Editing Apophatic theology (section)

===Eastern Orthodox Christianity===
{{Main|Eastern Orthodox Church}}

In [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]], apophatic theology is taught as superior to cataphatic theology. The fourth-century [[Cappadocian Fathers]]{{refn|group=note|[[Basil the Great]] (330–379), who was bishop of [[Caesarea Mazaca|Caesarea]]; Basil's younger brother [[Gregory of Nyssa]] ({{c.|332}}–395), who was bishop of [[Nyssa (Cappadocia)|Nyssa]]; and a close friend, [[Gregory of Nazianzus]] (329–389), who became [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]].<ref name=WDL1>{{cite web|title=Commentary on Song of Songs; Letter on the Soul; Letter on Ascesis and the Monastic Life|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4168|publisher=[[World Digital Library]]|access-date=6 March 2013}}</ref>}} stated a belief in the existence of God, but an existence unlike that of everything else: everything else that exists was created, but the Creator [[Transcendence (religion)|transcends]] this existence, is uncreated. The [[essence]] of God is completely unknowable; mankind can acquire an incomplete knowledge of God in his [[Attributes of God in Christianity|attributes]] ({{transliteration|el|propria}}), positive and negative, by reflecting upon and participating in his self-revelatory [[Energies of God|operations]] ({{transliteration|el|energeiai}}).<ref name="McGinn">{{cite book |last=McGinn |first=Bernard |chapter=4. Hidden God and Hidden Self (pp. 85ff.) |title=Histories of the Hidden God. Concealment and Revelation in Western Gnostic, Esoteric, and Mystical Traditions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LrTsCwAAQBAJ |editor-last1=DeConick |editor-first1=April D |editor-last2=Adamson |editor-first2=Grant |year=2014 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]] |isbn=978-1-844-65687-5 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LrTsCwAAQBAJ&q=Cappadocian+Fathers+apophatic&pg=PA89}}</ref> [[Gregory of Nyssa]] ({{c.|335|395}}), [[John Chrysostom]] ({{c.|349|lk=no}}–407), and [[Basil the Great]] (329–379) emphasized the importance of negative theology to an orthodox understanding of God. [[John of Damascus]] ({{c.|675/676|lk=no}}–749) employed negative theology when he wrote that positive statements about God reveal "not the nature, but the things around the nature."

[[Maximus the Confessor]] (580–622) took over Pseudo-Dionysius' ideas, and had a strong influence on the theology and contemplative practices of the Eastern Orthodox Churches.<ref name="Berthold1985_p9"/> [[Gregory Palamas]] (1296–1359) formulated the definite theology of [[Hesychasm]], the Eastern Orthodox practices of [[contemplative prayer]] and [[Theosis (Eastern Orthodox theology)|theosis]], "deification."

Influential [[History of Eastern Orthodox theology in the 20th century|20th-century Orthodox theologians]] include the [[Palamism|Neo-Palamist]] writers [[Vladimir Lossky]], [[John Meyendorff]], [[John S. Romanides]], and [[Georges Florovsky]]. Lossky argues, based on his reading of Dionysius and Maximus Confessor, that positive theology is always inferior to negative theology, which is a step along the way to the superior knowledge attained by negation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lossky |first=Vladimir |author-link=Vladimir Lossky |title=The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxqvWwPSCSwC |year=1976 |publisher=[[SVS Press]] |location=[[Crestwood, Yonkers]] |page=26 |isbn=978-0-913-83631-6}}</ref> This is expressed in the idea that [[mysticism]] is the expression of dogmatic theology ''[[wikt:par excellence|par excellence]]''.<ref>Lossky, Vladimir (1976). p. 9.</ref>

According to Lossky, outside of directly revealed knowledge through [[Scripture]] and [[Sacred Tradition]], such as the Trinitarian nature of God, God in his essence is beyond the limits of what human beings (or even [[angel]]s) can understand. He is [[transcendence (religion)|transcendent]] in essence ({{transliteration|el|[[ousia]]}}). Further knowledge must be sought in a direct experience of God or his [[Energies of God|indestructible energies]] through {{transliteration|el|[[Christian contemplation|theoria]]}} (vision of God).<ref>Lossky, Vladimir (1976). p. 81.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lossky |first=Vladimir |title=The Vision of God |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zHc9AAAAYAAJ |year=1964 |publisher=[[Society of the Faith#Faith Press|Faith Press]] |location=[[Leighton Buzzard]] |page=26}}</ref> According to Aristotle Papanikolaou, in Eastern Christianity, God is [[Immanence|immanent]] in his [[hypostasis (philosophy)|hypostasis]] or existences.<ref>[[Aristotle Papanikolaou|Papanikolaou, Aristotle]] (2006), ''Being With God: Trinity, Apophaticism, and Divine–Human Communion'' (1st Edition), Notre Dame, Indiana:[[University of Notre Dame Press]], p. 2, {{ISBN|978-0-268-03830-4}}.</ref>