apophatism

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Noun 1. apophatism - the religious belief that God cannot be known but is completely `other' and must be described in negative terms (in terms of what God is not)

faith, religion, religious belief - a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; "he lost his faith but not his morality"

cataphatism - the religious belief that God has given enough clues to be known to humans positively and affirmatively (e.g., God created Adam `in his own image')

doctrine of analogy, analogy - the religious belief that between creature and creator no similarity can be found so great but that the dissimilarity is always greater; any analogy between God and humans will always be inadequate

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We therefore see a certain apophatism at the beginning of the created world; the mystery of creation is hidden in the Creator, and thus evades a scientific, causal examination.

The irreducibility scale

Although he is well acquainted with the apophatic tradition of Neoplatonism preached by Plotinus, Porphyry or Damascius, that postulates silence in front of the mystery, Mounier takes on the Christian apophatism legacy stemming from Dionysius the Areopagite.

THE CONCEPT OF PERSON IN MOUNIER'S PHILOSOPHY: CONVERGENCES WITH ORTHODOX THEOLOGY

(10) In what seems a rather creative use of the terminology of the three "via's," of which at least the second does not typically have much to do with sin and repentance, as is suggested here, but with apophatism. If the triad derives from the work of Matthew Fox (e.g., A Way to God: Thomas Merton's Creation Spirituality journey [Novato: New World Library, 2016]), one wonders why the "via creativa" is omitted.

Sustainable Masculinity in Ecumenical Perspective: The Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace