Cataphatic theology: Difference between revisions

'''Cataphatic theology''' or '''kataphatic theology''' is [[theology]] that uses "'''positive'''" terminology to describe or refer to [[Divinity|the divine]] – – specifically, [[God]] – i.e. terminology that describes or refers to what the divine is believed to be, in contrast to the "negative" terminology used in [[apophatic theology]] to indicate what it is believed the divine is not.

To speak of God or the divine cataphatically is thought by some to be by its nature a form of limiting to God or divine. This was one of the core tenets of the works of [[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]], who said of God, "Neither is there sense, nor image, nor opinion, nor reason, nor knowledge of Him."<ref>Thomas Aquinas, ''Summa Theologica,'' Part 1, Question 12, Article 1, Objection 1. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Accessed online August 13, 2024; URL: http://www.freecatholicebooks.com/books/summa.pdf</ref> By defining what God or the divine is we limit the unlimited. As [[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine]] wrote, similarly, "if you can grasp [God], it isn’t God."<ref>Saint Augustine. Sermon #117, Section 5. In Augustine Heritage Institute, ''The Works of Saint Augustine: Translation for the 21st Century,'' in Part III (Sermons), Volume 4. Translator, Edmond Hill. Brooklyn, NY: New York City Press. 1992. Page 211.</ref> A cataphatic way to express God would be that God is love. The apophatic way would be to state that God is not hate (although such description can be accused of the same dualism). Or to say that God is not love, as he transcends even our notion of love. Ultimately, one would come to remove even the notion of the Trinity, or of saying that God is one, because divine is above numberhood. That God is beyond all duality because God contains within himself all things and that God is beyond all things. TheSaint apophaticDionysus waytaught asthe taughtapophatic byway, Saintwhich Dionysusinvolves wasstripping to removeaway any conceptual understanding of God that couldmight become all-encompassing,. sinceThis inapproach itsprevents limitednessthe thatlimited conceptnature wouldof beginhuman tounderstanding forcefrom the fallen understanding ofimposing mankinditself ontoon the absolute and divine.<ref>{{Citation |last=Corrigan |first=Kevin |title=Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite |date=2023 |work=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-dionysius-areopagite/#CharWrit |access-date=2024-08-18 |edition=Summer 2023 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |last2=Harrington |first2=L. Michael |editor2-last=Nodelman |editor2-first=Uri}}</ref>

Within [[Mahayana]] Buddhism, there is a species of scripture which essays a descriptive hint of Ultimate Reality by using positive terminology when speaking of it. This manifestation of Buddhism is particularly marked in the [[Dzogchen]] and [[Tathagatagarbha]] forms of the religion. [[Nirvana]], for example, is equated with the True Self of the Buddha (pure, uncreated and deathless) in some of the Tathagatagarbha scriptures, and in other Buddhist tantras (such as the [[Kunjed Gyalpo]] or 'All-Creating King' [[tantra]]), the Primordial Buddha, [[Adi-Buddha|Samantabhadra]], is described as 'pure and total consciousness' -&nbsp;– the 'trunk', 'foundation' and 'root' of all that exists.<ref>''The Supreme Source: The Fundamental Tantra of the Dzogchen Semde Kunjed Gyalpo'', by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu and Adriano Clemente, Snow Lion, Ithaca, 1999, p. 157.</ref>