Ep. 4 - Positive & Negative Divine Names

Quotation:

John 4:24 
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

St. Thomas, On Separate Substances (De substantiis) c 19.
“Scripture habitually designates something [to be] incorporeal through the name spirit.”

Key Takeaways:

1. Holy Scripture makes us to say many names/predicates about God. The first and most fundamental distinction that organizes all divine names is whether we affirm or negate these predicates of God, saying either "God is [insert predicate]" or "God is not [insert predicate]."

2. A Positive Divine Name is an affirmation about God. For example, "God is love." "God is wise." "God is good." etc.

3. A Negative Divine Name is a negation about God. For example, "God is not a body." "God is not finite." "God is not composed of parts." etc.

4. In theology and in Holy Scripture, many negative names are stated periphrastically (rephrased/restated) in positive terms. For example, "God is a spirit" sounds like a positive name, but it is actually identical in meaning to the negation, "God is not a body."

5. We must be careful then to not "positivize" our negative names. We must remember that saying "God is not a body" or "God is incorporeal" or "God is a spirit," are all identical in meaning and are negative names that tell us nothing about God except what He is not.

For further reading on Incorporeality: https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~ST.I.Q3.A1

https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~SCG1.C20