Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/On Christian Doctrine/Book I/Chapter 6

Chapter 6.—In What Sense God is Ineffable.

6.&#160; Have I spoken of God, or uttered His praise, in any worthy way?&#160; Nay, I feel that I have done nothing more than desire to speak; and if I have said anything, it is not what I desired to say.&#160; How do I know this, except from the fact that God is unspeakable?&#160; But what I have said, if it had been unspeakable, could not have been spoken.&#160; And so God is not even to be called “unspeakable,” because to say even this is to speak of Him.&#160; Thus there arises a curious contradiction of words, because if the unspeakable is what cannot be spoken of, it is not unspeakable if it can be called unspeakable.&#160; And this opposition of words is rather to be avoided by silence than to be explained away by speech.&#160; And yet God, although nothing worthy of His greatness can be said of Him, has condescended to accept the worship of men&#8217;s mouths, and has desired us through the medium of our own words to rejoice in His praise.&#160; For on this principle it is that He is called Deus (God).&#160; For the sound of those two syllables in itself conveys no true knowledge of His nature; but yet all who know the Latin tongue are led, when that sound reaches their ears, to think of a nature supreme in excellence and eternal in existence.