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.
TASK 1:
Pick a card. Describe it to your partner, only in negative terms. You
cannot use the words in the description.
How easy was the task? Did it take a while? Did you
end up with a good description of the object or were
you largely guessing by a process of elimination.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJLV9QIGZ0E
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 misleading 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.
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?
Remember that the via negativa aims to use the methods of the task to
make statements about God. Given that human language is inadequate
to describe an infinite God, it is argued by Pseudo-Dionysius, Moses
Maimonides and others that it is the only option available to us. It is
especially valued in the Eastern Orthodox Church where it is known as
the apophatic way.
What do you think?
Moses Maimonides used the example of a ship? If one person says it is
not an accident, the next says it is not a mineral, not a plant, not a
natural body, not a sphere, not pointed, etc. He argues that ‘the tenth
person has almost arrived at the notion of the ship
by the foregoing negatives attributes’.
Is Maimonides right about the ship? Is it
the same when describing God? Why/why
not?
DISCUSS: 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.
This prevents anthropomorphic statements that limit God
from being made. Thus we do not speak of God in an
improper way.
Supporters of the via negative are
right to note that positive
statements about God, e.g. ‘God is
good’, limit God. It puts an idea of
human goodness into our mind.
This does not tell us anything
about what God is like. Even the
example of the ship does not
work. The ten statements could
be equally true of a cupboard!
Religious people do not speak of God in this way.
Language evolved so that we could
The via negativa can give a
engage in human relationships; surely
profound sense of the
this shows that language is
transcendence.
inadequate to describe the encounter
with the divine
It recognises the belief of many religious
thinkers, particularly mystics, that God is
ineffable.
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