Verbum Vitae, 2023, T. 41, Nr 3: Negative theology: From Anthropomorphism to Apophaticism
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- ItemA Positive Side to Apophaticism: Prolegomena(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023) Gilski, MarekThe article synthetically presents positive aspects of apophaticism. It discusses its apologetic role, its importance in defending against magical thinking, its focus on experience, its openness to pluralism, and its inspirational role for a variety of disciplines in delimiting their cognitive boundaries. Some of the most important conclusions are: a) apophaticism played an important role in the early days of Christianity in polemics against both pagan cults and magical tendencies; b) already in ancient Greece apophaticism influenced the search not only for symbolic interpretations of Homer’s poems but also for religious experience; c) the limits of cognition discovered by theology are becoming a contemporary experience of other sciences (mathematics, physics).
- ItemNegative Theology as an Expression of God’s Freedom in the Torah of the Book of Deuteronomy and Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Bible(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023) Otto, EckartThis paper traces the history of the negative theology of YHWH from the beginning of the integration of YHWH into the Canaanite pantheon to the post-exilic period in the Torah through the interpretation of the Shema’ Israel from its mono-Yahwistic understanding to monotheism as an expression of God’s freedom. In the second step, the development of negative theology is traced from the pre-exilic proverbs, which understand God as a limit of knowledge, to negative theology in the Book of Job and Qohelet, as well as the overcoming of negative theology in the paradise-narrative in Genesis 2–3 through the freedom of choice granted to man by God.
- ItemThe Platonic-Biblical Origins of Apophatic Theology: Philo of Alexandria’s Philosophical Interpretation of the Pentateuchal Theophanies(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023) Mrugalski, DamianThis article examines Philo’s philosophical interpretation of the three theophanies in Exodus, which would, centuries later, continue to be considered by the great thinkers responsible for developing negative theology, such as Gregory of Nyssa and Dionysius the Areopagite. Although Exod 33:11 clearly states that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as if someone were to speak to his own friend, according to Philo, the lawgiver neither saw the face of God, nor learned the proper name of God, nor was he able to comprehend the essence of God. These very statements became the inspiration for later apophaticism. The present article seeks to establish to what extent Philo’s theses were influenced by Plato’s philosophy or by later Middle Platonism, and to what extent Philo, by commenting allegorically on the Pentateuch, becomes the initiator of new ideas hitherto unknown in philosophical discourse. In the course of the analyses, three great questions of apophatic theology are discussed: 1. the unnameability of God; 2. the unknowability of God’s essence; and 3. the knowability of God’s nature by grace.
- ItemApophatic and Anthropomorphic Visions of God in Philo of Alexandria(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023) Mackie, Scott D.Despite his core theological convictions that God is incorporeal, formless, invisible, and unchangeable, in some of his most carefully crafted visio Dei texts Philo portrays God “changing shape” and temporarily adopting a human form. However, these are only “seeming appearances” and actually involve God projecting a human-shaped “impression,” or “appearance” (φαντασία) from his shapeless, immaterial being. By accommodating the overwhelming reality of God’s being to the perceptual and conceptual limitations of the human percipient, these docetic theophanies allow humans to more confidently relate to the deity, while at the same time preserving God’s absolute transcendence and apophatic otherness.
- ItemApophaticism, Mysticism, and Epoptics in Ancient and Patristic Philosophy: Some Important Examples(Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023) Ramelli, Ilaria L.E.This article investigates mystic apophaticism in a set of Greek Patristic theologians, profoundly informed by philosophy, especially imperial Platonism: Clement, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Pseudo-Dionysius. Both the terminology and the argumentative structure will be examined in each author and important connections among themselves and with ‘pagan’ Neoplatonists (including Plotinus, Porphyry, and Proclus) will be drawn. The reciprocal interrelations among epoptics, ἔρως and ἀγάπη, epektasis, and ἐπιστροφή and ἀποκατάστασις will be pointed out. The article will argue for the intended double-reference strategy to both ‘pagan’ and Christian Platonism, as well as Dionysius’ veiled response to Porphyry qua accuser of Origen, and the meaning of the charge, levelled against Dionysius himself, of “making unholy use of Greek things”—which is what ‘pagans’ had already charged Origen with. Dionysius retorted, “it is the Greeks who make unholy use of godly things to attack God!”, and this is again what Origen had responded.