Pseudo Dionysius

1 PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS THE COMPLETE WORKS TRANSLATION BY COLM LUIBHEID FOREWORD, NOTES, AND TRANSLATION COLLABORATION BY PAUL ROREM PREFACE BY RENE ROQUES INTRODUCTIONS BY JAROSLAV PELIKAN, JEAN LECLERCQ, AND KARLFRIED FROEHLICH Publication Information: Book Title: Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works. Contributors: Karlfried Froehlich - unknown, Jean Leclercq - unknown, Colm Luibheid - transltr, Jaroslav Pelikan - unknown, Pseudo-Dionysius - author, Rene Roques - unknown, Paul Rorem - unknown. Publisher: Paulist Press. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1987. Page Number: *.

Cover Art: The artist, POMONA HALLENBECK is a native of the southwest. Pomona now lives in New York City and teaches at schools and workshops in New York, Texas, New Mexico and Canada. She also does textile designs and multimedia education materials. Copyright © 1987 by Colm Luibheid All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pseudo-Dionysius, the Aeropagite. Pseudo-Dionysius : the complete works. (The Classics of Western spirituality) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. God—Knowableness—Collected works. 2. Spiritual life—Collected works. 3. Mysticism— Collected works. 4. Sacraments—Collected works. I. Luibhéid, Colm. II. Rorem, Paul. III. Title. IV. Series. BR65. D6E5 1987 230'.14 87-2502 ISBN 0-8091-2838-1

2 Published by Paulist Press 997 Macarthur Boulevard Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 Printed and bound in the United States of America Contents Foreword Preface Abbreviations Introductions I. The Odyssey of Dionysian Spirituality II. Influence and noninfluence of Dionysius in the Western Middle Ages III. Pseudo-Dionysius and the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century The Divine Names The Mystical Theology The Celestial Hierarchy The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy The Letters Bibliography Index to Biblical Allusions and Quotations Index to Foreword, Preface and Introductions Index to Text Index of Contemporary Authors in Footnotes Index of Names and Terms in Footnotes

1 5 8 11 25 33 47 133 143 193 261 291 294 305 309 313 314

-viiTranslator of this Volume COLM LUIBHEID was born in 1936 in Dublin, Ireland. He received his B. A. and M. A. at University College, Dublin, and in 1961 was awarded a Ph. D. in Classics at Princeton University. Since 1961 he has been a member of the teaching staff at University College, Galway. He translated the John Climacus volume in this series. Author of the Foreword and Notes PAUL ROREM lives in Chicago, Illinois, with his wife, Katherine Skrebutenas, and their daughter, Anna. He is Associate Professor of Ancient Church History at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. His doctoral thesis at Princeton Theological Seminary was recently published as Biblical and Liturgical Symbols within the PseudoDionysian Synthesis (Toronto, 1984). Author of the Preface

3 RENE ROQUES is Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes of the Sorbonne. He holds degrees from the Institut Catholique, the Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris), and the University of Tübingen, and is an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy. An expert on the history of Christian antiquity and the High Middle Ages in the West, he is renowned as one of the leading Dionysian scholars of our time. Introducers of this Volume JAROSLAV PELIKAN received his Ph. D. in 1946 from the University of Chicago, where he also taught from 1953 to 1962. Since 1962 he has been a member of the faculty of Yale University, where he is now Sterling Professor of History. He was editor of the American edition of Luther's Works, and is a member of the editorial board for The Collected Works of Erasmus. Of his books, the best known is probably The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (1971ff.), projected for five volumes. In addition to the second volume of that set, The Spirit ofEastern Christendom (600-1700), his publications in the history of Christian doctrine in the East include a monograph on Athanasius, an edition of Chrysostom's commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, and numerous essays dealing with thinkers from Gregory of Nyssa and Basil of Caesarea through Maximus Confessor to Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. JEAN LECLERCQ, O. S. B., a medieval historian, is a Benedictine monk. He has written some 70 books and 700 articles in a 40-year career. He is presently a professor in the Institute of Religious Psychology, Gregorian University, Rome. His permanent residence is the Abbey of Clervaux in Luxembourg. -viiiKARLFRIED FROEHLICH was born in Germany in 1930. He studied classical languages and theology at the universities of Basel, Göttingen, and Paris and received an M. A. in Biblical Studies from Drew University and a Th. D. from the University of Basel in 1963. Since 1982 he has been B. B. Warfield Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is co-author with H. C. Kee and F. W. Young of Understanding the New Testament (2nd and 3rd editions, 1965 and 1973) and editor of Oscar Cullmann: Vorträge und Aufsätze 1925-1962 (1966); Ökumene—Möglichkeiten und Grenzen Heute (1982); and Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church (1984). -ixForeword Paul Rorem The writings attached to the name of Dionysius the Areopagite (Acts 17:34) are all introduced, translated, and annotated in this single volume. The reader will face the unanswered questions of Dionysian scholarship: Who was the author of these Greek works, which actually date from the fifth or sixth century? Were his (or her?) sympathies Christian or Neoplatonic or both? What was the influence on the spirituality of medieval Christianity and on the modern world? More importantly, nonspecialists can now explore for themselves the actual contents of these famous but seldom-read writings instead of only hearing or reading about them. The texts themselves are not long, although their dense style has given many that impression. They are here presented in the order suggested by the author's internal allusions, since there are no dependable historical references. The Divine Names uses the various biblical names for God, such as "Good," "Being," and "Life," as a starting point for a thorough philosophical discussion of the divine attributes. Yet

