Embracing the Unknowable: Paradigm of Ineffability
Religions June 27, 2023 Antti Piilola
Ineffability—the quality of being beyond words—has long been central to philosophy of religion and mysticism. In apophatic theology, it safeguards divine transcendence by placing God beyond human concepts. It also defines mystical experience, either affirming its unique nature or challenging it as incoherent and paradoxical. This article explores whether a single notion of 'Being Ineffable' can unite mystical experience and its transcendent object while acknowledging the coherence problem. The author constructs an argument for absolute ineffability as the convergence of three meanings: as a definition of absolute ineffability, as a mystical experience of it, and as the Ineffable itself (God, the Absolute, the Ultimate). The argument attempts to transform ineffability from a negation into a necessary affirmation.