THE GOD OF SILENCE: AN ANALYSIS ON THE INCAPABILITY OF
LANGUAGE IN DESCRIBING GOD
A Research Paper presented and compiled
As part of the requirements in the fulfilment of the subject
Metaphysics
ALEXEIS EMMANUEL F. GELVERIO
October 2017
ABSTRACT
This paper claims that God cannot be described in mere words but rather by silence in
itself, since language is a product of human innovation that will only reveal God’s utter
incomprehensibility. It explains the idea of the “God of Silence” by experiencing the “Dark Night
of the Soul” where man ascends the mountain, motivated by love, to encounter God. It debunks
the negative connotation of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’ preposition
that says that what man cannot speak about must be pass over in silence. Through Gregory of
Nyssa’s idea of God’s incomprehensibility, it makes a rebuttal that even if language lacks the
capacity to define God, man can understand God through and in silence. It means to value silence
as perennial in defining and meditating the concept of God that is hard to grasp as a human being,
since the concept is infinite while the human mind is finite. The method used in this paper is a
hermeneutical analysis in nature since it deals with the idea of the God of Silence. It also utilizes
the Kantian Transcendental Method where one gets knowledge from the texts presented by the
philosophers as a source of knowledge in themselves. The paper discusses the idea of the “God of
Silence” in which man is uncappable of describing or speaking of God totally but doesn’t mean
that God cannot be partially grasped by man. The paper is significantly relevant since it deals with
the core topics of metaphysics, the study of man as a being and a Transcendent God that can be
found and be defined by silence. The researcher recommends further discussions on the
relationship and relevance of analytic philosophy and the Medieval-Christian philosophical
thoughts as integral in developing further studies in connection with the relevance of Catholic
teaching of God and the importance of silence now and beyond.
Key Words: God of Silence, Dark Night of the Soul, Silence, God’s incomprehensibility,
language
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Chapter 1
Introduction
“As we await you, O God of Silence, we embrace your holy night.” This is a part of the
lyrics of the song “Holy Darkness”, a song composed by Dan Schutte, inspired by the work “Dark
Night of the Soul” by the great mystic Saint John of the Cross, a Carmelite religious priest. It is
fittingly enough to start this paper concerned with the metaphysical aspect of the hiddenness of
God as revealed in silence, since no amount of subtle description can describe God as in his
fullness, but to take note that this not delimit the usage of language to describe God even in
partiality and not the reality of who he is, of what he is, and of what does it be like him.
What do silence really mean? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2017),
silence is the absence of either sound nor noise. In the Bible, there is an instance in where God
was revealed himself to Elijah in silence. According to the account that can be found in 1 Kings
19:11-13, it was mentioned that there was earthquake, a strong wind, and fire, but after it, there
comes a period of sheer silence that envelop the place.
In an article of Feinberg (2002) in Christianity Today entitled “Listening for God’s voice”,
she said that God doesn't always shout to get man’s attention, but rather in still silence. In
connection with what happened to Elijah, she said that Elijah heard a gentle whisper and he knew
it was the Lord. He got up, stood at the opening of the cave and hid his face with his coat. (p.1)
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Silence plays a perennial role in knowing and understanding God. In an article in
faithgateway by Ortberg (2003) entitled “Joyful Confidence in God: The Dark Night of the Soul”,
he mentioned that the dark night of the soul, as John of the Cross said, is not simply the experience
of suffering. It is suffering in what feels like the silence of God. But there will come a time when
God will bid those who have gone undergoing this dark night of the soul to grow deeper. He will
remove the previous consolation of the soul in order to teach it virtue through silence (para. 3).
