Brian Hamilton-Vise

I know that what I am asking is impossible. But in our time, as in every time, the impossible is the least that one can demand. —James Baldwin

God is not

“God is not some kind of being. No. But in a way that is simple and indefinable he gathers into himself and anticipates every existence. So he is called ‘King of the ages,’ for in him and around him all being is and subsists. He was not. He will not be. He did not come to be. He is not in the midst of becoming. He will not come to be. No. He is not. Rather, he is the essence of being for the things which have being. Not only things that are but also the essence of what they are come from him who precedes the ages. For he is the age of ages, the ‘predecessor of the ages.’”

— Denys the Areopagite, The Divine Names V.4.817D

16 April 2007 | Comments (0)
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Brian Hamilton-Vise is a Ph.D. student in moral theology at the University of Notre Dame, where his research is in the history of Christian political and economic thought. His side interests are in the development of negative theology and in recent political theory. Email him at bdhamilton@gmail.com.

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