PT Journal
AU Duclow, FD
TI Charles de Bovelles on God, Nihil and Negative Theology
SO Aither
PY 2020
BP 24
EP 38
VL 12
IS 1
DI 10.5507/aither.2020.003
AB In Liber de nihilo Charles de Bovelles probes the meanings of 'nihil / nothing' in several registers: semantic, logical, metaphysical/theological, and symbolic. Yet a consistent concern is the relation of 'nihil' to God and creation, since God reportedly creates "ex nihilo." This essay focuses on the work's concluding chapters, where Bovelles analyzes the dialectic of affirmation and negation in naming God. Here 'nihil' ends a descending series of affirmative divine names, "truly proclaiming and mysteriously announcing that nothing is God (nihil esse deus)." 'Nihil' then becomes the first term denied of God in an ascending series of negations, which culminates in denying all divine names and a "learned ignorance" that signals a turn to mystical theology. The essay considers Bovelles's mathematics and logic, and compares his analysis with its source, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite's Mystical Theology, and its interpretation by Nicholas of Cusa.
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