Before relating Silence into God, it should be the primarily focused of this research paper
to define or at least give some insights about ‘God’. Many philosophers, down from the ancient,
coming from the different worlds of philosophy, give a basic description of that “God”, even in
the sense that it sprang up different debates and argumentative discourse among different thinkers
of the ages. Theism seems to be dominant in western philosophy, most especially during the
Medieval period of philosophy, where thinkers from the Christian, Jewish, and even Islamic
traditions, such as Gregory of Nyssa, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Augustine of Hippo, Anselm
of Canterbury, Moses Maimonides, Hasdai Crescas, Averroes, Avicenna, and many different
others that makes necessary logical propositions that proves the existence of a ‘Supreme Being’,
rooted in the study of ultimate being and what is beyond reality, ontology and metaphysics in
general, respectively.
There exists another group of thinkers that criticizes those medieval theologianphilosophers, so to say, because of their different reasoning that God do exists, basing it on
propositions rooted in one’s personal faith in a ‘God’ that is the primary source and cause of all
things. Those philosophers are known as atheist, coming from the Greek word ‘athos’ and ‘theos’
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that means ‘no god’. Personages such as David Hume, Bertrand Russell, Richard Rorty, Arthur
Schopenhauer, Julia Kristeva, and many other philosophers that proposes the existence of God as
invalid and not worthy of any philosophical studies since it ultimately deals with something
beyond incomprehensible of the finitude of the human reasoning.
Since in the beginning it is mentioned that the paper speaks of God, it is rightly to introduce
in the related literatures below one of the foremost Patristic philosopher who gained a significant
insight about God.
Gregory of Nyssa is a Patristic philosopher that belongs to the Medieval period of
philosophy. According to Mondin (1991), in his book A History of Mediaeval Philosophy,
described Gregory of Nyssa as “primarily a philosopher who wished to consider the variety of
arguments which others willfully restricted to the sphere of theological inquiry, inasmuch to
distinguish philosophy from theology.” (pp.128-129)
Much of Gregory of Nyssa’s writings are centered in cosmology, anthropology, and
theology. In an article in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Donald Ross mentioned that
Gregory’s concept of God is born out of the Arian controversy that postulated that Christ was
subordinate to God the Father. Arianism’s best speaker is Eunomius of Cyzicus, who argued for
Arianism on strictly philosophical grounds. On the other hand, Gregory of Nyssa, used
philosophical argumentation and the Scriptures by saying that one cannot predicate God. God is
incomprehensible; thus, it is presumptuous in the extreme to suppose that God can be defined by
set of human concepts (para 8, 9).
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Edward Hardy (2008) mentioned Gregory of Nyssa as a Christian Neo-Platonist that
followed the great Alexandrian theologian Origen. He shared Origen’s conviction that man’s
material nature is a result of the fall and also Origen’s hope for ultimate universal salvation. In
imitation of Plato’s Phaedo, Gregory presented his teaching on resurrection in the form of a
deathbed conversation with his sister, the abbess Macrina (para. 4).
Frederick Copleston, SJ (1993) mentioned that Gregory of Nyssa’s idea of ‘darkness’
envelops on God since it is primarily transcendence of divine essence. Human mind, in itself, can
never comprehend God, because God is transcendence in himself (p.36).
Even the Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI (2007) praised Gregory of Nyssa in two of his
General Audience Catechism. According to him, when man have God, when man loves God,
through that reciprocity which belongs to the law of love he wants what God himself wants; hence,
he cooperates with God in fashioning the divine image in himself, so that man’s spiritual birth is
the result of a free choice, and are in a certain way man’s own parents, creating themselves as they
themselves wish to be, and through the will forming themselves in accordance with the model that
they choose. To ascend to God, man must be purified: "The way that leads human nature to Heaven
is none other than detachment from the evils of this world. (para. 3)
On the other hand, Ludwig Wittgenstein, as Duncan Richter (2017) defined him in his
article in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is one of the most influential philosophers of
the twentieth century, especially because of his work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which was
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the only philosophical work that he published in his entire lifetime. The Tractatus is based on the
idea that philosophical problems arise from misunderstandings of the logic of language, and it tries
to show what this logic is. (para. 1)
The Tractatus is influential, not only in the field of analytic philosophy, but also in
connection with the development of studies with regards to philosophy of language, mathematics,
and even symbolic logic alike. The magnum opus of Wittgenstein is considered as an analysis and
re-evaluation of the philosophy that widely depend on language and logic in arguing one’s
proposition or belief that is and can be a basic foundation of knowledge or a justified true belief
(JTB).
