Back in my Freshman year of college, my English teacher taught me an excellent Aristotelian principle of writing: Everything is both like and unlike other things, and to explain something, you should describe how that thing is like other things in some respects, and unlike those things in other aspects. Negative theology is just describing how God is NOT like other things. God is NOT a "gaseous vertebrate" (despite Huxley's statement), and God does NOT have a penis (no matter how much we might conceive of him as a "man.") It's bad enough to try to describe something finite; to describe God would mean many more negative comparisons; indeed, "infinite" is negative mathematics; an infinite number is "not finite." The danger for some religious believers is to see God as TOO CLOSE to some other kind of thing, and "negative theology" reminds them that the gap between the infinite and the finite is, well, infinite. Andy Amago wrote: >Many thanks for this site. Negative theology appears to be knowledge of God >obtained by way of negation. This seems a contradiction in terms. If God or >fairies or angels or Santa Claus don't exist for me, how can I gain knowledge >of these non-entities? For purposes of negative theology, since I'm an >atheist, wouldn't I have negated the concept already? Am I not practicing >negative theology already? > > >Andy Amago > > > > > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx >Sent: Dec 18, 2004 4:34 PM >To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Disbelief > >Try "apophasis". Here are a couple links: > > _http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2342/is_3_34/ai_70396396/pg_6_ >(http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2342/is_3_34/ai_70396396/pg_6) > >_http://www.willamette.edu/~blong/Words/Apop.html_ >(http://www.willamette.edu/~blong/Words/Apop.html) > >_http://www.vuw.ac.nz/chaplains/issues/affneg.html_ >(http://www.vuw.ac.nz/chaplains/issues/affneg.html) > >Actually you get better sites by googling "apophasis negative theology" >because just "apophasis" gives stuff that's too general. > >Julie Krueger > >------------------------------------------------------------------ >To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, >digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html > >------------------------------------------------------------------ >To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, >digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html