On What Cannot Be Said: Apophatic Discourses in Philosophy, Religion, Literature, and the Arts. Volume 1. Classic Formulations

by William Franke (Editor)

Apophasis has become a major topic in the humanities, particularly in philosophy, religion, and literature. This monumental two-volume anthology gathers together most of the important historical works on apophaticism and illustrates the diverse trajectories of apophatic discourse in ancient, modern, and postmodern times. William Franke provides a major introductory essay on apophaticism at the beginning of each volume, and shorter introductions to each anthology selection. The first volume, Classic Formulations , offers excerpts from Plato, Plotinus, Damascius, the Bible, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Maimonides, Rumi, Thomas Aquinas, Marguerite Porete, Dante, Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, and more.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Theology

401 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting collection of primary sources about the ineffability of God or the One, starting with Plato's Parmenides and ending at the tail end of the Reformation and the dawn of the "modern era." This is not a fun collection. It is more or less a collection of mysticism and although there is some heavy-lifting metaphysics going on here, most of it will go over your head unless you have a good grasp of what you are talking about. So unless you have a taste for mystic or "apophatic" theology--theology that grapples with God's inexpressible nature--then you probably won't benefit much from it. But it's important theology to grapple with and it is useful to know some of the amazing medieval guys who did work on this. So good job editor Franke, despite your postmodern stupidity and attempt to read everybody else as just like you.

Now for some evaluations:
Plato's Parmenides: some really good arguments for monotheism and the ultimate ineffability of God. All theology, it seems, is a footnote to Plato.
Plotinus' Enneads: I think I mentioned this in my review of Classical Philosophy, but Plotinus is really the first philosopher to give a really amazing summary of divine simplicity. I somehow recall these selections as not being particularly interesting, but they're super important.
Porphyry: Plotinus' henchman.
Proclus: Also important.
Damascius: First Christian in this volume.
Bible selections: some of them fit, some of them seem like forced readings of apophaticism.
Philo: The first allegorist of religion. An important figure, but again random selections that don't make me excited.
Clement: Quite possibly the first Christian theologian.
Gregory of Nyssa: Very skeptical of our ability to know things.
Augustine: Easy stuff! Mostly an emotional meditation on God's infinity. He's one of the better writers in this book.
Dionysius the Areopagite: Very skeptical, actually, of the created world it turns out. One of the most important and influential writers for the medievals, and definitely worth looking into more.
Eriugena: My favorite. God is not being or non-being (Dionysius SOUNDS very negative at times). God is super-being. I like that way of talking.
Maimonides: Really smart guy that preceded Aquinas: I think he thought that all statements about God are ultimately negative.
Kabbalah: Never read before. You'd need to get the mythology to know this.
Rumi: Horrible translation that makes a medieval guy sound like a free verse poet.
Albert the Great: weird strong affirmations that we should call God by the names given in Scripture and equally strong affirmations that we cannot predicate things of God.
Aquinas: Analogia Entis. Cool, difficult to wrap one's mind around, but cool.
Marguerite Porete: A mystic who talked about going beyond morals and experiencing God. She got burned. I don't recall these excerpts being exasperating.
Eckhardt: A very orthodox mystic.
Dante: Well, it's Dante and he's great.
Palamas: Good theology in defense of monasticism, which I find to be a horrible idea and some concerning ways of being practiced.
Cloud of Unknowing: Annihilate the self. Forget creation. Forget God's mercies (when being mystic). Hmmm.
Nicholas of Cusa: Cool and pictured as proto-modern. He uses a dialogue form and gives a really, really good presentation of apophatic theology as basically something all Christians can believe. Suspicious trinitarian theology, but sounds for the most part like Eriugena.
Teresa of Avila: Mostly a good, pious Christian girl who really got into her quiet time.
John of the Cross: He got tortured! Wow! The poems look cool. He invented the term "dark knight of the soul."
Boehem: What happened? It's interesting that Lutheran pietism is the only stuff that ends up in this collection. I find this a bit annoying since that excludes some genuine apophaticism in Reformed Systematics, and ignores some of the genuine pietism that developed in Puritanism. Oh well. I guess we're not as mystic as Catholics tho, so that might be representative.
Angelus: Oh and mystics hate the grammatical historical interpretation of Scripture. All of this is very concerning.

[Ram Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was impressed by the ending of the introduction. I think the last paragraph hits the nail on the head.
I happened to bump into a passage from taoist literature which reminded me of Franke's point in the introduction:

"Do you wish to free yourself of mental and emotional knots and become one with the Tao?
If so, there are two paths available to you.
The first is the path of acceptance. Affirm everyone and everything. Freely extend your goodwill and
virtue in every direction, regardless of circumstances. Embrace all things as part of the Harmonious Oneness, and then you will begin to perceive it.
The second path is that of denial. Recognize that everything you see and think is a falsehood, an illusion, a veil over the truth. Peel all the veils away, and you will arrive at the Oneness.
Though these paths are entirely different, they will deliver you to the same place: spontaneous awareness of the Great Oneness."

This particular point is also made in Zen Buddhism and by Nisargadatta.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

You will buy me this book. I've read a couple essays and I want to read the rest.