<<"God is called light not according to His essence, but according to His energy," says Palamas. If the energies which manifest the nature of God are called light, this is not only by analogy with the material light (energy propagating itself from a luminous body, for example, from the solar disk); the divine light, for St. Gregory Palamas, is a datum of mystical experience. It is the visible character of the divinity, of the energies in which God communicates Himself and reveals Himself to those who have purified their hearts...>> ( Vladimir Lossky, _In the Image and Likeness of God_, London and Oxford: Mowbrays, 1975, Chapter 3: _The Theology of Light_, p. 58. Palamas ref.: *Against Akyndynos*, P.G. 150, col. 823. Lossky also has a good discussion of Orthodox *apophatic* theology in his book.)

It is a key point to note that Orthodox negative (apophatic) theology is in no way an abstract intellectual exercise (at least in a modern sense of abstraction), for it culminates properly in this personal, experiential, whole-person, direct encounter with the Uncreated Light. The negativity of apophasis is a falling away of that which is lesser (but positive and affirmative -- cataphatic -- in its own right) in the face of an overwhelming Trinitarian Presence. Terms such as "essence", drawn from the various philosophies, become redefined in the Light of this Presence, and not vice versa. They become recognized as mere *transcendentals*, *limiting concepts*, apophatic pointers to a surpassing reality they will never completely pin down and capture (and can only really begin to encounter in humility, through Divine Revelation). [Thomas F. Torrance, _The Ground and Grammar of Theology_ (Belfast / Dublin / Ottawa: Christian Journals Limited, 1980) provides an insightful introduction to the problem of making down-to-earthly language subserve transcendent theological purposes.]

The Oxford Dictionary quotes seventeenth century usage: "The more abstract we are from the body ... the more fit we shall be to behold divine light.">> (Rudolf Arnheim, _Visual Thinking_, University of California Press, 1969, p.153.)

June, 1995

CATAPHATIC AFFIRMATION IN APOPHASIS

mmm

Index