Light Unapproachable

How can finite creatures know an infinite God? How does limited knowledge impact what we can say of God? Retrieving and constructing important insight from Scripture and key patristic, medieval, early modern, and modern theologians, Ronni Kurtz presents a rich analysis of the doctrine of divine incomprehensibility. Our theological language, says Kurtz, cannot capture the full mystery of God. However, our inability to see God in his totality should not lead us to despair. Through God's gracious accommodation, we can learn to speak of God faithfully, truthfully, and prayerfully. Kurtz's dialogue with varying traditions to unpack divine accommodation reminds us that theologians in all ages have wrestled with what we can and cannot say of God.

Ronni Kurtz (PhD, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is an assistant professor of theology at Cedarville University. He is also the author of No Shadow of Turning: Divine Immutability and the Economy of Redemption and the Fruitful Theology: How the Life of the Mind Leads to the Life of the Soul.

Part 1: Introduction, Antiquity, and the Biblical Data 1. Introducing the Doctrine of Divine Incomprehensibility 2. Divine Incomprehensibility in the Biblical Data 3. Divine Incomprehensibility in Theological Antiquity, Part One: The Anomoean Controversy and the Early Church 4. Divine Incomprehensibility in Theological Antiquity, Part Two: From Pseudo-Dionysius to Modernity Part 2: Divine Incomprehensibility and the Task of Theology 5. Implications from Ontology: The Creator-Creature Distinction 6. Implications of Language and Knowledge: Accommodation, Analogy, and the Archetype 7. Implications of Posture: The Necessity of Theological Humility Appendix: Working Theses on Incomprehensibility and Theological Method: Principles for Knowing and Naming the Incomprehensible God