4 whatever is affirmed about God must also be denied. The Mystical Theology provides an extremely brief summary of the author's method of affirmative and negative theology and its spiritual goal. It begins with Moses ascending into the dark "cloud of unknowing" and ends with the negation of all presumed attributes of the transcendent God. The Celestial Hierarchy considers the three triads of angelic beings, as described in the scriptures. The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy presents the rites and offices of the church: the three sacraments (baptism, Eucharist, and consecration of the myron-ointment), the three ordinations (of the hierarch or bishop, priests, and deacons), monastic tonsure, and funerals. To describe the relationship of the hierarch to those below him, Dionysius invented the word "hierarchy." The nine Letters consider different aspects of these same topics. -1René Roques, perhaps the Nestor of modern Pseudo-Dionysian studies, touches first on several spiritual themes in these writings and on their contemporary interest. Jaroslav Pelikan's historical essay introduces the original questions of authenticity and the alleged heresies of the Dionysian corpus, as well as some of its reception in the early Middle Ages. Jean Leclercq documents the wide range of medieval authors and topics touched by this corpus, whether deeply or lightly. Karlfried Froehlich then surveys the previously uncharted terrain of the Pseudo-Dionysian reception and critique by Humanists and sixteenth-century Reformers. Colm Luibheid's translation is based on the Greek text of the Migne edition (PG 3), with a few changes according to the critical edition forthcoming from Göttingen (see the bibliography). The Dionysian corpus is notoriously difficult to translate, as witnessed by the complete absence of any English rendition of the entire corpus in the twentieth century. Luibheid's achievement resulted from not only his facility in Greek and his felicity of English style, but also from much perseverance and patience. The notes, necessarily brief, concentrate on providing cross-references within the corpus and a more comprehensive identification of the numerous biblical quotations and allusions than available elsewhere. They also give some indication of the secondary literature, which considers more fully the Christian and Neoplatonic background of the Pseudo-Dionysian corpus. In the cross-references and the index, the treatises are abbreviated as follows: DN = The Divine Names, MT = The Mystical Theology, CH = The Celestial Hierarchy, EH = The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and Ep. = one of the Letters. The column numbers and letters are taken from the Corderius edition in Migne with the line numbers often supplied as well. Thus DN 1 588A 2-5 indicates The Divine Names, chapter one, column 588A, lines two through five. The biblical citations are noted and indexed according to the divisions used in the Revised Standard Version (RSV), including its numbering of the Psalms. The notation LXX (for Septuagint) indicates a quotation or allusion that is not identifiable in the RSV translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, but only in the Greek Old Testament. Secondary works noted only by author and short title are described more fully in the bibliography. The bibliography itself points the interested reader to some of the major works in Pseudo-Dionysian studies, as well as to more thorough and scholarly bibliographies. -2The Pseudo-Dionysian style and message may both perplex and enchant. Patience, small doses, and frequent review of The Mystical Theology can help smooth the way. In any case, a perplexed reader is in good company, for the history of Christian doctrine and spirituality teems with commentators and general readers who have found the Areopagite's meaning obscure, and yet his mysterious appeal irresistible.

5 -3Preface René Roques It may seem paradoxical to underline the present-day value of PseudoDionysius, and consequently to stress the timeliness of a translation of his complete works. It seems we have here an author and treatises that are enigmatic, hard to understand, and involved in a historical and doctrinal context so far removed from ours that bringing them to the attention of present-day people may seem slightly anachronistic. This, however, was not the opinion of the translator, Colm Luibheid, and his assistant, Paul Rorem, and it is fitting to congratulate them for their courageous initiative, while wishing them full and deserved success. Consciously or not, it seems that today's thought and research have often coincided with Dionysian principles and themes regarding major issues, such as the hierarchic vision of the world, the approach to God and the different ways of "naming" him, the correlative presentation of the "divinizing" of intelligences, and the treatment of symbols. Dionysius illustrated in his own way the Platonic and Neoplatonic pattern of the three classes, three functions, and three levels. In his eyes, indeed, all reality is hierarchic and triadic. Thus the angelic universe includes three triads, each subdivided into three orders, which are themselves partitioned into three levels of intelligences, each of which corresponds to the ternary structure. In each one of these triadic groups, the function of perfection or union pertains to the first term, that of illumination to the second, and the function of purification to the third. The distribution of orders and functions is largely identical in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The totality of this twofold universe, the angelic and the human, constitutes a sacred order, an understanding, and an activity, all regulated by the law of hierarchical mediations, both in the sense of the "descent" of divine illumination and in that of the "ascent" of divini -5zation. The harmony and the rigor of the whole and of the parts demand that each triad, each rank, and each intelligence remain strictly in its proper place and there perform entirely and uniquely its proper function. In sharp contrast with most visions of the world, that of Dionysius includes only those intelligences able to be divinized, and excludes anything that may be closed to divinization. This explains why the stability, the movement, and the efficacy of the Dionysian hierarchy are entirely dependent on the divine "Thearchy," the source and goal of all divinization. The approach to God will come about through the hierarchy, in the midst of which the divine "names" will be elaborated and purified. Whatever the origin of these names—biblical or philosophical—all are related to the same method, to a double and apparently contradictory axiom that the whole creation reveals God (Rom 1:20), while on the contrary no one has ever seen God (Ex 33:20; Jn 1:18; 1 Jn 4:12). Hence, God will receive many names, an infinity of names ("polyonomos," "apeironomos"); or, on the contrary, he will remain without a name, above every name ("anonomos," "hyperonomos"). More precisely, from the viewpoint of the creative procession, it will be possible to qualify or name God by means of his total work (affirmative or cataphatic theology); from the viewpoint of the divinizing return, it will be necessary to eliminate every name (negative or apophatic theology). From the latter point of view, the truest according to Dionysius, it will become necessary even to contest the validity of the essential terms of trinitarian

6 dogmatics (unity, trinity), those same terms that John the Scot (Eriugena) will oppose even more radically in his critique of the notions of relationship and love. Such a position, which essentially marks the limits of intelligences faced by God's transcendence, does not compromise in any way the divinization of these same intelligences, which will come about precisely and most of all through this attitude of negation. Several of the Dionysian "sacraments" strongly emphasize the need for purification, which, in the light of the divine unity, will carry the intelligence beyond itself (baptism, Eucharist, and especially religious or monastic consecration). More directly, the radical critique and rejection by the intelligence of each of the names that are more or less accessible to it indicate definite steps forward of this same intelligence in the direction of its own divinization. Paradoxically, then, the divinization of the intelligence is dependent on this same intelligence -6renouncing its own output, its order of thought, and, more radically, its own self. Perceptible symbols will be but a particular field of this same method. The intelligence must interpret, correct, straighten out, "reduce," and deny the images, forms, and schemes in which are materially represented the divine realities they are unable to contain. For Dionysius, scriptural symbolism is intended first of all for teaching. It is educational, and thus temporary, and it is divided empirically into two groups, which are treated in slightly different ways and which seem at first to have different degrees of efficacy. "Similar" symbolism—beautiful, simple, agreeable to the senses—seems better adapted to the education of beginners. "Dissimilar" symbolism, on the contrary, through its very dissimilarity, its ugliness or monstrosity, and by the natural repugnance it inspires, proves from the very first to be better adapted to the method of negation that it demands. That is why it is much preferable to the similar symbolism, since it avoids the naturalistic and aesthetic obstacles by engaging the intelligence more directly in the way of negation. Whether it is similar or dissimilar, every symbol, like every divine name, has meaning only in the light of the divinization of the intelligence, which cannot be effected on the level of the symbol any more than on that of the name. The following translation of the complete works will provide, in all their fullness and with the necessary shades, the themes essential to Dionysianism, which I have recalled much too summarily. I believe that modern readers will find here a source of reflection and of light concerning the most current problems. Luibheid and Rorem will help them in this way with complete competence. -7Abbreviations CH The Celestial Hierarchy DN The Divine Names EH The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy Ep. Epistle/Letter MT The Mystical Theology LXX Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament PG Patrologia Graeca PL Patrologia Latina SC Sources Chrétiennes

