tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27405843.post114857345336703620..comments2024-01-25T05:44:34.896+02:00Comments on God in a Shrinking Universe: Negative Theology or Why Theology is the Coolest Thing EverPatrikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10237545786695465374noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27405843.post-1148828591106519692006-05-28T18:03:00.000+03:002006-05-28T18:03:00.000+03:00...when we think we know something we have already...<I>...when we think we know something we have already passed into idolatry.</I><BR/><BR/>Depends on the weight you put on 'know'. I agree insofar as our conception of 'knowledge of God' is making a claim to exhaustive and definitive mastery of its object. But not all knowledge is like this...byron smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17938334606675769903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27405843.post-1148725055697865762006-05-27T13:17:00.000+03:002006-05-27T13:17:00.000+03:00Thanks for your comments! I think Steve has a vali...Thanks for your comments! I think Steve has a valid point when he says that the fundament is Christ, and that it is so to speak the goal of theology that is open. But then this should be applied to the Christology as well, which I guess is what "Christology from bellow" is alla about.<BR/><BR/>But, yes, the main point is that we should approach theology with a great humbleness, ever aware that when we think we know something we have already passed into idolatry.Patrikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10237545786695465374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27405843.post-1148670611285496432006-05-26T22:10:00.000+03:002006-05-26T22:10:00.000+03:00Glad to know that you know the apophatic tradition...Glad to know that you know the apophatic tradition. Certainly it has much in common with later traditions, especially the Thomistic impulse (ala Thomas himself) to note the analogical nature of language. <BR/><BR/>I wonder, however, if you should say in your closing paragraph something other than you say. Your statement was <BR/><BR/>"Christianity is not built on a secure ground, or fundament. Rather, it is aware of building on something which it cannot say anything about, and this makes the system open. Theology has this great "openness" right in the middle of it, it works at studying everything that surrounds it."<BR/><BR/>That seems to me to be a bit of a misapplication. Rather, Christianity (by definition) is based on Christ. We "think" our way toward God based on what has been revealed to us in Christ. "if you have seen me you have seen the Father. Also, Cf John 1.<BR/><BR/>It would, I think, be better to say that Christian theology is never an accomplished task -- thinking that it is in some way is the problem of fundamentalism -- instead of saying that it is open. The exploration of Christian truth is not merely an exploration of the unfathomable. It is, rather, reflection upon on the meaning of what is fathomable, all the while acknowledging the limits of our ability to apprehend it fully. (That is what NIcea and Chalcedon were actually doing.)<BR/><BR/>HOwever, apprehending it adequately, because God has made it apprehensible, is different from understanding it completely. This latter confession keeps us both humble and confident. We are humbled by God's greatness. We are made confident in that when circumstances arise that challenge established ways of describing the One who is self-revealed in Christ and the history of Israel, we can be secure in the knowledge that God is not necessarily different than what has been revealed, simply more than can be said. But if we describe what has been revealed, then we can indeed disciver new ways to describe the personal reality of God and our relationship to God. Those ways, however, will have to be consistent with what has been made known to us in Christ and the Apostolic witness to Christ.Steve Blakemorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10826666093164587256noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27405843.post-1148604232213123892006-05-26T03:43:00.000+03:002006-05-26T03:43:00.000+03:00Interesting post, Patrik. It's nice to see you bei...Interesting post, Patrik. It's nice to see you being "negative" as well as "pessimistic"!<BR/><BR/>Personally, I'm less enthusiastic about negative theology, since (for me) God's hiddenness is a predicate of God's own being, not merely an aspect of our own linguistic or epistemological limits. And if this is the case, then God's hiddenness can be known only by <I>revelation</I>. <BR/><BR/>Thus I think negative theology is useful to the extent that it is already grounded in revelation (as, e.g., in Luther), but not as an independent "method" of theological discourse.Ben Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03800127501735910966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27405843.post-1148597928210950552006-05-26T01:58:00.000+03:002006-05-26T01:58:00.000+03:00It's so paradoxical isn't it?I've been accused of ...It's so paradoxical isn't it?<BR/>I've been accused of being across the map on my theology maybe it is a reaction of growing up fundamentalist then becoming Charismatic to Calvinist to finally being a Lutheran.<BR/>I was attracted to Eastern Orthodoxy but I'm dead set on Luther's grace centerness but then again liberation theology is attractive as well as long as it does not turn into a theology of glory.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27405843.post-1148582718061049782006-05-25T21:45:00.000+03:002006-05-25T21:45:00.000+03:00Note that theology = theo + logiNow if theology is...Note that theology = theo + logi<BR/><BR/>Now if theology is dynamic, either the theo (God) must be changing or the logi (Man's opinion) must be changing.<BR/><BR/>Without revelation from God himself, common sense says that little can ever be known. <BR/><BR/>Personal opinion: I don't think that God chooses to reveal himself to mystics with empty heads - nor to intellectual giants. Instead ordinary people like the woman at the well seem to be his target. Then there is Jonah with his "why did you have to choose me" approach to being a prophet. <BR/><BR/>The challenge here seems to be that unless I take the path of a mystic, I can never really get a true revelation about God ... Why not reverse the challenge (negative theology at work here?). Perhaps the ascetic needs to spend more time in the Joe Sixpack role before he will get his revelation?Looneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15801436449971512320noreply@blogger.com