Jan Miernowski

Le Dieu Neant: Theologies Negatives a L'aube Temps Modernes (Studies in the History of Christian Thought) Jan Miernowski

This is a study of the diverse intellectual possibilities presented to medieval and Renaissance intellectuals by the negative theology of pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. It deals specifically with the ontological, epistemological and semiotic aspects of interpretations of Dionysian philosophy developed by such thinkers as Thomas Aquinas, Ficino, Cusanus and Bovelles. It also attempts to differentiate between the negative theology specific to Dionysius, and those elements of negative thinking peculair to Hermetism and the Christian Cabala. This analysis of negative theology seeks to shed new light on the differences between major intellectual currents of European philosophy (scholasticism, Italian Neoplatonism, German and French mysticism, occultism), while introducing distinctions into the history of the Dionysian tradition itself.