7 Secondary works noted only by author and short title are described more fully in the bibliography. -8Introductions I The Odyssey of Dionysian Spirituality Jaroslav Pelikan It would be a challenging project, but a fascinating one, to write the history of Western Christian spirituality in the late patristic and medieval periods primarily or even exclusively on the basis of those neglected writings that are identified in successive volumes of J. P. Migne's Patrologia Latina and Patrologia Graeca as "spurious" or as "dubious," together with those purportedly authentic writings that in fact belong in the same categories. Bertrand Russell once said, in a celebrated bon mot, that he had difficulty telling the difference between a paradox that veils a profound truth and one that is simply nonsense. Similarly, it would seem to be more difficult than current conventional wisdom among theologians suggests to tell the difference between the "pious fraud" of pseudonymity and just plain forgery. In any event, the pseudonymous works bearing the names of the Greek and Latin church fathers have played an interesting and important role in Western spirituality and in Western theology, sometimes a more important role than the authentic works of the same fathers on the same subjects. For example, during much of the medieval debate over predestination, the Hypomnesticon (sometimes called Hypognosticon) ascribed to Augustine, 1. with its sharp distinction between divine foreknowledge and divine predestination, was used to correct the potential danger to a responsible spirituality that seemed to proceed from a reading of the authentically Augustinian On the Predestination of the Saints, On the Gift of Perseverance, and other late works ____________________ 1. For the first scholarly edition of this text and a discussion of alternative theories of its authorship, see John Edward Chisholm, ed., The Pseudo-Augustinian "Hypomnēsticon against the Pelagians and Celestians" (Freiburg, Switzerland, 1980). -11that he had directed against Pelagianism. 2. Again, the treatise You Compel Me [Cogitis me], composed by the ninth-century Benedictine of Corbie, Paschasius Radbertus, under the name of Saint Jerome, 3. made a far more substantial contribution to the history of Marian spirituality and devotion than any of the genuine works of Jerome, 4. or for that matter than the other principal work of Paschasius Radbertus himself on the subject of the Blessed Virgin Mary, On the Parturition of Saint Mary [De partu Mariae]. 5. It would surely not be difficult for most medievalists to prolong this list, but it would be very difficult indeed to think of a more impressive example in the entire history of medieval spirituality and theology than the body of writings attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, which for spirituality must stand alongside the Donation of Constantine and the pseudo-Isidorian Decretals for canon law in any catalog of this puzzling and fascinating genre of Christian literature.

8 From the introduction and notes that accompany the present definitive English translation of the Corpus Areopagiticum, the twentiethcentury English reader can learn the present state of the scholarly speculation about the true identity of the Pseudo-Dionysius. 6. That speculation has been going on, as the accompanying essay "PseudoDionysius and the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century" makes clear, ever since the "subapostolic" dating of these writings came under suspicion—for a mixture of scholarly and polemical reasons, though in by no means as simple a way as the textbooks sometimes say 7. —and the end is not yet. 8. Thus perhaps the most provocative hypothesis about the authorship is one that the weight of the arguments set forth by the great scholar of Syriac theology, Joseph Lebon, demonstrated to be untenable. 9. Nevertheless, it remains tantalizing to ____________________ 2. See Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (Chicago, 1971-), vol. 3, pp. 80-95. 3. Albert Ripberger, ed., Der Pseudo-Hieronymus-Brief IX "Cogitis me." Ein erster marianischer Traktat des Mittelalters von Paschasius Radbert (Freiburg, Switzerland, 1962). 4. Pelikan, The Christian Tradition, pp. 68-74. 5. J. M. Canal, "La virginidad de Maria según Ratramno y Radberto, monjes de Corbie. Nueva edición de los textos," Marianum 30 (1968): 53-160, to be superseded by the critical edition of E. Ann Matter in the Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Mediaevalis. 6. See the front matter of the reference in fn. 5. 7. See pp. 33-46. 8. Hieronymus Engberding, "Zur neuesten Identifizierung des Ps.-Dionysius Areopagita," Philosophisches Jahrbuch der Görres-Gesellschaft 64 (1956): 218-27. 9. Joseph Lebon, "Le Pseudo-Denys l'Aréopagite et Sévère d'Antioche," Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 26 (1930): 880-915. -12ponder the brilliant if erroneous suggestion made in 1928 by Joseph Stiglmayr, 10. on the basis of his researches begun a third of a century earlier on the specific kinds of Neoplatonism at work in Dionysius, 11. that Pseudo-Dionysius was in fact the "Monophysite" Patriarch of Antioch, Severus (ca. 465-538), most of whose writings were destroyed by the Orthodox but survive in "Monophysite" Syriac versions. Stiglmayr argued for his hypothesis on the grounds that Severus was the only Christian writer in approximately the time and place of these works whose genius was equal to that of the great unknown author and whose Neoplatonic-Christian spirituality closely paralleled that of the Pseudo-Dionysian corpus. Unacceptable though it is, that hypothesis does serve to remind us that the spirituality of this quasi-apostolic author did not originally have unquestionable credentials entitling it to inclusion in the postbiblical canon of orthodox faith and piety. Therefore the odyssey of Dionysian spirituality, first from the heretical East to the Orthodox East and then from the Orthodox East to the Catholic West, through which it eventually acquired such credentials and was given an honored place in that canon, is an important chapter in the history of Western spirituality. In what is apparently the earliest known reference to the Corpus Areopagiticum, both the authenticity of the books and the orthodoxy of their doctrine and spirituality came into question. It occurs in a report, bearing the title "Epistle of Innocent the Maronite concerning a Conference Held with the Severians [Innocentii Maronitae epistula de collatione cum Severianis habita]," on a colloquy held in 532 between a group of orthodox followers of the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon of 451, led by Hypatius of Ephesus, and a group of "Severians," usually called "Monophysites." In an effort to find support in patristic tradition for their devotion to "a single nature of the incarnate Logos," the Severians quoted various authorities, including the Orthodox Alexandrian patriarchs Athanasius and Cyril, Gregory

