Speaking of the Spirit in the Silence of the Desert

Theological talk of the Spirit strikes at the root of the problem of theological utterance itself. To speak truly of God presumes that one speak in the Spirit. Yet, if the Spirit is the Spirit of prayer, then theology is led ever deeper into prayer's region of vast silence. Held within this silence, how can theology open its mouth? The paper considers two styles of theological speech, both of which prioritize the unutterable as touched on in prayer. These are John Caputo's "weak" theology and Sarah Coakley's systematics. It then turns to the desert moanstic tradition, which places theology under the discipline of silence. A contempoary theology that aims to follow after prayer must enter its unsettling silence, as well as those other unsettling silences that surround us: those of voices suppressed, lives cut short, and the ever more likely great silence of the species.