Lennox interview: correction
Dr Philip Duce
Date posted: 1 Nov 2019
Dear Sir,
In
the conversation with John Lennox
(en, Sept 2019, p. 15), he refers to the
‘apathetic’
(theological)
tradition.
I
trust
this is a transcription mistake: it should of
course be
‘apophatic’. Apophatic theology
is a method of discourse that proceeds by
way of negation (via negativa), describing
God by saying what He is not, e.g. He is
immutable, He
is
incomprehensible. This
is
in contrast to cataphatic theology (via
positiva), which describes God by
saying
what He
is, e.g. He
is
love, He
is holy.
The intention of the apophatic tradition is
to reflect the limitations of human reason
when it comes to describing the nature of
God. Furthermore, it has shaped some of the
doctrinal language of the church.