Knowing the Unknowable God

In Knowing the Unknowable God, David Burrell traces the intellectual intermingling of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian traditions that made possible the medieval synthesis that served as the basis for Western theology. He shows how Aquinas's study of the Muslim philosopher Ibn-Sina and the Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides affected the disciplined use of language when speaking of divinity and influenced his doctrine of God.

"David Burrell's new book is as succinct as it is weighty, as clear as it is challenging. Knowing the Unknowable God is an exercise in an almost forgotten genre--ecumenical philosophical theology. ... the author's perspective suggests how richly rewarding the renewal of such conversations might be for current philosophical theology among Jews, Christians, and Muslims." —Bernard McGinn, University of Chicago, " ... brings out the importance of interfaith and transcultural communication of medieval philosophy.... Burrell's discussion of the logic of attribution is very relevant to contemporary philosophy of God. This brief but profound little book should be of interest to philosophers whose interests extend beyond medieval philosophy." —International Philosophical Quarterly

David B. Burrell, C.S.C., is Theodore Hesburgh C.S.C. Professor emeritus in Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Friendship and Ways to Truth and Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions, also published by the University of Notre Dame Press.