The Via Negativa Again
[Zophar the Naamathite responded,] “Can you discover the depths of God?
Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?” Job 11:7 NASB
Can you discover – Questioning is a sin, right? Have you heard that before? Have you been in a religious environment where raising issues is forbidden? Just believe what the authority tells you. Don’t ask why. After all, if God put this person in charge, then who are you to question God’s appointed? Remember Korah? That’s why the leader prohibits certain material. He has to protect the flock from bad influences and you don’t want to be one of them.
This line of thought ultimately ends with Zophar’s argument. You’re nothing compared to God. He’s all those via negativa attributes: omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, holy, perfect, unique, transcendent, immutable, impassible—you know the list. Just ask Thomas Aquinas. You are none of these things. In fact, whatever God is, you aren’t. So who are you to ask anything of Him? Question His decisions? No way. You have no right to even think of asking for an explanation. You’re the creature. He’s the Creator. Enough, already!
Zophar’s statements are all rhetorical. Of course you can’t know the depths of God. Of course you can’t discover the limits of an omnipotent, transcendent Being. No one is arguing about these. But Zophar misses Job’s point. God created Man with reasoned curiosity, with the ability to think independently even if Man is completely ontologically dependent. In other words, even though I live and move and have my existence because of God, God still made me the inquisitive agent that I am. He intentionally created free agents. My very being might depend on His power, but my agency is innate. It’s who I am. I can ask. In fact, I am expected to ask. “Let us reason together” might be an invitation to enter into the divine court of appeals, but it is nevertheless an invitation. Zophar’s real point needs to be expressed differently. You might not be able to understand the transcendence of God, but you can understand what He has revealed about Himself. This is critically important because, as Heschel notes, the Bible really says nothing about God’s essence. It only portrays God’s involvement with humanity. It’s human philosophy and theology that speculates about the essence of the divine Being. And as we can see, Aquinas reminds us that our very limited human logic can only assert the negative, that is, whatever God is He is not like us.
Do you think this is an imposed limitation? Are you inclined to kick against the spurs? Do you feel vulnerable because you can’t know the really deep truth? Well, maybe you need to reassess what matters. In the ancient world, living in harmony with the divine matters. Speculative thought about the essence of divinity doesn’t. Why? Because all we really have is this present existence, and being in this present existence requires knowing only how to get along now. Speculate all you wish. No one will stop you. But remember what you’re doing. You’re whistling in the dark. Until someone from the other side comes back to tell you precisely what the divine essence is (assuming that you could understand what he says), you really don’t know. Take a lesson from the mystics. Shut up about it—and seek harmony.
Topical Index: essence, transcendence, via negativa, questioning, Job 11:7
“Do you think this is an imposed limitation?” Yes, I do… imposed by the actual condition that limits…God is God… and we are not! Moreover, there is one… a unique one who, though being of his own nature, divine, was delivered to live in form as fully human, yet in essence… in nature and substance… it was necessary for him to be revealed as fully divine.
This notion (incomprehensible to us collectively as human being) was substantiated throughout the course of this one’s life on earth as a particularly unique human being. Moreover, it was ultimately affirmed by his resurrection (from the death that is effected through death) by means of the life over which death holds no power or impact—that is, except as chosen by God to demonstrate the unlimited grace that conveys his own boundless life, even unto and particularly for those walking “in the valley of the shadow of death” and in fear of evil.
By the way, someone from the other side also has come back to tell you precisely what the divine essence is (assuming that you could understand what he says).