Via Negativa — The Way of Negation

The via negativa (apophasis) as articulated by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the Mystical Theology holds that God transcends all affirmation (kataphasis) and all negation alike — every predicate applied to God must be denied, and then the denial itself must be surpassed in a 'hyper-negation' that leaves the mind in divine darkness (theios gnophos). God is not good, not being, not even 'not-good' — because the divine reality exceeds every category. This method, foundational to the entire apophatic tradition from Maximus the Confessor through Meister Eckhart, treats the systematic stripping of concepts as itself the path of ascent to the One beyond all names.