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Apophatic theology, also known as negative theology,^[1] 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.^{[web 1]} It forms a pair together with cataphatic theology, which approaches God or the Divine by affirmations or positive statements about what God is.^{[web 2]}

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.^[2]

Etymology and definition

"Apophatic", Ancient Greek: ἀπόφασις (noun); from ἀπόφημι apophēmi, meaning 'to deny'. From Online Etymology Dictionary:

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."^{[web 3]}

Via negativa or via negationis (Latin), 'negative way' or 'by way of denial'.^[1] The negative way forms a pair together with the kataphatic or positive way. According to Deirdre Carabine,

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". 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.^{[web 2]}

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 Christian writers. A tendency to apophatic thought can also be found in Philo of Alexandria.^[3]

According to Carabine, "apophasis proper" in Greek thought starts with Neo-Platonism, with its speculations about the nature of the One, culminating in the works of Proclus.^[4] 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.^[4]

The Early Church Fathers were influenced by Philo,^[4] and Meredith even states that Philo "is the real founder of the apophatic tradition."^[5] Yet, it was with Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor,^[6] whose writings shaped both Hesychasm (the contemplative monastic tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Churches) and the mystical traditions of western Europe, that apophatic theology became a central element of Christian theology and contemplative practice.^[4]

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]}

Greek philosophy

Pre-Socratic

For the ancient Greeks, knowledge of the gods was essential for proper worship.^[7] Poets had an important responsibility in this regard, and a central question was how knowledge of the Divine forms can be attained.^[7] Epiphany played an essential role in attaining this knowledge.^[7] Xenophanes (c. 570 – c. 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.^[7]

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.^[8] The ancient Greek poet Hesiod (between 750 and 650 BC) describes in his Theogony the birth of the gods and creation of the world,^{[web 4]} which became an "ur-text for programmatic, first-person epiphanic narratives in Greek literature,"^{[7][note 1]} but also "explores the necessary limitations placed on human access to the divine."^[7] 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."^{[10][note 2]}

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."^[12] "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.^[13] Cook notes that Parmenides' poem is a religious account of a mystical journey, akin to the mystery cults,^[14] giving a philosophical form to a religious outlook.^[15] 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."^[15]

Plato

Plato (428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC), "deciding for Parmenides against Heraclitus" and his theory of eternal change,^[16] had a strong influence on the development of apophatic thought.^[16]

Plato further explored Parmenides's idea of timeless truth in his dialogue Parmenides, which is a treatment of the eternal forms, Truth, Beauty and Goodness, which are the real aims for knowledge.^[16] The Theory of Forms is Plato's answer to the problem how one fundamental reality or unchanging essence can admit of many changing phenomena, other than by dismissing them as being mere illusion.^[16]

In The Republic, Plato argues that the "real objects of knowledge are not the changing objects of the senses, but the immutable Forms,"^{[web 5]} stating that the Form of the Good^{[note 3]} is the highest object of knowledge.^{[17][18][web 5][note 4]} 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.^{[18][web 5]} Humans are to be educated to search for knowledge, by turning away from their bodily desires toward higher contemplation, culminating in an intellectual^{[note 5]} understanding or apprehension of the Forms, c.q. the "first principles of all knowledge."^[18]

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.^[16] The pursuit of Truth, Beauty and Goodness became a central element in the apophatic tradition,^[16] but nevertheless, according to Carabine "Plato himself cannot be regarded as the founder of the negative way."^[19] 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.^[20]

Middle Platonism

Middle Platonism (1st century BC–3rd century AD)^{[web 6]} further investigated Plato's "Unwritten Doctrines," which drew on Pythagoras' first principles of the Monad and the Dyad (matter).^{[web 6]} 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.^[21] An influential proponent of Middle Platonism was Philo (c. 25 BC–c. 50 AD), who employed Middle Platonic philosophy in his interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures, and asserted a strong influence on early Christianity.^{[web 6]} According to Craig D. Allert, "Philo made a monumental contribution to the creation of a vocabulary for use in negative statements about God."^[22] For Philo, God is undescribable, and he uses terms which emphasize God's transcendence.^[22]

Neo-Platonism

Neo-Platonism was a mystical or contemplative form of Platonism, which "developed outside the mainstream of Academic Platonism."^{[web 7]} 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 AD, when the pagan traditions were ousted.^{[web 8]} 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.^{[web 7]} Proclus of Athens (*412–485 C.E.) 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.^[23] His student Pseudo-Dionysius had a far-stretching Neo-Platonic influence on Christianity and Christian mysticism.^{[web 7]}

Plotinus

Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Apophatic_theology
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