RL -> Apophatic And Cataphatic Flashcards
Via Negativa (Apophatic way)
Via Negativa: The only way to speak about God is through negative terms
A way of describing God by stating what he is not, as we cannot understand what human terms would mean when applied to God, due to our limited human understanding. Awareness of Gods ineffable nature has spanned centuries, and is common in Eastern Christian thought, such as Origen.
Pseudo-Dionysius
Made a distinction between the Apophatic and Cataphatic ways, with the via positiva attempting to use theological language to describe God (Such as calling him ‘The Good’) and while this gives real knowledge, followers of the Apophatic way view this as provisional knowledge, as God lies far beyond theses names. In contrast, the via negativa aims to move beyond language to the ‘divine darkness’ which lies beyond any concept
‘We must not dare to speak, or to form any conception of the hidden’
Moses Maimonides
The via negativa was adopted by Maimonides, who in his ‘Guide for the perplexed’ warns continually about the dangers of anthropomorphising (To treat something inappropriately as human) God. Though the scriptures draw on human language, when they speak of ‘Gods right hand’ we must not think of God in the humans terms of which these phrases imply. He observes that we make comparisons with God;
‘We should not have the idea that the Supreme Being is corporeal’
St. Aquinas
Aquinas was not an exponent of the via negativa, but was sympathetic to its proponents. To him, the essence of God was infinitely far beyond human understanding or human language. For Aquinas, via negativa was a prelude to understanding God, he took the view that to say God is not ignorant or not limited by time surely tells us something about God even if we cannot know what that something may be.
Criticisms
Critics have argued that any understanding gained through this approach is negligible, for example to say that God is not a bicycle gives no deep insight into the nature of God, though proponents would argue that even to make a negative statement implies some awareness of what is being denied.
W.R Inge was concerned that to deny God his descriptions was to lead to an ‘annihilation’ of both God and Humanity. If we strip God of his descriptions , simply because our descriptions are based on finite human experience, we are in danger of losing the essential link between God and the world.