At the end of his Tractatus, in Wittgenstein’s (2001, trans. McGuinness & Pears) seventh
(7th) proposition, it was quietly noted that he said that whatever man cannot speak about must be
pass over in silence (p. 89). This small, yet symbolically important can start numerous number of
arguments and discourses whether Wittgenstein believed in the relevance of metaphysics and its
subjects in the course of time.
Joost W. Hengstmengel (2010) said that Wittgenstein believes language is used to express
one’s thoughts. These thoughts are actually logical pictures of the world; the world comprising the
totality of facts that describe the way objects are connected to each other such that they form a
state of affairs. Objects in turn are the non-composite and unalterable substance of reality that
together determine all possible state of affairs. A logical picture of facts may represent existing or
non-existing state of affairs, but should be compared with reality to determine its trueness or
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falseness; a thought is true when it agrees with reality and vice versa. The same holds for language,
according to him, which is defined by Wittgenstein as an expression of thoughts in propositions.
The configuration of the most primitive parts of language, namely names, should correspond to
the configuration of objects in order to be true. To understand the sense of a proposition thus means
to know what is the case in reality (p.2)
Ștefan Vlăduțescu (2014) said that Wittgenstein’s definition of silence is a type of linguistic
silence. Silence defines itself as a place of language games in which the meaning of the word is
given by its usage in the discourse. “Silence manifests in many forms”, the form that illustrates
Wittgenstein is linguistic silence. (para.1, abstract).
On the other hand, the author wishes now to elaborate on Wittgenstein’s conception of God
in relationship with his silence. In a journal article in Philosophy by Brian Davies (1980), he said
that Wittgenstein view of God is ‘reductionist’ in nature (p.105). Reductionism according to
Doniger (1999) refers to several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between
phenomena which can be described in terms of other phenomena, the latter of which are considered
in some manner simpler or more fundamental (p. 911).
In an article of Jeffrey Web (2017) in Christianity History Institute, he mentioned that
Wittgenstein’s conception of God is like that of a War. As the war dragged on, Wittgenstein
suffered inner torment, describing one day as “An assortment of horrible tortures. An exhausting
march, one night spent coughing, a party of drunks, a society of common and stupid people. Do
good and be pleased with your virtue. I’m sick and have had a bad life.” But prayer and reflection
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brought a measure of comfort: he concluded the entry, “God help me. I’m a poor unhappy man.
God hear me and grant me your peace! Amen.” (para. 7).
In fact, according to Hobson Theo (2014), many Christian leaders had read Ludwig
Wittgenstein and one of it is Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate
of the Anglican Communion. He mentioned the relationship of the philosophy of language with
theology, in reference to Wittgenstein’s view of language. He therefore argues that there is a sort
of wisdom in language, when carefully attended to: it teaches us to affirm our dependence and
finitude, and it leads us towards acceptance of linguistic difficulty (or ‘mystery’), and silence. or
these things are aspects of how complex meaning is made, rather than just deficiencies. One learns
to be patiently attentive to such strange, challenging forms of communication when one grasps
that ‘there is no level of representation to which all others can be reduced’ (para. 8).
This paper is an attempt of developing a descriptive analysis on the role of language in
describing God as the greatest conceivable being, together with its strengths and limits to
determine whether it is necessary for God to be talked about or not. It focusses on the claim of the
researcher that God cannot be described in just mere words but rather by silence in itself.
The following questions would guide the discussions that shall be used in this research
paper:
•
What is the religious belief of Wittgenstein and Gregory of Nyssa about
God?
•
•
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What is the role of silence in defining God?
Can one really define God through and in silence?
