Via Negativa
L/O: To learn and understand what is
meant by the term Via Negativa.
Task One: What is God? Write a short
list of what you believe God is or is not.
What does the Via Negativa Mean?
• The Negative Way is a way in which one
should approach the subject of God.
• It states that we cannot talk about God in
positive terms (God is good and just etc) as
this is miss-leading and confusing.
• Instead we must only talk of God in negative
terms, such as what God is not (God is not
mortal, we cannot see God).
The Problem of Language
• For people to understand each other when they speak,
words need to have an associated meaning. If you say
that something is cold, square, heavy, you would
understand what these words mean.
• When talking about these qualities in relation to God,
they are seen to limit God. Our understanding is
limited because our Language is limited.
• If we say that God is good, we understand what that
means, however, God is more than good, something
we cannot express with our limited language and
understanding.
Positive and Negative Language
• We should not use Positive Language at it is
flawed, capable of only encompassing what we
already understand.
– If we are to say that God is good we can only
understand this in terms of what we know good to
mean.
• The use of Negative language (phrases that deny
rather than confirm) are less limiting as they do
not have to remain constricted by our
understanding.
– God is not bad is less limiting that God is good.
Task Two
• Take the following Positive Attributes
commonly associated with God and write
them in such a way as to conform with the Via
Negativa
– God is good
– God is just
– God is all-loving
– God is forgiving
Pseudo-Dionysius
• Pseudo-Dionysius was a 6th Century
Theologian, Philosopher and Christian Mystic.
• He argued that using the Negative Way was
the only way to speak truthfully about God,
because God is beyond all human
understanding.
Moses Maimonides
• Moses Maimonides (1135-1204ce) was a great
Jewish thinking and theologian, who strong
supported the Via Negativa.
• Maimonides explains that the attributes of
God can only be understood through what
they are not.
Problems of the Negative Way
• Not all philosophers agree with the Negative
Way.
– The writer Brian Davies states that simply
describing something in terms of what it is not,
gives no clue to what it actually is.
• Declaring that God is not a Wombat doesn’t help you
come closer to understanding what God is.
• I am thinking of an object, it is not like a
trumpet, binoculars or a telephone, what is it?
The Problem of a Presupposed God
• One of the problems highlighted through the
use of Negative Language, is that one must
have a presupposed idea in mind for these
statements are trying to make sense of.
– The statement God is not bad does nothing show
that God is good, however the implication inside
the Religious Language framework, makes it so.
• Without this Religious Language framework,
such negative statements mean nothing.
Task Three: The Limits of Negative
Language
• Negative Language is supposed to allow one
to come closer to God through the use of
language that does not confuse.
• To what extent does Negative Language allow
one to come closer to God or does it confuse
the subject further?
Positive Language – The best option
we have?
• While philosophers such as Pseudo-Dionysius and
Maimonides state that Positive Language leads us
deliberately away from our understanding of God.
• It could however be argued that Negative Language
serves only as a way of stating what God is not, failing
to confirm any of the attributes we would normally
associate with God.
• Could it be that despite the fact that language is
flawed, that it is our best option to explain God? While
it might deliberately limit God to ways in which we can
understand, at least there is some level of
comprehension present.
So...
• To what extent does the Negative Way allow
us to more fully understand God?
• In what does the use of Positive Language
limit our understanding of God?
• Assess whether Positive or Negative language
allows us to further the understanding of God
– Make reference to the limits of Positive Language
and the confusion that Negative Language can
cause.