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Negative Attributes in the Church Fathers and the Gnostic Basilides*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

H. A. Wolfson
H. A. Wolfson
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

By the time the Fathers of the Church began to offer negation as a solution of the problem of divine attributes, the theory of negative attributes had already been dealt with by Philo, Albinus, and Plotinus. All three of them, starting with the assumption that God is ineffable, found that one way of describing God was by means of negative attributes. In their treatment of this type of attributes, however, there is a difference between Philo on the one hand and Albinus and Plotinus on the other.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , April 1957 , pp. 145 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1957

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References

1 Cf. my Philo, II, p. 98 ff., 126 ff.

2 Ibid., pp. 130 ff.

3 Cf. my paper “Albinus and Plotinus on Divine Attributes,” Harvard Theological Review, 45 (1952), 115–130CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Enn. VI, 9, 3 (ed. E. Bréhier, 11. 42, 44).

5 Ibid. VI, 9, 6 (48–49).

6 Ibid. V, 6, 6 (31 ff.).

7 Ibid. V, 5, 13 (5).

8 Ibid. VI, 9, 6(40).

9 Didaskalikos, X, 5 (ed. Fr. Dübner, p. 239, 11. 19–23; ed. P. Lewis, p. 61).

10 Cf. “Albinus and Plotinus on Divine Attributes,” op. cit., pp. 118–119.

11 Euclid, Elements, I, Def. 1.

12 Immut. 11, 54.

13 Sacr. 30, 101.

14 Strom. V, 1168 (PG 9, 104 AB).

15 Ibid. V, 1171 (108 B-109 A). On this analogy between Clement and Albinus, see Chadwick, H., Origen: Contra Celsum VII, 42 (1953), p. 429Google Scholar, n. 4.

16 Ibid. (109 A).

17 Metaph. V, 6, 1016b, 25.

18 De Anima et Resurrectione (PG 46, 40 B).

19 Cont. Eunom. XII (PG 45, 953 BC).

20 Ibid. (1104 B).

21 Ibid. (1104 D-1105 A).

22 Cf. below at nn. 52–57.

23 Cont. Eunom. XII (1105 A).

24 Ibid. (953 D).

25 De Divinis Nominibus I, 5 (PG 3, 593 B).

26 Ibid. (593 BC).

27 De Mystica Theologia IV (PG 3, 1040 D).

28 De Divin. Nomin. 1, 1 (PG 3, 588 B).

29 Ibid. I, 2 (588 C).

30 De Fide Orthodoxa I, 4 (PG 94, 800 B).

31 Ibid. I, 12 (845 C).

32 Ibid. I, 9 (837 A B).

33 De Myst. Theol. I, 2 (1000 B).

34 De Divin. Nomin. II, 4 (641 A).

35 Ibid. II, 3 (640 B).

36 De Fide Orth. I, 4 (800 B).

37 Ibid. I, 12 (845 C D).

38 De Myst. Theol. IV (1040 D).

39 Cf. Philo, II, pp. 133 ff.

40 Cf. “Albinus and Plotinus on Divine Attributes,” op. cit., pp. 121 ff.

41 De Divin. Nomin. I, 5 (593 C D); De Myst. Theol. I, 2 (1000 B), et passim.

42 De Divin. Nomin. II, 3 (640 B).

43 De Myst. Theol. III (1033 A).

44 De Fide Orth. I, 12 (848 A).

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid. I, 12 (848 B); cf. I, 9 (836 A).

47 Ibid. (848 B); cf. I, 4 (800 C).

48 Hippolytus, Refutatio Omnium Haeresium VII, 20, 3 (ed. P. Wendland).

49 Metaph. IV, 2, 1004a, 10–16.

50 Alexander in Metaphysica, ed. M. Hayduck, p. 327, ll. 18–20.

51 Categ. 10, 12a, 27–34.

52 Ibid. 10, 12a, 31–34.

53 Phys. III, 5, 204a, 13–14; V, 2, 206b, 10–11; Metaph. XI, 10, 1066a, 36.

54 Metaph. XIV, 2, 1089b, 35–36.

55 Ibid. V, 6, 1016b, 30.

56 Phys. III, 2, 202a, 4–5.

57 Cf. my paper “Infinite and Privative Judgments in Aristotle, Averroes, and Kant,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 8 (1947), 173–187CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

58 Cf. Philo, II, pp. 110 ff.

59 Hippolytus, op. cit. VII, 20, 5; cf. Categ. 1, 1a, 1–6.

60 Cf. my papers “Maimonides on Negative Attributes,” Louis Ginzberg Jubilee Volume, 1945, pp. 411–446, “Maimonides and Gersonides on Divine Attributes as Ambiguous Terms,” Mordecai M. Kaplan Jubilee Volume, 1953, pp. 515–530.

61 Sum. Theol. I, 13, 2c; cf. Cont. Gent. I, 33.

62 Milhamot Adonai III, 3.