Book contents
- Hope in a Secular Age
- Hope in a Secular Age
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Deconstruction
- Chapter 2 Negative Theology
- Chapter 3 The Discipline of Hope
- Chapter 4 Beyond Indeterminacy and Dogma
- Chapter 5 Atheism and the Future of Faith
- Chapter 6 Negative Political Theology
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Subject Index
Chapter 2 - Negative Theology
Critique and Commitment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2020
- Hope in a Secular Age
- Hope in a Secular Age
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Deconstruction
- Chapter 2 Negative Theology
- Chapter 3 The Discipline of Hope
- Chapter 4 Beyond Indeterminacy and Dogma
- Chapter 5 Atheism and the Future of Faith
- Chapter 6 Negative Political Theology
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Subject Index
Summary
This chapter argues that, like deconstruction, Christian thought inhabits the tension between negativity and affirmation. Where commentators such as Stathis Gourgouris claim that religion asserts a certainty that excludes critique, negative theology unsettles every claim to represent the divine. Dionysius the Areopagite argues that Christian discourse must be simultaneously affirmed and negated. Although this seems like simple contradiction on the level of logic, it becomes the means of ethical transformation when enacted in time. Negative theology constitutes a discursive practice that destabilizes the self through continual self-critique. Insofar as it continues to affirm Christian practices that are directed toward an unknowable God, negative theology models a hope that persists despite its uncertainty.
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- Hope in a Secular AgeDeconstruction, Negative Theology, and the Future of Faith, pp. 40 - 62Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019