View source for Apophatic theology

{{short description|Way of describing the divine by explaining what God is not}}
{{redirect|Via negativa|The X-Files episode|Via Negativa (The X-Files)}}
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{{Palamism|Theology}}
'''Apophatic theology''', also known as '''negative theology''',{{sfn|McCombs|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_cbuGVI_UNAC&dq=%22negative+theology%22%22apophatic+theology%22%22via+negativa%22%22via+negationis%22&pg=PA84 84]}} is a form of [[theology|theological]] thinking and religious practice which attempts to [[Problem of religious language|approach God]], the Divine, by [[negation]], to speak only in terms of what may not be said about [[God]].{{r|Bunnin_Yu|group=web}} It forms a pair together with [[cataphatic theology]] (also known as ''affirmative theology''), which approaches God or the Divine by affirmations or positive statements about what God ''is''.{{r|DC_interview|group=web}}

The apophatic tradition is often, though not always, allied with the approach of [[mysticism]], which aims at the vision of God, the perception of the divine reality beyond the realm of [[Perception|ordinary perception]].{{sfn|Belzen|Geels|2003|p=84–87}}

== Etymology and definition ==
"Apophatic", {{langx|grc|ἀπόφασις}} ([[noun]]); from ἀπόφημι ''apophēmi'', meaning 'to deny'. From ''[[Online Etymology Dictionary]]'': 
{{blockquote|apophatic (adj.) "involving a mention of something one feigns to deny; involving knowledge obtained by negation", 1850, from Latinized form of Greek ''apophatikos'', from apophasis "denial, negation", from apophanai "to speak off," from apo "off, away from" (see apo-) + phanai "to speak," related to pheme "voice," from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say."{{r|OED|group=web}}}}

{{Lang|la|Via negativa}} or {{lang|la|via negationis}} ([[Latin]]), 'negative way' or 'by way of denial'.{{sfn|McCombs|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_cbuGVI_UNAC&dq=%22negative+theology%22%22apophatic+theology%22%22via+negativa%22%22via+negationis%22&pg=PA84 84]}} The negative way forms a pair together with the ''[[kataphatic]]'' or positive way. According to Deirdre Carabine,
{{blockquote|Pseudo Dionysius describes the kataphatic or affirmative way to the divine as the "way of speech": that we can come to some understanding of the Transcendent by attributing all the perfections of the created order to God as its source. In this sense, we can say "God is Love", "God is Beauty", "God is Good". 
<br>The apophatic or negative way stresses God's absolute transcendence and unknowability in such a way that we cannot say anything about the divine essence because God is so totally beyond being. The dual concept of the immanence and transcendence of God can help us to understand the simultaneous truth of both "ways" to God: at the same time as God is immanent, God is also transcendent. At the same time as God is knowable, God is also unknowable. God cannot be thought of as one or the other only.{{r|DC_interview|group=web}}}}

==Origins and development==
According to Fagenblat, "negative theology is as old as philosophy itself:" elements of it can be found in [[Plato's unwritten doctrines]], while it is also present in [[Neo-Platonic]], [[Gnostic]] and early [[Christians|Christian]] writers. A tendency to apophatic thought can also be found in [[Philo of Alexandria]].{{sfn|Fagenblat|2017|p=4}}

According to Carabine, "apophasis proper" in Greek thought starts with Neo-Platonism, with its [[speculation]]s about the nature of the [[One]], culminating in the works of Proclus.{{sfn|Carabine|2015|p=1}} Carabine writes that there are two major points in the development of apophatic [[theology]], namely the fusion of the Jewish tradition with [[Platonic philosophy]] in the writings of [[Philo]], and the works of [[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]], who infused Christian thought with Neo-Platonic ideas.{{sfn|Carabine|2015|p=1}}

The [[Early Church Fathers]] were influenced by Philo,{{sfn|Carabine|2015|p=1}} and Meredith even states that Philo "is the real founder of the apophatic tradition."{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=545}} Yet, it was with Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and [[Maximus the Confessor]],{{sfn|Berthold|1985|p=9}} whose writings shaped both [[Hesychasm]] (the contemplative monastic tradition of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Churches]]) and the [[mystical]] traditions of western Europe, that apophatic theology became a central element of Christian theology and [[contemplative]] practice.{{sfn|Carabine|2015|p=1}}

[[Elijah]]'s hearing of a "still, small voice" at 1 Kings 19:11-13 has been proposed as a Biblical example of apophatic [[prayer]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

==Greek philosophy==
{{See also|Epoché|Pyrrhonism|Skepticism}}

===Pre-Socratic===
For the ancient Greeks, knowledge of the gods was essential for proper worship.{{sfn|Platt|2011|p=52}} Poets had an important responsibility in this regard, and a central question was how knowledge of the Divine forms can be attained.{{sfn|Platt|2011|p=52}} [[Epiphany (feeling)|Epiphany]] played an essential role in attaining this knowledge.{{sfn|Platt|2011|p=52}} [[Xenophanes]] ({{circa|570|475 BC}}) noted that the knowledge of the Divine forms is restrained by the human imagination, and Greek philosophers realized that this knowledge can only be mediated through myth and visual representations, which are culture-dependent.{{sfn|Platt|2011|p=52}}

According to [[Herodotus]] (484–425 BC), [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]] (between 750 and 650 BC) taught the Greek the knowledge of the Divine bodies of the Gods.{{sfn|Platt|2011|p=51}} The ancient Greek poet Hesiod (between 750 and 650 BC) describes in his ''[[Theogony]]'' the birth of the gods and creation of the world,{{r|ellopsos|group=web}} which became an "[[urtext (biblical studies)|ur-text]] for programmatic, first-person [[Epiphany (feeling)|epiphanic]] narratives in Greek literature,"{{sfn|Platt|2011|p=52}}{{refn|group=note|Hesiod's ''Theogony'' was highly referred in the time of [[Plato]] (428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BCE), and Plato's ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'' shows a profound familiarity with Hesiod's ''Theogony''.{{sfn|Boys-Stones|Haubold|2009|p=xiviii}} See also Timaeus e39-e41.{{r|ellopsos|group=web}}}} but also "explores the necessary limitations placed on human access to the divine."{{sfn|Platt|2011|p=52}} According to Platt, the statement of the Muses who grant Hesiod knowledge of the Gods "actually accords better with the logic of apophatic religious thought."{{sfn|Platt|2011|p=53}}{{refn|group=note|Richard G. Geldard: "[M]ore than any other pre-Socratic thinker, Heraclitus embodies the apophatic method. He "unsaid" the myths of the Archaic tradition on his way to transforming the ideas of divinity through the divine Logos. It was a transformation affirmed by Plotinus 800 years later."{{sfn|Geldard|2000|p=23}}}}

[[Parmenides]] (fl. late sixth or early fifth century BC), in his poem ''On Nature'', gives an account of a revelation on two ways of inquiry. "The way of conviction" explores Being, true reality ("what-is"), which is "What is ungenerated and deathless,/whole and uniform, and still and perfect."{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=109-111}} "The way of opinion" is the world of appearances, in which one's sensory faculties lead to conceptions which are false and deceitful. His distinction between unchanging Truth and shifting opinion is reflected in Plato's [[allegory of the Cave]]. Together with the Biblical story of Moses's ascent of Mount Sinai, it is used by [[Gregory of Nyssa]] and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite to give a Christian account of the ascent of the soul toward God.{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=111-112}} Cook notes that Parmenides' poem is a religious account of a mystical journey, akin to the [[mystery cults]],{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=109}} giving a philosophical form to a religious outlook.{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=112}} Cook further notes that the philosopher's task is to "attempt through 'negative' thinking to tear themselves loose from all that frustrates their pursuit of wisdom."{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=112}}

===Plato===
[[File:Plato Silanion Musei Capitolini MC1377.jpg|thumb|Plato Silanion Musei Capitolini MC1377]]
[[Plato]] (428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC), "deciding for Parmenides against [[Heraclitus]]" and his theory of eternal change,{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=113}} had a strong influence on the development of apophatic thought.{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=113}}

Plato further explored Parmenides's idea of timeless truth in his dialogue ''[[Parmenides (dialogue)|Parmenides]]'', which is a treatment of the [[Theory of Forms|eternal forms]], ''Truth, Beauty and Goodness'', which are the real aims for knowledge.{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=113}} The Theory of Forms is Plato's answer to the problem of how one fundamental reality or unchanging essence can admit of many changing phenomena, other than by dismissing them as being mere illusion.{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=113}}

In ''[[Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'', Plato argues that the "real objects of knowledge are not the changing objects of the senses, but the immutable Forms,"{{r|EoP_Plato(Republic)|group=web}} stating that the ''[[Form of the Good]]''{{refn|group=note|Identified by various commentators with the Form of Unity.{{explain|date=April 2017}}{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}}} is the highest object of knowledge.{{sfn|Kahn|1998|p=61}}{{sfn|Phillips|2008|p=234}}{{r|EoP_Plato(Republic)|group=web}}{{refn|group=note|See ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'' 508d–e, 511b, 516b.}} His argument culminates in the [[Allegory of the Cave]], in which he argues that humans are like prisoners in a cave, who can only see shadows of the Real, the ''Form of the Good''.{{sfn|Phillips|2008|p=234}}{{r|EoP_Plato(Republic)|group=web}} Humans are to be educated to search for knowledge, by turning away from their bodily desires toward higher contemplation, culminating in an intellectual{{refn|group=note|As opposed to mere rationality.}} understanding or apprehension of the Forms, c.q. the "first principles of all knowledge."{{sfn|Phillips|2008|p=234}}

According to Cook, the ''Theory of Forms'' has a theological flavour, and had a strong influence on the ideas of his Neo-Platonist interpreters Proclus and Plotinus.{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=113}} The pursuit of ''Truth, Beauty and Goodness'' became a central element in the apophatic tradition,{{sfn|Cook|2013|p=113}} but nevertheless, according to Carabine "Plato himself cannot be regarded as the founder of the negative way."{{sfn|Carabine|2015|p=21}} Carabine warns not to read later Neo-Platonic and Christian understandings into Plato, and notes that Plato did not identify his Forms with "one transcendent source," an identification which his later interpreters made.{{sfn|Carabine|2015|p=21-22}}