On this claim, it holds on the propositions of Ludwig Wittgenstein about silence and Gregory of
Nyssa’s idea about the nature of God that is far beyond any human understanding. The paper
maintains that God is necessary, as he is the ultimate ‘Being’ in the metaphysical reality, but it
also likes to acknowledge that our knowledge or any innovation of man is not enough to explain
God totally as he is.
Theoretical Framework
GREGORY OF NYSSA’S CONCEPT
OF GOD’S INCOMPREHENSIBILITY
Our language limits us to describe who
God is. God’s nature is incomprehensible.
Therefore, God is undefined in terms of
language, but it doesn’t mean that man
cannot grasp at least
certain
reality about
Significance
of the
Study
God.
LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN’S
CONCEPT OF SILENCE
What must be known must be pass over in
silence.
Possibly, we can define God in and
through Silence.
“GOD OF SILENCE”
Significance of the Study
The study is significant since it tries to describe the incomprehensibility of God in the
language that man uses. It also refers God as the “God of Silence” and silence as the ultimate
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identity and definition of God. The paper is significantly relevant in the study of metaphysics as it
tries to relate metaphysics with the contemporary period that has often characterized metaphysics
as a highly abstractive but not absurd subject of philosophy. It also makes God relevant during
these times and talks about him can necessitate and facilitate points of reflection for metaphysics,
theodicy, an even natural theology. This paper is in line with the research thrust of Saint Paul
Seminary since it deals with Christian philosophy that deals with the idea of Gregory of Nyssa, a
Patristic Philosopher and Church Father. It also deals with the philosophy of language of Ludwig
Wittgenstein and of its hermeneutical analysis of his statement. Furthermore, it has the idea that
the Divine Being is necessary in living one’s everyday life.
Scope and Limitation
The paper itself provides a hermeneutical analysis of language and resorting to silence as
a possible way of reference and definition towards God. The metaphysical aspect of describing
God and silence seems to be impossible and definite to describe. This paper is an attempt to give
and describe Silence as essential for knowing God which can be and could be found there. Since
language plays a role in defining, the paper hopes to use simple language proposition as description
about silence and the concept of the ͂God of Silence.̓
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Chapter 2
Methodology
Method
The study is qualitative in nature since it deals with a hermeneutical analysis of language
in describing God and resulting towards silence as the best possible way for humankind to
understand God which is incomprehensible by his very own nature. It also uses the KantianTranscendental method of analysis since it tries to discover through a thorough textual analysis of
the texts, both from Wittgenstein and Gregory of Nyssa in order to analyze the use and the
incapacity of language in describing or giving definition of God; thus, resulting to silence as the
best definition of God.
Corpus of the study
The entirety of the study is to carry out the concept of God that can be and in silence. This
paper presents the powerlessness of language in describing the infinity concept of God, of who he
is, of what he is, but it doesn’t delimit itself that God cannot be talked anymore or rather one should
forget God. On the other hand, a person’s mind just grasped something but not the entirety of the
manifoldness of God, since to talk about God’s attributes and essence is far beyond the capacity
of human reason to interpret.
The paper wishes to answer the following questions above in order to arrive at the
conclusion that God alone can be defined by silence, in silence, and through silence. Since the
paper is an analysis of language in the indescribability of God, it hopes to use simple language in
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defining God by the means of the word ‘silence’. The discussion will cover both the concept of
Wittgenstein and Gregory of Nyssa about silence, God, and language respectively.
This research does not include other issues such as the ambiguity of language in giving
other definitions since the paper deals with the metaphysical aspect of God as indescribable by any
form of language, but doesn’t mean that man cannot talk about him. The paper will include some
biblical texts, since mostly of Gregory of Nyssa’s concept can be said rooted in the Bible. The
paper can be a bit of theological discussion, since the researcher will deal on the Patristic
philosophy which characterizes philosophy as the handmaid of theology.
The research also reserves the right to defend the proposition of Wittgenstein as a type of
‘pro-God’ concept rather than the opposite of it, since it is the goal of this research paper to
eliminate the negative conception that Wittgenstein is an atheist or an agnostic, but he is rather a
believer of God who wanted that God be subject to his proper place where he is beyond any all
human reasoning, but not to the point of denying the existence of a Supreme Being that is far
beyond man’s capacity to think.
