Language and negativity - apophaticism in theology and literature

The five essays collected in this volume are all concerned with ambiguity in the role of language. On the one hand it limits and restricts a subject, on the other hand it is our fundamental means of explaining or representing that same subject matter. Is not the only alternative silence? Or does silence rather represent a collapse of meaning? Consciousness of the inadequacy or limitation of language in expressing thruth or ultimate meaning . wether it be of a theological, philosophical or literary nature . is closely related to the concept of apophaticism: an apophatic attitude to language involves an attempt to transcend language. Three of the essays focus on Christian authors of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, two are concerned with modern writers. Through ample use of examples the contributors show how poets as well as writers of theological treatises struggle in their different ways with these dilemmas of representation.