Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

fl. c. 485-530 CE · Syrian, probably (wrote in Greek) · Mystical Theology, Negative Theology, Christian Neoplatonism, Liturgical Theology

And, if any one, having seen God, understood what he saw, he did not see Him, but some of His creatures that are existing and known.

Around the year 500, probably in Syria, someone wrote a small body of Greek treatises and letters under the name of Dionysius, the Athenian judge who believed when Paul preached the Unknown God on the Areopagus. The *Divine Names* praises God under the names Scripture gives him, Good, Being, Life, Wisdom, One, and shows each to be a gift going out from a source beyond them all. The *Mystical Theology*, five short chapters, takes the soul up the mountain with Moses into a darkness beyond knowing, where every name is denied and union comes by unknowing. The two *Hierarchies* set the nine orders…

Topics Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite addresses

• the nameless God of many names
• the divine names as praise
• the Good beyond being
• affirmation and negation
• the divine darkness and unknowing
• beyond every affirmation and every denial
• the ascent of Moses into the darkness
• the sculptor who removes the stone
• union by unknowing
• the "sudden" and the hidden Christ
• the new divine-human energy of Christ
• procession, remaining and return
• divine eros and the ecstasy of God
• evil as the lack of good
• the celestial hierarchy and the nine orders of angels
• the ecclesiastical hierarchy and its orders
• purification, illumination and perfection
• hierarchy as sacred order, knowledge and activity
• the sacraments of illumination, synaxis and ointment
• theurgy and the liturgy
• symbols and dissimilar similitudes
• the uplifting interpretation of Scripture
• deification and assimilation to God
• prayer as the resplendent cord

Questions to put to Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

The Divine Names and the Good Beyond Being

• What does it mean to say God is beyond being, rather than simply the highest kind of being?
• How can every name Scripture gives God be both truly affirmed and more truly denied of Him?
• What do you mean when you say God goes out of Himself in ecstasy to dwell in all things?
• Why do you use the word eros — desire or yearning — to describe God's relation to creation?
• If God is beyond every name, why does naming Him at all matter?

Affirmation, Negation, and the Divine Darkness

• What is the difference between the affirmative way and the negative way of speaking about God?
• How does Moses entering the darkness on Sinai show us something about how the soul approaches God?
• You say the negations are superlative, not defective — what does that distinction mean?
• What does it mean to be united to God by unknowing rather than by knowledge?
• If the soul must go beyond every affirmation and every denial, what is left to say or think?

Celestial and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy

• What do you mean by the word hierarchy, and why did you need a new word for it?
• How is the ordering of angels into three triads more than a speculative ranking system?
• You say nearness to God is a capacity to receive Him, not a place — how does that change how we think about rank?
• How does the Church's order of sacraments and clergy mirror the order of the angels?
• What does the story of Carpus and the vision of Christ teach about how authority and love relate within the hierarchy?

Symbols, Liturgy, and the Uplifting of the Mind

• Why do you think strange or ugly images for angels — like fire or wild animals — can lift the mind toward God better than beautiful ones?
• What is the spiritual meaning hidden inside the outward rites of baptism and the eucharist?
• How does the liturgy function as a path toward deification rather than just a set of ceremonies?
• What do you mean when you describe prayer as a resplendent cord that draws us upward?

Evil, Creation, and the Procession of the Good

• How do you argue that evil has no being of its own, and what does that mean for how we understand suffering?
• If everything that exists comes from the Good, how do you account for the fall of the demons?
• Does saying evil is only a lack or weakness make genuine malice seem less real than it is?
• What does it mean that God knows evil not as evil but under the form of good?
• How does the procession of all things from the Good, and their return to it, hold together as a single vision?

The Pseudonym, Paul, and the Hidden Author

• Why did you write under the name of Dionysius, the Athenian Paul converted at the altar to the Unknown God?
• How is the act of hiding behind a name connected to the theology you are teaching about self-effacement and unknowing?
• You quote Paul saying 'not I but Christ lives in me' — what does that passage mean for how you understand your own authorship?
• How do you see the relationship between the philosophy of the Greek schools and the revelation received through Scripture and the holy initiators?
• What is at stake for you in the claim that Jesus is the source and power of every hierarchy?

Converse with Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite's own writing, cited to the page.