Apophaticism in Thomas Aquinas: a re-reformulation and recommendation

Abstract

Apophaticism has become quite fashionable, for political as well as philosophical reasons: political, because apophaticism opens up space between God and oppressive God-talk; and philosophical, because apophaticism provides theological warrant for embracing our Kantian limits. A correlate fashion has been to broaden our sense of who belongs to the 'apophatic tradition' -and Thomas Aquinas has been one of the favourite candidates for such reconsideration. Contrary to this trend, I argue that apophaticism is not a 'rule' for Thomas -far from it. Apophaticism is, ironically, one of the steps in Thomas's strategy to assemble the conceptual resources necessary for making positive statements about God. That strategy, in brief, consists of five moves: first, Thomas provisionally defines 'God' as the sufficient cause of certain effects ascribed to God; second, using the via negativa to rule out whatever is incompatible with a 'God' so specified, he argues that God-in-Godself can be identified with 'God'; third, Thomas identifies 'being' as the common term between God and creatures (which is licit because, Thomas claims, being is not a genus); fourth, he argues that all beings tend toward their perfection, and that God is this perfection; and fifth, he concludes that this tendency-toward-God funds the making of meaningful, positive statements about God-in-Godself.

ThomasAquinas,PierreRousselot, and the Performative Aesthetics of Contemplative Theology

“…The central point to which Rousselot draws our attention here bears repeating: according to Thomas, human intelligence knows God immediately and to its fullest capacity in the beatific vision 57. Today, it is common for interpreters of Thomas to focus on the various ways in which reason cannot know God 58. Rousselot reminds us, however, that while for Thomas a Pseudo‐Dionysian brand of darkness may obtain here on earth, it is entirely dispelled in the afterlife 59.…”