Limits of Apophaticism

Gregory Nazianzen ( Oration 28,9) says that negative theology is only a starting point, beyond which one must go to state what God is: ”he who is eagerly pursuing the nature of the Self-existent will not stop at saying what He is  not , but must go on beyond what He is not, and say what He  is ; inasmuch as it is easier to take in some single point than to go on disowning point after point in endless detail, in order, both by the elimination of negatives and the assertion of positives to arrive at a comprehension of this subject.”

He follows with an analogy: “a man who states what God is not without going on to say what He is , acts much in the same way as one would who when asked how many twice five make, should answer, not two, nor three, nor four, nor five, nor twenty, nor thirty, nor in short any number below ten, nor any multiple of ten’ but would not answer ten nor settle the mind of his questioner upon the firm ground of the answer. For it is much easier, and more concise to show what a thing is not from what it is, than to demonstrate what it is by stripping it of what it is not. And this surely is evident to every one.”