In 2005 J. Vrin of Paris published a book destined to be a classic in the increasingly rich literature on negative theology. Thierry-Dominique Humbrecht O.P. is the author of Theologie Negative et Noms Divins Chez Saint Thomas D'Aquin (negative theology and the divine names in st. thomas aquinas). Below I have imperfectly translated the blurb he wrote on the back of the book.
"Negative Theology attempts to designate all we are unable to say about God. Do the perfections attributed to God (like being, goodness, wisdom etc.) truly reach God or should they be left aside? Are they the locus for a work of speculation or rather for a mystical union in the ineffable? Why is the vocabulary of “negative theology” absent from so many authors?
Negative theology has become the object of renewed research. The [study of] Platonism and its reception, of the medieval authors, and above all the Heideggarian reading of the history of metaphysics have run together [in this direction.]
Is there a negative theology in St. Thomas’ work and, if so, of what kind? “Concerning God, we do not know what God is but only what God is not”. This Thomistic formula which has become emblematic comes from Plotinus. So is Thomas original? To know, we must situate him among his contemporaries.
Furthermore ,the danger is to consider only some famous texts instead of considering how they fit in the [various] works and how each work fits in his whole corpus.
A study of the whole remains to be done.
God, says Thomas is “completely unknown” to us. However his negative theology seems rather to be a negative way, an ensemble of negative modalities which function to correct and confirm the primacy of positive predication of the divine perfections."
