Abstract
This paper argues that negative theology is a direct consequence of monotheism. In so doing, it argues that monotheism is not so much a claim about the number of God – one as opposed to a multiplicity – as it is a claim about the nature of God – unlike anything else in the universe. In short, God is unique. But uniqueness presents a special problem. The concepts and categories that make up our conceptual scheme are derived from normal experience. To say that God is unique is to say that God cannot be grasped by these concepts or categories. But then we face a dilemma: to preserve uniqueness we must sacrifice intelligibility. Mythology represents the opposite pole: a god who is perfectly intelligible but for that reason ordinary. It follows that in addition to being a claim about God, monotheism is a claim about the limit of human knowledge.
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Notes
- 1.
Maimonides (1963, 1.56, p. 131).
- 2.
Maimonides (1963, 1.59, p. 137).
- 3.
Maimonides (1963, 1.57, p. 132).
- 4.
Maimonides (1963, 1.52, p. 115).
- 5.
Maimonides (1963, 1.58, pp. 134–135).
- 6.
Maimonides (1963, 1.58, p. 135).
- 7.
Maimonides (1963, 1.57, p. 132).
- 8.
For Maimonides’ analysis of the Tetragrammaton, see Maimonides (1963, 1.61, pp. 147–150). Note that according to Jewish tradition, its exact pronunciation is unknown so that strictly speaking, it cannot be said.
- 9.
Plotinus (1969, 5.5.6).
- 10.
Cf. Matthew 5: 48.
- 11.
- 12.
Cf. Aquinas (1945, 1.2.1): “Therefore I say that this proposition, ‘God exists,’ of itself is self-evident, for the predicate is the same as the subject, because God is His own existence as will be hereafter shown (3, 4). Now because we do not know the essence of God, the proposition is not self-evident to us; but needs to be demonstrated by things that are more known to us, though less known in their nature – namely, by effects.”
- 13.
Maimonides (1963, 1.32, pp. 68–69). The reference is to Hagigah 14b.
References
Aquinas, Thomas. 1945. Summa theologica. Trans. Anton C. Pegis. New York: Random House.
Maimonides, Moses. 1963. Guide of the perplexed. Trans. Shlomo Pines. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Plotinus. 1969. The Enneads. Trans. Stephen MacKenna. 1917–1930. Repr., London: Faber and Faber.
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Seeskin, K. (2013). Strolling with Maimonides on the Via Negativa . In: Diller, J., Kasher, A. (eds) Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5219-1_66
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