What is an example of Apophatic theology?
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”.
What is apophatic spirituality?
Apophatic, or “neg tive” spirituality stresses interiority, “imageless-ness” and “wordlessness.” Kataphatic, or “positive” spiritual ity is image-driven and uses analogies to speak of God.
What is apophatic tradition?
Apophatic theology involves defining or knowing God through negative statements: The Orthodox tradition of apophatic, or negative, theology holds that none of our concepts can properly be affirmed of God, who transcends all human concepts.
What is the opposite of Apophatic theology?
Cataphatic theology or kataphatic theology is theology that uses “positive” terminology to describe or refer to the divine – specifically, God – i.e. terminology that describes or refers to what the divine is believed to be, in contrast to the “negative” terminology used in apophatic theology to indicate what it is …
Is Buddhism Apophatic?
Buddhism. In the Buddhist scriptures, Gautama Buddha is recorded as describing Nirvana in terms of what it is not. The apophatic, or via negativa philosophical methodology is extremely common in earliest existing Buddhist doctrine, the Nikayas: “There is, monks, an unborn—unbecome—unmade—unfabricated” (Udana VIII. 3).
What does the word Cataphatic mean?
Definitions of cataphatic. adjective. of or relating to the religious belief that God can be known to humans positively or affirmatively.
Is Buddhism apophatic?
What is meant by via negativa in theological terms?
The Latin term, which means the “way of negation,” refers to the stream of Christian theology which emphasized the unknowability of God and the inability of positive theological attributes to define God.
What is Modalism in theology?
Definition of modalism : the theological doctrine that the members of the Trinity are not three distinct persons but rather three modes or forms of activity (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) under which God manifests himself.
What is the monophysite heresy?
monophysite, in Christianity, one who believed that Jesus Christ’s nature remains altogether divine and not human even though he has taken on an earthly and human body with its cycle of birth, life, and death.
Can we reach God through negativa?
VIA NEGATIVA is a technical term for the negative way of theology, which refuses to identify God with any human concept or knowledge, for God transcends all that can be known of him. Yet the term points to the possibility of union with God and the experience of his presence.