What No Mind Has Conceived
On the Significance of Christological Apophaticism
By (author) K. Alfsvåg
Theology is, for the sake of its own clarity, dependent on a notion of God’s hiddenness and unknowability. This is a position that over the years has been maintained by a number of theologians and philosophers. Even within the Christian tradition, which understands God as manifest in the person of Jesus, the perspective of negative or apophatic theology has remained important. This book is an investigation of the significance of this perspective. It presents the tradition of negative theology from Plato to the Reformation, focussing particularly on Maximus Confessor, Nicholas Cusanus and Martin Luther as Christologically informed thinkers who develop an apophatic theology that still seems to contain a potential for renewal both from an ecumenical and a philosophical perspective. The relevance of this perspective is then explored through a discussion of the continuity between these thinkers and some contemporary contributions both from a Western and non-Western context.
Theology is, for the sake of its own clarity, dependent on a notion of God’s hiddenness and unknowability. This is a position that over the years has been maintained by a number of theologians and philosophers. Even within the Christian tradition, which understands God as manifest in the person of Jesus, the perspective of negative or apophatic theology has remained important. This book is an investigation of the significance of this perspective. It presents the tradition of negative theology from Plato to the Reformation, focussing particularly on Maximus Confessor, Nicholas Cusanus and Martin Luther as Christologically informed thinkers who develop an apophatic theology that still seems to contain a potential for renewal both from an ecumenical and a philosophical perspective. The relevance of this perspective is then explored through a discussion of the continuity between these thinkers and some contemporary contributions both from a Western and non-Western context.
- By (author) K. Alfsvåg
Other Titles in this Series
Levinas and the Greek Heritage followed by One Hundred Years of Neoplatonism in France
A Brief Philosophical History
Volume 32
The Limits and Possibilities of Postmetaphysical God-Talk
A Conversation between Heidegger, Levinas and Derrida
Volume 52
On the Meaning of ‘Miracle’ in Christianity
A Philosophical Evaluation of the Current Miracle Debate and a Proposal of a Balanced Hermeneutical Approach
Volume 68
John Henry Newman’s Theology of History
Historical Consciousness, Theological 'Imaginaries', and the Development of Tradition
Volume 60
The Hammer of the Cartesians
Henry More's Philosophy of Spirit and the Origins of Modern Atheism
Volume 53
Divinising Experience
Essays in the History of Religious Experience from Origen to Ricoeur
Volume 23
Christian Theology and the Transformation of Natural Religion: From Incarnation to Sacramentality
Essays in Honour of David Brown
Volume 64
The Mind of God and the Works of Nature
Laws and Powers in Naturalism, Platonism, and Classical Theism
Volume 65
Similar Books
A Companion to Christianity and Sport in Europe and North America (19th-21st centuries)
Volume 1: Western and Eastern Europe
A Connecting Polemic in the Medieval Mediterranean
The Correspondence of Leo III and ʿUmar II
Volume 6
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Creating the Woman in Antiquity
Proceedings of the 16th Melammu Workshop, Innsbruck, 2–3 June 2022
Volume 13
Cultic Kisses
Fruitful Encounters Between Deities and Humans. Festschrift for Angelika Berlejung on the Occasion of Her 65th Birthday
De/colonizing Theologies
Glocal Histories, Contemporary Challenges, Theoretical Reflections
Volume 4
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Éthique, politique, religions
Superstition (XVIIe - XXIe siècles). Sémantique, histoires et cultures
