The Via Negativa: Strengths, Weaknesses and Scholars

VN Weakness: contradicts religious tradition

Although there are some examples of the VN in religious scripture, many holy scriptures do make positive statements about God e.g. contradiction between God's ineffability and revelation in Bible of physical person of Christ

VN Strength: avoids anthropomorphism

Avoids anthropomorphism as we are not left with a human view of God

VN Weakness: process of elimination

God cannot be understood by a process of elimination, he is beyond our reasoning and experience

VN Strength: goes beyond experience

a way of going beyond our normal everyday experiences in order to experience God

VN Strength: culturally applicable

applies equally well in different cultures and periods of history

VN Strength: more respectful

can be seen as more respectful - Maimonides said positive statements about God = improper as they do not fully convey the idea required

VN Strength: otherness and mystery

conveys the otherness and mystery of God and underlines belief that God is not like us

VN Strength: does not limit

does not limit God by referencing him to the physical world

VN Weakness: belief in inspired scripture

if we believe scripture is inspired by God that would suggest that it can be right to make positive claims about God

VN Strength: transcendence

only method that adequately conveys the transcendence of God

Brian Davies

only saying what something is not gives no indication of what it actually is

VN Weakness: assumptive

relies on the notion that God exists

VN Weakness: Result

result is a very limited understanding of God, does not work practically applied to everyday objects let alone God

VN Strength: supports

supports views of many thinkers of not speaking of God in an improper way and there being an epistemic distance between God and humans

Flew (VN)

there is little difference between our definition of God and our definition of nothingness