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Denying Divinity: Apophasis in the Patristic Christian and Soto Zen Buddhist Traditions By J. P. Williams Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000. 249 pp. $65.00.
"We are all negative theologians now," it has been remarked. This remarkable book makes an important contribution to the current, lively debate about negative theology. Even more, through its comparison of perhaps the most significant expression of apophatic theology within the Christian tradition with parallel notions in one of the traditions of SinoJapanese Zen Buddhism, it also explores possible engagement between Christianity and Buddhism-and does this, not in generalities, but by closely argued analysis of two highly articulate traditions within these two religions. Central to Williams's analyses is the conviction that the apophatic is not identical with the negative: Neither of the traditions examined is concerned with negation in simple opposition to affirmation. Apophasis transcends both affirmation and negation, refuting in both any possible attainment of understanding beyond the limitation of conceptual analysis.
Williams first sets the scene in each religion, before turning to the specific thinkers with which she engages: on the Christian side, the probably sixth-century Dionysios (or Pseudo-Dionysios) the Areopagite and the seventh-century...