9 Thaumaturgus, and finally "Dionysius the Areopagite, all of whom assert that there is one nature of God the Logos after the union." 12. It is not clear which texts attributed to these various fathers they specifically cited, but the response of Hypatius of Ephesus is noteworthy. After rejecting their ____________________ 10. Joseph Stiglmayr, "Der sogenannte Dionysius Areopagita und Severus von Antiochien," Scholastik 3 (1928): 1-27, 161-89. 11. Joseph Stiglmayr, "Der Neuplatoniker Proclus als Vorlage des sogen. Dionysius Areopagita in der Lehre vom Uebel," Historisches Jahrbuch 16 (1895): 253-73, 721-48. 12. Reprinted in Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum (Strasbourg, 1914-), 4-II: 172. -13efforts to claim the spirituality of the other fathers as an authority for their Monophysite teaching, he continued: "Finally, we say what should have been said at the outset. Those quotations that you claim to have come from the Blessed Dionysius the Areopagite—how can you prove that they are authentic, as you maintain? For if they do come from him, they could not have been unknown to the Blessed Cyril." 13. One must be careful not to press this statement too far; but since there are, of course, no quotations at all from Dionysius in the writings of Cyril, the charge of inauthenticity raised by Hypatius may extend to the corpus as a whole rather than merely to one or another passage being quoted by the Severians. In any case, however, it is impossible to overlook the circumstance that the spirituality of the Pseudo-Dionysius—or, if the passages in question do not form part of the present Corpus Areopagiticum, would it be more appropriate to say "the pseudo-PseudoDionysius," in the way that students of medieval canon law speak of the earliest texts of the Donation of Constantine as "authentic forgeries"?!—appeared in this debate as a source of Christological heresy. Nor, on the other hand, did the Orthodox defenders of the Council of Chalcedon counter these quotations with others from Dionysius, presumably authentic, in which he could be shown to have favored a spirituality based on their doctrine of two continuing natures in God the Logos after the incarnation. There is further evidence for the appreciation of Dionysius among Severus and both his followers and his opponents in the way Dionysius is used in the Syriac texts, Monophysite as well as Nestorian. Thus we find Timothy I, the ninth-century Nestorian Patriarch of Constantinople, endeavoring to determine whether the Syriac translation of Dionysius by a certain Athanasius or that by a certain Phocas was preferable. 14. The renowned master of Nestorian spirituality, Babai the Great (who died c.628), in an exposition of the suspect but influential devotional manual, the Centuries of Evagrius Ponticus, made use of the Dionysian parallel between the ecclesiastical hierarchy of bishops and the celestial hierarchy of angels as well as of the treatise On the Divine Names, which he ascribed to "Saint Dionysius, the disciple of Paul." 15. There also exists at least one Nestorian com____________________ 13. Ibid., 4-II: 173. 14. Timothy I Epistles 33, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 75: 106 [74: 156]. 15. Babai, Exposition of the Book of Centuries by Evagrius Ponticus, ii. 78, ed. Wilhelm Frankenberg, Evagrius Ponticus (Berlin, 1912), p. 183 [182]; ii. 17, p. 143 [142]. -14mentary on Dionysius, that of Josef Hazzaya. 16. But it is far more the Monophysite and Severian Syriac literature of devotion and theology that we find resonating to the distinctive tones of Dionysian spirituality. The elaboration of the various orders and ranks of the angelic hierarchy 17. appears here, too,

10 for example, in Jacob of Edessa, as it does in the Nestorian and the Orthodox writers. But it is evident from the quotations of Dionysius in the writings of Severus, as these quotations have been carefully analyzed by Lebon in his critique of Stiglmayr, that Dionysian spirituality provided Severus and his followers with formulas and ideas not alone for their general spirituality, but specifically for the spirituality associated with their doctrine of the person of Christ, including the characteristic phrase "composite operation [energeia synthetos]," which seems to have been Severus's adaptation of a Dionysian formula. 19. Therefore Theodosius I of Alexandria, a sixth-century apologist for Severus against the Chalcedonians, could claim that "Severus, of blessed memory, was no less assiduous and no less careful in his reading of the books of Saint Dionysius than they." 20. And as Guillaumont has noted, there are some striking parallels between Dionysius and the so-called Book of Hierotheos of Stephan Bar Soudaili, a Monophysite whose spirituality and theology stood in the tradition of Origen and Evagrius. 21. All of this served only to corroborate suspicions of the sort voiced by Hypatius of Ephesus in 532. 18.

It would seem, moreover, that these suspicions of the doctrinal rectitude of Dionysian spirituality were by no means an isolated instance. Apparently the first scholar to compose glosses on Dionysius was John of Scythopolis, who was, as both Hans-Georg Beck 22. and ____________________ 16. Adolf Rücker, "Aus dem mystischen Schrifttum nestorianischer Mönche des 6.-8. Jahrhunderts," Orientalische Stimmen zum Erlösungsgedanken, ed. Franz Gustav Taeschner (Leipzig, 1936), p. 46. 17. See pp. 143-191 below. 18. Jacob of Edessa, Exposition of the Haexaemeron, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 97: 6 (92: 8). 19. Joseph Lebon, "La christologie du monophysisme syrien," Das Konzil von Chalkedon: Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. Aloys Grillmeier and Heinrich Bacht, 3 vols. (Wurzburg, 1951), vol. 1, pp. 558-59. 20. Theodosius of Alexandria, Oration 6, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 103: 52 [17: 75]. 21. A. Guillaumont, Les "Kephalaia Gnostica" d'Evagre le Pontique et l'histoire de l'origénisme chez les Grecs et chez les Syriens (Paris, 1962), pp. 302-32. 22. Hans-Georg Beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich, 1959), p. 376. -15Charles Moeller 23. have said, the first defender of Orthodox spirituality to have been an intellectual and scholarly match for Severus of Antioch. As we now know, those glosses must be disentangled from the authentic glosses on Dionysius by Maximus Confessor, with which they have been conflated in the manuscript tradition. 24. The dominant Tendenz of John's glosses was to bring Dionysius into conformity with Orthodox spirituality and dogma. 25. That effort was made necessary not only because the language of Dionysius could easily be misconstrued and needed glossing, but especially because he had come under fire. "There are some," John of Scythopolis (now Pseudo-Maximus the Confessor) writes in his preface, "who have the audacity [tolmōsi] to reproach the divine Dionysius with heresies, but they are utterly ignorant of what the heretics teach. " 26. The use of the plural "heresies" suggests that Dionysius was being accused (by unspecified critics) of error on more than one doctrine, more, that is, than the doctrine of the person of Christ. This impression is confirmed when John of Scythopolis goes on to refer not only to the doctrine of the person of Christ, but to the doctrine of the Trinity. For the form that the dispute over Christology was taking at this time had once more involved the doctrine of the Trinity. Significantly, it was from the area of liturgy and spirituality, rather than of dogma and speculation, that the issue arose: Was it permissible to say in the language of prayer and worship, "One of the Trinity was crucified for us"? Now obviously, as Werner Elert points out, "no Monophysite ever had the intention of predicating the crucifixion of the Trinity; they were always referring only to the person of the Son." 27. But it was

