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Divine Incomprehensibility and the Language of Theology
“For my ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways above your ways.” Is 55:8-9
In Exodus 33, Moses petitions the Lord on Mount Sinai: “Please, show me your glory.” The Lord responds, “I will cause all my goodness to pass before you, and I will proclaim my name before you… but you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Exod. 33:18–19).
In Theology class professor Kurtz asked, “How can we behold the God who, by nature, cannot be seen?“. It was evident that the course would not merely rehearse abstract doctrine, but would press into the central paradoxes of Christian theology. Theology class would begin with the doctrine of Divine Incomprehensibility and language.
The Incomprehensible God
Divine Incomprehensibility is the doctrine that begins God’s attributes. God cannot be comprehended with our finite minds. God is entirely different. He is “Holy” and set apart from everything and everyone. God is the Creator and the entire universe is His creation. He is Spirit, and does not have form or substance. His entire being, His essence is completely obscure from ability to understand and know. There is no comparing God with anything in the created order, He dwells in unapproachable light. No man may see His face and live. So if this is the case, how can we possibly have a course in Theology and use words to convey meaning that would bring any kind of knowledge about God to bear upon our minds and hearts?
The Language of Theology
So because God in incomprehensible, He is also ineffable. In God’s Word He says to us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts your thoughts.” (Is 55:8-9) We are a people of language, we use language to convey meaning. This is something God has graciously given us to communicate truth. In acedamia, there are three philosophical types of language that we use to explain (or do a poor job of explaning) are univocal, equivocal, and analogical language.
Univocal Language
Univocal language is used when a word has the same meaning in each case. An example of this is saying something like “The whale is a mammal and a human being is a mammal.” The word mammal is being used that has equal definition to both objects. But the problem we run into when we use univocal language to describe God is it never works. To equate our “thoughts” with God’s “thoughts” on any level would be an injustice to the character of God. This type of behavior is seen today in all false religions, it is the starting point of all idolatry, and it’s the surest way to fall into grave error when speaking about the character of God.
Equivocal Language
Equivocal language occurs when the same word is used with entirely different and unrelated meanings. If taken this way in theology, it would make true understanding of God impossible.. This is taking the doctrine of divine incomprehensibility to it’s further and erroneous end. The end result that says that we cannot know anything about God and therefore one should give up trying to use words to convey any attribution to God.
Left to our own devices, and on our own we can begin to feel the desperation. Yet at the same time we have not been left to our own devices, and there is one more language that helps us “apprehend” this Incomprehensible One.
It is important to understand how language works logically, because both of these philosophical language modes cannot possibly describe God in a way that we can apprehend him, and does harm to thoughtful considerations of how we can use theology to describe God and His economy. Either we will bring God to be more like us which is the gravest form of idolatry. Or we will not find any language at all helpful when discussing God and His attributes. But God in His lovingkindness given us another means of using language to help better discuss him.
Analogical Language
Let us reconsider the following verse: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways above your ways” (Isaiah 55:9). The language used here to describe how we may apprehend God is called analogical language. Analogical language conveys truth about realities beyond direct experience by employing comparisons that are partly similar and partly transcendent. The term “above” and the imagery invoked in this verse provide a reference point—a starting place for understanding God. How high are the heavens above the earth? Technically, the distance is incalculable, yet the comparison gives us a sense of just how infinitely greater this incomprehensible God is.
In Theology, how we use language is of extreme importance. God has graciously revealed Himself in His Word, yet we can only glimpse a fraction of His perfect nature.. Let us be wise with our mouths, let us humble ourselves to see our weakness. Let’s start theology with a sense of awe, wonder, and dread. Let us take what we’ve learned from this brief introduction to language and begin our study of Theology with the following verse:
“Our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12:29)
