asceticism of broken speech about God. Indeed, this aspect of via negativa is not about us at all. Rather, this negation of image and likeness refers principally and properly to God. It is His freedom that is spoken of in the prohibition of idolatry, the freedom of God’s unique Oneness. Because the radical negation of likeness is not an independent locus, but rather the correlate and concomitant of Divine Oneness, we speak of a positive freedom when we distinguish God from every idol. Though the