11 apparently necessary to vindicate the spirituality of Dionysius by establishing his loyalty to the Council of Nicaea as well as to the Council of Chalcedon. An interesting example of how John of Scythopolis facilitated the odyssey of Dionysian spirituality from the heretical East to the orthodox East occurs in his comments on a passage in the third book of The ____________________ 23. Charles Moeller, "Le chalcédonisme et le néo-chalcédonisme en Orient de 451 à la fin du VIe siècle," in Grillmeier and Bacht, Chalkedon, 1: 675, n. 105. 24. Hans Urs von Balthasar, "Das Scholienwerk des Johannes von Skythopolis," Scholastik 15 (1940): 1638. 25. On the relation of Maximus to Dionysius, see the introductions by George Berthold and by Jaroslav Pelikan in the volume Maximus Confessor in this series. 26. John of Scythopolis, Prologue to the Works of Saint Dionysius, Patrologia Graeca, 4:20. 27. Werner Elert, Der Ausgang der altkirchlichen Christologie (Berlin, 195 7), p. 106. -16Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 28. Dionysius speaks there of "how out of love for humanity Christ emerged from the hiddenness of his divinity to take on human shape, to be utterly incarnate among us while yet remaining unmixed." Although there are other passages in Dionysius that could— and indeed did— connect his spirituality to that of the Monophysites, or any rate to that of Severus, as we shall see at greater length a bit later, this formulation gave his commentator just the handle he needed to dissociate Dionysius from any spirituality that would deny to the incarnate Logos after the union a full and distinct human nature. "He says, 'complete in every respect,' " John explained, "inasmuch as [Christ] assumed both a rational soul and a body. And he very aptly says 'utterly incarnate among us while yet remaining unmixed,' because [Christ] remained God when he appeared as man, preserving the properties of each nature." "And this," he added, "should be taken note of in opposition to the Apollinarians. " 29. Both the term "unmixed [asynchytō]" and the formula "preserving the properties of each nature" are, of course, echoes of the decree of the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and elsewhere the commentator had to explain how a (presumably) first-century writer could have had the prescience to quote the language of the fifth century; 30. moreover, they represent that pole of Orthodox spirituality that stressed the distinction of the natures against the "Eutychian" tendency to confuse them. As interpreted by his later Orthodox commentator, Dionysius the Areopagite emerges as one whose spirituality was exactly the same as that of the Council of Chalcedon and who, in fact, anticipated the key formulations of Chalcedonian spirituality by four centuries or so. In addition to the doctrine of the person of Christ, however, there were other areas of doctrine that might have made the spirituality of Pseudo-Dionysius seem suspect, particularly when it would come to the West. One of these was the status of sacraments administered by priests who were themselves not in a state of grace, the issue in the Donatist controversy that occupied a large part of Augustine's public life. In Epistle 8, 31. Dionysius takes up the question of "impious priests or those convicted of some other unseemliness," and asks: "How then ____________________ 28. Pseudo-Dionysius, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 3.13 (p. 222 below). 29. John of Scythopolis, Scholia on "The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy" 3.13, Patrologia Graeca, 4: 149-52. 30. Ibid., 197. 31. Pseudo-Dionysius Epistle 8.2 (see pp. 274f. below).

12 -17could the priests be the interpreters of God? ... Living in darkness, how could they bring light to others?" To this he answers: "He who does not bestow illumination is thereby excluded from the priestly order and from the power reserved to the priesthood. For he is unilluminated.... This is no priest. He is an enemy, deceitful, selfdeluded, a wolf in sheep's clothing ready to attack the people of God." Now these are the ideas, and in some instances even the very phrases, of the rigoristic and "puritanical" spirituality against which Augustine contended at the beginning of the fifth century. Petilianus, the Donatist bishop of Cirta in Numidia, as quoted by Augustine, used the words of Matthew 7:15-16 about "wolves in sheep's clothing" as a description of the Catholic clergy, 32. and he stated the stern demands of Donatist spirituality when he declared: "We look to the conscience of the one who administers the sacrament in a state of holiness to cleanse that of the one who receives it. ” 33. At least in the passage just quoted from Epistle 8, this would also appear to be the position of PseudoDionysius. The controversy over the schism occasioned by Donatist spirituality was almost exclusively Western, chiefly North African, although the emperor Constantine and several of his successors were obliged to deal with Donatism both as schism and as sedition. 34. Chiefly it was the spirituality of Augustine in which, through the definition of sacramental character as a gift distinct from the gift of sacramental grace itself, it became possible to root the holiness of the Church in the objective holiness of the sacraments rather than in the subjective holiness of either the minister or the recipient of the sacraments. Yet there are parallels to this in the spirituality of the Greek church fathers. Basil of Caesarea, for example, asserted that "the Church of God would be pure" by virtue of its fidelity to the teaching of the fathers of the Council of Nicaea, 35. and he made no reference to the state of sanctification of either clergy or members as a condition of this purity. But as one scholar has noted, there is in Dionysius's spirituality as it deals with the Church and the sacraments "only one concept that is emphasized above all: the measure of light imparted is determined by the condition of the subject." 36. Despite the authorities ____________________ 32. Augustine, Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, Bishop of Cirta ii.16.36. 33. Ibid. ii.3.6. 34. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History x. 5.18-20. 35. Basil of Caesarea, Epistle 114. 36. Joseph Stiglmayr, "Die Lehre von den Sakramenten und der Kirche nach Ps.-Dionysius," Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 22 (1898): 303. -18such as Cyprian, with whom Pseudo-Dionysius manifests some affinities, 37. who might be claimed for this concept, such a spirituality does seem to lead, when consistently carried out, closer to the Donatist than to the Augustinian definition of the holiness of the Church. Potentially more dangerous than these overt statements of Dionysius, however, is the place that is occupied (and, even more, the place that is not occupied) in his spirituality by the cardinal doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation. 38. In his Trinitarian doctrine, to quote René Roques, Dionysius "appears to be substantially orthodox," 39. and his Trinitarian language is quite conventional. Elsewhere Roques shows that for Proclus "all the orders of reality are divided into three terms.... All reality is conceived of in a triadic model." 40. In adapting this triadic model to the ecclesiastical and celestial hierarchies, Dionysius elaborated the analogy of the uncreated divine Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with these created trinities. When Dionysian spirituality emigrated to the West, it could therefore attach itself to Saint

