Apophatic Way

• Pseudo-Dionysius (Dionysius the Areopagite)(6th Century)


  Argues that the apophatic way should be used to describe God. Unlike cataphatic language, it preserves the mystery and transcendency of God. It does not anthropomorphise God.
• Gregory of Nyssa (Fourth century mystic)


  A spiritual life is a 'mysticism of darkness'. There comes a point in which a believer enters an outer darkness and into the apophatic way of Gods ineffable transcendent reality. At this point there are no words to describe God.
• Moses Maimonides (Medieval Jewish Theologian)

  God and humans are so different that language used to describe God would be equivocal (meaning something different when referring to God). He advocated for describing God via negation, saying what God is not. Maimonides claimed that if you were to describe a ship saying only what it is not then within ten steps you would know it is a ship. This same logic can be applied to God.
• Meaningless atheism

  This approach suggests that no talk of God held by atheists – even if using the via negativa – can ever be meaningful as their “entering into the apophatic way” doesn’t come from a position of faith – or from the ‘outer darkness’. It would be elitist to assume that only believers have the ability to speak meaningfully of God.
• The via negativa is a respectful way of talking about God because it recognises that God is far beyond human understanding. By saying what God is not, we preserve his transcendence
• To say what God is not to some extent implies the positive. For example, to say that God is not limited by time tells us something about God, no matter how limited he is.
• The via negativa avoids anthropomorphising God because it does not bring God down to human level
• B. Davies criticises Maimonides, arguing that you could just as easily end up with a wardrobe instead of a ship. The example shows how ineffective the via negativa is.
• Religious believers seek positive knowledge of God and speak of God in positive rather than negative terms.
• At best, the via negativa leaves us with a limited understanding of God because there is so little that it communicates about God.
• The only positive statement that can be made of God to Moses Maimonides is that God exists.