Apophatic Theology is an unpopular and poorly grasped theology in the West, whenever the term is used it's nearly always wheeled out as negative Cataphatic Theology, which is nothing like Apophatic theology at all!
Understanding this absent absence notion in theology frees us from many modern western illusions and propositions of God, whilst resonating with many atheistic philosophical concepts, particularly Nietzsche’s statement that 'god is dead'.
To really understand Apophatic Theology we must understand Palamism. St. Gregory Palamas created a heresy for the Western Church, which by contrast was adopted as doctrine for the East. He said that to understand who God is, we must make the REAL distinction between God as he exists in his Essence (God as God is), and God as he exists in his Energies (God as Man is). This is not a FORMAL distinction that we must make because of the limits of our human intelligence, but is an actual distinction in his being. The West considered this Polytheistic and against their concept of Actus Purus, while the East grasped how it helped explain the Mystical nature and manifestations of God.
God, in his Essence, in his nature, God as God is - is not something. He is unknowable, incomprehensible, undefinable. Vladimir Lossky puts it as 'the divine darkness' where we cannot shine any light of understanding by which we may know God. There is no means of context by which man can know God in his nature, in his essence. He is completely unknowable and ungraspable. He is literally NOT anything, His Essence is NO thing to us, he is NOTHING.
We are Athesists!
This is crushing for traditional concepts of God. How do you comfort yourself with a God who in his Essence, you cannot know? Or impose on others a God whose nature, you cannot define?!
This is true Apophacy, and is not the theological gimmick that the West makes of it, but the essential nature of God by which we much approach him by.
Understanding this absent absence notion in theology frees us from many modern western illusions and propositions of God, whilst resonating with many atheistic philosophical concepts, particularly Nietzsche’s statement that 'god is dead'.
To really understand Apophatic Theology we must understand Palamism. St. Gregory Palamas created a heresy for the Western Church, which by contrast was adopted as doctrine for the East. He said that to understand who God is, we must make the REAL distinction between God as he exists in his Essence (God as God is), and God as he exists in his Energies (God as Man is). This is not a FORMAL distinction that we must make because of the limits of our human intelligence, but is an actual distinction in his being. The West considered this Polytheistic and against their concept of Actus Purus, while the East grasped how it helped explain the Mystical nature and manifestations of God.
God, in his Essence, in his nature, God as God is - is not something. He is unknowable, incomprehensible, undefinable. Vladimir Lossky puts it as 'the divine darkness' where we cannot shine any light of understanding by which we may know God. There is no means of context by which man can know God in his nature, in his essence. He is completely unknowable and ungraspable. He is literally NOT anything, His Essence is NO thing to us, he is NOTHING.
We are Athesists!
This is crushing for traditional concepts of God. How do you comfort yourself with a God who in his Essence, you cannot know? Or impose on others a God whose nature, you cannot define?!
This is true Apophacy, and is not the theological gimmick that the West makes of it, but the essential nature of God by which we much approach him by.
