Presence and Absence: God as 'Nothing' in Christian Tradition

An illuminating journey through five thousand years of thought, in pursuit of the radical Judeo-Christian idea of God as an ineffable mystery that underlies all existence.

Presence and Absence challenges the underlying assumption of both believers and atheists that their arguments depend on proof that God either exists or doesn’t. Instead, Gilbert Márkus demonstrates a rich tradition in Jewish and Christian writings of viewing ‘God’ not as a particular entity, but as the mystery which underlies all that exists. 

Márkus identifies this concept in the Bible, in the thought of Augustine, Aquinas, and Eckhart, and in the poetry of R.S. Thomas and Paul Celan. In the end, he encourages the reader to meditate and pray on the notion of “God as Nothing,” of eternity that lies outside the continuum of time.

“Gilbert Markus’s riveting little book on the ‘nothingness’ of God simultaneously allures, teases, and destabilizes the reader...this book will provoke much stimulus for debate in schools, colleges, and churches.” ―Sarah Coakley, FBA, Norris-Hulse Professor emerita, University of Cambridge, and author, God, Sexuality and the Self

“Márkus has an engaging way with words and a playful approach to how language works towards God as Nothing…This is analytical theology at its most accessible.”―Rt. Rev. Dr. John Saxbee, Church Times

Gilbert Márkus has taught and researched medieval ‘Celtic’ history and theology at the universities of St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. He was a Dominican friar for 21 years. He’s currently engaged in a long-term research project on the monastery of Iona. He’s written numerous books, including The Radical Tradition: Saints in the Struggle for Justice and Peace and Conceiving a Nation: Scotland to AD 900. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.