Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Amir Nasri ¹
• Atiye Keshtkaran ²

¹ Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Allameh Tabatabai University

² Master student of Allameh Tabatabai University

Abstract

Negative theology, which manifests in linguistic negation and can be studied in terms of its ontological, epistemic and linguistic dimensions, answers the question of how to speak about God’s essence and possibility of knowing Him. Pseudo-Dionysius is a medieval Christian philosopher and mystic, whose negative theology exerted a great influence on his subsequent mystics. His theological method consists of four stages as follows: 1. Affirmative stage which ascribes the general and abstract attributes of transcendent entity to creatures through a descending movement from them; 2. Negative stage which purifies God from attributes and concepts in an ascending movement; 3. Refusal stage which denies both negative and affirmative attributes from God by negating the negation; 4. Mystical stage which regards silence as a true way of talking about God and considers language as an incapable means to explain divine entity. Each of these stages is based on one of the dimensions of negative theology and leads to next stage due to some problem. In affirmative method, he starts with an existential and ontological basis and resorts to negative method due to created epistemic problem and determination of God. The negative stage leads to the ascription of negated opposite attributes and determination of God again, so he resorts to refusal method. In the refusal method, the simultaneous negation of affirmative and negative attributes leads to linguistic confusion. So Dionysius resorts to mystical method and holds that language is unable to describe God.

Keywords

• Pseudo Dionysius
• Negative theology
• affirmative theology
• ontological dimension
• epistemic dimension
• linguistic dimension