ABSTRACT
This chapter considers Jacques Derrida's understanding of "something secret", contrasts his understanding of denegation with the Neoplatonic conception of non-being, and explains key criticisms of Derrida's interpretation of negative theology made by apophatic theologians. Derrida distinguished between the apophasis of negative theology and its relationship to revealed religion and his own understanding of "something secret": There is something secret. The chapter explores the theological criticisms of Derrida's interpretation of negative theology from those who support a classical interpretation of the Dionysian apophatic tradition, and therefore a dialectical relation between God's distinction and God's indistinction. It focuses on different deserts. Derrida maintained his criticism that the apophatic understanding of negative theology justifies conventional theological and philosophical norms without an acknowledgement of the truly radically a-theistic and dialectical nature of apophatic thought in the Dionysian tradition. Apophaticism has always had a role in Christian history as a challenge to formulaic belief systems and "religiosity".
