Apophatic theology

Apophatic theology, from the Greek apophasis, “denial”, is the way of speaking of God by negation. Since God infinitely exceeds every concept, the apophatic theologian denies of God every name and attribute: God is not finite, not changing, not a being among beings, and in the end not even “being” or “good” as we understand them. It is also called the via negativa, the negative way, and is contrasted with cataphatic, affirmative theology.

Its classic Christian source is Pseudo-Dionysius, whose Mystical Theology describes an ascent in which every affirmation and then every negation is left behind, and the soul enters the “darkness” of unknowing in which it is united with the God beyond all. Gregory of Nyssa had read Moses’ entry into the dark cloud on Sinai in the same way. The Cloud of Unknowing and Meister Eckhart continued the tradition in the West.

Negation here is not scepticism. The apophatic writers deny in order to point beyond: the darkness of unknowing is, for them, a brighter light. Similar strategies appear in Neoplatonism, in the Upaniṣadic “not this, not this”, in Madhyamaka, and in Jewish and Islamic theology, though what lies beyond the negations is understood differently in each.