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