St. Athenagoras
Apophatic & Catophatic Christian Experience
By Eric William King (Presbyter of "Antiochene Christianity")
The best way to describe these two words is in the realm of Christian experience
rather than stating that these are actual “theologies”. So in Ancient Antiochene Christianity I will try
and explain what these Greek phrases mean. We will start with what is called “catophatic” theology. This is the tangible
stuff...like the Word of God. Things that we can see, hear, touch, smell, taste
in regards to our Christian experience (again, I prefer to address these
subjects as experience rather than dry-cut theology). Catophatic theology
states to us what God “is” rather
than what God is “not”.
In this sense it is called “positive experience with God”
or “positive theology”.
It involves human reason and understanding regarding what we believe in as
Christians, the stuff we can actually explain. Catophatic knowledge is
essential to theology in general, we must have some sense that we know what we
are talking about.
Apophatic, on
the other hand, is everything we would say “God is not”….yet must somehow be because
of His allowance of it. Here we experience paradoxical
issues. Apophatic is thus everything
that we cannot explain about God. Apophatic theology gave good responses to
Platonism. In
fact, it helped convert many Platonic philosophers to Jesus Christ. Apostle
Peter tells us to “always be ready to give and answer for the hope that lies
within”. (1st Peter 3:15).
The
mistake was in that the early Greek Church and some in the Roman Church got
overly excited about Platonism and developed a “philosophical theology”
regarding Apophatic and Catophatic experience…so the true Christian should
keep these terms within the idea of experience rather than theology. The
early Greek Christian,St. Athenagoras took Apophatic experience
to the extreme and began to disassociate anything in the physical world with
God. Thus we could say that he is the true founder of what today is known as “Christian Mysticism”. We here at “The
Shepherds Way” do not deny “mystical experiences” in one’s personal life with
God but we must never make these experiences “theology”. Our theology is
grounded in Sola Scriptura (the purity of catophatic experience). The Word of
God must be our only foundation.
The problem with the Christian Mystic understanding of Apophatic
theology is that it begins to renounce all logical explanations of God. It
begins to deny the person and personality of God. It becomes extreme and places
God very distant from His children. It may even go as far to say that God has
no ultimate truth or attributes and of course to believe like that is blasphemous.
Our God is very personal and He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to us
to prove it. Jesus is the greatest gift to humanity and let us never forget
that.
We have pure doctrine and knowable doctrine from God’s
word and we are to develop Godly morals and values as revealed through His word
(Sola Scriptura). Though we as Christians reach points in our understanding of
God that are paradoxical we do not ground our theology on purely paradoxical
thinking. We can and do know God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I hope this helps my fellow Christians understand this
subject in a proper manner, one which relies on and agrees with Sola Scriptura.
Eric William King (Founder of TSW & “Nugget of Truth”)
All rights reserved. Permission has been given to share this article.
Watch Eric explain "static Truth" and proper
"Apophatic Experience"
Above Short clip: E.W.King gives short talk about "apophatic" and "catophatic"
Christian experience.
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Moral relativism? Or Truth?
"There are modern theories of ethics that say, "If your goals are good, no one is hurt, and if your motivation is love, then you are free to do whatever you want." Joseph didn't let his situation determine his ethics. He maintained his beliefs regardless of how the circumstances changed. Genesis 39:13-23" - Dr. David Jeremiah
"Moral relativism can be defined as a lack of moral absolutes. It is the belief that just because something is true to you doesn't necessarily mean that it is true to me. Moral relativism teaches that we are all products of the evolutionary process. There is no evil, there is no devil, and there is no God. Moral relativism teaches that we are all basically good, and if we do something bad, it is because we are victims, the result of our upbringing or environment. Moral relativism teaches freedom from all restraint. But the irony is that if you disagree with these things, then you are insensitive. If you have the audacity to say you believe there is right and wrong and good and evil, then you are classified as insensitive, intolerant, bigoted, and narrow-minded. If you dare to quote the Bible and say it is the source of truth, then you will be accused of pushing your puritanical belief system on others."
"Yet biblical Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. When someone says he or she believes in God, but that Jesus isn't necessarily the only way, I can assure you, on the authority of Scripture, that such a person cannot be a Christian and believe this. If you truly are a Christian, then you must believe what the Bible says. You cannot make up the rules as you go. I cannot get into my car today and say, "I have made up a new rule. I think it is OK for me to drive 120 miles per hour." I cannot walk into a store and say, "I believe it is OK for me to take whatever I want. It is mine for the taking." Of course, I can choose to believe these things, but I will have a new prison ministry very soon. There are rules. There are absolutes. Whether I believe in them or not, those absolutes are still true."
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