The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2637 page)

(Lat., ‘way of negation’). Realization that since God is not a universe or an object in a universe, ‘he’ is not open to observation or description. It follows that God can only be spoken of
analogically
or poetically; and that it is easier to say ‘what God is not’ rather than what God is. This awareness occurs, in different forms, in all theistic religions, e.g. in
ein-sof
,
bil
kaifa
,
neti
neti,
nirgu
a-brahman
. This is
apophatic
, as opposed to kataphatic theology.

 
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(1786–1859)
. French priest, better known as the Curé d'Ars, because of his pastoral ministry in that village. He was born near Lyons and received little formal education. He was dismissed from two seminaries in his attempt to become a priest, but was eventually ordained at Grenoble in 1815. In 1818 he began his ministry in Ars-en-Dombes, a village of about 230 of those whom he regarded as souls, not people. The life of the village was transformed, and soon penitents came to him in vast numbers: during his last years, he spent up to eighteen hours a day in the confessional. He was made patron of parish priests in 1929.

 
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(Lat., ‘provision for a journey’). Holy
communion
given to those close to death, to give them strength and grace for the next stage of their history.

 
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(P
li, ‘Distinctionist’). A school of early Buddhism belonging to the Elder (
Sthavira
) tradition which at the Buddhist Council of P
aliputra in 250 BCE was adjudged to embody the orthodox teachings of the
Buddha
. The appellation thus seems to be an alternative designation for the
Therav
da
school, and may be derived from the Buddha's basic methodological practice of making a ‘distinction’ between extreme views of all kinds in his teachings.