Apophatic Way

(via negitiva)

What does the Apophatic Way suggest?

claims that because words are unable to adequately describe God, the only possible statements that can be made are negative statements; statements about what God is not

How is God ‘beyond description’?

beyond our ability to describe

• Judaism: name of God is not uttered

• Islam: picturing God is forbidden

How does the Apophatic Way successfully acknowledge that God is ‘beyond description’?

Via negitiva is aware that the danger of using human language of God is that we will imagine or picture

• when we say ‘God is Good’ - we cannot help but understand ‘good’ in terms of human language → God’s goodness is beyond our comprehension

• all words when applied to God are equivocal

Where did the Apophatic Way initially come from?

Platonic philosophers - realised that the form of the Good was beyond description

What did Pseudo-Dionysius believe?

God was beyond assertion

• influenced by Plato

• aware of the limits of our senses as well as our language

What does Pseudo-Dionysius say about making positive statements about God would be a risk to?

Anthropomorphic (tendency to describe something in human terms) idea of God

• only negative terms of God can preserve his mystery

What did Maimonidies argue about the use of Via Negativa in his Guide for the Preplexed?

• only positive statements can be made is that God exists

• all other descriptions of God must be negative to ensure that we are not being improper or disrespectful

• negative language can bring us some knowledge of God

What is Maimonidies example of the Ship?

If we say that the ship is not an accident, not a mineral, not a plant, not a natural body, etc, then he argues that by the tenth statement we will have some knowledge about what the ship is

• similarly, via negativia allows us to gain some knowledge of God

What is Eriugena’s famous quote about God?

“God is beyond all meaning and intelligence, and he alone possesses immorality. His light is called darkness because of its excellence, as no create can comprehend either what or how it is”

What are the strengths of the Apophatic way?

• via negitiva is true to God’s transcendence and otherness

• via negitiva helps us to understand God’s immanence

How does Otto strengthen the idea of God’s transcendence and otherness?

called God “wholly other”

• radically different to anything else we experience of understand

How does Exodus strengthen the idea of God’s transcendence and otherness?

states that God appears to Moses as a cloud instead of His true form as His true form would have been too immense for Moses to handle

How does Augustine strengthen the idea of God’s transcendence and otherness?

comments that whatever we can comprehend is not God

How does Maimonides strengthen our understanding of God’s immanence?

seemingly possible descriptions of God in the Bible should be interpreted as His immanence. Once distinguishing:

• transcendence: God’s actual but unknowable being which can only be described negatively

• immanence: God’s actions in the physical world, which can be described positively, since God’s unknowable being/nature is not being described - this is what all biblical language about God is argued as referring to

How is the Apophatic Way successful?

Any language that is used about God is inevitably pictured by its hearers in human terms - reduces God to a human level

• apophatic way prevents anthropomorphic way prevents anthropomorphic representations of God

How could the Apophatic Way be described as respectful?

Its approach recognises that God is transcendent and wholly other to the human realm

• fits with how religious experiences are perceived by those who experience them (mysticism)

• William James observes religious experiences as ineffable; cannot be described by ordinary language

What are the weaknesses of the Apophatic Way?

Bible describes God in positive terms

• descriptions of God as having a ‘face’ or ‘walking’ in the Garden of Eden - cannot be dismissed as metaphorical language, or perhaps just referring to God’s immanent actions

There are Bible passages which seem to describe God’s nature itself that seems difficult for Maimonides’ argument to explain

How is God described in John’s Gospel?

Positively - “God is love” and “God is spirit”

• God describes himself in positive terms in Exodus 20:5 “I, the Lord your God, I am a jealous God”

How is God’s description in the Gospel a weakness for the Apophatic Way?

Bible seems to suggest that via positiva language about God is valid - via negativa approach appears to conflict with the religious language in the Bible

• all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in his righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy)

How is the Apophatic Way limited in knowing God?

Incredibly limited in what can be known

• unclear from Maimonidies example that a ship can be described in the way he maintains - less likely that this method can bring any knowledge for God

How is the Apophatic Way unsuccessful?

• not a true reflection of how religious believers speak or think about God

• means that the believe has no means of communicating with the non-believer about the subject of God

How does Inge criticise the Apophatic Way?

Argued that denying any description to God leads to an annihilation of God where we potentially lose the connection between God and the World

• Flew’s argument on falsification would seems to support this view - idea of a God who is not visible, it is intangible, etc… seems to bear very little difference to there being no God at all