Talk:Apophatic theology

Request for more info on these topics:
From Imma, Feb 27, 2004: I just have a few comments that really should be edits, but for some reason I felt uncomfortable about adding chunks of information to this specific topic. Perhaps the author of the page would like to add some of this in his own words.

Anyway, I just thought it would be important to add that apophatic theology (Negative Theology) can be found in the Western ("Catholic") Church: St. Augustine of Hippo, Meister Eckhart, and The Cloud of Unknowing. I say these three because they more better known, there were a lot more apophatics. Also, Pseudo-Dionysius (from the East) influenced a lot of Western Christian thinkers and mystics during the Middle Ages and beyond. Dionysius, basically, introduced negative theology to the West.

Ooh, and how about including the Christian 'neo-platonists' and Christian gnostics (a lot of them were apophatics), Taoists, and Zen Buddhists?

From Davidshq, Nov 2, 2004: It would be useful to add a discussion of the three ways, as discussed by Jean-Luc Marion in God, the Gift, and Postmodernism, chp. 1 "In the Name."

Moved to a new title
I moved this article to the new title, because (a) on Google, this title is three times more common; and (b) in my reading on philosophy this title seems to be used more often. RK 01:05, Oct 8, 2004 (UTC)

have also heard the term buddhist christianity

Syncretism of Asian negative theology and Roman Catholic theology
There was a controversy in Rome about theologians blending in Asian negative theology and Roman Catholic doctrine. One theologian, Peter C. Phan, was under investigation from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for having attempted to do this. There have been similar problems with other ethnic theologies, such as African theology, Indian theology, Meso-American theology, etc. ADM (talk) 05:48, 13 April 2009 (UTC

Possible passage on Derrida and 20th/21st century apophatic theology?
I was about to write a short section on Jacques Derrida's writing on and relationship to apophatic theology, and some subsequent theologians and philosophers who have expanded on this. However there's the slightly tricky problem here that, while Derrida is Jewish and the article has a section on Jewish apophaticism, most of said writers influenced by him are Christian; thus given the present structure of the article it wouldn't seem appropriate to place a section on Derridan apophatic thought in either section even though it is a rather pertinent topic here. Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

--2001:BB6:4D0D:1100:1706:136:76FC:1B7E (talk) 23:34, 15 January 2022 (UTC)


 * Section on Derrida & negative theology has been added, under the Judaism section, though the influence he's had on Christian theology is noted. Seems likely by far the most sensible option.Pseudo-Pseudo-Dionysius (talk) 16:48, 21 March 2022 (UTC)