The Experience of Faith as Knowledge.
Thus the Cappadocians adopt the ideas of Plotinus and Philo and
distinguish between "what is transcendental" and "what is immanent" within the
Divinity. They make this system of philosophy more complete by introducing the
doctrine of grace, which they know as a result of the Christian experience.
Gregory writes that Plato, "one of the Greek theologians," once
said that "it is difficult to understand God but impossible to express Him."
Gregory corrects this: "it is impossible to express God, but to understand Him
is even more impossible." The experience of faith cannot be fully conceptualized
and therefore God cannot be named. He is a nameless God. "O, You who are higher
than anything, how else am I to express You? How can words give You praise?
There are no words to express You. How can the mind gaze upon You? You are
inaccessible to every mind. You are one and everything. You are not one, not
single, and not everything. O, You of all names! How can I name You, who cannot
be called one thing?" Theology can only describe God apophatically, by
prohibition and negation. Of all the positive names only the name "He who
exists" truly expresses something about God and belongs properly to Him and only
to Him, just as independent being belongs only to Him. God is above essence,
category, and definition, and the name God is purely relative and designates Him
only in His relation to creation.
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