Grounding Speech and Silence: Cataphaticism and Apophaticism in Denys and Aquinas

Abstract

This article investigates the interplay of cataphatic and apophatic theology in the works of Denys (Pseudo-Dionysius) and Aquinas. In each case, the reasons given for the possibility of speech about God, and the denial of this possibility, are investigated. This classical theological understanding of ‘speech’ and ‘silence’ is set against two contemporary presentations of apophaticism as found in the writings of Jacques Derrida and Anthony Kenny.