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1 results

  • Chapter 2 - Negative Theology

  • David Newheiser, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
  • Book:
    Hope in a Secular Age
    Published online:
    31 January 2020
    Print publication:
    19 December 2019, pp 40-62

  • 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.