Apophatic Language, the Aesthetic, and the Sensus Divinitatis
Journal of Analytic Theology 8 (1):100-119 (2020)
Abstract
Across a variety of religious and philosophical traditions, it is common to think that it is possible that God defies all description. This presents a problem, however, as the claim that God defies all description itself appears to describe God. Drawing on multiple religious and philosophical traditions, this paper proposes an addition to the pragmatic stock of approaches to this problem. The proposal is that apophatic utterances are best interpreted—at least in the first instance—as invitations to engage the world aesthetically and creatively, as an act of faith. Their goal is principally to motivate us to act in ways that will allow us to appreciate the extraordinary or divine, rather than to, say, believe that some proposition regarding the extraordinary or divine is true.Author's Profile
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Citations of this work
The Challenge of Mysticism: a Primer from a Christian Perspective.Daniel Spencer - 2021 - Sophia 60 (4):1027-1045.
References found in this work
Nagarjuna and the limits of thought.Jay L. Garfield & Graham Priest - 2003 - Philosophy East and West 53 (1):1-21.