#apophaticism

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

In order to prayerfully speak cataphatically, one must first pay one’s apophatic dues.

Fr Micah Lazarus Orrin Wilger

[heriugena]

“He is truly revealed without coverings only to those who pass above all things impure and pure, who go beyond all climbing of sacred heights, and leave behind all heavenly lights and sounds, and supernal discourses,’ and are taken up into that darkness where, as the Scripture says, He truly is who is beyond all things. For not- unmeaningly was the blessed Moses himself first bidden to be purified, and then to be set aside from the unpurified; and after entire purification he heard the many-voiced trumpets, and beheld a multitude of lights, giving forth pure and manifold beams. After he was set aside from the manyfolk, he went before the elect priests to the uttermost peak of sacred heights.’ But thus far he had not yet conversed with God Himself, nor beheld Him, for He is without aspect, but saw only the place where He dwells”

[alchameth]

You will find, moreover, that the Word of God not only calls these Celestial Beings above us Gods, but also gives this name to saintly men amongst us, and to those men who, in the highest degree, are lovers of God; although the First and Unmanifest God superessentially transcends all things, being enthroned above all, and therefore none of the beings or things which are can truly be said to be wholly like Him, save in so far as those intellectual and rational beings who are wholly turned towards union with Him, as far as is in their power, and who, uplifting themselves perpetually, as far as possible, to the Divine Radiance, in the imitation of God (if it be lawful so to speak) with all their powers, are thought worthy of the same divine name.

The Celestial Hierarchy, by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

[alchameth]

"But we must begin to deal with the remaining part of our discourse, and must ask, in first explanation of the forms, why the Word of God prefers the sacred symbol of fire almost above all others. For you will find that it is used not only under the figure of fiery wheels, but also of living creatures of fire, and of men flashing like lightning who heap live coals of fire about the Heavenly Beings, and of irresistibly rushing rivers of flame. Also it says that the Thrones are of fire, and it shows from their name that the most exalted Seraphim themselves are burning with fire, assigning to them the qualities and forces of fire; and throughout, above and below, it gives the highest preference to the symbol of fire.

Therefore I think that this image of fire signifies the perfect conformity to God of the Celestial Intelligences. For the holy prophets frequently liken that which is superessential and formless to fire which (if it may lawfully be said) possesses many resemblances as in visible things to the Divine Reality. For the sensible fire is in some manner in everything, and pervades all things without mingling with them, and is exempt from all things and, although wholly bright, yet lies essentially hidden and unknown when not in contact with any substance on which it can exert its own energy. It is irresistible and invisible, having absolute rule over all things, bringing under its own power all things in which it subsists. It has transforming power, and imparts itself in some measure to everything near it. It revives all things by its revivifying heat, and illuminates them all with its resplendent brightness. It is insuperable and pure, possessing separative power, but itself changeless, uplifting, penetrative, high, not held back by servile baseness, ever-moving, selfmoved, moving other things. It comprehends, but is incomprehensible, unindigent, mysteriously increasing itself and showing forth its majesty according to the nature of the substance receiving it, powerful, mighty, invisibly present to all things. When not thought of, it seems not to exist, but suddenly enkindles its light in the way proper to its nature by friction, as though seeking to do so, uncontrollably flying upwards without diminishing its all-blessed self- giving. Thus many properties of fire may be found which symbolize through sensible images the Divine activities. Knowing this, those wise in the things of God have portrayed the Celestial Beings under the figure of fire, thus proclaiming their likeness to the Divine, and their imitation of Him in the measure of their power."

- The Celestial Hierarchy, by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

[onancientpaths]

For being is for Gregory precisely not an idea. It is first and foremost the negative residue of all of God’s qualitative attributes. In the impossibility of knowing “what” God is (πῶς ἐστίν), it becomes clear “that” he is (ὅτι ἐστίν).“The fact of not being this or that is not, for all that, a circumscription of being.” But this negative residue is revealed as being eminently positive. From the incapacity to attribute “this” and “that”, which is to say, the nonbeing of things, to God, there arises Being itself. On the one hand, this Being manifests itself in a “feeling of Presence” (αἴσθησις παϱουσίας τινός). On the other hand, this feeling finds itself ceaselessly augmented by the failure of all attempts to grasp it conceptually. Thus the concept indirectly reveals being. “It indicates being, but not by confiding what indeed it is, since being is not graspable. It reveals it only indirectly [παϱαδηλοῦν].” … In every judgment about God, “being is understood”, and it is toward this mysterious “being” that thought ought to direct (πϱοαπαϱτίξει) its concepts, under pain of falling into the void (ϰατὰ ϰενοῦ τὴν πϱοσηγοϱίαν πίπτειν). In this way we learn that there is in all being a duality between existence and its manifestations, between actus and actio. Only the assigning of attributes remains “around being” (πεϱὶ τὸ ὄν). Existence itself stays in obscurity (ἐν ἀδήλῳ). Therefore we understand why Gregory does not need to go beyond being in order to affirm God. God is ὑπὲϱ πᾶσαν φύσιν ϰαλοῦ παντὸς ἐπέϰεινα. He is ὑπὲϱ τὸ ἀγαθόν. Since, for Gregory, “God” denotes the attribute of universal Providence (θεὸς, from the verb θεᾱσθαι),God is even “above God”. But to say that God is above Being would make no sense, since Being is that Great Beyond. It is he we touch by all that we posit and all our negations. He is the “underlying agent” (ὑποϰείμενον) who cannot be designated in any other way than by εἶναι.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Presence and Thought

[eameswrites]

Themes

bridging gaps;

-God and Creation

-Text and The Page

[gospelofthekingdom]

The beauty of orthodox christianity is that it holds in tension apophatic/agnostic humility and Incarnation confidence.

Brad Jersak