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Tag Archives: negative theology
Dionysian Ponderings: Divine Knowledge, Creation, and Modal Collapse
How does the infinite Creator know the contingent realities he has brought into existence without compromising his metaphysical simpleness? Or as St Dionysius the Areopagite asks: How is God to comprehend something among the intelligibles since he does not have … Continue reading
Dionysian Ponderings: Beyond the Beyond … and then Beyond
“Dionysius adopts the doctrine of God as ‘nameless,’ ‘unknowable,’ and ‘beyond being’ from the Neoplatonic tradition established by Plotinus,” writes Eric Perl, “and his thought can be understood only in that context” (Theophany, p. 13). We will need to revisit … Continue reading
Dionysian Ponderings: Transcendence and the Plotinian One
I come to my reading of the Corpus Areopagaticum with a specific understanding of divine transcendence, an understanding which I will be testing along the way. We might put it this way: God infinitely surpasses all creaturely distinctions and dualities—transcendence … Continue reading
Posted in Dionysius the Areopagite
Tagged apophatic, being, beyond being, David Hart, God, negative theology, Pseudo-Dionysius, the One
36 Comments
Trinity, Logic, and the Transcendence of Transcendence
Philosopher Dale Tuggy believes he has a decisive proof against the coherency of the catholic doctrine of the Trinity. It goes like this: God is a personal being, i.e., a self. By “self” is understood a being who is conscious, … Continue reading
But is God really, really, really related to the world?
Chris Mullen (aka malcolmsnotes) has recently targeted four alleged problems with the scholastic notion of actus purus, as articulated in the theology of St Thomas Aquinas. I’d like to respond to the first problem, i.e., the Thomist assertion that God does not exist … Continue reading
Posted in Aquinas
Tagged actus purus, Aquinas, Cambridge properties, creation, divine being, God, negative theology, properties, relations
33 Comments
The Knowledge of God According to Dumitru Staniloae
by Fr Jonathan Tobias “It is not the same to say something about God as it is to gain and see God”—so St Gregory Palamas said to Barlaam (quoted in The Experience of God, p. 115). Here is Fr Dumitru Staniloae’s … Continue reading
St Thomas Aquinas, Divine Simplicity, and Knowing the Unknowable God
What is God? What is his nature? The answer given by St Thomas Aquinas may surprise us: we do not know. By contemplation of the structures of the world, we may know that God exists as the ultimate cause and doer … Continue reading
Posted in Aquinas, Philosophical Theology
Tagged affirmative theology, analogy, Aquinas, divine attributes, divine simplicity, God, negative theology, via negativa
6 Comments
Divine Simplicity as Negative Theology
“From first to last,” writes philosopher Brian Davies, “the doctrine of divine simplicity is a piece of negative or apophatic theology and not a purported description of God” (“Classical Theism and the Doctrine of Divine Simplicity,” in Language, Meaning and … Continue reading
