Playing Triple A Ball

Come again...What did you say?

What is God like? We say Triune (In one God there exists three Persons). We say Immanent (He is near). We say Transcendent (He is far). There are many times when what we say to express what God is like, we succeed!—we use Biblical terms and explanations coming from the Bible. We use terms and we readily understand.  Things hum along. When we do theology this way, we are using cataphatic speech—we say what we can say about God in appropriate ways: our grammar, comparisons and contrasts, and expressions are on target. On the other hand, there are times when we sputter. We know limitations of our grammar and expressions. When we search, when we grope, and when we’re in neck deep, we say things in an apophatic way—“well, let me tell you what I don’t mean… and that’s right too…..God isn’t like that either… and yes…you’re right again….. the Bible doesn’t mean that.” Sometimes our words do not quite pinpoint how to speak of God who is higher, greater, and loftier beyond our human comprehension. Here we say, “What I’m trying to say is He really is more unlike—He’s quite different—than this thing or idea in the world.”

“He is our rock (Psalm 18:2); and yet…. He’s not exactly a rock.”

Cataphatic—more positive words we use.

Apophatic—more negative words we use.

BIG terms—cataphatic expressions of God and apophatic expressions.

G. Mark Sumpter