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Apophatic theology

147 bytes removed, 17:00, June 23, 2006
Apophatic description of God
''Apophatic theology'' - also known as ''negative theology'' - is a [[theology]] that attempts to describe [[God]] by negation, to speak of God only in terms of what may be said about God and to avoid what may not be said. In Orthodox Christianity, apophatic theology is based on the assumption that God's essence is unknoweable or ineffable and on the recognition of the inadequacy of human language to describe God. The apophatic tradition in Orthodoxy is often balanced with [[cataphatic theology]] - or ''positive theology'' and belief in the [[incarnation]] through which God has revealed himself in the person of [[Jesus Christ]].
==Apophatic description descriptions of God==
Even though the ''via negativa'' essentially rejects theological understanding as a path to *No one has seen or can see God, some have sought to make it into an intellectual exercise, by describing God only (John 1:18).*He lives in terms of what he is notunapproachable light (1 Tim. One problem noted with this approach, is that there seems to be no fixed basis on deciding what God is not6:16).*His ways are unsearchable and unfathomable (Job 11:7-8; Rom. 11:33-36).
==History in the Early Church==
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