Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 2006 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

44 PIM VALKENBERG
While affirmative theology relates God to God's creatures in diverse
ways, negative theology is needed to refrain from thinking about God
as if God were a creature:
The worshipping of God, who is to be worshipped in spirit and
truth, must be based upon affirmations about Him.
Accordingly, every religion, in its worshipping, must mount
upward by means of affirmative theology. [Through
affirmative theology] it worships God as one and three, as
most wise and most gracious, as inaccessible Light, as Life,
Truth and so on. And it always directs its worship by faith,
which it attains more truly through learned ignorance [... ] And
so, the theology of negation is so necessary for the theology of
affirmation that without it God would not be worshipped as
the Infinite God but, rather, as a creature. And such worship is
idolatry; it ascribes to the image that which befits only the
reality itself. Hence, it will be useful to set down a few more
things about negative theology.
Sacred ignorance has taught us that God is ineffable. He is so
because He is infinitely greater than all nameable things. And
by virtue of the fact that [this] is most true, we speak of God
more truly through removal and negation - as [teaches] the
great Dionysius, who did not believe that God is either Truth
or Understanding or Light or anything which can be spoken
of. (Rabbi Solomon and all the wise follow Dionysius.)
Hence, in accordance with this negative theology, according to
which [God} is only infinite, He is neither Father nor Son nor
Holy Spirit. 4
multo inferior est ad rerum discretionem imponuntur, quoniam autem ratio
contradictoria transilire nequit, hinc non est nomen cui aliud non opponatur
secundum motum rationis, quare vnitati pluralitas aut multitudo secundum
rationis motum opponitur, hinc vnitas deo non conuenit, sed vnitas cui non
opponitur aut alteritas: aut pluralitas aut multitudo.Hoc est nomen maximum
omnia in sua simplicitate vnitatis complicans, istud est nomen ineffabile et
super omnem intellectum." Cusanus, de docta ignorantia 1,24 (ed. Wilpert,
1964, o.c., I, 31); translation Jaspers (1981), o.c., 80.
24 "Quoniarn autem cultura dei qui adorandus est in spiritu et veritate
necessario se fundat in positiuis deum affirmantibus. Hinc omnis religio in
sua cultura necessario per theologiam affirmatiuam ascendit, deum vt vnum
ac trinum vt sapientissimum piissimum lucem inaccessibilem veritatem: et ita
de reliquis adorandosemper culturam per fidem quam per doetarn
ignorantiam verius attingit [...]et ita theologia negationis adeo necessaria est