Recently I have been working on my thesis proposal for next year. This has lead to me to read a bit more around Gregory of Nyssa, who I want to do my thesis on. I have been fascinated by the way in which Gregory conceives of God’s infinity. Gregory sees negative theology or apophatic theology as being helpful at this point. Gregory believes we cannot speak of God’s infinity in positive terms lest we begin to try and put boundaries on it. So he argues we speak of God as a being which transcends the boundaries of space and time. This does not attempt to explain the category away but rather says that because we really cannot know all we can affirm is the negative.
Now the Divine Nature is without extension (adiastatos), and, being without extension, it has no limit (peras ouk ekei), and that which is limitless is infinite (apeiron), and is spoken of accordingly
and again
The fact that the Divine greatness has no limit is proclaimed by prophecy, which declares expressly of His splendour, His glory, His holiness, * there is no end.’ (Ps. 145:3)”
This whole method is one which fascinates me.I think that an interesting thesis could be developed around, and I am beginning to think about the way in which apophatic theology might find a place in modern theological discourse. I am particularly interested in the way in which Karl Barth uses apophatic theology in his section on the divine eternity (II/I) and perhaps bringing this into dialog and contact with Gregory. I have a suspicion that the way in which Barth speaks of God’s eternity as Pre-Supra-Post temporal is in fact an exercise in negative theology in a sense. He speaks of the way in which God transcends all spacial and temporal boundaries but at the same time this is not a simple absence of time, an abstract eternity, but rather God’s own time. I may not be on to anything at all here. But then again, I may find something. It is interesting though, I think. Anyone know of any research in this area?
Scott Kirkland
