Not (being able) to Talk about God: Negative Theology in Plotinus

Language of religion is one of the important problems of the philosophy of religion. The reason why language is a subject of philosophy, on the other hand, is whether the language with a limited structure will be able to express God that is a boundless being. In spite of all problems associated with language, philosophers and theologians talk about God in different ways. There are three ways of talking about God: The first one is the cataphatic theology that qualifies God with positive attributes; the second one is analogy; and the third one is the negative or apophatic theology. Positive theology and analogy are quite common in the philosophical and theological tradition. However, can God be really expressed with positive attributes? Or to what extent is it correct to predicate anything to God? We see the negative theology as a reaction to such questions. According to these theologians, God, which is a transcendent being incapable of being encompassed by our intellectual world, can never be expressed by limited language. Predicates attributed to concrete objects by human knowledge cannot be predicated to God. To that end, in this article we will attempt to examine the negative theology over the Neo-Platonist tradition and mostly by focusing on Plotinus’ views. Therefore, we will first deal with the views of Plato from the Antique period because he was Plotinus’ predecessor and source. Afterwards, we will analyze the views of Philo from the tradition of Hellenistic theology and evaluate Plotinus’ handling of the subject.

Keywords

Language of Religion, Negative Theology, Plato, Philo, Plotinus.