the true attributes"
- "There is no similarity in anyway whatsoever between Him [God] and his creatures....the difference between them....is absolute"
- 4. Plotinus
- A Neo-Plationist suggests God is ultimate and indescribable, only experienced by a mystical experience
- Experience of the One is self-attesting
- No logical reasoning or evidence is applicable/needed
- Strengths
- Gives a language that can be used to talk about God, as saying what God is may cause dispute
- Doesn't give false certainties
- It avoids being anthropomorphic (human-based) and focuses on a transcendent God
- Weaknesses
- Brian Davies
- Talking in negative terms opens up numerous possibilities of what God could be
- Not defining at all
- Talking in negative terms opens up numerous possibilities of what God could be
- Univocalists
- Talk of God must be literal and used in the same way as ordinary language to avoid agnosticism
- Brian Davies
- Positive statements about God will be inaccurate as we cannot comprehend Him.
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