Page 81 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

A P O P H AT I C I S M A N D T H E P E R S O N A L B E I N G O F G O D
Here we arrive at the heart of apophatic theology.
Apophaticism affirms that God’s essence is beyond all
knowledge. We must therefore speak of God as “supra-essen-
tial,” “beyond being,” and so forth. Even divine energies—such
as goodness, knowledge, or power—must be qualified, for they
too are transcended in God.
But this apophaticism has a limit. We cannot extend it to the
persons of the Trinity.
God is revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—not
as abstract essence. We do not pray to an essence, nor to ener-
gies, but to persons. If we were to move beyond the persons in
the name of apophaticism—to speak of a “supra-Father” or a
Trinity beyond personal existence—we would lose the very
basis of theology as experience and prayer.
For theology is not merely conceptual; it is lived. It is
grounded in the unity of lex orandi and lex credendi: what we
believe and what we pray must coincide. And since prayer is
always addressed to persons, theology must remain personal.
In this respect, certain modern interpretations of apophati-
cism—such as those that attempt to transcend both essence
and person in a kind of mystical abstraction—depart from the
clarity of the patristic tradition. Apophaticism is necessary
with regard to the essence of God, but it must not obscure the
personal reality through which God is revealed and encoun-
tered.
The mystery that remains beyond comprehension is not the
existence of the persons, but the relationship between essence
and person. Yet this mystery does not negate what has been
revealed: that God exists as persons, and that it is as persons
that He is known.
Thus, the being of God for us is personal. And His personal
existence is not something secondary to His being—it is His
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