Cataphatic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or employing positive statements and affirmations about the nature and qualities of God, rather than denying what God is not
2. Describing theological language that makes direct claims about God's existence and properties through constructive propositions and declarations
3. Pertaining to a method of speaking about God that asserts positive attributes and characteristics rather than relying solely on negation or apophatic approaches

Etymology: Cataphatic is a theological term, used of ways of talking about God by affirming positive attributes, such as calling God good, wise, or loving. The word comes from Ancient Greek "kataphatikos", meaning "affirmative", which is built from "kata", "down" or "against", and "phanai", "to say" or "to speak". Its opposite in Christian theology is the apophatic way, which describes God by denying what God is not. The pairing matters more than the word alone. Early Christian writers such as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, whose works were widely read in the medieval West, treated the affirmative and negative approaches as complementary routes to knowledge of the divine. Affirmation names God in terms drawn from creation, while denial strips away the limits those terms carry, so that the two methods are often described as working together rather than in competition.