Abstract
Abstract This essay examines how Don DeLillo employs the apophatic tradition as a means of approaching the transcendent while resisting media absorption and extremist cooptation. Apophatic discourse—discourse that points toward that which is beyond language—honors the dynamic nature of truth, making it well suited to a postmodern, pluralistic era. Yet, apophasis is not just a recognition of the limits of language but a way of approaching the Ultimate that results in personal transformation. DeLillo’s invocation of mystery is often noted but rarely connected to spiritual formation. Yet his work is full of pilgrims disaffected by traditional religion who unavailingly seek spiritual fulfillment elsewhere. I demonstrate that DeLillo offers a standard for discriminating among religious mysteries by chronicling the spiritual etiolation of misguided pilgrims. I then identify apophatic discourse in his work, arguing that DeLillo upholds apophasis as a way of engaging mystery that is self-realizing and redemptive.
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