Christian Agnosticismagnostic might warm to all this for it is a way of doing God-talk
that is simultaneously keen on the question of God but, contra
much theism and atheism, insists that God is kept as a radical
question. Little wonder that mystics like Eckhart frequently
found themselves on the wrong side of the religious authorities.
If contemporary Christian practice has lost this core theological
strand, then it seems to me that a serious, engaged agnosticism
might be thought of as a check on the apparently unchecked
use of positive statements about God – God’s unqualifi ed ‘per-
sonhood’ or ‘fatherhood’, and even lovingness and goodness. In
other words, the reason for spending the last chapter critiquing
theism and atheism is that it has brought us to the point at
which an account of Christian-shaped agnosticism could begin.
However, before continuing with that, there are two questions
to answer that arise from the apophatic tradition. Although for
apophatic theists God is unknown and unknowable, they can
still say they are theists because they profess a Christian faith in
God. The agnostic cannot readily say this. So the fi rst question is:
what is it that distinguishes the agnostic from the atheist, since,
without the profession of a faith, it is not always clear how agnos-
tic belief is distinguishable from atheistic non-belief? Second, and
relatedly, if mystics state that God is unknown and unknowable,
they do so having made a prior commitment in faith to divine
reality. The agnostic is unsure of this reality, believing it is in the
nature of God-talk not to be able to settle it. So does that not
undermine the integrity of the agnostic position?
Agnostic integrity
The fi rst question was put into the mouth of Cleanthes by
David Hume in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
Cleanthes is the character who believes in natural theology.
This is the attempt to gather insights about God from the
world of nature and reason, on the good grounds that they
are presumably both God’s creation too. Cleanthes’ charge is
put to Demea, the character who is suspicious of what reason