de via negativa...

To whatever extent apophaticism is still sexy in post-modern theology, a rejoinder from two of the apophatic tradition's more important voices:

'"This alone is thoroughly understandable in him: infinity." And the very fact of knowing nothing about him is to know beyond the mind's power...'

Here Maximus, quoting Gregory Nazianzen, contends that apophaticism is a kind of kataphaticism, there is a certain theological hubris* in claiming to be without theological hubris, or to put it into language to which the Derrideans** might be more closely attuned, that persistently pointing out the violence of all claims about (God, truth, whatever) is itself a violent tendency.

I doubt that it's incidental that this claim comes in Gregory's Easter oration, and then again in Maximus' Centuries on Love, nor that it is in neither case a lament about the impossibility of speaking fully and rightly about God, but is in both cases offered in a celebratory tone.

Perhaps apophaticism for apophaticism's sake*** has gone out of vogue. But again, to whatever extent it hasn't, this quotation (the Centuries were, after all, meant for memorization) could be remembered for the next time someone claims the via negativa as an end in itself.

* This spelling still kind of jars me.
** If this were a band name (which we can all agree should happen), what genre(s) would they play?
***I do rather hope that this is the first time that unwieldy phrase has been offered.