Words of the day: apophatic and cataphatic

The words of the day are apophatic:

< Greek ἀποϕατικός negative (see G. W. H. Lampe Patristic Greek Lexicon s.v.).

Theol.

 

Applied to knowledge of God obtained by way of negation. (OED)

and cataphatic:

< Greek καταϕατικ-ός affirmative (καταϕῆναι to assent).

Theol.

 

Defining God positively or by positive statements. (OED)

"Maeve is a recent theology Ph.D., and her thesis adviser turns out to be Paul (the edgy K. Todd Freeman), the astringent black longtime partner of Gus's older son, Pier Luigi (Stephen Spinella), a.k.a. 'Pill'.  When Maeve is first heard from, she's talking shop to Gus's sister, Clio (the subtle Brenda Wehle), a former nun and Maoist, who has been watching over Gus since his first attempt to slit his wrists, the previous year.  'Maeve Ludens, Doctor of Theology, unemployed, not exactly a bull market out there for us apophatic theologians, with a, with, you know, pronounced kataphatic inclinations', Maeve says, adding, 'But I'm kataphatic by nature, I'm just a cockeyed kataphatist!  So sue me!'  Nobody, not even Clio, knows what the hell Maeve is talking about; her speech, however, plays as a hilarious piece of pretension."

 - John Lahr, "High Marx: Tony Kushner's socialist spectacular", 16 May 2011 The New Yorker


Don't get me wrong: I'm 100% onboard with going with the Greek spelling, but you might want to be careful whom you're accusing of pretension, Mr. Lahr.  It's like spelling it "Akhilleus" instead of "Achilles".