13 Augustine's idea of the "vestiges of the Trinity" in the human mind, producing the interaction that becomes visible, for example, in the spirituality of Bonaventure. 41. But for the understanding of that "emigration" to the West, it is essential to keep in mind the fundamental difference between the Trinitarian spirituality of Pseudo-Dionysius and the Trinitarian spirituality of Augustine in On the Trinity. Augustine felt entitled to propose such analogies only after he had expounded, both theologically and exegetically, the Catholic dogma of the Trinity, with its full implications for spirituality and morals. On the other hand, Dionysius manifests relatively little interest in the dogma of the Trinity as such, and his spirituality moves immediately into the analogies. The most notorious statement—or, as the Yugoslav scholar Jossip Marić calls it, "the most celebrated formula" 42. —of Dionysian spirituality, and the one with the most momentous consequences for its Westward odyssey, affected the doctrine of the person of Christ rather than the doctrine of the Trinity as such. It occurred in the fourth of ____________________ 37. Cf. René Roques, L'Univers dionysien (see p. 5 above), p. 297, n. 5. 38. See the comments in my "Introduction" to Maximus Confessor, pp. 6-7. 39. Roques, L'Univers dionysien, p. 305. 40. Ibid., pp. 73, 75. 41. See the Introduction to the volume of Bonaventure in this series. 42. Jossip Marić, "Pseudo-Dionysii Areopagitae formula christologica celeberrima de Christi activitate thendrica: Secunda quaestio praevia ad Novam Apologiam Honorii I papae," Bogoslovska smotra 20 (1932): 105-73. -19the Epistles: "It was not by virtue of being God that he did divine things, not by virtue of being a man that he did what was human, but rather, by the fact of being God-made-man he accomplished something new in our midst—the activity of the God-man." 43. So, at any rate, the text has been transmitted. In some versions of the transmission, however, the crucial phrase "something new in our midst, the activity of the God-man [kainēn tina tēn theandrikēn energeian]" is replaced by "a single activity of the God-man [mian theandrikēn energeian]," making Dionysius an even more explicit proponent of the theory that there was in the incarnate Logos a single "operation [energeia]." The story of the controversy occasioned by the Dionysian formula has been told several times, 44. but it is pertinent also to this account of the odyssey of Dionysian spirituality. If Dionysius said that there was "a single activity of the God-man," but even if he only said that there was "the activity of the God-man," this is still in the singular; and that is the crucial problem. For the status of Dionysian spirituality in the medieval West, consequently, it is an inescapable question: How did Pseudo-Dionysius manage to escape a condemnation that, in the course of these very controversies over "one operation [energeia]" or "two operations [energeiai]" and over "one will" or "two wills" in Christ, struck down not only Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople, Bishop of New Rome, but Pope Honorius I, Bishop of Old Rome? To be sure, modern Western scholarship has not dealt fairly with all of this. Thus it was a manifest distortion when the nineteenth-century Protestant historian of dogma, Ferdinand Christian Baur, charged that Dionysius "substituted something quite different for the factual Incarnation," or when an even more eminent nineteenth-century Protestant historian of dogma, Adolf von Harnack, concluded that for Dionysius "the historical Christ is ... a symbol of the universal cleansing and sanctifying activity" of the Logos and little more. 45. Therefore it is a useful corrective for scholars when Hans Urs von Balthasar points out that "the Monophysitism of the Areopagite, which is often treated as though it were an obvious fact, does not seem

14 ____________________ 43. Dionysius, Epistle 4, p. 265 below. 44. With references to previous literature, cf. Pelikan, The Christian Tradition, 2: 6566. 45. Adolf von Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, 3 vols. (5th ed.; Tübingen, 1931), vol. 2, p. 170. -20to have been established" historically. 46. Whatever the status of his alleged "Monophysitism" may be, however, his "Monenergism" does indeed seem to be an "obvious fact"; and Monenergism was condemned, too. That remains so even after putting as charitable a construction as possible on his words. It has been argued that his interest was in spirituality rather than in the nuances of dogmatics, and that therefore he could not have anticipated the technical debate over whether "operation [energeia]" belonged to "nature" or to "person [hypostasis]." This allowed him to ascribe it in the singular to the Godman rather than in the plural to each of the natures. But such an exoneration would do no more than to put his statement into the same class with that of Pope Honorius. For Honorius affirmed: "We confess a single will [unam voluntatem] of our Lord Jesus Christ, because our nature has truly been assumed by the divinity." 47. In the simple and literal sense of the words, then, Honorius was clearly a "Monothelete," and Dionysius was a "Monenergist." That is to say, each of them espoused a spirituality that required a singular in such formulas, whereas the official doctrine eventually declared for the dual form and condemned the single. And yet the hapless Pope Honorius was hereticized by the Third Council of Constantinople in 681, with repercussions that could still be heard in the debates over papal infallibility at the First Council of the Vatican in 1870. But Dionysius was rescued and given the position of what we must, somewhat anachronistically, call an "apostolic father." Thomas Aquinas does not seem even to have mentioned the case of Pope Honorius, but he quoted Dionysius about 1,700 times. One reason for this success is that the pseudonym worked. The brief reference to "Dionysius the Areopagite" in Acts 17:34 was simply too fascinating to be left alone. As the story of Barnabas in the Book of Acts quickly led to the tradition that he was the first bishop of Cyprus or of Milan and that he was the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews or of the epistle that bears his name, so the Athenian convert was to acquire first a diocese and then an authorship (and then a second diocese). If we are to believe Eusebius, 48. Dionysius of Corinth (about whom we apparently know nothing except what Eusebius re____________________ 46. Hans Urs von Balthasar, "Scholienwerk," p. 17. 47. Honorius I, Epistle 4, Patrologia Latina, 40: 472. 48. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History iii.4.11. -21ports) identified Dionysius the Areopagite as the first bishop of Athens. This citation occurs in a chapter of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History devoted to documenting the apostolic succession of various sees. Eusebius, with his penchant for apostolic succession, could be counted on not to miss any references to the continuity between the immediate pupils of the apostles and the episcopal centers of his own time. Significantly, it was this very Eusebian penchant that helped to endear his history, as it was reworked and incorporated into the Tripartite History of Cassiodorus, to medieval Western readers as well. 49. In the course of this migration to the West, Dionysius the Areopagite acquired even further prestige, when Hilduin of Saint-Denis, who was responsible for the first translation of the Corpus Areopagiticum into Latin, also wrote a hagiographical account of the Passio sanctissimi Dionysii, 50. in which the Areopagite was identified with Dionysius, bishop of Paris.

