Krista E. Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230815
- eISBN:
- 9780823235087
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823230815.003.0017
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Apophasis is not simply about mystery, but also primarily about language. Thus, a feminist theology of apophasis also needs to ask how it might best express the ...
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Apophasis is not simply about mystery, but also primarily about language. Thus, a feminist theology of apophasis also needs to ask how it might best express the ineffability of embodied intimacy. The testimonies of the medieval women mystics, supplemented by Hélène Cixous's apophatic confession, together inspire a distinctively feminist contribution to the theological question of apophasis: an apophatics of sensible love that flows from the mysteries of intimacy rather than just foreignness. This chapter traces the contours of what that contribution might be, including a consideration of what kind of apophatic “practice” might best express such a sensible apophasis. It suggests that constructive theologians might strive to cultivate, in Elliot R. Wolfson's words, a certain “speaking away” that springs as much from the sensible, and its loves and delights, as from the invisible and untouchable.Less
Apophasis is not simply about mystery, but also primarily about language. Thus, a feminist theology of apophasis also needs to ask how it might best express the ineffability of embodied intimacy. The testimonies of the medieval women mystics, supplemented by Hélène Cixous's apophatic confession, together inspire a distinctively feminist contribution to the theological question of apophasis: an apophatics of sensible love that flows from the mysteries of intimacy rather than just foreignness. This chapter traces the contours of what that contribution might be, including a consideration of what kind of apophatic “practice” might best express such a sensible apophasis. It suggests that constructive theologians might strive to cultivate, in Elliot R. Wolfson's words, a certain “speaking away” that springs as much from the sensible, and its loves and delights, as from the invisible and untouchable.