Data Gathering
This research utilizes data coming from different books, journals, and articles. Books were
borrowed from the Canon Chiesa Library of St Paul Seminary Foundation. Most of the journals
and articles were taken from the Internet due to lack of resources from the said library. However,
the researcher ensures the credibility and reliability of the journals and articles taken from the
Internet for a review was conducted for each author and their particular work used.
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Data Analysis
This research study will discuss at the beginning of the data analysis the concept of Gregory
of Nyssa’s about the incomprehensibility of God and its relevance to the study of language. After
that, the paper will focus on the proposition of Wittgenstein about silence, thus, connecting the
first discussion with that of the second. Lastly, there shall be a thorough discussion on the third
part which will carry out the idea of the ‘God of Silence’ where it aims to understand the concept
of silence, the lack of any language in describing God, and resulting to Silence as the resort of
‘knowing’ God.
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Chapter 3
Result and Discussion
This research is an examination of the incapability of language in describing God
consequently resorting to silence as the best possible way to describe God of who he is and what
he is. This is probably the problem of many philosophers down from the ages up until now since
the term ‘God’ can be problematic. Some insights about it is to leave it to the study of sacred
science whose researches are concerned with theological topics. On the other hand, there are also
insights about those who put the topic of God on concerns of philosophy, metaphysics and theodicy
in particular for discussions of speculative knowledge that acquires understanding of the concept
based on a proper logical understanding and discussion. Lastly, there comes a group of
philosophers who try to eliminate the concept since it is not proper for man to discuss something
beyond of him that cannot be used ‘practically’ by him in his existence nor in living this life.
Now that the world today is fazed with the challenges of relativism, individualism, and
postmodernity of things, it is such a fact that man has somewhat forgot to talk about ‘God’. It
seems that to talk about God is irrelevant since nothing is so sensible about it. God is like a product
of human imagination for some or even an illusion since everything by now can be answerable by
empirical knowledge that demonstrates the factuality of a said idea.
Language is one of the medium used by man to illustrate his ideas. Language plays a
perennial role in giving concepts, defining concepts, analyzing concepts, criticizing concepts, and
synthesizing concepts. Language according to Skinner (1957) is developed by means of
environmental influence and that children learned language by principles of associating words with
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meanings. Correct utterances are positively reinforced when the child realizes the communicative
value of words and phrases (p. 225).
Lemetyinen (2012) further argued that language is a cognition that truly makes us human.
Whereas other species do communicate with an innate ability to produce a limited number of
meaningful vocalizations (e.g. bonobos), or even with partially learned systems (e.g. bird songs),
there is no other species known to date that can express infinite ideas (sentences) with a limited
set of symbols of speech sounds and words (para. 1).
Thus, language is perennial in humankind in order to make himself more better than any
other creature such as by using statements to express his thoughts and his diverse understanding
of things. God had given man the power of speech and this speech is caused by the tongues of man
that illustrates various things through description. Even in the Scriptures, one can find the letter of
Saint James saying the tongue is a small part of the body yet make a great boast. (James 3: 5).
Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew further said that what goes into someone’s mouth does not defile
man, but what comes out of man’s mouth, that is what defiles them (Matthew 15:11).
In philosophy, man can find God as described by Anselm of Canterbury as the ‘Greatest
Conceivable Being’ in his Proslogion. According to Sadler (2017), the goal of Anselm’s treatise
is not to provide a philosophical substitute for the Christian faith, nor to rationalize or systematize
it solely in the light of natural reason, rather, in the cases of the Monologion and Proslogion, he
aims to treat meditatively, by reason’s resources, central aspects of the Christian faith, namely, as
he puts it in the Proslogion’s Prologue: “that God truly is, and that he is the supreme good needing
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no other, and that he is what all things need so that they are and so that they are well, and whatever
else we believe about the divine substance.” (para. 41). Thus, it is to said that God is a being
conceivable by man, but not necessarily mean that he can be understood by many as he is, because
his very concept is infinite, while humans are composed of finitude ideas that can hardly grasped
things that are of above.