15 Now anyone who had been converted by a sermon of Saint Paul that has been cited almost from the beginning as the justification for doing apologetics as part of the task of theology could have been expected to describe in writing the nature of his conversion and the meaning of the true relation between Athens and Jerusalem. That he did so in the form of treatises in spirituality, rather than of treatises that were explicitly apologetic in methodology and purpose, only helped to confirm his status in the West, as it had in the East. What is surprising, at least in some ways, is not that some writings were eventually fathered on him, but that it took so long. In a monograph written almost a century ago but still extremely important, Stiglmayr painstakingly assembled practically all of the evidence then available on the almost immediate and almost complete success of the pseudonymity. Even though von Balthasar suggests, a bit coyly, that John of Scythopolis may have known more than he would let on about who the real author of the Corpus Areopagiticum was, 51. he does not seem to want us to take this obiter dictum very seriously. In a way, however, it is tautological to say that the odyssey of this pseudonymous work was successful: The spirituality of Dionysius was accepted as authoritative also in the West because he was believed to carry authority. It seems to be a valid generalization that ____________________ 49. On the Tripartite History, see James J. O'Donnell, Cassiodorus (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1979), pp. 246-47. 50. Patrologia Latina, 106: 23-50. 51. Balthasar, "Scholienwerk," p. 38. -22pseudonymity usually succeeds only if it manages to set down on paper what everyone—or at least the "right people"—will recognize as commonly received truth. Thus, to advert to the other works mentioned at the beginning, after the debates during the century between the death of Augustine in 430 and the Synod of Orange in 529, "everyone knew" that Augustine had not really taught double predestination after all; and it only remained for the Hypomnēsticon to supply pseudonymous documentation of that common consciousness. By the ninth century, the spirituality devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary even in the Latin West had reached the point where a pseudonymous epistle such as Cogitis me, proceeding on the basis of the liturgical celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin as "happy [felix]" and "blessed [beata]," could urge that there was something special about how she received birth, not only about how she gave birth: Pseudonymity here was a way for Marian spirituality about the Immaculate Conception to begin the development that would finally carry it, about a millennium later, to the status of Marian dogma. As noted earlier, it had been the historic accomplishment of Maximus Confessor to purge Dionysian spirituality of the interpretations that would have connected it to one or another heresy. The special status of Maximus as a saint and hero of the faith for both West and East lent his aura also to the Dionysian writings. The medieval Western use of Dionysius carried this process still further. Thus, to cite one example among literally thousands, Thomas Aquinas, commenting on a passage from The Divine Names, quoted the authority of Dionysius for the thesis that "from creatures we arrive at God in three ways, namely, by way of causality, by way of removal, and by way of eminence." 52. As Chenu says, "de facto, the entire Dionysian doctrine is thus reversed." 53. Through his first odyssey, from the heretical East to the Orthodox East, the spirituality of this "Maximized" Dionysius had been purged of any lingering suspicions about his orthodoxy, well before the time of his second odyssey, from the Orthodox East to the Catholic West. Even the association of this spirituality with the mystifying speculations of John the Scot, through his translation of Dionysius, did not manage to deprive it of this standing; and, after all, John the

16 ____________________ 52. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the "Sentences" i.3.div. 53. Marie-Dominique Chenu, Toward Understanding Saint Thomas, trans. A.-M. Landry and D. Hughes (Chicago, 1964), p. 229. -23Scot translated Maximus as well. The massive compilations by Philippe Chevallier have begun to make possible an assessment of the treatment given to the Corpus by successive Latin translators, up to and including Ficino; 54. and it has become a widely accepted view that Dionysian spirituality and speculation may have been more influential in the West than in the East. If that is true, it was not primarily because of any disaffection toward it in the East, but because of the plethora of other works embodying it. In the West, by contrast, there had been no Origen, no Gregory of Nyssa; but there had, of course, been an Augustine. As I mentioned earlier, the most fascinating aspect of the westward odyssey of Dionysian spirituality is the interaction between the Neoplatonism of Dionysius and the Neoplatonism of Augustine (with perhaps the Neoplatonism of Boethius as a third partner). Each had a distinctive metaphysic; but more importantly, each was the fountainhead for a distinctive piety and devotion. And when they came together, as for example in both Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, the result was a spirituality in which intellectuality and fervor were fused—as indeed they had uniquely been in the writings collected here. ____________________ 54. Philippe Chevalier, Dionysiaca. Recueil donnant l'ensemble des traditions latines des ouvrages attribués au Denys de l'Aréopage, 2 vols. (Paris, 1937-1950). -24II Influence and noninfluence of Dionysius in the Western Middle Ages Jean Leclercq This title recalls the change and development in our knowledge concerning the influence of Dionysius during the last fifty years. Historians have long since recognized his importance for the great masters of scholastic theology from the thirteenth century onward. Since the 1930s, the works of Etienne Gilson have drawn attention to the fact that spiritual authors of the twelfth century made use of ideas and terminology that were heralded by and perhaps even originated with the Greek fathers and certain Byzantine writers. Some researchers, following Gilson's lead, actually found parallels in which they thought they could detect monastic, and especially Cistercian, influence. This fascinating discovery, however, caused them to go too far in that direction. This state of affairs lasted until 1953 when, at the time of the eighth centenary of the death of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a closer verification was begun of Dionysius's influence. Conjecture was, in some cases, still presented as proof. Thirty years later, particularly during the last decade, we have come to a more balanced position, as a result of intense studies carried out especially in the United States. Not only can we see more clearly the fact and extent of Dionysius's influence, but we are in a position to interpret the facts and get a glimpse of the reason for them. I shall present an attempt at an explanation by way of conclusion, following an examination of the results that have been gleaned from this chapter of Western doctrinal history.