===Middle Platonism===
{{Main|Middle Platonism}}

[[Middle Platonism]] (1st century BC–3rd century AD){{r|IEP_Middle_Platonism|group=web}} further investigated Plato's "Unwritten Doctrines," which drew on [[Pythagoras]]' first principles of the [[Monad (philosophy)|Monad]] and the [[Dyad (Greek philosophy)|Dyad]] (matter).{{r|IEP_Middle_Platonism|group=web}} Middle Platonism proposed a [[hierarchy of being]], with God as its first principle at its top, identifying it with Plato's ''Form of the Good''.{{sfn|Mooney|2009|p=7}} An influential proponent of Middle Platonism was [[Philo of Alexandria|Philo]] (c. 25 BC&nbsp;– c. 50 AD), who employed Middle Platonic philosophy in his interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures, and asserted a strong influence on early Christianity.{{r|IEP_Middle_Platonism|group=web}} According to Craig D. Allert, "Philo made a monumental contribution to the creation of a vocabulary for use in negative statements about God."{{sfn|Allert|2002|p=89}} For Philo, God is undescribable, and he uses terms which emphasize God's transcendence.{{sfn|Allert|2002|p=89}}

===Neo-Platonism===
{{Main|Neo-Platonism}}

Neo-Platonism was a mystical or contemplative form of Platonism, which "developed outside the mainstream of Academic Platonism."{{r|IEP_Neo-Platonism|group=web}} It started with the writings of Plotinus (204/5–270 AD), and ended with the closing of the Platonic Academy by Emperor Justinian in 529&nbsp;AD, when the pagan traditions were ousted.{{r|IEP_Plotinus|group=web}} It is a product of Hellenistic syncretism, which developed due to the crossover between Greek thought and the Jewish scriptures, and also gave birth to [[Gnosticism]].{{r|IEP_Neo-Platonism|group=web}} Proclus of Athens (*412–485 AD) played a crucial role in the transmission of Platonic philosophy from antiquity to the Middle Ages, serving as head or 'successor' (diadochos, sc. of Plato) of the Platonic 'Academy' for over 50 years.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Zalta |first1=Edward N. |title=Proclus |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/proclus/ |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=The Metaphysics Research Lab |access-date=29 October 2023}}</ref> His student Pseudo-Dionysius had a far-stretching Neo-Platonic influence on Christianity and Christian mysticism.{{r|IEP_Neo-Platonism|group=web}}

====Plotinus====
[[File:Plotinus.jpg|thumb|left|[[Plotinus]], 204/5–270 AD]]
[[Plotinus]] (204/5–270 AD) was the founder of Neo-Platonism.{{sfn|Gerson|2012}} In the [[Neoplatonism|Neo-Platonic philosophy]] of Plotinus and Proclus, the first principle became even more elevated as a radical unity, which was presented as an unknowable Absolute.{{sfn|Mooney|2009|p=7}} For Plotinus, the ''One'' is the first principle, from which everything else emanates.{{sfn|Gerson|2012}} He took it from Plato's writings, identifying the Good of the ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'', as the cause of the other Forms, with the ''One'' of the first hypothesis of the second part of the ''[[Parmenides (dialogue)|Parmenides]]''.{{sfn|Gerson|2012}} For Plotinus, the ''One'' precedes the [[Theory of Forms|Forms]],{{sfn|Gerson|2012}} and "is beyond Mind and indeed beyond Being."{{sfn|Mooney|2009|p=7}} From the ''One'' comes the [[Nous|Intellect]], which contains all the Forms.{{sfn|Gerson|2012}} The ''One'' is the principle of Being, while the Forms are the principle of the essence of beings, and the intelligibility which can recognize them as such.{{sfn|Gerson|2012}} Plotinus's third principle is Soul, the desire for objects external to itself. The highest satisfaction of desire is the contemplation of the ''One'',{{sfn|Gerson|2012}} which unites all existents "as a single, all-pervasive reality."{{r|IEP_Plotinus|group=web}}

The ''One'' is radically simple, and does not even have self-knowledge, since self-knowledge would imply multiplicity.{{sfn|Mooney|2009|p=7}} Nevertheless, Plotinus does urge for a search for the Absolute, turning inward and becoming aware of the "presence of the intellect in the human soul,"{{refn|group=note|Compare Korean Chon (Zen) master [[Jinul]]s "tracing back the radiance":<br /><br />''"Question: What is the mind of void and calm, numinous awareness?<br /><br />Chinul: What has just asked me this question is precisely your mind of void and calm, numinous awareness. Why not trace back its radiance rather than search for it outside? For your benefit I will now point straight to your original mind so that you can awaken to it. Clear your minds and listen to my words."''{{r|Chinul|group=web}}<br /><br />See also {{Citation | last =Buswell | first =Robert E. | year =1991 | title =Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul's Korean Way of Zen | publisher =University of Hawaii Press}}}} initiating an ascent of the soul by [[Abstraction#In philosophy|abstraction]] or "taking away," culminating in a [[Subitism|sudden appearance]] of the ''One''.{{sfn|Mooney|2009|p=8}} In the ''[[Enneads]]'' Plotinus writes: 
{{blockquote|Our thought cannot grasp the One as long as any other image remains active in the soul [...] To this end, you must set free your soul from all outward things and turn wholly within yourself, with no more leaning to what lies outside, and lay your mind bare of ideal forms, as before of the objects of sense, and forget even yourself, and so come within sight of that One.}}

Carabine notes that Plotinus' apophasis is not just a mental exercise, an acknowledgement of the unknowability of the ''One'', but a means to ''[[Ecstasy (philosophy)|ecstasis]]'' and an ascent to "the unapproachable light that is God."{{r|Carabine_interview|group=web}} Pao-Shen Ho, investigating what are Plotinus' methods for reaching ''[[henosis]]'',{{refn|group=note|The Neoplatonic concept of ''henosis'' has precedents in the Greek [[mystery religions]]{{sfn|Angus|1975|p=52}} as well as parallels in [[Eastern philosophy]].{{sfn|Gregorios|2002}}}} concludes that "Plotinus' mystical teaching is made up of two practices only, namely philosophy and negative theology."{{sfn|Ho|2015|p=20}} According to Moore, Plotinus appeals to the "non-discursive, intuitive faculty of the soul," by "calling for a sort of prayer, an invocation of the deity, that will permit the soul to lift itself up to the unmediated, direct, and intimate contemplation of that which exceeds it (V.1.6)."{{r|IEP_Plotinus|group=web}} Pao-Shen Ho further notes that "for Plotinus, mystical experience is irreducible to philosophical arguments."{{sfn|Ho|2015|p=20}} The argumentation about ''henosis'' is preceded by the actual experience of it, and can only be understood when ''henosis'' has been attained.{{sfn|Ho|2015|p=20}} Ho further notes that Plotinus's writings have a didactic flavour, aiming to "bring his own soul and ''the souls of others'' by way of [[Nous|Intellect]] to union with the One."{{sfn|Ho|2015|p=20}} As such, the ''Enneads'' as a spiritual or ascetic teaching device, akin to ''[[The Cloud of Unknowing]]'',{{sfn|Ho|2015|p=20-21}} demonstrating the methods of philosophical and apophatic inquiry.{{sfn|Ho|2015|p=26}} Ultimately, this leads to silence and the abandonment of all intellectual inquiry, leaving contemplation and unity.{{sfn|Ho|2015|p=25-27}}

====Proclus====
[[Proclus]] (412–485) introduced the terminology used in apophatic and cataphatic theology.{{sfn|Louth|2012|p=139}} He did this in the second book of his ''Platonic Theology'', arguing that Plato states that the ''One'' can be revealed "through analogy," and that "through negations [''dia ton apophaseon''] its transcendence over everything can be shown."{{sfn|Louth|2012|p=139}} For Proclus, apophatic and cataphatic theology form a contemplatory pair, with the apophatic approach corresponding to the manifestation of the world from the ''One'', and cataphatic theology corresponding to the return to the ''One''.{{sfn|Louth|2012|p=140}} The analogies are affirmations which direct us toward the ''One'', while the negations underlie the confirmations, being closer to the ''One''.{{sfn|Louth|2012|p=140}} According to Luz, Proclus also attracted students from other faiths, including the Samaritan Marinus. Luz notes that "Marinus' Samaritan origins with its Abrahamic notion of a single [[Ineffability|ineffable]] [[Tetragrammaton|Name of God]] ({{Script/Hebrew|יהוה}}) should also have been in many ways compatible with the school's ineffable and apophatic divine principle."{{sfn|Luz|2017|p=149}}

==Christianity==
{{see also|Credo quia absurdum|Sola fide}}
{{Christian mysticism}}
[[File: Emblem - Oculus Non Vidit.jpg|thumb|left|Engraving of [[Otto van Veen]] (1660), who negatively describes God as {{lang|la|Quod oculus non vidit, nec auris audivit}} ([[Vulgate]]), "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard" ([[First Epistle to the Corinthians|1 Corinthians]] 2:9)<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Corinthians|2:9|VULGATE;NRSV}}</ref>]]

===Apostolic Age===
The [[Book of Revelation]] 8:1<ref>{{bibleverse|Revelation|8:1|NKJV}}</ref> mentions "the silence of the perpetual choir in heaven." According to Dan Merkur:

{{blockquote|The silence of the perpetual choir in heaven had mystical connotations, because silence attends the disappearance of plurality during experiences of mystical [[monism|oneness]]. The term "silence" also alludes to the "still small voice" ([[1 Kings]] 19:12) whose [[theophany|revelation]] to [[Elijah]] on [[Mount Horeb]] rejected visionary imagery by affirming a negative theology.{{sfn|Merkur|2014|p=331}}{{refn|group=note|According to Michel Masson, Elijah's theophany is an "apophatic revelation," a mystical experience which is akin to ''nirvana'' and Böhme's ''Ungrund''." Michel Masson (2001), ''Rois et prophètes dans le cycle d'Élie''. In: {{cite book |last=Lemaire |first=André |title=Prophètes et rois. Bible et Proche-Orient |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ctnYAAAAMAAJ |year=2001 |publisher=[[Éditions du Cerf]] |location=Paris |pages=119–131 |isbn=978-2-204-06622-8}}. Quoted by {{cite book |title=Weighing Hearts. Character, Judgment, and the Ethics of Reading the Bible |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SIDFAgAAQBAJ |first=Stuart |last=Lasine |year=2012 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |location=London |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SIDFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA121&dq=Horeb+%22the+theophany+report+in+vv.+11–12%22%22Elijah's+experience%22%22apophatic+revelation%22%22voice+of+sheer+silence%22 121] |isbn=978-0-567-42674-1}}}}}}