Gregory of Nyssa (2009), a Medieval Patristic philosopher once said in his work Against
Eunomius II (as translated by H.C. Ogle and H.A. Wilson) said that:
“The Divine Essence is ineffable and incomprehensible: for it is
plain that the title of Father does not present to us the Essence, but
only indicates the relation to the Son. It follows, then, that if it were
possible for human nature to be taught the essence of God, He Who
will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth would not have suppressed the knowledge upon this matter.
But as it is, by saying nothing concerning the Divine Essence, He
showed that the knowledge thereof is beyond our power, while when
we have learned that of which we are capable, we stand in no need
of the knowledge beyond our capacity, as we have in the profession
of faith in the doctrine delivered to us what suffices for our salvation.
For to learn that He is the absolutely existent, together with Whom,
by the relative force of the term, there is also declared the majesty
of the Son, is the fullest teaching of godliness; the Son, as has been
said, implying in close union with Himself the Spirit of Life and
Truth, inasmuch as He is Himself Life and Truth.” (para 4).
Since on this part, one can say that Gregory of Nyssa believed that God in himself is
indescribable and inexpressible. As for him, he believed that God is composed of Three Divine
Persons or Trinity: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Pertaining to God, it can be said that
the concept of Arianism rose from among the doctrine that Christ is both God and Man. Spiteri
(2008) described Arianism as a doctrine of Arius saying that Jesus Christ was not divine. Jesus
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Christ was the Son of God, but he was not eternal because he was a creation of God the Father. He
taught that although Jesus Christ was not God by nature, he was a very unique human being (p.
20)
For Gregory of Nyssa, God cannot be used as a predicate. Thus, language enters the scene
in terms of giving attributes and definitions about God. For example, if one said that “God is Good”
it is easy to determine that the predicate in the simple sentence is the word ‘Good’. But if one tried
to change the statement as “Good is God”, it seems that the problem enters since there are different
kinds of ‘Good’ and not all ‘Good’ refers to God alone. Glenn (1937) defined different kind of
‘Good’ such as physical, moral, and metaphysical goodness (p.169). In this sense, it can be said
that ‘God’ plays the role of the predicate in the statement that makes it more ambiguous because
the concept of ‘God’ is universal. Some people find associate God with characteristics of a human
person such as just, merciful, loving, and many different others that each person do possessed.
Language is significant in describing God, but do describe him in fullness or totality cannot be
achieved because of the fact that the concept of God is infinite and can be considered as a reality
beyond the ordinariness of living. At the end, if one uses language and determines whether that
language is actual in the sense, fulfilling and giving definition about God, can be said not absolute
or even a partial truth since it cannot describe the ‘actuality’ of God as he is because he is
everlasting while man is subjected to an end because of time and space.
Since God cannot be described by actual mere words or even by description of sentences
and phrases, one must resolve to himself to be silent since one doesn’t know what to talk about
God anymore. It seems that the topic of God is irrelevant and must be put over or be passed in
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silence. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that one must stop looking for something beyond the
reality which is rooted in God for all eternity. Wittgenstein (1921) once said in his Tractatus that:
“Was sich überhaupt sagen lässt, lässt sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber
muss man schweigen.”
If one look towards the statement of Wittgenstein, one can say that God can be related since
he cannot be talked about and many different philosophers will argue that talks about God seems
to be insensible and doesn’t have any practical use for living since God cannot be argued through
the use of senses or even by rationalizing thoughts. Marx even once said that religion is the opium
of the people. God-talk can be considered invalid in philosophy since it is a matter of fact that God
is the source of religious traditions and beliefs that makes people sometimes fanatical to the point
of destroying oneself and the society where he belongs.
