Via Negativa DF
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Diego Fernandez
Via Negativa
Moses Maimonides, a Jewish philosopher, was one of the most if not the most important
medieval Jewish philosopher for his contributions and commitments to Judaism and its
philosophies. Some of his thinking was thought to be very controversial, depicting Judaism as a
revealed religion, converging thoughts of revelation with reason. Using Aristotelian philosophy
and borrowing elements of Platonism, in addition to scripture (Torah), many of his philosophical
inquiries are intertwined expertly with theology to help provide meaning to big philosophical
questions. Maimonides asserts that philosophy is a tool that further illuminates the claims and
teachings of Jewish scripture. Some of his greatest works are The Guide to the Perplexed and the
Mishnah Torah
What is Negative Theology?
Diego: taking into account that there is a first cause and that you believe there is no demonstrable
way of proving the beginning or eternity of creation, how can someone describe God? Does He
have attributes like in scripture, or is he just some powerful entity with no emotions and
qualities?
Maimonides: first, three things must be established, God is first cause; God freely created the
world; God sustains the world with divine reason and justice. Second, it must be understood that,
although the cosmological argument proves
that
God ‘is’, it does not prove
what
God is.
Diego: So, then how can we put a definition to what God is?
Maimonides: in order to not misinterpret the depths of God’s unknowable powers, we have to
look at what God is not rather than what he is. Therefore, our comprehension of God is limited to
negations because God is in no way comparable to anything else. For example, one cannot say
that God is the most powerful in the universe, because that would be comparing him to a chain of
beings to which belong in an order, a hierarchy almost.
Diego: But why wouldn’t this work if God is, in actuality the highest of all these things in the
universe?
Maimonides: In the case of God, it is not right to put Him on the scale compared to other things.
That God is bigger, better, wiser, or stronger than something else is incorrect. God does not bear
any likeness of attributes like human perfect wisdom, or human perfect, strength, because he so
far transcends what we can comprehend as the greatest, strongest being. Even by perfect intellect
we cannot attain perfect understanding of His existence, may He be exalted.
Diego: So, what would be the correct way to describe God?
Maimonides: Using negations, instead of saying God is the most powerful, one should instead
correctly say “God is not lacking in power”. More precisely defined, this means that God does
not lack power or posses it in a way that makes it comparable to other things. Another, simpler
example would be to say, “God contains no evil”, rather than say “God is good”. Phrases for
describing God are equivocal, this means that they can have more than one meaning; so, words
ascribed to humans do not have the same meaning when put towards God.
Diego: But how does this align with the teachings of scripture? There are many passages that say
God is good, merciful, loving, and kind?
Maimonides: Qualities mentioned in prayer are either negations or descriptions of the effects of
divine activity; in no case do they provide knowledge of who god actually is, namely, his
essence. Thus, we can speak of features of God’s actions but not attributes, because to speak of
God’s attributes would be to speak of properties of God, something that his transcendence makes
impossible. In a moment when mercy was enacted by God, we can say that a merciful act was
done, but not that god is mercy; that would be assigning a human trait to God, who cannot be
confined to such levels of knowledge. Theological language is important to the degree that it
eliminates any error and contradiction towards looking at God, while placing us along the path of
recognizing that we can never understand the divinity of God.
Diego: then that means scripture and prayer are correct in their language as long as we
understand that God is beyond comprehension?
Maimonides: I would even go as far as to say that even negations can be objectionable. Because
then the question that “god is neither this nor that, then what?”, develops. Ultimately any verbal
description of god fails us; know that when you make an affirmation ascribing another thing to
Him, you become more remote from Him in two respects: one of them is that everything you
affirm is a perfection only with reference to us, and the other is that He (God) does not posses a
thing other than his essence. Citing Psalm 65, I have concluded that the highest form of praise
we can give God is silence, although logically I acknowledge that prayer is important and should
be mandatory.
Diego: what would be a good example to answer the question what is god if neither this nor that?
Maimonides: take fire for example; consider its effects on various things that could be put before
it. It would soften wax, harden clay, blacken sugar, and whiten other things. This does not mean
that fire is soft, hard, black, and white simultaneously, but that it has these effects on various
things. Applying this to God, we ca say that he is merciful to the extent that what god created, his
order of nature, exhibits merciful characteristics. The point is not that God possess emotions
similar to ours, but that the effects of God’s actions resemble the effects of our own
So how can we follow god if eh has no attributes, what are we praising?
Maimonides: we can look at the created order and understand from it that god is merciful,
benevolent, full of justice, because God created it. We can praise god as long as we realize that
all such praise is indirect and leaves god’s essence undescribed and unknowable.
Works Cited
Seeskin, Kenneth, “Maimonides”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy, 2021, Edward N.
Zalta (ed.), URL =
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/maimonides/
.
https://iep.utm.edu/thomas-aquinas-political-theology/#:~:text=According%20to%20Aquinas
%2C%20this%20means,creatures%20(ST%20Ia%2013.2)
.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/
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