===Early Church Fathers===
The [[Early Church Fathers]] were influenced by [[Philo of Alexandria|Philo]]{{sfn|Carabine|2015|p=1}} ({{c.|25 BC – 50 AD}}), who saw [[Moses]] as "the model of human virtue and Sinai as the archetype of man's ascent into the 'luminous darkness' of God."{{sfn|Buxhoeveden|Woloschak|2011|p=152}} His interpretation of Moses was followed by Clement of Alexandria, [[Origen]], the Cappadocian Fathers, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Maximus the Confessor.{{sfn|Louth|2003|p=220}}{{sfn|Lane|2007|p=67}}{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=545}}{{sfn|Boersma|2013|p=243}}

God's appearance to Moses in the [[burning bush]] was often elaborated on by the Early Church Fathers,{{sfn|Louth|2003|p=220}} especially [[Gregory of Nyssa]] ({{c.|335 – 395|lk=no}}),{{sfn|Lane|2007|p=67}}{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=545}}{{sfn|Boersma|2013|p=243}} realizing the fundamental unknowability of God;{{sfn|Louth|2003|p=220}}{{sfn|Mayes|2016|p=117}} an exegesis which continued in the medieval mystical tradition.{{sfn|Glasscoe|1992|p=57}} Their response is that, although God is unknowable, Jesus as person can be followed, since "following Christ is the human way of seeing God."{{sfn|Louth|2003|p=221}}

[[Clement of Alexandria]] ({{c.|150 – 215|lk=no}}) was an early proponent of apophatic theology.{{sfn|Hägg|2006}}{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=545}} Clement holds that God is unknowable, although God's unknowability, concerns only his essence, not his energies, or powers.{{sfn|Hägg|2006}} According to R.A. Baker, in Clement's writings the term {{transliteration|grc|theoria}} develops further from a mere intellectual "seeing" toward a spiritual form of contemplation.{{sfn|Baker|2000|p=88}} Clement's apophatic theology or philosophy is closely related to this kind of {{transliteration|grc|theoria}} and the "mystic vision of the soul."{{sfn|Baker|2000|p=88}} For Clement, God is transcendent and immanent.{{sfn|Baker|2000|p=89}} According to Baker, Clement's apophaticism is mainly driven not by Biblical texts, but by the Platonic tradition.{{sfn|Baker|2000|p=92-92}} His conception of an ineffable God is a synthesis of Plato and Philo, as seen from a Biblical perspective.{{sfn|Baker|2000|p=92}} According to Osborne, it is a synthesis in a Biblical framework; according to Baker, while the Platonic tradition accounts for the negative approach, the Biblical tradition accounts for the positive approach.{{sfn|Baker|2000|p=92-93}} {{transliteration|grc|Theoria}} and abstraction is the means to conceive of this ineffable God; it is preceded by dispassion.{{sfn|Baker|2000|p=98-103}}

According to [[Tertullian]] ({{c.|155|240|lk=no}}):

{{blockquote|[T]hat which is infinite is known only to itself.  This it is which gives some notion of God, while yet beyond all our conceptions{{spndash}}our very incapacity of fully grasping Him affords us the idea of what He really is. He is presented to our minds in His transcendent greatness, as at once known and unknown.<ref>[[Tertullian]], ''Apologeticus'', § 17.</ref>}}

Saint [[Cyril of Jerusalem]] (313–386), in his ''[[Catechesis|Catechetical]] [[Homily|Homilies]]'', states:

{{blockquote|For we explain not what God is but candidly confess that we have not exact knowledge concerning Him. For in what concerns God to confess our ignorance is the best knowledge.<ref>{{citation |last=Cyril |first=Archbishop of Jerusalem |author-link=Cyril of Jerusalem |contribution=Catechetical Homilies, VI §2 |year=c. 335 |publication-date=1994 |title=Nicene and Ante-Nicene Fathers (2nd Series) |editor-last=Schaff |editor-first=Philip |editor-link=Philip Schaff |volume=VII |page=33 |place=Peabody, Mass. |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. |isbn= |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.ii.x.html |access-date=2008-02-01}}</ref>}}

[[File:Lippi, apparizione del bambino a sant'agostino.jpg|thumb|[[Filippo Lippi]], ''Vision of St. Augustine'', {{c.|1465}}, [[tempera]], [[Hermitage Museum]], [[Saint Petersburg]]]]
[[Augustine of Hippo]] (354–430) defined God {{lang|la|aliud, aliud valde}}, meaning 'other, completely other', in ''[[Confessions (Augustine)|Confessions]]'' 7.10.16,<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Vessey |editor-first=Mark |others=With the assistance of Shelley Reid |title=A Companion to Augustine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8JIm4U05I4C |year=2012 |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|John Wiley & Sons]] |location=[[Hoboken, New Jersey]] |isbn=978-1-405-15946-3 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=U8JIm4U05I4C&dq=%22aliud,+aliud+valde%22%22%287.10.16%29%22+Confessions+%22other,+completely+other%22&pg=PA107 107]}}</ref> wrote {{lang|la|Si [enim] comprehendis, non est Deus}},<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210308072158/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.augustinus.it%2Flatino%2Fdiscorsi%2Fdiscorso_152_testo.htm+%22Sermo+117%22+%223.+5.%22%22Si+enim+comprehendis%2C+non+est+Deus%22 Latin text].</ref> meaning 'if you understand [something], it is not God', in ''Sermo 117.3.5''<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Fitzgerald |editor-first=Allan D. |title=Augustine Through the Ages. An Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GcVhAGpvTQ0C |year=1999 |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing]] |location=[[Grand Rapids, Michigan]] |isbn=978-0-802-83843-8 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=GcVhAGpvTQ0C&q=%22If+you+understand+(something%5D,+it+is+not+God%22%22s.+117.3.5%22%22Si+comprehendis,+non+est+Deus%22&pg=PA389 389]}}</ref> (''[[Patrologia Latina|PL]]'' 38, 663),<ref>{{cite book |last=Bretzke |first=James T. |title=Consecrated Phrases. A Latin Theological Dictionary. Latin Expressions Commonly Found in Theological Writings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jduLeQnA2doC |year=1998 |publisher=[[Liturgical Press]] |location=[[Saint John's Abbey, Collegeville]] |isbn=978-0-814-65880-2 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jduLeQnA2doC&dq=%22Si+comprehendis,+non+est+Deus%22%22If+you+(fully)+comprehend,+it+is+not+God%22%22Sermo+1+17,+PL+38,+663%22&pg=PA131 131]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Migne |editor-first=Jacques Paul |editor-link=Jacques Paul Migne |title=[[Patrologia Latina]] |year=1841 |isbn=978-0-802-83843-8 |volume=38 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_iZKAAAAcAAJ&q=%22si+enim+comprehendis,+non+est+Deus%22 663]|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans }}</ref> and a famous legend tells that, while walking along the Mediterranean shoreline meditating on the mystery of the [[Trinity]], he met a child who with a seashell (or a little pail) was trying to pour the whole sea into a small hole dug in the sand. Augustine told him that it was impossible to enclose the immensity of the sea in such a small opening, and the child replied that it was equally impossible to try to understand the infinity of God within the limited confines of the human mind.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] |others=Contributor: Joseph T. Kelley |chapter=Introduction (p. XIII) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FnnvO743FlwC&pg=PR13 |title=Selections from Confessions and Other Essential Writings. Annotated and Explained |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FnnvO743FlwC |year=2010 |publisher=[[SkyLight Paths Publishing]] |location=[[Woodstock, Vermont]] |isbn=978-1-594-73282-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Myers |first=Rawley |chapter=St. Augustine |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vYxHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT73 |title=The Saints Show Us Christ. Daily Readings on the Spiritual Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vYxHDwAAQBAJ |year=1996 |publisher=[[Ignatius Press]] |location=[[San Francisco]] |isbn=978-1-681-49547-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Alister |first=McGrath |author-link=Alister McGrath |title=Knowing Christ |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=85pr9i8XtVoC |year=2002 |publisher=[[Crown Publishing Group]] |location=New York City |isbn=978-0-385-50721-9 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=85pr9i8XtVoC&dq=%22There+is+a+story+told+about+Augustine+of+Hippo%22&pg=PA29 29]}}</ref>

===The Chalcedonian Christological dogma===
{{see also|Kenosis|eternal super-kenosis}}
The [[Christology|Christological]] [[dogma]], formulated by the [[Council of Chalcedon|Fourth Ecumenical Council]] held in [[Chalcedon]] in 451, is based on [[dyophysitism]] and [[hypostatic union]], concepts used to describe the union of humanity and divinity in a single [[Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)|hypostasis]], or individual existence, that of [[Jesus]] [[Christ (title)|Christ]]. This remains [[Transcendence (philosophy)|transcendent]] to mankind's rational categories, a mystery which has to be guarded by apophatic language, as it is a personal union of a singularly unique kind.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gergis |first=Emmanuel |editor-last1=Baker |editor-first1=Matthew |editor-last2=Speidell |editor-first2=Todd |editor-link2=Todd H. Speidell |chapter=Chapter 12. T.F. Torrance and the Christological Realism of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (pp. 267—285) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=--omCwAAQBAJ&q=%22Chapter+12+T.F.+Torrance+and+the+Christological+Realism+of+the+Coptic+Orthodox+Church+of+Alexandria%22&pg=PA267 |title=T. F. Torrance and Eastern Orthodoxy: Theology in Reconciliation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=--omCwAAQBAJ |year=2015 |publisher=[[Wipf and Stock|Wipf and Stock Publishers]] |location=[[Eugene, Oregon]] |isbn=978-1-498-20814-7 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=--omCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22hypostatic+union%22+apophatic&pg=PA279 279]}}</ref>

===Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite===
Apophatic theology found its most influential expression in the works of [[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]] (late 5th to early 6th century), a student of [[Proclus]] (412–485) who combined a Christian worldview with Neo-Platonic ideas.<ref name="Berthold1985_p9">{{harvnb|Berthold|1985|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5757JPqL6lIC&dq=%22Pseudo-Dionysius+the+Areopagite%22%22Maximus+Confessor%22%22apophatic+theology%22&pg=PA9 9]}}</ref> He is a constant factor in the contemplative tradition of the eastern Orthodox Churches, and from the 9th century onwards his writings also had a strong impact on western mysticism.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2010|p=439}}