On the other hand, if one considers that Wittgenstein is an atheist, for sure it is a great
matter of debate since Wittgenstein neither affirm nor deny that God do exist. To say, one can
conclude that Wittgenstein is an agnostic. According to Robinson (2015), agnostics are persons
who hold beliefs essentially identical to weak Atheists. However, many Agnostics believe that it
is impossible to prove either the existence or the non-existence of God with the current level of
human knowledge, perhaps forever (para. 14).
Richter (2017) said that with regards to religion, Wittgenstein is often considered a kind of
Anti-Realist. He opposed interpretations of religion that emphasize doctrine or philosophical
arguments intended to prove God's existence, but was greatly drawn to religious rituals and
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symbols, and considered becoming a priest. He likened the ritual of religion to a great gesture, as
when one kisses a photograph. This is not based on the false belief that the person in the photograph
will feel the kiss or return it, nor is it based on any other belief. Neither is the kiss just a substitute
for a particular phrase, like "I love you." Like the kiss, religious activity does express an attitude,
but it is not just the expression of an attitude in the sense that several other forms of expression
might do just as well. There might be no substitute that would do. The same might be said of the
whole language-game (or games) of religion, but this is a controversial point. If religious
utterances, such as "God exists," are treated as gestures of a certain kind then this seems not to be
treating them as literal statements. Many religious believers, including Wittgensteinian ones,
would object strongly to this. There is room, though, for a good deal of sophisticated disagreement
about what it means to take a statement literally. For instance, Charles Taylor's view, roughly, is
that the real is whatever will not go away. If we cannot reduce talk about God to anything else, or
replace it, or prove it false, then perhaps God is as real as anything else (para. 22).
Thus, the statements propose that God, even if cannot be comprehensible fully as he is, can
be said as truly existing. The reference to silence can be relatable to God since what one was not
known must be pass over in silence is to say that the religious beliefs of Wittgenstein is dependent
on silence since God is infinite and incomprehensible in every situation. God’s existence can
somewhat be related to silence and that silence is what envelops the hiddenness of God as
described in the Dark Night of the Soul.
The role of silence in defining God is significantly relevant. Mother Theresa of Calcutta
once said that in the silence of the heart God speaks, and from the fullness of the heart man speak.
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The statement can be viewed subjectively since the proposition comes from a religious aspect of
belief, but since the topic of God is religious by nature, the researcher tends to visualize the
religious aspect as necessary in formulating different topics of metaphysical silence as a form of
experiencing the Supreme Being. Sometimes, man must shut his mouth up and be silent in order
to encounter God who is calling him to a wider state of conversing with him. Silence is a form of
meeting God in solitude. Hopler (2016) said that whenever one get away from the noise and
busyness of life to encounter God through silence and solitude, he will change man’s soul in ways
that go beyond words (para.1).
Therefore, it can be said that silence is a way to know and encounter God, an encounter
with the Supreme Being without the use of words or sentences. When reason stop, faith enters the
scene to suffice and to explain things behind the rationalization of the person’s mind. Faith is to
move mountains as Christ may said it. Augustine of Hippo (1999), as translated by Edward Pussey
once said in his Confessions:
“Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for
Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee. Grant me,
Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on Thee or to
praise Thee? and, again, to know Thee or to call on Thee? for who
can call on Thee, not knowing Thee? for he that knoweth Thee not,
may call on Thee as other than Thou art. Or, is it rather, that we call
on Thee that we may know Thee? but how shall they call on Him in
whom they have not believed?”
In this sense, one can say that Silence is a way of giving God a definition since he can be
found in it is an encounter with him, the Divine Being that manifolds and envelops all things to
himself. Silence is a desire of the human person longing to seek God. It is a restlessness in the
hearts of man yearning to search for an intimate union with that of God. It is an acknowledgment
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of ignorance in one’s self and the incomprehensibility of God that is nearer in one’s human
understanding but not the totality of it. What is in the human minds is just a glimpse of God, e.g.
his attributes as merciful, just, good, beautiful, that comes from man’s senses and rationality. In
silence, man can define God through its mere contemplation of the concept of him even in
partiality, and that is necessary until the end of one’s lives where he can meet, theologically
possible, God and he can grasp him in the fullness, since his spirit is not anymore held by tempospatial reality.
