Via negativa Reference library
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
... negativa or Via negationis (Lat., ‘way of negation’). Realization that since God is not a universe or an object in a universe, ‘he’ is not open to observation or description. It follows that God can only be spoken of analogically or poetically; and that it is easier to say ‘what God is not’ rather than what God is. This awareness occurs, in different forms, in all theistic religions, e.g. in ein-sof , bilā kaifa , neti neti, nirguṇa-brahman . This is apophatic , as opposed to kataphatic...
Via Negativa Quick reference
A Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion
... Negativa ‘The Negative Way’, of speaking of God. The proponents of this way believe that God is so beyond all human comprehension that it is only possible for humans to describe what He is not, never to attempt to speak of His true nature. Prominent among the medieval Jewish philosophers who prefer the way of negation are Bahya , Ibn Pakudah and Maimonides , both of whom develop the theory of negative attributes. For Maimonides the attributes which are of God's essence–existence, unity, and wisdom–have to be understood solely as negating their opposites....
via negativa noun phrase Reference library
The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English
... negativa noun phrase M19 Modern Latin (= negative way). Theology The approach to God believing no positive statements can be made about his nature; transferred a way of...
Via negativa
Via eminentiae
Affirmative way
Ein Sof
negative theology
Nishitani Keiji
anthropomorphism
philosophy of religion
Via eminentiae Reference library
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
... eminentiae (Lat., ‘the way of eminence’). The way in which one may arrive positively at the discernment that God is, and to some extent what God is; contrast via negativa...
eminence Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (4 ed.)
...The way of eminence is a manner of thinking and speaking about God as infinitely superior to any created being. The distinction between the via positiva, via negativa, and via eminentiae corresponds to the distinction between univocal, equivocal, and analogous language about God. See pre-eminent . Silvianne...
Ein-Sof Reference library
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
...of God in his transcendence. The term first appeared in the 13th century in the circle of Isaac the Blind. It was used to distinguish between God-in-himself and his sefirot (emanations) by which humanity can know him. For comparable reticence in other religions, see VIA NEGATIVA...
Ibn Daud, Abraham ben David Hallevi (c.1110–80) Quick reference
A Dictionary of Philosophy (3 ed.)
...religion. His principal work is The Exalted Faith , written in Arabic but only surviving in Hebrew translation. He espouses a rationalist but unorthodox set of views, that include limiting God’s omniscience in order to make room for free will . He also celebrated the via negativa , or belief of negative theology , that God can only be described in terms of what he is...
negative theology Quick reference
A Dictionary of Philosophy (3 ed.)
...theology The ‘via negativa’ or negative way is the approach to religion that supposes that we can better say what God is not than say anything about what he is. He is not (for instance) gendered, bearded, besandalled, present in some places or times and not others, or like us in any other specifiable way. The approach of saying ‘that’s not quite right’ after any attempt to describe God does full justice to the unimaginable and incomprehensible nature of God, but it does less well in countering Wittgenstein ’s dictum that ‘nothing will do as well as...
Anthropomorphism Reference library
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
...has been a matter of fierce debate in those religions which rely on revelations which describe God in terms of human qualities—e.g. sitting on a throne (in Islam, see TANZĪH ). In general the limitations of analogical language and of symbols led in the direction of the via negativa . That is true even of Hinduism, but in that case the prevailing sense of God underlying all appearance makes the occurrence of anthropomorphism deceptive: there is a real presence through the image, and thus through sound and language ( see e.g. ŚABDA ; MANTRA ; MAṆḌALA...
