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christian-spirituality-mysticismfeatured in 15 works

Apophatic (Negative) Theology

Knowing God by unsaying everything we think we know of him

Apophatic, or negative, theology approaches God by denying that finite concepts can capture him, seeking to know him through a kind of unknowing. Gregory of Nyssa and Pseudo-Dionysius, in his Mystical Theology, are central voices. Rather than describing God by what he is, this way strips away inadequate images and ideas, leading the mind beyond words into reverent silence before a God who exceeds all comprehension.

How it traveled

  1. A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity.
    Rome · 258
    explains
  2. The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius
    Caesarea · 339
    explains
  3. The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril
    Jerusalem · 386
    explains
  4. Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen
    Nazianzus · 390
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  5. Answer to Eunomius' Second Book
    Nyssa · 395
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  6. Against Eunomius
    Nyssa · 395
    explains
  7. On the Holy Trinity
    Hippo Regius · 430
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  8. Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John
    Hippo Regius · 430
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  9. Letters of St. Augustin
    Hippo Regius · 430
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  10. Two Books of Soliloquies
    Hippo Regius · 430
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  11. The Confessions
    Hippo Regius · 430
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  12. John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith
    Damascus · 749
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  13. Monologium
    Canterbury · 1109
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  14. Proslogium
    Canterbury · 1109
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  15. Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26])
    Paris · 1274
    explains

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Modern teachers who discuss this idea

Modern and living teachers whose books take up Apophatic (Negative) Theology. These works are still in copyright, so we can’t show the text here — each links out to the book.