Dionysius the Areopagite was a pseudonym, taken from [[Acts of the Apostles]] chapter 17, in which [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul]] gives a [[Areopagus sermon|missionary speech to the court of the Areopagus]] in Athens.{{sfn|Stang|2011|p=12}} In Acts 17:23<ref>{{bibleverse|Acts|17:23|KJV}}</ref> Paul makes a reference to an altar-inscription, dedicated to the [[Unknown God]], "a safety measure honoring foreign gods still unknown to the Hellenistic world."{{sfn|Stang|2011|p=12}} For Paul, Jesus Christ is this unknown God, and as a result of Paul's speech Dionysius the Areopagite converts to Christianity.{{sfn|Stang|2011|p=13}} Yet, according to Stang, for Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Athens is also the place of Neo-Platonic wisdom, and the term "unknown God" is a reversal of Paul's preaching toward an integration of Christianity with Neo-Platonism, and the union with the "unknown God."{{sfn|Stang|2011|p=13}}

[[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite|Pseudo-Dionysius]] further explored apophasis within the context of [[Christian philosophy|Christian Philosophy]], to him, that which is the [[Unmoved mover|transcendent cause]] in a stricter sense, does not possess all the positive attributes of the universe as it succeeds them all, wherein there ought to be no contradiction between affirmation and denial of such inasmuch as it precedes and surpasses all deprivation, being wholly beyond all positive (kataphic) and negative distinctions.<ref>[https://hoye.de/theo/denistxt.pdf The Mystical Theology, p, 2.]</ref> In this sense, the One, that we may arise by unknowing is the realization that none can fully know the Infinite One, and therefore is only to be approached by ''[[agnosia]]'' or by that which is beyond and above all knowledge.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/MysticalTheology.html |title=The Mystical Theology Ch. 1. |access-date=2024-12-10 |archive-date=2024-12-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213210026/https://esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/MysticalTheology.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

According to Corrigan and Harrington, "Dionysius' central concern is how a triune God{{nbsp}}[...] who is utterly unknowable, unrestricted being, beyond individual substances, beyond even goodness, can become manifest to, in, and through the whole of creation in order to bring back all things to the hidden darkness of their source."{{sfn|Corrigan|Harrington|2014}} Drawing on Neo-Platonism, Pseudo-Dionysius described human [[Theosis (Eastern Orthodox theology)|ascent to divinity]] as a process of purgation, illumination and union.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2010|p=439}} Another Neo-Platonic influence was his description of the cosmos as a series of hierarchies, which overcome the distance between God and humans.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2010|p=439}}
{{Eastern Orthodox sidebar}}

===Eastern Orthodox Christianity===
{{Main|Eastern Orthodox Church}}

In [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]], apophatic theology is taught as superior to cataphatic theology. The fourth-century [[Cappadocian Fathers]]{{refn|group=note|[[Basil the Great]] (330–379), who was bishop of [[Caesarea Mazaca|Caesarea]]; Basil's younger brother [[Gregory of Nyssa]] ({{c.|332}}–395), who was bishop of [[Nyssa (Cappadocia)|Nyssa]]; and a close friend, [[Gregory of Nazianzus]] (329–389), who became [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]].<ref name=WDL1>{{cite web|title=Commentary on Song of Songs; Letter on the Soul; Letter on Ascesis and the Monastic Life|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4168|publisher=[[World Digital Library]]|access-date=6 March 2013}}</ref>}} stated a belief in the existence of God, but an existence unlike that of everything else: everything else that exists was created, but the Creator [[Transcendence (religion)|transcends]] this existence, is uncreated. The [[essence]] of God is completely unknowable; mankind can acquire an incomplete knowledge of God in his [[Attributes of God in Christianity|attributes]] ({{transliteration|el|propria}}), positive and negative, by reflecting upon and participating in his self-revelatory [[Energies of God|operations]] ({{transliteration|el|energeiai}}).<ref name="McGinn">{{cite book |last=McGinn |first=Bernard |chapter=4. Hidden God and Hidden Self (pp. 85ff.) |title=Histories of the Hidden God. Concealment and Revelation in Western Gnostic, Esoteric, and Mystical Traditions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LrTsCwAAQBAJ |editor-last1=DeConick |editor-first1=April D |editor-last2=Adamson |editor-first2=Grant |year=2014 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]] |isbn=978-1-844-65687-5 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LrTsCwAAQBAJ&q=Cappadocian+Fathers+apophatic&pg=PA89}}</ref> [[Gregory of Nyssa]] ({{c.|335|395}}), [[John Chrysostom]] ({{c.|349|lk=no}}–407), and [[Basil the Great]] (329–379) emphasized the importance of negative theology to an orthodox understanding of God. [[John of Damascus]] ({{c.|675/676|lk=no}}–749) employed negative theology when he wrote that positive statements about God reveal "not the nature, but the things around the nature."

[[Maximus the Confessor]] (580–622) took over Pseudo-Dionysius' ideas, and had a strong influence on the theology and contemplative practices of the Eastern Orthodox Churches.<ref name="Berthold1985_p9"/> [[Gregory Palamas]] (1296–1359) formulated the definite theology of [[Hesychasm]], the Eastern Orthodox practices of [[contemplative prayer]] and [[Theosis (Eastern Orthodox theology)|theosis]], "deification."

Influential [[History of Eastern Orthodox theology in the 20th century|20th-century Orthodox theologians]] include the [[Palamism|Neo-Palamist]] writers [[Vladimir Lossky]], [[John Meyendorff]], [[John S. Romanides]], and [[Georges Florovsky]]. Lossky argues, based on his reading of Dionysius and Maximus Confessor, that positive theology is always inferior to negative theology, which is a step along the way to the superior knowledge attained by negation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lossky |first=Vladimir |author-link=Vladimir Lossky |title=The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxqvWwPSCSwC |year=1976 |publisher=[[SVS Press]] |location=[[Crestwood, Yonkers]] |page=26 |isbn=978-0-913-83631-6}}</ref> This is expressed in the idea that [[mysticism]] is the expression of dogmatic theology ''[[wikt:par excellence|par excellence]]''.<ref>Lossky, Vladimir (1976). p. 9.</ref>

According to Lossky, outside of directly revealed knowledge through [[Scripture]] and [[Sacred Tradition]], such as the Trinitarian nature of God, God in his essence is beyond the limits of what human beings (or even [[angel]]s) can understand. He is [[transcendence (religion)|transcendent]] in essence ({{transliteration|el|[[ousia]]}}). Further knowledge must be sought in a direct experience of God or his [[Energies of God|indestructible energies]] through {{transliteration|el|[[Christian contemplation|theoria]]}} (vision of God).<ref>Lossky, Vladimir (1976). p. 81.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lossky |first=Vladimir |title=The Vision of God |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zHc9AAAAYAAJ |year=1964 |publisher=[[Society of the Faith#Faith Press|Faith Press]] |location=[[Leighton Buzzard]] |page=26}}</ref> According to Aristotle Papanikolaou, in Eastern Christianity, God is [[Immanence|immanent]] in his [[hypostasis (philosophy)|hypostasis]] or existences.<ref>[[Aristotle Papanikolaou|Papanikolaou, Aristotle]] (2006), ''Being With God: Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine–Human Communion'' (1st Edition), Notre Dame, Indiana:[[University of Notre Dame Press]], p. 2, {{ISBN|978-0-268-03830-4}}.</ref>

===Western Christianity===
[[File:Hands_of_God_and_Adam.jpg|thumb|left|In ''[[The Creation of Adam]]'' painted by [[Michelangelo]] ({{Circa|1508}}–1512), the two index fingers are separated by a small gap ({{convert|3/4|in|cm}}):<ref>{{cite news |first=Tom |last=Lubbock |title=Buonarroti, Michelangelo: The Creation of Adam (1510) |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/buonarroti-michelangelo-the-creation-of-adam-1510-744396.html |date=January 5, 2007 |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |location=[[Northcliffe House]], [[Kensington]] |access-date=April 26, 2023}}</ref> some scholars think that it represents the unattainability of divine perfection by man.<ref>{{cite book |first=Raymond |last=Tallis |author-link=Raymond Tallis |title=Michelangelo's Finger. An Exploration of Everyday Transcendence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rYEmqPH8fvgC |year=2010 |publisher=[[Atlantic Books]] |location=Ormond House in [[Bloomsbury]], [[London Borough of Camden]] |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rYEmqPH8fvgC&dq=%22The+Creation+of+Adam%22%22At+the+centre%22%22are+two+fingers+separated+by+a+small+gap%22%22It+represents+the+moment+after+the+separation+of+God+and+man%22%&pg=PT5 v]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=rYEmqPH8fvgC&dq=%22The+index+fingers+are+the+final+point+at+which+separation+takes+place%22&pg=PT6 vi] |isbn=978-1-848-87552-4}}</ref>]]

Negative theology has a place in the Western Christian tradition as well. The 9th-century theologian [[Johannes Scotus Eriugena|John Scotus Erigena]] wrote:

{{blockquote|We do not know what God is. God Himself does not know what He is because He is not anything [i.e., "not any created thing"]. Literally God {{em|is not}}, because He [[transcendence (religion)|transcends]] [[being]].<ref>[https://www.google.com/search?&tbm=bks&q=Eriugena+%22We+do+not+know+what+God+is.+God+Himself+does+not+know+what+He+is+because+He+is+not+anything.+Literally+God+is+not%2C+because+He+transcends+being%22 Quote] on [[Google Books]].</ref>}}

When he says "He is not anything" and "God is not", Scotus does not mean that there is no God, but that God cannot be said to exist in the way that creation exists, i.e. that God is uncreated. He is using apophatic language to emphasise that God is "other".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Indick|first1=William|title=The Digital God. How Technology Will Reshape Spirituality |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C0PYBgAAQBAJ |date=2015|publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |location=[[Jefferson, North Carolina]] |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=C0PYBgAAQBAJ&dq=%22We+do+not+know+what+God+is.+God+Himself+does+not+know+what+He+is+because+He+is+not+anything.+Literally+God+is+not,+because+He+transcends+being.+%E2%80%94John+Scotus+Erigena%22&pg=PA179 179] |isbn=978-0-786-49892-5}}</ref>

Theologians like [[Meister Eckhart]] and [[John of the Cross]] exemplify some aspects of or tendencies towards the apophatic tradition in the West. The medieval work, ''[[The Cloud of Unknowing]]'' and John of the Cross' ''[[Dark Night of the Soul]]'' are particularly well known. In 1215 apophatism became the official position of the [[Catholic Church]], which, on the basis of [[Religious text#Christianity|Scripture]] and [[Sacred tradition|church tradition]], during the [[Fourth Council of the Lateran|Fourth Lateran Council]] formulated the following [[Dogma in the Catholic Church|dogma]]:

