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It explains negative theology as a training of the intellect to move beyond reason toward what cannot be spoken or made present, using the idea that God is not anything and not even “not anything.” Speakers connect this to questions like a child’s repeated “Why?”, to meditation practices, and to parallels with negative space in art and physics.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":45,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/prologue-quoting-absence/415190/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/prologue-quoting-absence/415190.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Blitz","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-09-28",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What does negative theology attempt to do according to the speakers?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Negative theology trains the intellect to rise above reason and reach toward what is beyond reason, which by definition cannot be spoken or made present.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How is negative theology compared to a child asking “Why?”",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The discussion likens it to a ten-year-old’s repeated “Why?”—not for abstract knowledge alone, but as a spiritual exercise involving desire, love, and a relationship with an absent creator who is felt as present through faith.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What parallels are drawn between meditation and negative theology?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Meditation is discussed as sitting and breathing while trying not to think about anything, raising the question of what “not thinking about anything” means, and suggesting similarities with negative theological practice.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},415190,1792231565,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":44,"category_name":45,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":26,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},24464137899374,"https://us-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","Digitized by the Internet Archivein 2021 with funding fromKahle/Austin Foundationhttps://archive.org/details/prologuequotinga0000unse  \n# Prologue:Quoting Absence\n\nPrologue:Quoting Absence  \na four-channel sound installationby Christodoulos Panayiotou  \nPrologue:Quoting Absence is the first part of a three-partwork based on the structure of the academic dissertation.Four speakers with connections to Oxford University wereinvited to have a conversation on the theme of absence.  \nA transcript of the recorded conversation,which tookplace on 4 July 2006 at 24/7 Recording and RehearsalStudios,Oxford,is reproduced in this book.  \nSpeakers:  \nPE Pedro FerreiraCaroline Humfress CH  \nJE Jem FinerDorothea Debus DD  \n# PP What is negative theology?\n\nCH Well,here we go,making absence present.Negativetheology developed in late antiquity—fifth and sixth centu-ries—and perhaps a little bit earlier.It comes from lots ofNeo-Platonic ideas and basically it's a way of training theintellect to rise above reason and reach into what is beyond.And of course what's beyond reason is,by definition,absentand you can't speak of it,you can't make it present.So oneway of doing this is to continually ask sets of questions relatingto what God,in the Christian tradition,is not.So,forexample,God is not anything,but,according to negativetheologians,he's not not anything either.Now that forcesyour brain to scale heights beyond our ordinary languageusage and of course God,in the Christian tradition,is outsidelanguage.He cant be contained by thought or by presenceso really it's a way of trying to reach into that abyss,thatnothingness,that absence,that is in fact the whole source ofeverything present.  \nPF But isn’t that a bit like when my ten-year-old starts askingwhy and just keeps on asking,\"Why?\"Where do you go?How far can you go doing that?  \nCH|I think that the way probably that a negative theologianmight look at it—and here I feel a certain hesitation becauseI'′m giving voice to negative theology which is where we go.But it's not so much to look at it as a way of getting knowl-edge;so when your ten-year-old asks the question\"Why?\",they're asking you for a response;they might be asking youfor some concrete knowledge.They might be asking for clari-fication but they’re also asking you a question because youare their father and they have a certain relationship with youand they want to reaffirm that love,maybe,by the very factthat you take time out to answer your child.And I think it'sthat spiritual exercise,if you like,an exercise of desire andlove,that's what the negative theologian is interested in.It'sabout a training of the self and reaching towards a love anda relationship with an absent creator who,nonetheless,becauseof your faith,you feel is completely present.  \nDD And really it is just like Pedro's son asking\"Why?”Thenegative theologian's situation is just like that.  \nCBi Siting in this room I've just convinced myself of thatfact.I've never thought about it before but it makes sense  \nP This also makes me think of something that Jem and Italk about quite a bit,which is meditation and this wholeexercise of breathing.Where you sit down and you breatheand you try and not think about anything.And the exerciseis not to think about anything.Now,what do you define bynot thinking about anything?You can focus on the breathbut then you focus on the breath and that's already something.So it seems to be there's some similarity with that as well,some of the Buddhists'notions of meditation.And I'm thelast person to bring an Eastern philosophy into any of thesediscussions,but...  \nJF I don’t know.I think,by implication,you're saying thatI am.  \nPE No,I'm not,but it just reminded me of the kind ofconversations we've had.  \nJE What I was thinking was that this question of a childasking\"Why?\"...to answer them in purely a negativetheological way is just one explanation.So“Why are therehuman beings...Why is the earth?\"can be answered fromthe sense of a god or something.So","cbCailzCtppShAVV","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailzCtppShAVV","pdf",1703362,"English","# Prologue: Quoting Absence\n## What is negative theology?","[{\"question\":\"What does negative theology attempt to do according to the speakers?\",\"answer\":\"Negative theology trains the intellect to rise above reason and reach toward what is beyond reason, which by definition cannot be spoken or made present.\"},{\"question\":\"How is negative theology compared to a child asking “Why?”\",\"answer\":\"The discussion likens it to a ten-year-old’s repeated “Why?”—not for abstract knowledge alone, but as a spiritual exercise involving desire, love, and a relationship with an absent creator who is felt as present through faith.\"},{\"question\":\"What parallels are drawn between meditation and negative theology?\",\"answer\":\"Meditation is discussed as sitting and breathing while trying not to think about anything, raising the question of what “not thinking about anything” means, and suggesting similarities with negative theological practice.\"}]","Prologue: Quoting Absence | PDF",1790600372,151]