From Word to Silence, 2. The Way of Negation, Christian and Greek

Bibliography and Index

Raoul Mortley — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 23:24:19 PDT

Appendix II.

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[Appendix Contents]: The modern via negativa: Susan Sontag, 264; Jacques Derrida, 268; theology and the via negativa, 274.

Appendix I.

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[Appendix Contents]: The meaning of privation: a reply to J.C.M. van Winden, 255

Chapter XIII. Conclusion

Raoul Mortley — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 23:16:01 PDT

[Chapter Contents]: The invention of reason, and scepticism about it, 242; the hypostatization of reason, 243; word as mask, 244; the desire for knowledge, 246; names and nature, 247; Augustine and the vindication of language, 247; the via negativa, 248; silence and the via negativa, 251.

Chapter XII. Pseudo-Dionysius: a positive view of language and the via negativa

Raoul Mortley — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 23:09:55 PDT

[Chapter Contents]: The identity of the Areopagite, 221; his importance, 222; the importance of names, 223; names as beings, 224; analogy, 226; the ontic basis of names, 228; the via negativa, 229; aphairesis, 231; steresis (privation), 233; use of contradiction, 237; his reversal of the image of light, 238 ff.

Chapter XI. Augustine: the importance of meaning and the unimportance of the negative method

Raoul Mortley — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 23:05:49 PDT

[Chapter Contents]: The experience at Ostia, 192; mysticism, 193; desire for knowledge, 194; semantic desire, 196; discourse as linear, 199; signs and authorial guarantees of meaning, 205; the via negativa, 210; Lossky's view, 21 1; purity of heart stressed, rather than purity of mind, 212; Ambrose's negatives, 212; vision and anthropomorphism, 212; language and the Trinity, 215; the via negativa a preparatory discipline, 215; Augustine at his most agnostic on the value of language, 217.

Chapter X. Gregory of Nyssa and Eunomius: theology versus philosophy

Raoul Mortley — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 23:00:44 PDT

[Chapter Contents]: The deity and time, 172; speech and time, 173; hope and Eunomius' backward-looking piety, 176; negation, 177; names and beings, 180; analogy, 183; does language pre-exist man? 184; language and reality, 187; privation and abstraction, 188; Gregory and the via negativa, 191.

Chapter IX. Basil and Letter 38: the negative theology of the amateur

Raoul Mortley — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:56:39 PDT

[Chapter Contents]: The Aristotelianism of Letter, 38, 161; divine incomprehensibility, 162; Basil on ingeneracy and epinoia, 165; Basil's negative theology, 167.

Chapter VIII. Arian negative theology: Aetius and Eunomius

Raoul Mortley — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:51:35 PDT

[Chapter Contents]: Aetius and the temporalists, 128; thesis 4 and incomparability, 129; theses 12, 16 and ingeneracy, 130; privation and negation, 131; theses 20, 24, 132; Aetius on names, 133; Eunomius and ingeneracy, 134; Eunomius, negation and privation, 137; Gregory's critique on privation, 141; Danielou on Eunomius, 146; Eunomius and Gregory on names and being, 147; the meaning of ---- 151; Eunomius and Gregory on analogy, 153; names as beings, 154; ingeneracy and negative theology, 157.

Chapter VII. Damascius and Hyperignorance

Raoul Mortley — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:47:29 PDT

[Chapter Contents]: Damascius a new stage at the end of Greek philosophy, 119; the desire to know, 119; names, 120; an attack on negation and analogy, 121; does Damascius represent the anti-negation school implied by Proclus? 121 ; language as mere gesticulation, 122; hyperignorance, 122; that which is beyond the One, 123; unknowability and ignorance, 124; language reveals subjective states only, 125; language as "stepping into a hole", 127.