To Know Nothing: Apophatic Theology in the Dionysian Corpus
Živa Antika January 1, 2016 M. Todorovska
Pseudo-Dionysius argues that God, as the Supreme Cause and Being itself, is ultimately incomprehensible and ineffable, beyond human language and cognitive abilities. Knowledge of God is limited to experiencing his manifestations in the world through theophanies. Apophatic theology, which denies any positive attributes of God, is inseparable from cataphatic theology, which affirms them. Negation does not simply eliminate possibilities but can lead to affirmations of super-abundance or the recognition that nothing can be affirmed or denied of God. The negative approach moves beyond knowledge about God toward union with God, though it risks inconsistency if one must know something to negate it.