- ineffability
- Ineffability is the property of being unable to be truly spoken of. When one describes God as ineffable one means that God surpasses attempts to describe him: with God such sentiments as 'words cannot express our gratitude' are literal truth. Some Christian philosophers affirm that God is totally ineffable, that is, that there is no true description of him. This approach is problematic, however, since 'God is totally ineffable' then appears to be a true description of God. A more moderate doctrine of ineffability is that God cannot be totally described. Almost all Christian philosophers assent to this, but it may well be that mere humans (or even the flavour of coffee) cannot be totally described either. How to strike a happy medium between these two unsatisfactory versions has proved so difficult that some wits have exclaimed that even the very property of ineffability is itself ineffable.Further reading: Scharfstein 1993
Christian Philosophy . Daniel J. Hill and Randal D. Rauser. 2015.