현대 기독교철학의 동향 부정신학(否定神學)의 논리(論理) -위(僞)Dionysius Areopagita의 경우- = The Logic of the Negative Theology in the Case of Ps.-Dionysius Areopagita

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Although De mystica theologia, ascribed to Ps.-Dionysius Areopagita, is widely acknowledged as the beginning of the Christian mysticism, its content and method of explication show clear philosophical way of thinking and logical way of argumentation. Although the goal of the work is to explicate God`s essence as ``mystic``, its way of explication do not rely on describing any mystical experiences. It rather follows sound rules of logical thinking and philosophical speculation. This paper undertakes to summarize how this is done and what are the logical structure of the author`s argumentation in some steps as follows. 1. It is not Dionysius` intention in this work to proof God`s existence but to explicate God`s essence. 2. All the human experiences and all the linguistic expressions, knowledges, and judgments are in principle related or refer to beings in and of this world as a whole. All the human statements, judgments, and assertions concerning the essence and attribute of any being are either affirmative or negative. 3. On the other hand, all the linguistic expressions and statements about God`s essence and properties can be only negative. For He is the creator of all creatures, including all beings of theworld and also the world itself, and it means that the creator must be the absolute other and the absolute transcendence to all the worldly beings. Therefore, the creator doesn`t have any identity in common with any creature, and any knowledge, judgment, and assertions that are applicable to creatures are not applicable to the creator. 4. The negative ways of understanding and negative forms of assertions that would be applicable to the absolute other should go through dialectical processes and must reach to the absolute negation. I. e., the absolute negation will not be accomplished by a selection between a positive and a negative judgment. It rather could only be accomplished when both the positive and the negative as well are negated. Only through this process of absolute negation we could leave all the creatures behind us, and then we could near to the creator himself. 5. In parallel with his negative theology, Dionysius allows, on the one hand, symbolic and affirmative theology as alternatives to the negative theology. On the other hand, he opens with his negative theology a new way of Christian faith and spiritual experience that could be initiated by the perception that God Himself is mystic secret itself. 6. Dionysius` negative theology, including concepts of the absolute other, the absolute transcendence, and the absolute negation, can be appreciated as a theoretical and philosophical attempt to interpret the biblical revelation, the Christian theism, and God` ``creatio ex nihilo``. He certainly is influenced in many aspects by early Greek philosophers. Nevertheless, his mystic and negative theology has explicated the Christian theism and biblical concept of the creation in such a logically convincing way that they in no way might be assimilated to the materialisticconcept of arche by the Ionian natural philosophers, the creation of the universe by Plato`s demiourgos, the emanation theory conceived by Gnostics and Neoplatonists, or any kind of pantheistic world-view.