HOW WE CAN AFFIRM POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

HOW WE CAN AFFIRM POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 

If we were to answer this question philosophically, these brief excerpts from the Thomist Norris Clarke on how we affirm knowledge of God will do :

"Step I . Affirmation of similitude between every creature and God. This is based on the bond of causal participation between creature and God. Every effect must in some way resemble its cause, because what the ef­fect has comes from its cause, and a cause cannot give what it does not have, at least in some equivalent higher way. Hence every positive per­fection in creatures must correspond to, derive from, some equivalent perfection in God (e.g., visual power in us from knowledge in God) . The bond of efficient causality is the indispensable bridge by which our minds can pass over the abyss between finite creatures and their Infinite Source. Deny this bridge, and all we can say about God is by way of sug­gestive metaphors, or direct religious experience which must remain in­ articulate or merely metaphorical. 

Step 2 . Purification of the resulting concept: the negative moment. How can we aptly express this similitude? We cannot directly apply every good quality in creatures to God literally, because many of these contain imperfections built into their very nature that are incompatible with in­ finite perfection. Hence we must take every attribute drawn from crea­tures and purify it by examining whether it contains any imperfection or limitation in its very meaning (e.g., all attributes implying something material, like vision, hearing, speed, etc.) . 

If it does, then it cannot survive the purifying process so as to be applied truthfully to the divine perfection. Only those attributes can survive which contain no imper­fection or finitude in their meaning, although they do contain such limitations as participated in us or other creatures. These are called "pure perfections" (as opposed to "mixed"), and can be affirmed as literally true of God, not merely metaphors. Thus we cannot say, "God has the best eyesight, or is the fastest runner," because these imply in their very meaning the imperfections of a material body. What does cor­ respond to this in God are the pure perfections of knowledge and omni­ presence, which contain no such limitations, "no ceiling," in their meaning. 

There are only a small number which can survive this purification process: e.g. existence, activity, unity, goodness, power, intelligence, will, love, and others derivative in some way from these or implied by them (justice, mercy, compassion, etc.) . Among these, love especially needs careful purification from connotations of desire for what one does not have, all bodily implications, 

Step 3 : Reaffirmation and application to God + the index of infinity. These purified perfections are now affirmed as necessarily present in God-otherwise he would be less perfect than we are-but with the added index of infinity, i.e., possession in an infinite degree, beyond our positive vision or grasp by human concepts, pointing to the ultimate Mystery, 

Can we put any more direct, quasi-experimental content into our knowledge of the divine Mystery as infinite …..?  I think so, by inserting what we do know positively about these attributes into the radical unrestricted drive of our intellect and will toward the infinite fullness of truth and good­ ness, which says of all finite realizations, "not enough, not enough." This yields an obscure but positive kind of knowing "through the heart, " so to speak, hidden in the very experience of longing, a knowledge through desire itself. If we can recognize the absence of something we must somehow dimly know in silhouette what we are looking for, as Plato pointed out long ago. 

Furthermore, it is frequently overlooked that this knowledge through longing contains implicitly a very precise item of knowledge about God that is essential for our religious relationshp of worship, ado­ ration: "God is the Number One in excellence in all these domains, wisdom, love, etc." This is indeed all we need to know for religious pur­poses, that God is supreme wisdom, love, power, etc., not precisely how he knows, loves, etc. in detail. Whatever his mode of possessing these, he remains, with total precision, uniquely No. 1 , with no rivals. 

Recall the stunning insight ofAngelus Silesius, the 17th century mystical poet: "The abyss in man cries out to the abyss in God; tell me, which is deeper?" In the complementary extremes of fullness and emptiness they must match; otherwise, we are not really longing for the only God there is."

- Clarke, One and the Many