Religious Language
• Key question: How can a finite person talk
about an infinite God?
• 3 key words (from Aquinas):
EQUIVOCAL
UNIVOCAL
ANALOGICAL
• One approach. Apophatic Way.
Word game:
How many words can you think of to
describe God beginning with IM, IN or
UN? (3 min)
Negative God words
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Immortal
Invisible
Inaccessible
Ineffable
Incomprehensible
Indescribable
Impassible
Immaterial
Infinite
Unresting,
Unhasting
Immortal, invisible
• Immortal, invisible, God only
wise,
In light inaccessible hid from
our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious,
the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy
great Name we praise.
• Unresting, unhasting, and
silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting,
Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice, like mountains,
high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are
fountains of goodness and
love.
• To all, life Thou givest, to
both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true
life of all;
We blossom and flourish as
leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish—but
naught changeth Thee.
• Great Father of glory, pure
Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all
veiling their sight;
All laud we would render; O
help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of
light hideth Thee,
Word game 2
How many positive adjectives can you think
of to describe God?
Positive God words of classical
theology (cataphatic)
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Omniscient
Omnipotent
Omnipresent
Omnibenevolent
Infinite
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Transcendent
Immanent
Personal
Simple
Trinity
Self-existent.
Isaiah
Michelangelo - God
How can we talk about God?
1. UNIVOCALISTS.
Eg Duns Scotus ( origin
of term ‘dunce’).
All talk about God must
be literal – used in
same way as
ordinary language to
avoid agnosticism.
2. Apophatic theology
• Apophatic theology
is a type of theology
that describes God
by saying what he is
not rather then
what he is. It holds
the idea that god is
ineffable. This
means that humans
should not describe
him with spoken
words.
Negative (apophatic) theologians
eg St John of the Cross, Pseudo Dionysius.
Stressed that we can only
speak of God
negatively. Because
God is wholly other. He
cannot be adequately
described in human
language.
Emphasis on non verbal
experience of God
(mysticism)
St John of the Cross
GOD
Hmmmm
St John was a major figure in the catholic reformation.
I’m a mystic. I try to express in
words the experience of mystical
communion with Christ. It’s pretty
tricky though!
I write a lot of poetry but some of
my best works are my religious
pieces: “Spiritual Canticle” and
“Dark night of the Soul” have
created a bit of a buzz and I’m
looking forward to reaping the
benefits of my success.
It’s been said that those two poems
are some of the best poetry ever
written in Spanish, but I don’t really
read reviews!
Candidates should have:
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An understanding of the view that God
can only be spoken of in negative terms
(via negative or apophatic way), using
examples of mystics such as PseudoDionysius the Areopagite.
Candidates should be able to discuss
the advantages and disadvantages of
this approach.
Apophatic theology
AIMS
• Know what apophatic theology means
• Know who the main proponents were.
• Analyse strengths and weaknesses.
Football illustration
Examples
Its
inadequate
to say that
God is
wise.
God is
good
Apophatic
way
God is not
ignorant.
God is not
evil
• Problem: Can we even
say then that ‘God
exists’?!
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Made the controversial
statement that God
doesn’t even ‘exist’!
•“It (God) is the
universal cause of
existence while itself
existing not, for it is
beyond all being”
(Pseudo-Dionysius the
Aeropogite From ‘On
the Divine Names’).
Negative theology also speaks in
paradoxes/couplets
• Neither existence nor nonexistence
applies to God, i.e., God is beyond
existing or not existing. (One should not
say that God exists in the usual sense of
the term; nor should we say that God is
nonexistent.)
Liar paradox
• This sentence is not true.
Nicholas de Cusa
• “I was led in the learning that is ignorance
to grasp the incomprehensible; and this I
was able to achieve not by way of
comprehension but by transcending those
perennial truths that can be reached by
reason”
Eh??
