Apophatic vs Cataphatic Theology

I know this is a few years old, but I just wanna say this was a great little post. I found it in a web search when I was trying to ascertain the specific importance of direct/cataphatic information. Obviously, indirect/apophatic knowledge is meant to show how to defend and preserve things. Understanding the process of destruction, what causes something to be destroyed, will show you how to respectfully maintain it in the best way. It sets the Law of the universe.

But cataphatic knowledge is like a school yard at recess; some kids like the swings, while others go to the monkey bars. Obviously the people who have worked to know the Law are gonna be serious about following it. And of course anyone that has been ignorantly playing in the field and neglecting the important stuff (that is recognizably the same between us), is gonna demand he get just as much as the person who actually learned how to correctly receive it. Hence the implied angst in the OP.

Apophatic is about Us, what We are. It should be sought as soon as you have the courage to find it. It discerns truth from illusion, and makes knowledge something that can be recognized as true, and not just culturally implied as so. Indirect knowledge is definite (recognizing that we aren't nothing, and also why we aren't nothing).

Cataphatic is about You, as an expressive individual. It should be the fulfillment of your desires, once they have been made clear by the apophatic process. Direct knowledge can be the inspiration for one to go back and gain understanding of indirect knowledge, but we only have a finite amount of direct knowledge that we can maintain. If you get tired of learning new things before you have learned what is most important, you will have a very tough time finding the heart to admit that you never had a definite starting point, and must start completely over in your way of looking at things. This is why balance is key in the cataphatic process.

I am certain that I am headed in the right direction. Just as I am certain that that I could get there a lot faster by learning from others! Even though I recognize God clearer than most, that does not grant me the ability to know if "the way another person knows God" is accurate until they describe it some and show it in use. The elephant story was pretty good; it showed that you can't apply indirect inquiry to something physical we are wanting, and especially not as the first step. The model of the Trivium shows how learning occurs first by developing the vocabulary with which to discuss a subject, before moving on to the logic and rhetoric. We have to find balance to gain the circle, and we have to discern definite truth to grasp the square, and when we bring both closer together we create the triangle of consciousness within our mind. Use it wisely, please!