{{blockquote|Between Creator and creature no [[Analogy|similitude]] can be expressed without implying an even greater [[Difference (philosophy)|dissimilitude]].<ref>''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church|CCC]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20200625021339/http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:UHEmtAWsIFsJ:www.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c1.htm+%22between%2BCreator%2Band%2Bcreature%2Bno%2Bsimilitude%2Bcan%2Bbe%2Bexpressed%2Bwithout%2Bimplying%2Ban%2Beven%2Bgreater%2Bdissimilitude%22%2217%2BLateran%2BCouncil%2BIV%3ADS%2B806%22 43].</ref><ref>{{in lang|la}} ''[[Enchiridion symbolorum, definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20210309022010/http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:catho.org/9.php%3Fd%3Dbxw+806+%22Inter+Creatorem+et+creaturam+non+potest+similitudo+notari,+quin+inter+eos+maior+sit+dissimilitudo%22 806].</ref><ref>{{in lang|la}} ''CCC'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20210311174322/http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.vatican.va/archive/catechism_lt/p1s1c1_lt.htm+43+%22Inter+Creatorem+et+creaturam+non+potest+similitudo+notari,+quin+inter+eos+maior+sit+dissimilitudo%22 43].</ref>}}

====The {{lang|la|via eminentiae}}====
{{Main|Analogia entis}}
{{see also|Credo ut intelligam|Fides et ratio}}
[[Thomas Aquinas]] was born ten years later (1225–1274) and, although in his {{lang|la|[[Summa Theologiae]]}} he quotes Pseudo-Dionysius 1,760 times,<ref>{{citation |last=Ware |first=Kallistos |author-link=Kallistos Ware |year=1963 |title=The Orthodox Church |page=[https://archive.org/details/orthodoxchurchac00ware/page/73 73] |place=London |publisher=Penguin Group |isbn=0-14-020592-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/orthodoxchurchac00ware/page/73 }}</ref> stating that "Now, because we cannot know what God is, but rather what He is not, we have no means for considering how God is, but rather how He is not"<ref>[https://www.ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/FP/FP003.html ''ST'' 1a, q.3, prologue] (Benziger Bros. edition, 1947). Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=Roger M. |title=Talking about God. The Concept of Analogy and the Problem of Religious Language |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I6gQ5BNABl8C |year=2010 |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |location=[[Farnham]] |isbn=978-1-409-40036-3 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=I6gQ5BNABl8C&dq=%22theologia+negative%22%22Now,+because+we+cannot+know+what+God+is,+but+rather+what+He+is+not,+we+have+no+means+for+considering+how+God+is,+but+rather+how+He+is+not%22&pg=PA189 189]}}</ref> and leaving the work unfinished because it was "[[Thomas Aquinas#Late career and cessation of writing (1272–1274)|like straw]]" compared to what had been revealed to him,<ref>{{cite book |last=Murray |first=Paul |chapter=10. The collapse, the silence |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MWMDAAAAQBAJ&q=%2210.+The+collapse,+the+silence%22&pg=PA27 |title=Aquinas at Prayer. The Bible, Mysticism and Poetry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MWMDAAAAQBAJ |year=2013 |publisher=[[A & C Black]] |location=London |isbn=978-1-441-10755-8}}</ref> his reading in a [[Aristotelianism|neo-Aristotelian]] key{{sfn|Przywara|2014|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Fc9RAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA38&dq=%22Thomas+Aquinas+stands+out+as+Aristotle's+most+important+medieval+commentator+—+both+for+having+clarified+received+notions+of+analogy+and+for+assessing+its+theological+uses%22 38 ("Thomas Aquinas stands out as Aristotle's most important medieval commentator – both for having clarified received notions of analogy and for assessing its theological uses")]}} of the conciliar declaration overthrew its meaning inaugurating the "analogical way" as {{lang|la|[[wikt:tertium|tertium]]}} between {{lang|la|via negativa}} and {{lang|la|via positiva}}: the {{lang|la|via eminentiae}}. In this way, the believers see what attributes are common between them and God, as well as the unique, not human, properly divine and not understandable way in respect of which God possesses that attributes.<ref>Thomas Aquinas, ''Quaestiones disputatae de potentia'', q. 7, a. 5, ad 2. Cited in {{cite web|author=[[International Theological Commission]]|url=https://www-vatican-va.translate.goog/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_doc_20111129_teologia-oggi_it.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=it&_x_tr_pto=wapp|trans-title=Theology Today: Perspectives, Principia and Criteria|title=La teologia oggi: prospettive, principi e criteri|language=it,en|year=2012|website=Holy See}} (at n°. 97)</ref>

According to Adrian Langdon:

{{blockquote|The distinction between univocal, equivocal, and analogous language and relations corresponds to the distinction between the {{lang|la|via positiva}}, {{lang|la|via negativa}}, and {{lang|la|via eminentiae}}. In Thomas Aquinas, for example, the {{lang|la|via positiva}} undergirds the discussion of univocity, the {{lang|la|via negativa}} the equivocal, and the {{lang|la|via eminentiae}} the final defense of analogy.{{sfn|Langdon|2014|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=f2JNAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22The+distinction+between+univocal,+equivocal,+and+analogous+language+and+re-+lations+corresponds+to+the+distinction+between+the+via+positiva,+via+negativa,+and+via+eminentiae%22&pg=PA189 189a]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=f2JNAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22In+Thomas+Aquinas,+for+example,+the+via+positiva+undergirds+the+discussion+of+univocity,+the+via+negativa+the+equivocal,+and+the+via+eminentiae+the+final+defense+of+analogy%22&pg=PA189 189b]}}}}

According to ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'', the ''Doctor Angelicus'' and the [[Scholasticism|scholastici]] declare that:

{{blockquote|God is not absolutely unknowable, and yet it is true that we cannot define Him adequately. But we can conceive and name Him in an "analogical way". The perfections manifested by creatures are in God, not merely nominally ({{lang|la|equivoce}}) but really and positively, since He is their source. Yet, they are not in Him as they are in the creature, with a mere difference of degree, nor even with a mere specific or generic difference ({{lang|la|univoce}}), for there is no common concept including the finite and the Infinite. They are really in Him in a supereminent manner ({{lang|la|eminenter}}) which is wholly incommensurable with their mode of being in creatures. We can conceive and express these perfections only by an analogy; not by an analogy of proportion, for this analogy rests on a participation in a common concept, and, as already said, there is no element common to the finite and the Infinite; but by an analogy of proportionality.<ref>{{Catholic Encyclopedia |last=Sauvage |first=George |inline=1 |wstitle=Analogy}}</ref>}}

Since then [[Thomism]] has played a decisive role in resizing the negative or apophatic tradition of the [[magisterium]].<ref name="payton">{{cite book |last=Payton |first=James R. Jr. |title=Light from the Christian East. An Introduction to the Orthodox Tradition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=urE6DAAAQBAJ |chapter="POSITIVE" AND "NEGATIVE" THEOLOGY" (pp. 72-78) |date=2007 |publisher=[[InterVarsity Press|IVP Academic]] |location=[[Downers Grove, Illinois]] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=urE6DAAAQBAJ&q=%22%E2%80%9CPOSITIVE%E2%80%9D+AND+%E2%80%9CNEGATIVE%E2%80%9D+THEOLOGY%22%22Western+Christian%22%22%E2%80%9Cpositive%E2%80%9D+%28also+called+%E2%80%9Ccataphatic%E2%80%9D%29+theology+and+%E2%80%9Cnegative%E2%80%9D+%28or+%E2%80%9Capophatic%E2%80%9D%29+theology%22&pg=PA72 |isbn=978-0-830-82594-3}}</ref><ref>See for example the [[Regensburg lecture]] delivered on 12 September 2006 by [[Pope Benedict XVI]] at the [[University of Regensburg]] in Germany: [https://web.archive.org/web/20210308025410/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg.html+%22as+the+Fourth+Lateran+Council+in+1215+stated+-+unlikeness+remains+infinitely+greater+than+likeness,+yet+not+to+the+point+of+abolishing+analogy+and+its+language%22 "as the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 stated – unlikeness remains infinitely greater than likeness, yet not to the point of abolishing analogy and its language."]</ref>

