The Unknown God: Negative Theology in the Platonic Tradition: Plato to Eriugena Paperback – January 26, 2015

This is not an easy read, but every hour invested is amply rewarded with insights that are intellectual (or sometimes even hyper-intellectual) gems. As I understand it, this book is based ultimately on work that Ms. Carabine did for her Ph.D. degrees in philosophy and classics. After a successful career in education management, she is now working on a sequel which will carry the story past John Scotus Eriugena as far as Martin Luther. I for one cannot wait.To address the elephant in the room: Yes, the text contains words and short phrases in ancient Greek. It also includes phrases and a few longer passages in the original Latin. It would be a crime to avoid this book for that reason.As an aside, I am tired of fellow native English speakers who demand that everything be handed to them on an English language plate. The world is a big place.Let's take the two languages one at a time. As for the ancient Greek excerpts: I am self-taught in ancient Greek and my level of proficiency is still quite elementary. But, as another reviewer has noted, many of the concepts should be kept in the original Greek because they do not translate well into English. No matter - in the 21st Century we are blessed with a veritable feast of materials on the Internet that, with a little effort, allow us to glimpse the many-faceted faces of any particular word in ancient Greek. I found the effort deepened my understanding; "may the road rise to meet you."As for the Latin excerpts: I studied Latin at school, so I took them in stride. Medieval Latin is easier to read than, say, the Cicero I struggled with (and admired) so many years ago. In this book, some of the passages in Latin are translated. Those that are not usually merely deepen your understanding of the English text that surrounds them; they illustrate what you have just read in English rather than introduce new ideas. Finally - again - the passages are not so long as to make it impracticable to translate them yourself using the Latin lexicons and usage guides readily available on the Internet. It would be good if Ms. Carabine would translate all longer Latin passages if she ever revises the text, but I would rather she spend her time working on the sequel to this volume.The Unknown God takes you on a guided tour through material that spans over a millennium. Most guides who attempt such a task get overwhelmed. Guides who can handle this kind of task well do not come along every day. Ms. Carabine is one of the few, and we are the better for it.

It should be mentioned that this book was originally published in 1995 and updated. It maintains its focus on the origins and growth of negative theology. A uniquely valuable work. Reviews the history as well as the current thinking on the subject. The clarity of her prose, the organization of her thoughts, and the breadth of her coverage are impressive. Precedes her later work on Eriugena.

I just finished this book and found it breathtaking.If you are interested in the deep stuff but are turned off by some of the blanket statements of the traditionalists, by the fluff of the pop spiritualists, and by the dry and almost condescending approach of scholars who have no sympathy for the subject, this book is the remedy. It’s a beautiful history of the ineffable divine in Western thought, by a very well-learned author who is at once meticulous with and enraptured by her topic. No forcing different views into one box, no New Age garbage, no long stretches of irrelevant historicism. This book is truly a treasure.

So if you ordered - say Thomas Taylor translation of Plotinus and thought - whoa....you could do no better than circle back and start over with this book. This book gave me the backstory on retroduction and the history of "Platonic" thinking.

Thank you very much! The best author, the best research!!!

In essence this book was first published in 1995, and the main reason for re-publication is the steady growth of interest both in philosophical circles and in theological circles since that date, in its prime subject. Negative Theology or apophasis is contrasted with katophasis or Affirmative Theology, but the concept while restricted here in terms of discussion, to the Platonic tradition from Plato to Eriugena, it is in fact much wider. St John of the Cross for example was the called the ‘doctor’ of the ‘way of negation, whereas arguably, Ficino – who speaks of ‘our divine Plato’, largely follows the katophatic tradition, while Carabine puts his contemporary Nicholas Cusanus on the apophatic side. Carabine includes Meister Eckhart – who one would not normally think of as a Platonist, who is on the apophatic side, as is Shankara – who she does not mention, of the Indian Adwaita Vedanta tradition, which is in essence apophatic. The phatika root denotes speech, and the apo – away from, and kato – towards, thus Plotinus can say:'For other things have their activity about the Good and because of the Good, but the Good needs nothing; therefore it has nothing but itself. Therefore, when you have said 'the Good' do not add anything to it in your mind, for if you add anything to it in your mind, for if you add anything, you will make it deficient by whatever you have added therefore you must not even add thinking, in order that you may not add something other than it and make two, intellect and Good. For Intellect needs the Good but the Good does not need it;’ (Ennead III 8:11 (12) Armstrong) Plotinus, she argues can be seen as both apophatic and katophatic.The book has a two part structure and her named exponents are treated of in chronological order so that the development of the approach to apophasis can be understood; the first part being Greek Apophesis – which starts with Plato, and the second Christian Apothesis – which ends with the Platonist Eriugena. A note by AH Armstrong - who Carabine thanks as a mentor, notes on the cover that ‘the author makes clear that none of the persons concerned, Hellenic, Jewish or Christian, was engaged in the pursuit of philosophical abstraction, or the heaping of rhetorical superlatives on God. They were rather concerned to present the origin of the universe as an intimately present living reality which transcends our thought and speech.’This is not a quick read, yet the writing is as lucid as her argument is thorough, and while she concedes that she has not read everything on the subject published during the 20 years between the two publications, the bibliographies reflect the chapter subjects for the two halves of the book, but does suggest that the reader might read on with John Caputo and Denys Turner. For anyone interested in another way of looking at the Platonic tradition, and the contrast between two quite different ways of talking about God, which is still being debated today, this book offers much food for reflection. Warmly recommended.

A reasonably clear overview of Platonic influences in negative theology. Be aware, though, that Carabine depends on drawing ontological distinctions via the original Greek terms which, for the most part, she leaves in the Greek alphabet. This I can live with, because the distinctions are subtle and do not translate well. However she also has a tendency to reproduce large chunks of Latin with no translation. There is no good reason for doing this; particularly when she is not consistent and does provide some Latin translations. Translating all these passages & relegating the Latin to the footnotes would have made the whole thing considerably more reader-friendly.

I'm not really going to add to the other review here but simply back it up. This book provides an excellent overview of two "trajectories" of negative theology, firstly from Plato through to the Middle Platonists and finding it fullest expression in Plotinus and Proclus, and secondly from Philo of Alexandria through to Gregory of Nyssa, (somewhat surprisngly) Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius and Eriugena.

Arrived in great condition and fast. The package was open however, so luckily the contents were not of a private nature!!!

One of the best books out there on negative theology.