AbstractMuch discussion of ‘negative theology’ seems to assume that it is simply a policy of not making strong truth‐claims about God, even of refusing the positive content of revelation. This essay proposes a typology of negative theologies—grammatical, qualificatory, metaphysical and descriptive—looking at the various points from which negation may arise as an appropriate strategy for adequate or truthful speech about the divine, and seeks to locate these varieties within a spiritual and ecclesial practice, at the heart of which is a commitment to ‘the acceptance of a future’, the recognition of the unfinished nature of language. This is compared with the understanding of language presupposed in creative linguistic work, to suggest that negative theology is best understood not as the expression of a ‘fear of closure’ but as a kind of ‘poetics’ that seeks to do full justice to the act of worship.