The God of Silence is a way to further enhance the reality of metaphysics as what is truly
beyond and that mystical union with the Divine Person that is God. God, in this sense, can be said
as “God of Silence” since no man can understand him but he dwells in it. Silence is also
experiential as Man tries to contemplate through prayer that is composed of language’s sentences
and grammatical composition. But looking towards it, God doesn’t need any praises nor voice of
man anymore since in himself is full. He doesn’t need any praises because he is fully complete in
himself.
The moment of encountering God is the moment in which man experiences the “Dark
Night of the Soul”. In this instance, man is invited to climb the spiritual mountain in silence,
contemplating and experiencing different trials; thus, experiencing a kind of spiritual dryness in
which silence plays an integral role in climbing the mountain of God. As time goes by, man is
experiencing the ‘night’ of climbing, giving up himself until he reaches the peak of the mount
nothing in himself, but in silence in the presence of God who envelops him. Love is what makes
man climb that mountain to reach union and fullness with the God of Silence. The “Dark Night of
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the Soul” is a description on the soul’s conduct to attain the love of God, insofar as it is attainable
in this life. It is a matter of fact that no one can define God, since even those who experience the
“Dark Night of the Soul” cannot give an exact definition of what God of Silence they have
encounter in that mountain, but only and through love one can have that inner desire to undertake
and to give up everything in himself to reach that mountain.
Conclusion
Language even as simple or complicated it may be, cannot defined the entirety of Silence
and God, since it is a mystical topic in nature in which no tongue can speak of its truthfulness or
even of awe since it is uncommunicable with just using simple sentences and predicates, but rather
by action of the one who really desires something leading to love. Language is a medium of
expression where one really can express partially what man do experience. It is not enough to
describe everything as it is. Living in Wittgenstein’s concept, language is the limits of man’s world,
it can be said that this mystical yet experiential encounter with God.
God cannot be really defined by simple sentence yet even by a more complex one, but only
through silence where one gazes up himself towards his Supreme Lover that encourages him to
ascend the mountain in order to meet him, the God of Silence, who calls him by name.
At the end, to talk about God makes sense, since it is the virtue of reflection that makes us
understand the ancient Socratic statement of ‘knowing nothing’ about God, but this kind of
‘knowing nothing’ is a way that leads us to a wider understanding that the topic of God is beyond
man’s tempo-spatial reality, that it can only be answerable if one really ascended and experienced
gazing towards the Supreme Being that intimately calls all peoples to his loving embrace of peace.
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Theology will tell man that God is incomprehensible but this incomprehensibility will lead
man towards achieving that kind of perfect knowledge. Now, the proposal of this paper is to
redefine and to make the analysis on language with the point that language cannot describe
anything as what Wittgenstein affirmed, since man is bounded by what does he can express so that
whatever is left unknown may be placed in silence. Thus, reference to God in silence is basing
itself in the proposition of his hiddenness in one’s reality and person.
The researcher recognizes the work as yet a background that provides a minimum number
of information and thus will not suffice to explain the entirety of God, but looking towards the
possibility of giving a study that provides the manifold power of God that is revealed in the
weakness of the human nature, thus ascending the mountain, experiencing the “Dark Night of the
Soul” and encountering the one whom he loves in the peak, where he has nothing but silence in
himself.
Recommendation
Thus, the study recommends to the future researches to divulge themselves in the concept
of God’s Silence through the works of other scholastic and even of contemporary philosophers,
thus linking the relevance of the study of God even until today. It also recommends a deeper
understanding of Gregory of Nyssa’s works as relevant to the times since most of his topics is not
only theocentric, but speaks too of anthropocentric tendencies of man as a creation of God. It also
endorses the study of mystical philosophy as relatable in the different schools of thought in
philosophy and theology, thus living the principle “Philosophy is the handmaid of Theology.”
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