Basil the Great (330-379)
Distinguished between the ‘essence’ of God
(which is unknowable) and the ‘energies’ of God
by which God makes himself known.
“In regard to the names which we apply to God,
these reveal his energies which descend
towards us yet do not draw us closer to his
essence, which is inaccessible.”
Gregory Palamas (1296-1359)
“the divine nature is
communicable not in
itself but through its
energy”.
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)
• Great Jewish thinker
• ‘Guide for the perplexed’
• “God has no positive attributes…the
negative attributes of God are the true
attributes.”
• “There is no similarity in any way
whatsoever between him (God) and his
creatures….the difference between
them…is absolute.”
Roots of apophatic way:Plotinus
(d.270)
• Neo-Platonist – matter is evil,
hence generations of gods to
separate God from the world.
• Enormous influence on later
philosophy: (eg apophatic way,
Hegel, Kant, existentialism)
• God is Ultimate,
ineffable,indescribable.
• God is experienced only by a
mystical experience.
• Experience of The One is selfattesting.
• No reason or evidence is
applicable.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Combined Platonic (via
Plotinus) and JudeoChristian ideas. He
identified the
unknowable One with
the Christian God.
Strengths
• God of Moses revealed as YHWH
(tetragrammaton) – I AM what I AM (Ex
3:14).
Strengths
• Isaiah, ‘To whom then
will you liken God or
what likeness
compares to him?’
• Prohibition of idolatry
– Jews and Muslims
agree.
• Thomas Aquinas’ final
revelation
Strengths cont.
“All laud we would render; O help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee”
(Immortal, invisible)
Criticisms (Christian)
• Neo- Platonist roots deny the Christian
teaching on the goodness of the material
world. This leads to a denial of the
doctrines of Creation and Incarnation.
• It is also contradicts the idea of revelation.
• Hence it is more compatible with an
eastern understanding of God.
(pantheism).
• It leads to agnosticism.
Criticisms (Atheist.Flew)
• Oxford rabbit :
• Very special rabbit. It is INVISIBLE,
INTANGIBLE, INAUDIBLE, WEIGHTLESS,
ODORLESS…!
• When denied by all these negations does it still
make sense to say that such a creature
EXISTS? (c.f. Wisdom’s parable of the
Gardener).
• Flew, descriptions ‘die the death of a thousand
qualifications’.
Group exercise
• Brainstorm other
advantages/disadvantages.
Advantages/disadvantages of ‘via
negativa’
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Avoids too human a view of God
Avoids ‘verbal idolatry’
Recognises ambiguity of language
Recognises God’s infinity and
separateness.
Emphasises experience of God
Doesn’t give false certainties
Avoids being overly-intellectual
Acknowledges the limitations of reason
Acknowledges paradox
Retains a sense of mystery.
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A negative statement implies some
knowledge of the positive.
Difficulty of being consistent (eg
Pseudo Dionysius accepted some
positive statements)
Doesn’t get us very far.
Bible and tradition speak about God –
are we to dismiss these?
Jesus spoke about God positively!
Without revelation how do we know
the negative statements are ‘true’?
Mysticism is irrational and self
contradictory .
If God is beyond the law of noncontradiction he could both exist and
not exist at the same time.
Does God ‘die the death of a thousand
qualifications’? (Flew)
Possible conclusion
Augustine of Hippo
God can be thought about more
truly than he can be talked
about, and he is more truly than
he can be thought about. (De
Trinitate – ‘On the Trinity’)
Room for mystery?
“Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine Unweave a rainbow..” (Keats, ‘Lamia’)
Bibliography
• Keith Ward, ‘God: A guide for the perplexed’ ch
2.
• Matthew Taylor: OCR Philosophy of religion for
AS and A2, ch 16
• Jordan, Lockyer and Tate, Philosophy of
Religion, ch 2 And ch 11 old version (PseudoDionysius) in library folder.
• Brian Davies, An introduction to the Philosophy
of Religion, ch 2 ‘Talking about God’