Via-Negativa

“God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?.” – Numbers 23:19 I remember being taught in seminary that, when describing God, it’s okay to use the ancient method of via negativa. You can get closer to understanding God by identifying who He is not, rather than by trying to define who He is. It’s like Michelangelo said: the way to reveal the statue is by removing everything that is not the statue—then, David appears. Similarly, much of understanding God comes from affirming that God is not hateful, not unjust, not absent, and not our enemy. Defining who God is—and who we are—often comes from declaring what we will not do. By saying, “I do not do this. This is not who I am,” we shape our hearts