A Greek in the Temple: Pseudo-Dionysius and Negative Theology in Richard Crashaw’s “Hymn in the Glorious Epiphany”

2011 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-298
Author(s):  
Gary Kuchar
Keyword(s):  
Negative Theology ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

Postmodern theology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merold Westphal
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Negative Theology ◽  
Death Of God ◽  
Meister Eckhart ◽  
Postmodern Theology ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Postmodern Philosophy ◽  
Absolute Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Claims ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

The term ‘postmodernism’ is loosely used to designate a wide variety of cultural phenomena from architecture through literature and literary theory to philosophy. The immediate background of philosophical postmodernism is the French structuralism of Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, Lacan and Barthes. But like existentialism, it has roots that go back to the critique by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche of certain strong knowledge claims in the work of Plato, Descartes and Hegel. If the quest for absolute knowledge is the quest for meanings that are completely clear and for truths that are completely certain, and philosophy takes this quest as its essential goal, then postmodernism replaces Nietzsche’s announcement of the death of God with an announcement of the end of philosophy. This need not be construed as the death of God in a different vocabulary. The question of postmodern theology is the question of the nature of a discourse about deity that would not be tied to the metaphysical assumptions postmodern philosophy finds untenable. One candidate is the negative theology tradition of Pseudo-Dionysius and Meister Eckhart. It combines a vigorous denial of absolute knowledge with a theological import that goes beyond the critical negations of postmodern philosophy. A second possibility, the a/theology of Mark C. Taylor, seeks to find religious meaning beyond the simple opposition of theism and atheism, but without taking the mystical turn. Finally, Jean-Luc Marion seeks to free theological discourse from the horizon of all philosophical theories of being, including Heidegger’s own postmodern analysis of being.

The meaning of mystical ‘darkness’

2005 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER KÜGLER
Keyword(s):  
Negative Theology ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

Arguments by W. T. Stace and C. J. Insole show that metaphorical descriptions of God presuppose literal descriptions of God. This poses a problem for the metaphor of darkness which has often been used, for instance by Pseudo-Dionysius, in the context of negative theology and apophatic mysticism. Three strategies of dealing with the problem are discussed in this article. The negative, apophatic approach can be seen either as subverting itself, or as being restricted to certain properties, or as resting on a self-excluding principle. Whereas the first two strategies have their difficulties, self-exclusion is linguistically founded and adequate to the purposes of negative theology.

scholarly journals The Reception of Pseudo-Dionysius’s Negative Theology in Alan of Lille

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-42
Author(s):  
José Osorio
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Negative Theology ◽  
Alan Of Lille ◽  
Theological Language ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

The article investigates the reception of Pseudo-Dionysius’s negative theology in Alan of Lille’s philosophical and speculative theological works. In the first part, the paper discusses how Alan applied Pseudo-Dionysius’s negative theology to the problem of translatio and the limits of theological language. In the second part, the article sheds light on the problematic textual references and allusions in Alan’s appropriation and remarks about Pseudo-Dionysius. In the final section, the paper argues that despite Alan’s lack of access to the complete Corpus Aeropagiticum, his interpretation and adoption of negative theology is philosophically compelling.

Sculpting God: The Logic of Dionysian Negative Theology

1996 ◽  
Vol 89 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
John N. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Logical Structure ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Negative Theology ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Dionysius The Areopagite ◽  
Postmodern Theology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mystical Theology ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

In recent decades, the theology of Dionysius the Areopagite (pseudo-Dionysius) has recaptured the attention of a number of scholars. These scholars address Dionysius's importance for the history of philosophy, for Christian aesthetics and liturgical and biblical symbols, and for postmodern theology. Much of this attention focuses on the brief and historically influentialThe Mystical Theology, written ca. 500 CE. For scholars, however, this text, like the God of which it speaks, seems to embody contradictions. I s there a consistent logic in the text, or is it deliberately inconsistent? In this essay, I shall analyze passages throughout the Dionysian corpus in order to interpret the sometimes dense expressions ofMystical Theologyand uncover the logical structure of Dionysius's negative theology. I shall suggest that Dionysius's primary task is to deny that God is a particular being. By identifying the patterns of language used to speak of beings, Dionysius can identify both affirmative and negative language that avoids such patterns and hence is appropriate for speech about God. This interpretation demands close attention to the distinction between particular assertions or denials and the assertion or denial of all beings. By focusing on this distinction and on the higher status of negative over affirmative theology, I shall show, against the dominant trend in Dionysian scholarship, that this negative theology logically coheres; it is neither self-negating nor logically contradictory.

scholarly journals On the Origins of the Very First Principle as Infinite: The Hierarchy of the Infinite in Damascius and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-152
Author(s):  
Tiziano F. Ottobrini
Keyword(s):  
First Principle ◽  
Negative Theology ◽  
Theoretical Relationship ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Dionysius The Areopagite ◽  
Greek Thought ◽  
The One ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

This paper discusses the theoretical relationship between the views of Damascius and those of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. While Damascius’ De principiis is a bold treatise devoted to investigating the hypermetaphysics of apophatism, it anticipates various theoretical positions put forward by Dionysius the Areopagite. The present paper focuses on the following. First, Damascius is the only ancient philoso­pher who systematically demonstrates the first principle to be infinite (traditional Greek thought tended to regard the arkhē as finite). Second, Damascius modifies the concept and in several important passages shows the infinite to be superior and prior to the finite (previously this assumption was held only by Melissus and, sporadically, by Gregory of Nyssa and Plotinus). Third, Damascius’ theory of being (infinite, endless and ultrarational) is the strongest ancient articulation of the nature of the One which is a clear prefiguration of the negative theology developed by Dionysius the Areopagite.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document