Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Positive Theology

Positive theology (by my understanding) is 'how to speak about God' - which seems to be a good question in itself. While negative theology is talking about what God is not, we reach a place where we talk about what God is. For example, God is sovereign over all things or God is limited by the bounds of time. This seems the more traditional and common approach to talk about God. The bible is read, and a statement about God is made. "God parted the Red Sea and therefore controls the natural elements."

However it also seems that too much positive talk also risks the creation of idols rather than recognizing God. God is not an object waiting to be defined, he is a subject in which we are to try understand. I think the key is to not hold too strongly to a definition of God, but allow fluidity and remain open to change. As humans I feel that we are unable to adequately talk about God, but find ourselves in a position where we are forced to. Positive Theology will never capture everything that God is because it is always limited to human language. Thus we must remain fluid and aware of the inadequacy of any sort of speech about God. The positive and negative should be used to temper each other.

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