===20th century===
[[File:Dooyeweerd.jpg|thumb|left|[[Herman Dooyeweerd]]]]
Apophatic statements are still crucial to many modern theologians, restarting in the 1800s by [[Søren Kierkegaard]] (see his concept of the [[infinite qualitative distinction]])<ref>{{cite book |last=Kierkegaard |first=Søren |author-link=Søren Kierkegaard |title=Training in Christianity, and the Edifying discourse which 'accompanied' it |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T9BXAAAAYAAJ |year=1941 |others=Transl. by [[Walter Lowrie (author)|Walter Lowrie]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=T9BXAAAAYAAJ&q=%22the+infinite+qualitative+difference+between+God+and+man%22 139 ("the infinite qualitative difference between God and man")]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Law |first=David R. |title=Kierkegaard as Negative Theologian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XDZAAAAMAAJ |date=1993 |orig-date=1989 |edition=illustrated, reprint |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |location=[[Oxford]] | isbn=978-0-198-26336-4}}</ref> up to [[Rudolf Otto]], [[Karl Barth]] (see their idea of "Wholly Other", i.e. {{lang|de|[[ganz Andere]]}} or {{lang|la|totaliter aliter}}),<ref>{{cite book |last=Webb |first=Stephen H. |author-link=Stephen H. Webb |title=Re-figuring Theology. The Rhetoric of Karl Barth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bF2JBCRWSdUC |year=1991 |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |location=[[Albany, New York]] |isbn=978-1-438-42347-0 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=bF2JBCRWSdUC&&pg=PA87&dq=%22Barth+did+approve+of+Rudolf+Otto's+description+of+God+as+the%22%22Wholly+Other%22%22(das+ganz+Andere+or+totaliter+aiiter)+—+a+term+upon+which+he+was+to+increasingly+depend+after+he+read+The+Idea+of+the+Holy+in+1919%22 87]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Elkins |first=James |author-link=James Elkins (art historian) |editor-last1=Ellenbogen |editor-first1=Josh |editor-last2=Tugendhaft |editor-first2=Aaron |chapter=Iconoclasm and the Sublime. Two Implicit Religious Discourses in Art History (pp. 133–151) |title=Idol Anxiety |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3_5hKCOGD3AC |year=2011 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |location=[[Redwood City, California]] |isbn=978-0-804-76043-0 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3_5hKCOGD3AC&dq=%22apophatic+theology%22%27%22ganz+Andere%22%22wholly+other%22&pg=PA147 147]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mariña |first=Jacqueline |editor-last1=Taliaferro |editor-first1=Charles |editor-link1=Charles Taliaferro |editor-last2=Draper |editor-first2=Paul |editor-link2=Paul Draper (philosopher) |editor-last3=Quinn |editor-first3=Philip L. |editor-link3=Philip L. Quinn |chapter=26. Holiness (pp. 235–242) |title=A Companion to Philosophy of Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SSCx-67Tk6cC |year=2010 |orig-date=1997 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |isbn=978-1-444-32016-9 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SSCx-67Tk6cC&dq=%22apophatic+theology%22%22wholly+other%22%22ganz+Anderes%22&pg=PA238 238]}}</ref> the [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] of the {{lang|la|[[Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus|Tractatus]]}}, and [[Martin Heidegger]] after his {{lang|de|[[Kehre]]}}.<ref>{{cite book |last=Noble |first=Ivana |editor-last1=Pokorný |editor-first1=Petr |editor-last2=Roskovec  |editor-first2=Jan |chapter=Apophatic Elements in Derrida's Deconstruction (pp. 83–93) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yIt0UjnFJdMC&q=%22Ivana+Noble%22%22Apophatic+Elements+in+Derrida's+Deconstruction%22&pg=PR8 |title=Philosophical Hermeneutics and Biblical Exegesis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yIt0UjnFJdMC |year=2002 |publisher=[[Mohr Siebeck]] |location=[[Tübingen]] |isbn=978-3-161-47894-9 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yIt0UjnFJdMC&dq=apophatic+%22Derrida+also+refers+to+more+contemporary+discourses+resembling+the+one+of+negative+theology%2c+to+Wittgenstein+and+Heidegger+in+particular%22&pg=PA89 89]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=yIt0UjnFJdMC&dq=%22recalls+the+end+of+Wittgenstein's+Tractatus%22&pg=PA90 90]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Nesteruk |first=Alexei |title=The Universe as Communion. Towards a Neo-Patristic Synthesis of Theology and Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z8HeBAAAQBAJ |year=2008 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |location=[[Bloomsbury]] |isbn=978-0-567-18922-6 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=z8HeBAAAQBAJ&dq=%22according+to+Heidegger+(after+his+Kehre),+the+oblivion+of+Being+was+effected+by+this+Being+itself,+as+its+withdrawal+and+it+is+through+this+withdrawal+Being+manifested+itself,+although+in+an+characteristically+apophatic+way%22&pg=PA96 96 ("according to Heidegger (after his ''Kehre''), the oblivion of Being was effected by this Being itself, as its withdrawal and it is through this withdrawal Being manifested itself, although in an characteristically apophatic way")]}}</ref>

[[C. S. Lewis]], in his book ''[[Miracles (book)|Miracles]]'' (1947), advocates the use of negative theology when first thinking about God, in order to cleanse one's mind of misconceptions. He goes on to advocate refilling the mind with the truth about God, untainted by mythology, bad [[analogies]] or false mind-pictures.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brazier |first=P. H.|chapter=Transposition and Analogy (pp.181-83) |title=C.S. Lewis — Revelation, Conversion, and Apologetics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dC1NAwAAQBAJ |year=2012 |publisher=[[Wipf and Stock]] |location=[[Eugene, Oregon]] |isbn=978-1-610-97718-0 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dC1NAwAAQBAJ&q=%22Transposition+and+Analogy%22%22If+Lewis+is+expounding+a+degree+of+negation+towards+religion+then+the+reason+for+this+apophatic+space%22%22Lewis,+Miracles%22&pg=PA181}}</ref>

The mid-20th century Dutch philosopher [[Herman Dooyeweerd]], who is often associated with a neo-Calvinistic tradition, provides a philosophical foundation for understanding the impossibility of absolutely knowing God, and yet the possibility of truly knowing something of God.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Friesen|first1=J. Glenn|title=The religious dialectic revisited|url=https://jgfriesen.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/revisited.pdf|website=jgfriesen.files|access-date=5 May 2018}}</ref>  Dooyeweerd made a sharp distinction between theoretical and pre-theoretical attitudes of thought. He argues that most of the discussion of knowledge of God presupposes theoretical knowledge, which involves reflection and attempts to define and discuss. Theoretical knowing, for Dooyeweerd, is never absolute, always depends on religious presuppositions, and cannot grasp either God or the law side. Pre-theoretical knowing, on the other hand, is intimate engagement, exhibits a diverse range of aspects, and can grasp at least the law side. According to Dooyeweerd, knowledge of God, as God wishes to reveal it, is pre-theoretical, immediate and intuitive, never theoretical in nature.<ref name="VanDrunen">{{cite book |last=VanDrunen |first=David |title=Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms. A Study in the Development of Reformed Social Thought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jnd9vRw51TwC |year=2009 |publisher=Eerdmans |location=Grand Rapids MI |isbn=978-0-802-86443-7 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jnd9vRw51TwC&dq=Herman+Dooyeweerd+pre-theoretical&pg=PA351 351-68]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Skillen |first=James W. |title=Philosophy of the Cosmonimic Idea: Herman Dooyeweerd's Political and Legal Thought |url=http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/print.aspx?article=1591 |website=First Principles |publisher=Intercollegiate Studies Institute |access-date=5 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505135545/http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/print.aspx?article=1591 |archive-date=5 May 2018 }}</ref> The philosopher [[Leo Strauss]] considered that the Bible, for example, should be treated as pre-theoretical (everyday) rather than theoretical in what it contains.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Gregory B. |title=Between Eternities. On the Tradition of Political Philosophy, Past, Present, and Future |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1w5sCPpcDPMC |year=2008 |publisher=[[Lexington Books]] |location=[[Lanham, Maryland]] |isbn=978-0-739-12077-4 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1w5sCPpcDPMC&pg=PA199 199]}}</ref>

[[Ivan Illich]] (1926–2002), the historian and social critic, can be read as an apophatic theologian, according to a longtime collaborator, Lee Hoinacki, in a paper presented in memory of Illich, called "Why Philia?".<ref>[http://www.pudel.uni-bremen.de/pdf/Hoinacki_Clar04_Philia_philia_en.pdf Hoinacki, Lee] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201655/http://www.pudel.uni-bremen.de/pdf/Hoinacki_Clar04_Philia_philia_en.pdf |date=2016-03-03 }}.</ref>

===21st century===
[[Karen Armstrong]], in her book ''[[The Case for God]]'' (2009), notices a recovery of apophatic theology in [[postmodern theology]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Blackburn |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Blackburn |title=All quiet on the God front|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/04/case-for-god-karen-armstrong |date=4 July 2009 |access-date=7 April 2017 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |publisher=[[Guardian Media Group|Guardian News and Media]]}}</ref>

Philosopher and literary scholar [[William Franke (philosopher)|William Franke]], particularly in his 2007 two-volume collection ''On What Cannot Be Said'' and his 2014 monograph ''A Philosophy of the Unsayable'', puts forth that negative theology's exploration and performance of language's limitations is not simply one current among many in religious thought, but is "a kind of perennial counter-philosophy to the philosophy of Logos" that persistently challenges central tenets of Western thought throughout its history. For Franke, literature demonstrates the "infinitely open" nature of language which negative theology and related forms of philosophical thought seek to draw attention to. Franke therefore argues that literature, philosophy, and theology begin to bleed into one another as they approach what he frames as the "apophatic" side of Western thought.<ref>{{cite book |last=Franke |first=William |author-link=William Franke (philosopher) |date=2014 |title=A Philosophy of the Unsayable |chapter=Pre-face |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press |pages=1–19 |isbn=978-0-268-02894-7}}</ref>

==Islam==
{{further|Tafwid}}
Various traditions and schools in [[Islam]] (see [[Islamic schools and branches]]) draw on sundry theologies in approaching [[God in Islam]] ([[Allah]], Arabic {{lang|ar|الله}}) or the [[ultimate reality]]. "Negative theology" involves the use of {{lang|ar|[[wikt:تعطيل|تَعْطِيل]]}}, {{transliteration|ar|[[ta'til|ta'tīl]]}}, defined as 'setting aside', 'canceling out', 'negation', or 'nullification'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bosworth |first1=C. E. |last2=van Donzel |first2=E. |last3=Heinrichs |first3=W. P. |last4=Lecomte |first4=G. |last5=Bearman|first5=P. J.|last6=Bianquis|first6=T.|title=Encyclopaedia of Islam |volume=X (T–U) |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden, Netherlands|date=2000 |isbn=9004112111 |page=342|edition=New }}</ref> The followers of the [[Mu'tazili]] school of [[Kalam]], the spread of which is often attributed to [[Wasil ibn Ata]], are often called the {{transliteration|ar|ALA|Mu'aṭṭilah}} ('cancelers' or 'negators'), a description, sometimes employed derogatorily, deriving from the school's descriptions of the Islamic God.<ref name="A Dictionary of Islam">{{cite book|last1=Hughes|first1=Thomas Patrick|title=A Dictionary of Islam|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryislam00hugh|url-access=limited|date=1994|publisher=Kazi Publications|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0935782707|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryislam00hugh/page/n440 425]}}</ref>

[[Rajab Ali Tabrizi|Rajab ʿAlī Tabrīzī]], an Iranian and [[Shia|Shi'ite]] philosopher and mystic of the 17th century, is credited with instilling an apophatic theology in a generation of philosophers and theologians whose influence extended into the [[Qajar dynasty|Qajar period]].<ref name="mohammedrustom.com">{{cite web|last1=Faruque|first1=Muhammad U. and Mohammed Rustom|title=Rajab ʿAlī Tabrīzī's Refutation of Ṣadrian Metaphysics|url=http://www.mohammedrustom.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Rajab-Ali-Tabrizis-Refutation-of-Sadrian-Metaphysics-Final-Faruque-and-Rustom.pdf|website=mohammedrustom.com|access-date=3 May 2018}}</ref> Mulla Rajab affirmed the completely unknowable, unqualifiable, and attributeless nature of God and upheld a general view concerning God's attributes which can only be negatively 'affirmed' (that is, by affirmingly negating all that is not God about God).<ref name="mohammedrustom.com" />

