Abstract
“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 Jn 4:12)
Negative theology has to do with saying what God is not. Only by defining the good as in-visibile, in-comprehensible and so on, can we speak about that which we do not understand, but only have faith in. This was a common notion in late antique Christian thinkers, who based their ideas on Christianity's radical distinction between Creator and creation. This distinction can only be overcome by God, as he reveals himself in Jesus Christ. But if the good cannot be put into abstract, positive concepts, is moral philosophy possible at all? What are the consequences for morality and ethics? Based on a range of examples from the first four centuries – The Epistle to Diognetus, Clement of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa – the dissertation argues that theological ethics must take the form of a theologia viatorum, the theology of the road, where our concepts about the good, the right, virtue and so on is in a continuous proces of change. While the approach is primarily a matter of intellectual history, it is related to issues of moral philosophy and the philosophy of language.
Negative theology has to do with saying what God is not. Only by defining the good as in-visibile, in-comprehensible and so on, can we speak about that which we do not understand, but only have faith in. This was a common notion in late antique Christian thinkers, who based their ideas on Christianity's radical distinction between Creator and creation. This distinction can only be overcome by God, as he reveals himself in Jesus Christ. But if the good cannot be put into abstract, positive concepts, is moral philosophy possible at all? What are the consequences for morality and ethics? Based on a range of examples from the first four centuries – The Epistle to Diognetus, Clement of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa – the dissertation argues that theological ethics must take the form of a theologia viatorum, the theology of the road, where our concepts about the good, the right, virtue and so on is in a continuous proces of change. While the approach is primarily a matter of intellectual history, it is related to issues of moral philosophy and the philosophy of language.
| Original language | English |
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| Place of Publication | Kbh. |
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| Publisher | Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet |
| Number of pages | 244 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |