Apophatic theology

Via Negativa redirects here, for The X-Files episode with the same name, see "Via Negativa" ( The X-Files ) Apophatic theology —also known as Negative theology or Via Negativa ( Latin for "Negative Way")—is a theology that attempts to describe God , the Divine Good, by negation , to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God. It stands in contrast with Cataphatic theology . In brief, negative theology is an attempt to achieve unity with the Divine Good through discernment, gaining knowledge of what God is not ( apophasis ), rather than by describing what God is. The apophatic tradition is often, though not always, allied with the approach of mysticism , which focuses on a spontaneous or cultivated individual experience of the divine reality beyond the realm of ordinary perception , an experience often unmediated by the structures of traditional organized religion or the conditioned role playing and learned defensive behavior of the outer man.

Look up apophatic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. By religion Abrahamic Baháʼí Christianity Islam Judaism Mormonism Mandaeism Buddhism Hinduism Jainism Sikhism Wicca Theories of religion Acosmism Agnosticism Animism Antireligion Atheism Creationism Dharmism Deism Divine command theory Dualism Esotericism Exclusivism Existentialism atheist Christian Feminist Fundamentalism Gnosticism Henotheism Humanism Christian religious secular Inclusivism Monism Monotheism Mysticism Naturalism humanistic metaphysical religious New Age Nondualism Nontheism Pandeism Panentheism Pantheism Perennialism Polytheism Process Secular Shrine Theory Shendao shejiao Spiritualism Shamanism Taoic Theism Transcendentalism Philosophers of religion Related topics Criticism of religion Ethics in religion Exegesis Faith and rationality History of religions Natural theology Religion and science Religious philosophy Theology v t e Apophatic theology (from via ἀπόφημι apophēmi , meaning "to deny"), also known as negative theology , via negativa or via negationis ( Latin for "negative way" or "by way of denial"), is a theology that attempts to describe God , the Divine Good, by negation , to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God . It stands in contrast to cataphatic theology . An example can be found in the 9th-century theologian John Scotus Erigena 's assertion: " We 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. The apophatic tradition is often, though not always, allied with the approach of mysticism , which focuses on a spontaneous or cultivated individual experience of the divine reality beyond the realm of ordinary perception , an experience often unmediated by the structures of traditional organized religion or the conditioned role-playing and learned defensive behavior of the outer man.

Way of describing the divine by explaining what God is not "Via negativa" redirects here. By religion Abrahamic Baháʼí Christianity Islam Judaism Mormonism Mandaeism Buddhism Hinduism Jainism Sikhism Wicca Theories of religion Acosmism Agnosticism Animism Antireligion Atheism Creationism Dharmism Deism Divine command theory Dualism Esotericism Exclusivism Existentialism atheist Christian Feminist Fundamentalism Gnosticism Henotheism Humanism Christian religious secular Inclusivism Monism Monotheism Mysticism Naturalism humanistic metaphysical religious New Age Nondualism Nontheism Pandeism Panentheism Pantheism Perennialism Polytheism Process Secular Shrine Theory Shendao shejiao Spiritualism Shamanism Taoic Theism Transcendentalism Philosophers of religion Related topics Criticism of religion Ethics in religion Exegesis Faith and rationality History of religions Natural theology Religion and science Religious philosophy Theology v t e Apophatic theology , also known as negative theology , is a form of theological thinking and religious practice which attempts to approach God , the Divine, by negation , to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God . It forms a pair together with cataphatic theology , which approaches God or the Divine by affirmations or positive statements about what God is . 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 ordinary perception . There are <ref group=web> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a template (see the help page ).

Way of describing the divine by explaining what God is not "Via negativa" redirects here. By religion Abrahamic Baháʼí Christianity Islam Judaism Mormonism Mandaeism Buddhism Hinduism Jainism Sikhism Wicca Theories of religion Acosmism Agnosticism Animism Antireligion Atheism Creationism Dharmism Deism Divine command theory Dualism Esotericism Exclusivism Existentialism atheist Christian Feminist Fundamentalism Gnosticism Henotheism Humanism Christian religious secular Inclusivism Monism Monotheism Mysticism Naturalism humanistic metaphysical religious New Age Nondualism Nontheism Pandeism Panentheism Pantheism Perennialism Polytheism Process Secular Shrine Theory Shendao shejiao Spiritualism Shamanism Taoic Theism Transcendentalism Philosophers of religion Related topics Criticism of religion Ethics in religion Exegesis Faith and rationality History of religions Natural theology Religion and science Religious philosophy Theology v t e Apophatic theology , also known as negative theology , is a form of theological thinking and religious practice which attempts to approach God , the Divine, by negation , to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God . 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 . 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 ordinary perception . There are <ref group=web> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a template (see the help page ).