Negative Theology in the Works of Pseudo-Dionysius

One of the important subjects of the philosophy of religion is the religious language. This subject was introduced in the early theological and mystical books, prior to the modern works of the philosophy of religion. Pseudo-Dionysius is one of the early thinkers who has systematically surveyed the subject in his books. For talking about God he prefers the negative language to affirmative one. Pseudo-Dionysius believes that the negative language is the language of intelligiblerealities thus when a person, in his spiritual journey, comes up to the state of the intelligible realities he begins to pray God by negative language. Therefore for Pseudo-Dionysius the negative theology is related to a special stage of knowledge. However he ascribes negative language to intelligible manifestations of God, not to the God’s essence. He describes intelligible and hidden manifestations of God as "Super–existence" and for him it is not reasonable to talk about "Super–existence" in an earthy way. For this reason negative language is the best way to talk about God.