scholarly journals The Negative Theology of Wallace Stevens’s “Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction”

Religions ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
William Franke
Keyword(s):  
Negative Theology ◽  
Supreme Fiction

Montaigne on Truth and Skepticism

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Miernowski
Keyword(s):  
Good Faith ◽  
Negative Theology ◽  
The World ◽  
Pyrrhonian Skepticism

The incipit of the Essays presents it as a book of good faith. The truthfulness of this claim has traditionally been seriously called into question given how extensively ironic and deeply self-contradictory Montaigne’s text is. In this article I argue that Montaigne’s opening statement about good faith should not be understood as the author’s claim, but rather as a dramatic call addressed to the reader. According to Montaigne, truth is beyond our reach since we deal only with our own “phantasies” about God, the world, and ourselves. Most notably, Montaigne’s Pyrrhonian skepticism, ontologically framed by Cusanus’s negative theology, is also merely a “phantasy.” The solution to such radical epistemological negativity is neither the indefinite irresolution of Montaigne’s discourse nor his resignation to the spontaneous flow of life. The solution may only come from the reader who is asked to trust in a book intended as a “dissimilar sign” of truth.

Philosophy and Theological Rationalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-144
Author(s):  
Gabriela Tănăsescu ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Science ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Critical Reception ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Negative Theology ◽  
History Of

The paper aims to circumscribe, through a specific history of ideas approach, the relevance of Benedict Spinoza’s theological rationalism to the major debate which generated the Early Enlightenment, the radical conception on the new status of philosophy in relation to theology, on libertas philosophandi and rational philosophizing. The main lines of Spinoza’s theological rationalism are sustained as being inspired and encouraged by Hobbes’ “negative theology,” the only theology considered consonant with the “true philosophy.” The paper also indicates the originality of Spinoza’s theological criticism and the reasons under which Hobbes—despite the radicalism of his biblical interpretation and of his thesis of separating the philosophy (natural science) from theology—Hobbes enjoyed an attenuated critical reception compared to that one applied to Spinoza and the “acute” tone of which was set by Leibniz.

scholarly journals Non-philosophical Christ-poetics beyond the mystical turn in conversation with continental philosophy of religion

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann-Albrecht Meylahn
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Negative Theology ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Mystical Theology ◽  
Critical Conversation ◽  
Language Text ◽  
The Way

The religious turn in continental philosophy has opened the door for postmetaphysical mystical theology. Postmetaphysical mystical theology seeks to understand the non-relation relation of language (text) to the Other. Yet, this non-relation relation to the Other, who is every other, can also be interpreted differently to the mystical understanding. For example, Žižek argues that the Other, which is often experienced as the uncanny, the unpredictable and the contingent (lived spirituality), is not necessarily the result of some mystical unknowable Otherness but is a consequence of the way the subject’s own activity is inscribed into reality. These experiences of lived spirituality or experiences of Otherness can, rather than being interpreted as an in-breaking of the mystical Other, be interpreted otherwise, as a grammatological consequence of the inability and impossibility of language (Lacan). Therefore, in this article, Žižek’s thoughts function as a bridge to bring this mystical turn back into critical conversation with continental philosophy and particularly with the thoughts of Derrida, Laruelle and Stiegler. The contemporary mystical turn in theology rediscovers something of this non-religious religion. Derrida’s thoughts are in close proximity to negative theology and yet there is an important difference. This difference will be explored and further developed towards Laruelle’s non-philosophy, which does not translate into a non-religion religion or postmetaphysical metaphysics but remains a non-philosophy or maybe a science of Christ. This article will conclude with a tentative exploration of a postmetaphysical Christ-poetics beyond the mystical turn.

Honoring the Divine as Virtue and Practice in Maimonides

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Seeman
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Negative Theology ◽  
Visible Sign ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
Religious Teaching ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Guide Of The Perplexed

AbstractHonoring the divine is central to Maimonides' ethical and religious phenomenology. It connotes the recognition of radical divine incommensurability and points to the hard limits of human ability to know God. Yet it also signals the importance of philosophical speculation within those limits, indicating the intellectual and ethical telos of human life. For Maimonides, to honor or show kavod to God is closely related to the meaning of the divine glory (also known as kavod) that Moses demands to see in Exodus 33. Moses' demand to see the kavod is usually interpreted as a quest for some visible sign of God's presence or, at least, for a created light whose existence could testify to the authenticity of Moses' prophecy. Maimonides is alone among early interpreters in treating Exodus 33 as a parable of the philosophical quest to apprehend divine uniqueness, which leads first to negative theology and then to imitatio Dei. This article argues that the theme of divine kavod links Maimonides' philosophical, literary, and even medical concerns with his practical religious teaching, and connects the Guide of the Perplexed with his other legal and interpretive works. Maimonides' consistent fascination with Exodus 33 helps to organize his reflections on human perfection, ethics, and the relationship between idolatry and everyday religious language, distinguishing him from dominant trends in both Judaeo-Arabic and later kabbalistic thought.

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