Negative Theology or Why Theology is the Coolest Thing Ever

I thought I would take some time off from my pessimistic theology to do some negative theology...

Actually, the first rather serious theology book I ever read was Vladimir Lossky's wonderful The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, a strange introduction to theological studies if there ever was one - not only because Lossky insists on quoting Greek at length without ever translating. But the text had a profound impact on me, and it was especially the notion of negative theology that struck a chord with me. Since then this has been the norm by which I judge all theology. If it tries to speak about the unspeakable, then I'll pass, thank you very much.

Negative theology became a formulated theological principle with the enormous popularity of Pseudo-Dionysios the Areopagite and his writings, but was something the early fathers followed instinctively. The classic text is Gregory of Nyssa: The Life of Moses, which Gregory interprets as a story about approaching God. Gregory describes how Moses in the beginning meets God in light (the burning bush) but later in a cloud or darkness. This is interpreted as meaning that one does not proceed in knowing God to ever greater clarity, but towards greater obscurity, until one reaches darkness.

This idea is rooted in the experience of the limits of our language. Evagrios of Pontos taught that one had to labor for a long time to be able to not think in images and words about God. His ascetic practices aim at emptying the mind. This is not, however, to "surrender to the void". It is only the mind that has learned to not think about an image that can do God justice, because any image we use will become an idol.

That is why Dionysios Jr. (as one of my mentors call him) claims that positive theology has value mainly for the beginner. The beginner needs to say: God is powerful, God is Creator, God is Person. Later he or she can move on to more abstract images: God is light, God is truth, God is Love. But then one must proceed beyond this terms, because God is ever greater that what we can possible imagine, greater than what we can think into this terms. Then theology becomes negative: God is not limited, God is not mortal, God is not created. This is what the Nicene creed says: an awful lot of words beginning with "a". But according to Dionysios one has to go further. One must put all images behind oneself. Thus: God is not light, God is not truth, God is not Love.

God "is" not.

This is the path of the mystic. But one has to walk the path, one can not just pick up on what is found at the end of the path. This, in the orthodox tradition, lead to the development of the distinction between God in his energies and God in his essence. About God in his energies we can say something, because this is God revealing himself as loving, creating, saving, sanctifying. This is truly God's nature, but this is not what God "is". What God is in his essence we can not say, because that is completely beyond all human abilities.

Now, here is why I think this is incredibly important for all theology. Theology is the only human activity that has the limitations that are present in all disciplines humans undertake built into the system. All sciences and philosophies presuppose certain facts, and build upon them. The law of causality if nothing else. Theology builds on this great presupposition, but unlike all other disciplines, who try to avoid it, Theology chooses to call this presupposed fact God, and worships it.

This means that, unlike what many "fundamentalists" think, 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. This secures that theology never becomes a static, monolithic system. Because of this "openness" theology can adapt to the situation of living individuals, because it is itself living.

This is why negative theology has to be present in all theology.