[[Shia Islam]] largely adopts "negative theology".{{refn|group=note|''[[Encyclopædia Iranica]]'': "God Himself comprises two ontological levels: first, of the Essence ({{transliteration|ar|ḏāt}}). This is said to be forever inconceivable, unimaginable, above all thought, beyond all knowledge. It can only be described by God through revelations and can only be apprehended by a negative apophatic theology. This recalls the Deus absconditus, the unknowable that forms the hidden, esoteric level of God, the level of the absolute abscondity of God."}}<ref name="Amir-Moezzi">{{cite web|last1=Amir-Moezzi|first1=Mohammad Ali|title=Shiʿite doctrine|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/shiite-doctrine|website=Encyclopædia Iranica|publisher=Columbia University|access-date=3 May 2018}}</ref> In the words of the Persian [[Isma'ilism|Ismaili]] missionary, [[Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani]]: "There does not exist a {{transliteration|ar|tanzíh}} ["transcendence"] more brilliant and more splendid than that by which we establish the absolute transcendence of our Originator through the use of these phrases in which a negative and a negative of a negative apply to the thing denied."<ref name="Walker">{{cite book|last1=Walker|first1=Paul.E.|title=Early Philosophical Shiism, The Ismaili Neoplatonism of Abá Ya'qáb al-Sijistání|date=1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521060820|page=78}}</ref>

[[Ahl al-Hadith|Literalists]] completely reject and condemn any negation that would clash with the wording of the Islamic Scriptures or with the narratives ascribed to the Islamic Prophet. They therefore hold that descriptors and qualifiers that occur in the Qur'ān and in the canonized religious traditions, even if seeming or sounding humanlike such as "hand", "finger, or "foot", are to be wholly affirmed as attributes of God (not limbs).<ref name="Campo">{{cite book |last=Campo |first=Juan Eduardo |title=Encyclopedia of Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OZbyz_Hr-eIC |year=2009 |publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]] |location=New York City |isbn=978-1-438-12696-8 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=OZbyz_Hr-eIC&dq=anthropomorphic+God&pg=PA45 45-46]}}</ref>

Many Sunnites, like the [[Ash'ari]]s and [[Maturidi]]s, adhere to some middle path or synthesis between negation and anthropomorphism, though the kind of each combination of negation and affirmation varies greatly.<ref name="Campo" />

==Judaism==<!-- This section is linked from [[Monism]] -->
{{See also|Tzimtzum#Inherent paradox|Divine simplicity#Jewish thought|Free will in theology#The paradox of free will}}
[[File:Maimonides-2.jpg|thumb|right|[[Maimonides]], 1138–1204 AD]]

[[Maimonides]] (1135/1138–1204) was "the most influential medieval Jewish exponent of the {{lang|la|via negativa}}."{{sfn|Fagenblat|2017|p=4}} Maimonides – along with [[Samuel ibn Tibbon]] – draws on [[Bahya ibn Paquda]],{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} who shows that our inability to describe God is related to the fact of his [[Jewish principles of faith#God is One|absolute unity]]. God, as the entity which is "truly One" ({{lang|he|האחד האמת}}), must be free of properties and is thus unlike anything else and [[Divine simplicity|indescribable]].{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} In ''[[The Guide for the Perplexed]]'', Maimonides states:

{{blockquote|God's existence is absolute and it includes no composition and we comprehend only the fact that He exists, not His essence. Consequently it is a false assumption to hold that He has any positive [[Abstraction|attribute]]{{nbsp}}[...] still less has He [[accident (philosopy)|accidents]] ({{lang|he|מקרה}}), which could be described by an attribute. Hence it is clear that He has no positive attribute however, the negative attributes are necessary to direct the mind to the truths which we must believe{{nbsp}}[...] When we say of this being, that it exists, we mean that its non-existence is impossible; it is living &mdash; it is not dead;{{nbsp}}[...] it is the first &mdash; its existence is not due to any cause; it has power, wisdom, and will &mdash; it is not feeble or ignorant; [[Jewish principles of faith#God is One|He is One]] &mdash; there are not more Gods than one{{nbsp}}[...] Every attribute predicated of God denotes either the quality of an action, or, when the attribute is intended to convey some idea of the Divine Being itself &mdash; and not of His actions &mdash; the [[negation]] of the opposite.<ref>''[[The Guide for the Perplexed]]'', [http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/gfp/gfp.htm 1:58].</ref>}}

According to Rabbi Yosef Wineberg, Maimonides stated that "[God] is knowledge," and saw his essence, being, and knowledge as completely one, "a perfect unity and not a composite at all."<ref name="Wineberg"/> Wineberg quotes Maimonides as stating:

{{blockquote|This [form of unity] wherein G‑d's knowledge and so on is one with G‑d Himself is beyond the capacity of the mouth to express, beyond the capacity of the ear to hear, and beyond the capacity of the heart of man to apprehend clearly.<ref name="Wineberg">[http://www.chabad.org/library/article.asp?AID=7994 ''Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah Ch. 8'']</ref>}}

According to Fagenblat, it is only in the modern period that negative theology really gains importance in Jewish thought.{{sfn|Fagenblat|2017|p=4}} [[Yeshayahu Leibowitz]] (1903–1994) was a prominent modern exponent of Jewish negative theology.{{sfn|Fagenblat|2017|p=2}} According to Leibowitz, a person's faith is their commitment to obey God, meaning God's commandments, and this has nothing to do with a person's image of God. This must be so because Leibowitz thought that God cannot be described, that God's understanding is not man's understanding, and thus all the questions asked of God are out of place.<ref>Zev Golan, "God, Man and Nietzsche: A Startling Dialogue between Judaism and Modern Philosophers" (New York: iUniverse, 2008), p. 43.</ref>

=== Jacques Derrida ===

The work of Jewish philosopher [[Jacques Derrida]], and in particular his critical method called [[deconstruction]], has frequently been compared to negative theology, and led to renewed interest in apophaticism in the late 20th century, even among continental philosophers and literary scholars who may not have otherwise have been particularly invested in theological issues.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jacques Derrida|editor1-last=Coward|editor1-first=Harold|title=Derrida and Negative Theology|date=1992|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany, N.Y.|page=128}}</ref> Conversely, the perception that deconstruction resembled or essentially was a form of secular negative theology also – according to Derrida himself – took the form of an accusation from his critics, implicitly positing both negative theology and deconstruction as being elaborate ways of saying nothing of any substance or importance. However, Derrida strongly repudiated this comparison for much of his career, arguing that any resemblance between his thought and apophaticism is purely superficial. Derrida argued that the aims of negative theology – to demonstrate the ultimate, incomprehensible, transcendent reality of God – are a form of [[ontotheology]] which runs fundamentally counter to deconstruction's aim of purging Western thought of its pervasive [[metaphysics of presence]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shakespeare |first1=Stephen |title=Derrida and Theology |date=2009 |publisher=T&T Clark |location=London |isbn=9780567032409 |pages=100–111}}</ref>

Later in his career, such in as his essay {{lang|fr|"Sauf le nom"}}, Derrida comes to see apophatic theology as potentially but not necessarily a means through which the intractable inadequacies of language and the ontological difficulties which proceed from them can brought to our attention and explored:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shakespeare |first1=Stephen |title=Derrida and Theology |date=2009 |publisher=T&T Clark |location=London |isbn=9780567032409 |pages=111–123}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=There is one apophasis that can in effect respond to, correspond to, correspond with the most insatiable desire of God, according to the history and the event of its manifestation or the secret of its non-manifestation.

The other apophasis, the other voice, can remain readily foreign to all desire, in any case to every anthropotheomorphic form of desire.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Derrida |first1=Jacques |title=On the Name |date=1995 |publisher=Stanford UP |location=Stanford |isbn=0804725551 |page=36}}</ref>}}

Scholars such as Stephen Shakespeare have noted that – despite Derrida's pervasive concern with many aspects of Jewish theology and identity – his writing on negative theology draws almost exclusively on Christian writing and couches the topic in the language of Christianity generally. Derrida's thought in general, but in particular his later writing on negative theology, was highly influential in the development of the Weak Theology movement, and of [[postmodern theology]] as a whole.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Caputo |first1=John D. |title=The Weakness of God |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana UP |location=Bloomington |isbn=0-253-34704-1}}</ref>

David Wood and Robert Bernasconi have highlighted how Derrida [[Deconstruction#Derrida's "negative" descriptions|explains what deconstruction is in an overwhelmingly negative, "apophatic" fashion]].<ref>Wood, David, and Bernasconi, Robert (1988): ''Derrida and Différance'', Evanston: Northwestern University Press.</ref>

==Indian parallels==
[[File:Raja Ravi Varma - Sankaracharya.jpg|thumb|[[Adi Shankara]], 788–820 AD]]
Early [[Indian philosophy|Indian philosophical]] works which have apophatic themes include the [[Mukhya Upanishads|Principal Upanishads]] (800 BC to the start of the common era) and the [[Brahma Sutras]] (from 450 BC and 200 AD). An expression of negative theology is found in the [[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]], where Brahman is described as "[[neti neti]]" or "neither this, nor that".<ref>Tharaud, Barry. Emerson for the Twenty-First Century: Global Perspectives on an American Icon. Rosemont Publishing and Printing Corp, 2010. p. 453. {{ISBN|978-0-87413-091-1}}</ref> Further use of apophatic theology is found in the Brahma Sutras, which state:

{{Blockquote|Whenever we deny something unreal, it is in reference to something real.<ref>Verse III.2.22, Brahma-Sutra, Translated by Swami Gambhirananda.</ref>}}

[[Buddhist philosophy]] has also strongly advocated the way of negation, beginning with the Buddha's own theory of [[anatta]] (not-[[Ātman (Hinduism)|atman]], not-self) which denies any truly existent and unchanging essence of a person. [[Madhyamaka]] is a Buddhist philosophical school founded by [[Nagarjuna]] (2nd–3rd century AD), which is based on a four-fold negation of all assertions and concepts and promotes the theory of emptiness ([[Śūnyatā|shunyata]]). Apophatic assertions are also an important feature of Mahayana sutras, especially the [[Prajnaparamita|prajñaparamita]] genre. These currents of negative theology are visible in all forms of Buddhism.

Apophatic movements in medieval [[Hindu philosophy]] are visible in the works of [[Adi Shankara|Shankara]] (8th century), a philosopher of [[Advaita Vedanta]] (non-dualism), and [[Bhartṛhari]] (5th century), a grammarian. While Shankara holds that the transcendent noumenon, [[Brahman]], is realized by the means of negation of every phenomenon including language, Bhartṛhari theorizes that language has both phenomenal and noumenal dimensions, the latter of which manifests Brahman.<ref>[[Harold Coward|Coward, Harold G.]] and Foshay, Toby. Derrida and Negative Theology. State University of New York, 1992. p. 21. {{ISBN|0-7914-0964-3}}.</ref>

In Advaita, Brahman is defined as being [[Nirguna]] or without qualities. Anything imaginable or conceivable is not deemed to be the ultimate reality.<ref>Renard, John.  Responses to One Hundred One Questions on Hinduism. Paulist Press, 1999. p. 75. {{ISBN|0-8091-3845-X}}.</ref> The [[Taittiriya]] hymn speaks of Brahman as "one where the mind does not reach". Yet the Hindu scriptures often speak of Brahman's positive aspect. For instance, Brahman is often equated with bliss. These contradictory descriptions of Brahman are used to show that the attributes of Brahman are similar to ones experienced by mortals, but not the same.

