Cataphatic theology

Cataphatic theology or kataphatic theology is theology that uses "positive" terminology to describe or refer to 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.

"Cataphatic" comes from the Greek word κατάφασις kataphasis meaning "affirmation,"^[1] coming from κατά kata (an intensifier)^[2] and φάναι phanai ("to speak").

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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."^[3] By defining what God or the divine is we limit the unlimited. As Saint Augustine wrote, similarly, "if you can grasp [God], it isn’t God."^[4] 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. Saint Dionysus taught the apophatic way, which involves stripping away any conceptual understanding of God that might become all-encompassing. This approach prevents the limited nature of human understanding from imposing itself on the absolute and divine.^[5]

Part of a series on
Christian mysticism
Theology and philosophy Apophatic Ascetical Cataphatic Catholic spirituality Hellenistic Mystical theology Neoplatonic Henosis
Practices Monasticism Monasticism New Silence Asceticism Mendicant Spiritual direction Meditation Meditation Lectio Divina Invoking of Mystic Saints Active asceticism Contemplation Hesychasm Jesus Prayer Quietism Stages of Christian perfection Hesychia Divinization Catharsis Theosis Kenosis Spiritual dryness Religious ecstasy Passive asceticism Abstinence Esoteric Charismatic Esoteric
People (by era or century) Antiquity Ancient African Origen Thomasines Gregory of Nyssa Pseudo-Dionysius Desert Fathers Paul of Thebes Anthony the Great Arsenius the Great Poemen Macarius of Egypt Moses the Black Syncletica Athanasius John Chrysostom Hilarion John Cassian 11th · 12th Bernard of Clairvaux Guigo II Hildegard of Bingen Symeon the New Theologian 13th · 14th Dominican Dominic de Guzmán Franciscan Francis of Assisi Anthony of Padua Bonaventure Jacopone da Todi Angela of Foligno English Richard Rolle Walter Hilton Julian of Norwich Margery Kempe Flemish Beatrice of Nazareth Lutgardis Hadewijch John van Ruysbroeck German Meister Eckhart Johannes Tauler Henry Suso Female Beatrice of Nazareth Bridget of Sweden Catherine of Siena Mechthild of Magdeburg Marguerite Porete 15th · 16th Spanish Ignatius of Loyola Francisco de Osuna John of Ávila Teresa of Ávila John of the Cross Others Catherine of Genoa 17th · 18th French Margaret Mary Alacoque Pierre de Bérulle Jean-Jacques Olier Louis de Montfort Charles de Condren John Eudes John of St. Samson Others Mary of Jesus of Ágreda Anne Catherine Emmerich Veronica Giuliani Francis de Sales 19th Dina Bélanger Catherine Labouré Mélanie Calvat Maximin Giraud Bernadette Soubirous Conchita de Armida Luisa Piccarreta Mary of the Divine Heart Thérèse of Lisieux Gemma Galgani 20th Padre Pio Therese Neumann Marthe Robin Alexandrina of Balazar Faustina Kowalska Sister Lúcia of Fátima Edgar Cayce Simone Weil Alfred Delp Thomas Merton Charles de Foucauld Edvige Carboni Elena Aiello Contemporary papal views Aspects of meditation (Orationis Formas, 1989) Reflection on the New Age (2003)
Literature and media Lingua ignota Ordo Virtutum Scivias Ascent of Mount Carmel Dark Night of the Soul Spiritual Canticle Way of Perfection Book of the First Monks The Interior Castle Abbey of the Holy Ghost A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart The Glories of Mary The Imitation of Christ The Ladder of Divine Ascent Philokalia Revelations of Divine Love The Story of a Soul Theologia Germanica Devotio Moderna Fatima in Lucia's Own Words Calls from the Message of Fatima The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima Sol de Fátima The Cloud of Unknowing On the Consolation of Philosophy The Mirror of Simple Souls Sister Catherine Treatise Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii The Vision of Adamnán Divine Comedy Inferno Purgatorio Paradiso Fatima
v t e

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, kataphatic theology can lead to some knowledge of God, but in an imperfect way. The perfect and only way which is fitting in regard of God is the apophatic way, as the kataphatic way has as its object that which exists, but God is beyond all existing.^[6]

• The Life of Moses - Gregory of Nyssa
• St. Augustine
• Anselm of Canterbury

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, Samantabhadra, is described as 'pure and total consciousness' – the 'trunk', 'foundation' and 'root' of all that exists.^[7]

Gaudiya Vaishnavism speaks positively about transcendental qualities of Krishna. He has 64 transcendental qualities as Supreme Personality of Godhead, although these qualities are explained as non-material and beyond duality.^[8] The paradoxical nature of Krishna, the Absolute, being both beyond description and having qualities is discussed throughout the Gaudiya Vaishnavism literature.^[9] Among the 64 qualities of Krishna, 4 qualities are unique, which only Krishna has, these are:

• He is the performer of wonderful varieties of pastimes (especially His childhood pastimes).
• He is surrounded by devotees endowed with wonderful love of Godhead.
• He can attract all living entities all over the universes by playing on His flute.
• He has a wonderful excellence of beauty which cannot be rivaled anywhere in the creation.

There are other 60 qualities of Krishna, but Narayana also have them. Of these, 5 are special, which are not found in jiva-atmas or (according to the Vaishnava view) other Hindu deities, even Brahma or Shiva:

• He has inconceivable potency.
• Uncountable universes generate from His body.
• He is the original source of all incarnations.
• He is the giver of salvation to the enemies whom He kills.
• He is the attractor of liberated souls.

Other 55 transcendental qualities are found in Brahma and Shiva, though they are common for Narayana and Krishna, but not found in jiva-atmas. And finally just 50 transcendental qualities can be found in jiva-atmas, who are not on the level of deities, but Krishna and Narayana also have these qualities. It also has to be carefully noted, that these qualities manifest in jiva-atmas only in minute qualities, and only if they become pure devotees of Krishna-Caitanya. On other hand, Krishna has these 64 qualities in full. See full list here: 64 Qualities of Lord Krishna.^[10]

• Vladimir Lossky
• Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
• Theosis (Eastern Christian theology)

• Vladimir Lossky The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (1957 [1944]), reprints: SVS Press, 1997 (ISBN 0-913836-31-1), James Clarke & Co Ltd, 1991 (ISBN 0-227-67919-9).
• Clarence Edwin Rolt, Dionysius the Areopagite on the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology (1920).