Negative theology also figures in the [[Buddhist]] and Hindu [[polemics]]. The arguments go something like this – Is Brahman an object of experience? If so, how do you convey this experience to others who have not had a similar experience? The only way possible is to relate this unique experience to common experiences while explicitly negating their sameness.

==Bahá'í Faith==

Bahá'í's believe that God is an ultimately unknowable being (see [[God in the Baháʼí Faith]]) and Bahá'í writings state that "there can be no tie of direct intercourse to bind the one true God with His creation, and no resemblance whatever can exist between the transient and the Eternal, the contingent and the Absolute."

According to the Bahá'í Faith, the only way to grow nearer to God is to gain knowledge of the Manifestation of God, who is a reflection of God's reality in a similar way to how a mirror reflects an image of the sun. Stephen Lambden has written a paper entitled, ''The Background and Centrality of Apophatic Theology in Bábí and Bahá'í Scripture''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lambden |first1=Stephen |title=The Background and Centrality of Apophatic Theology in Bábí and Bahá'í Scripture: Studies in the Babi and Baha'i Religions |journal=Revisioning the Sacred: New Perspectives on a Bahá'í Theology, Studies in the Babi and Baha'i Religions |volume=8 |pages=37–78 |url=https://hurqalya.ucmerced.edu/node/261}}</ref> and Ian Kluge has also looked into the Apophatic Theology and the Baha'i faith in the second part of his paper, ''Neoplatonism and the Bahá'í Writings''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kluge |first1=Ian |title=Neoplatonism and the Bahá'í Writings Part 2 |journal=Lights of Irfan |volume=12 |pages=105–193 |url=https://bahai-library.com/kluge_neoplatonism_2}}</ref>

==Apophatic theology and atheism==
Even though the ''via negativa'' essentially rejects theological understanding in and of itself as a path to God, some have sought to make it into an intellectual exercise, by describing God only in terms of what God is not. One problem noted with this approach is that there seems to be no fixed basis on deciding what God is not, unless the Divine is understood as an abstract experience of full aliveness unique to each individual consciousness, and universally, the perfect goodness applicable to the whole field of reality.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pondé |first1=Luiz Felipe |title=Crítica e profecia: A filosofia da religião em Dostoiévski |date=2003 |publisher=Editora 34 |isbn=8573262842 |location=São Paulo |pages=74–92}}</ref> Apophatic theology is often accused of being a version of [[atheism]] or [[agnosticism]], since it cannot truly say that God exists.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Kvanvig |editor-first=Jonathan |editor-link=Jonathan Kvanvig |year=2015 |chapter=7. The Ineffable, Inconceivable, and Incomprehensible God. Fundamentality and Apophatic Theology (pp. 158 — 176) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4cSDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA158 |last=Jacobs |first=Jonathan D.|title=Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion. Volume 6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4cSDAAAQBAJ |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-198-72233-5  |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=V4cSDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Apophatic+theology+is+often+accused+of+being+a+version+of+atheism+or+agnosticism,+since+we+cannot+say+truly+that+God+exists.%22&pg=PA168 168]}}</ref> "The comparison is crude, however, for conventional atheism treats the existence of God as a predicate that can be denied ("God is nonexistent"), whereas negative theology denies that God has predicates".{{sfn|Fagenblat|2017|p=3}} "God or the Divine is" without being able to attribute qualities about "what He is" would be the prerequisite of positive theology in negative theology that distinguishes theism from atheism. "Negative theology is a complement to, not the enemy of, positive theology".{{sfn|Bryson|2016|p=114}} Since religious experience—or consciousness of the holy or sacred, is not reducible to other kinds of human experience, an abstract understanding of religious experience cannot be used as evidence or proof that religious discourse or praxis can have no meaning or value.<ref>[[Bernard Lonergan|Lonergan, Bernard]] (1972), "Method in Theology", New York, N.Y.: Seabury Press, {{ISBN|0-8164-2204-4}}.</ref> In apophatic theology, the negation of theisms in the ''via negativa'' also requires the negation of their correlative atheisms if the dialectical method it employs is to maintain integrity.<ref>[[Michael J. Buckley|Buckley, Michael J.]] (2004), "Denying and Disclosing God: The Ambiguous Progress of Modern Atheism", New Haven, C.T.: [[Yale University Press]], pp. 120ff, {{ISBN|0-30009384-5}}.</ref>

==See also==
;Buddhism
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Anatta]]
* [[Dharmadhatu]]
* [[Dharmakāya]]
* [[Sunyata]]
* [[Tathātā]]
* [[Vipassana]]
{{div col end}}

;Christianity
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Christian contemplation]]
* [[Christian meditation]]
* [[Conceptions of God]]
* [[Existence of God]]
* [[Monastic silence]]
* [[Tabor Light]]
{{div col end}}

;Hinduism
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Neti neti]]
* [[Self-enquiry]]
{{div col end}}

;Islam
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Fana (Sufism)]]
* [[Ta'tili]]
{{div col end}}

;Judaism
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* ''[[Tzimtzum]]''
* {{slink|Free will in theology#Judaism}}
{{div col end}}

;Taoism
* [[Taoism#Theology]]

;Philosophy
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Nihilism]]
* [[Existence of God]]
* [[Fideism]]
* [[Limit-experience]]
* [[Rational fideism]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}

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{{Reflist}}

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<ref name=Bunnin_Yu group=web>{{cite web |author=Nicholas Bunnin and [[Jiyuan Yu]] |title=The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy: negative theology |website=Blackwell Reference Online |url=http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405106795_chunk_g978140510679515_ss1-58}}</ref>
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==Further reading==
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Davies |editor-first1=Oliver |editor-link1=Oliver Davies (theologian) |editor-last2=Turner |editor-first2=Denys |editor-link2=Denys Turner |year=2002 |title=Silence and the Word. Negative Theology and Incarnation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4cTbTwHvZIoC |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-139-43483-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Franke |first=William |author-link=William Franke (philosopher) |title=A Philosophy of the Unsayable |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vUsFDgAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher=[[University of Notre Dame Press]] |location=[[Notre Dame, Indiana]] |isbn=978-0-268-07977-2}}
* {{cite journal |last=Karahan |first=Anne |title=The Image of God in Byzantine Cappadocia and the Issue of Supreme Transcendence |journal=[[Studia Patristica]] |year=2013 |volume=LIX - Papers presented at the Sixteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2011 |issue=7 |pages=97–111 |editor=[[Allen Brent]] |editor2=[[Markus Vinzent]] |publisher=[[Peeters (publishing company)|Peeters Publishers]] |location=[[Leuven]] |isbn=978-9-042-92992-0}}
* {{cite journal |last=Karahan |first=Anne |title=The Issue of περιχώρησις in Byzantine Holy Images |journal=Studia Patristica |year=2010 |volume=XLIV–XLIX - Papers presented at the Fifteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2007 |pages=27–34 |editor=Jane Baun |editor2=[[Averil Cameron]] |editor3=Mark Julian Edwards |editor4=Markus Vinzent |publisher=Peeters Publishers |location=Leuven |isbn=978-9-042-92370-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Keller |first=Catherine |author-link=Catherine Keller (theologian) |title=Cloud of the Impossible. Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yn-SBQAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York City |isbn=978-0-2-315-3870-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Wolfson |first=Elliot R. |author-link=Elliot R. Wolfson |title=Giving Beyond the Gift. Apophasis and Overcoming Theomania |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v-7nCwAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher=Fordham University Press |location=New York City |isbn=978-0-823-25570-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Yannaras |first=Christos |author-link=Christos Yannaras |chapter=Apophatic Theology |chapter-url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/encyclopedia-of-christianity/alphaRange/Ao%2520-%2520Au/A |year=1999 |title=Encyclopedia of Christianity |editor-last=Fahlbusch |editor-first=Erwin |volume=1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofch0001unse_t6f2/page/105 105–106] |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|Wm. B. Eerdmans]] |location=[[Grand Rapids, Michigan]] |isbn=0802824137 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofch0001unse_t6f2/page/105 }}{{dead link|date=February 2024|bot=medic}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|apophatic}}
{{wikiquote}}
*'''General'''
**[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/god-necessary-being/ God and Other Necessary Beings], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
**At the Origins of Modern Atheism, Michael J. Buckley, Yale University Press 1987, {{ISBN|0-300-03719-8}}
*'''Christian material'''
**[http://atheism.about.com/od/theology/a/negative.htm Negative Theology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719171741/http://atheism.about.com/od/theology/a/negative.htm |date=2011-07-19 }}, Austin Cline
**[http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/a/apophatic_theology.html Apophatic theology], The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
**[http://bahai-library.com/winters_apophatic_theology Saying Nothing about No-Thing: Apophatic Theology in the Classical World], Jonah Winters
*'''Jewish material'''
**"Paradoxes", in "The Aryeh Kaplan Reader", [[Aryeh Kaplan]], Artscroll 1983, {{ISBN|0-89906-174-5}}
**[http://www.aish.com/literacy/concepts/Understanding_God.asp Understanding God] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219080545/http://www.aish.com/literacy/concepts/Understanding_God.asp |date=2010-12-19 }}, Ch2. in "The Handbook of Jewish Thought", Aryeh Kaplan, Moznaim 1979, {{ISBN|0-940118-49-1}}
**[[Chovot ha-Levavot]] [http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/mahshevt/hovot/1a-2.htm 1:8], [[Bahya ibn Paquda]] – [https://web.archive.org/web/20050318170731/http://www.torah.org/learning/spiritual-excellence/classes/doh-1-8.html Online class], Yaakov Feldman
**[http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=2101&letter=A Attributes], jewishencyclopedia.com
*'''Modern material'''
**[[Jacques Derrida|Derrida]] and Negative Theology, ed [[Harold Coward|H. G Coward]], SUNY 1992. {{ISBN|0-7914-0964-3}}

{{Theology}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apophatic Theology}}
[[Category:Religious terminology]]
[[Category:Theology]]
[[Category:Thomas Aquinas]]