17 -25I A Hidden Presence Saint Gregory the Great, father of Western medieval spirituality, refers to Dionysius as "ancient and venerable Father" 1. and quotes him on the subject of angels. But did he really know his works? It has long been in some doubt because Gregory himself claimed he "did not know Greek." The most recent research, however, has shown that his statement, when seen in historical and literary context, should not be taken literally. Even if he did not write Greek, he read and understood it, and the language would have influenced his education during the six years he spent in Constantinople. He was certainly familiar with Dionysius's doctrine on celestial hierarchies. He may even have known his teaching on the primacy of those "men of God" who have received true authority and power from the Holy Spirit: His Dialogues are filled with those charismatic persons who have had no human teacher. While not sharing all of Dionysius's teaching on this point or on others, he was surely marked by it. 2. It is even likely that when Saint Gregory returned to Rome, he brought with him a copy of the complete works of Dionysius in Greek. 3. Yet, during the seventh and eighth centuries, the few references to this Doctor of the Church—for he was known as such from then on—are not to be found in those writings intended to nourish the spiritual life. The same situation obtained at the beginning of the Carolingian Age and it was not until the year 827 that a copy of his works was sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael the Stammerer to King Louis the Pious, marking the beginning of a new ascendancy for Dionysius. About the year 838, Hilduin, abbot of the monastery near Paris placed under the patronage of Dionysius, undertook a translation of his works; he accomplished the task amid such difficult conditions, however, that the translation is almost unintelligible. Charles (II) the Bald requested the Irishman John Scotus, also called Eriugena, to make a fresh translation and this he finished in 862. Anastasius, the ____________________ 1. In Evang., Homily 34, 12, in Patrologia Latina, vol. 76, 1254. 2. Giorgio Grocco, Uomini di Dio. Uomini di società nell'alto medievo, in "Ricerche di storia sociale e religiosa" 12 (1977): 191-93. 3. For the facts and texts mentioned in the following pages, see bibliographical references in the article "Denys l'Aréopagite. En Occident," in the Dictionnaire de spiritualité, vol. 3 (Paris, 1957). -26papal librarian, brought out a revision of Eriugena's translation in 875 to which he added clarifying remarks. Eriugena himself, in his own works, revealed the influence of Dionysius. Only one record from the eleventh century and two from the twelfth century have come down to us on Eriugena's Homily on the Prologue of St John; all the other manuscripts are of a later date. Still they form part of the Collection of Homilies, which was known only in and through the liturgy. 4. There is a ninth-century manuscript at Laon of his Commentary on St John. 5. It is only at the beginning of the twelfth century that the masters of the Cathedral school of Laon introduced extracts from this work into the Sentences and the Gloss; in this manner Dionysian concepts found their way into the writings of Peter Lombard and others. There are few references to Dionysius in scholastic theology before the tenth and eleventh centuries; translations of his works existed, yet his presence was, as it were, below the surface. Quite suddenly it began to emerge, although his influence remained limited. II The Twelfth Century: A Turning Point

18 Within traditional monasticism—the form that came to be known as Benedictine—little attention was paid to Dionysius. 6. Honorius of Autun was an exception. Abbot Suger (d. 1151) of Saint-Denis borrowed some ideas from Dionysius to explain the symbolism of light in the basilica he had built. Also, one of the monks of Saint-Denis, John Sarrazin, whose name would otherwise be forgotten, wrote a commentary on The Celestial Hierarchy in 1140; he then made a translation of the work with a dedication to "Master John of Salisbury" 7. in 1165, in which he took into account the remarks of Anastasius. Thus we see that in the twelfth century, just as in the ninth, there were a few monks here and there, the most important of whom belonged to the monastery of Saint-Denis, who may have had no influence on their ____________________ 4. Edouard Jeauneau, Jean Scot, Homélie sur le Prologue de Jean [John Scotus, Homily on the Prologue of St John] (Paris, 1969), pp. 21-29 and 67. 5. Edouard Jeauneau, Commentaire sur l'Evangile de Jean [Commentary on Saint John's Gospel] (Paris, 1972), pp. 55-62. 6. For facts of medieval monastic history, see references and bibliography in Bernard McGinn, "PseudoDionysius and the Early Cistercians," in One Yet Two, Monastic Tradition East and West, ed. M. Basil Pennington (Kalamazoo, Mich., 1976), pp. 200-41. 7. Edited text among the letters of John of Salisbury in P. L. 199: 143-44. -27own surroundings or tradition, but who nevertheless prepared the texts that would later be of use to others. This was the case among the Canons Regular. Hugh of Saint Victor had already edited two commentaries on The Celestial Hierarchy between 1125 and 1137, later revising and combining them as one. His successor, Richard of Saint Victor (d. 1173), was familiar with Dionysius through Hugh, though he owed him little else. Another Victorine, Thomas Gallus, the abbot of Verceil, was more in Hugh's debt. Because of Thomas and Hugh, the influence of Dionysius was felt by Gilbert of Poitiers at Chartres, as well as by the Porretains and others in Paris. From that time on, Dionysian influence was important for Scholasticism, without going beyond the framework of speculative thought; it was scarcely felt at all in the field of spirituality. What, we may ask, was the influence of Dionysius during the intense renewal brought about by the Cistercians? Two names dominate the scene at this time: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and his friend William of Saint-Thierry. It had been thought complimentary to Saint Bernard to discern Dionysian traits in his works, but it has been necessary to show decisively that the Cistercian abbot owed him very little. 8. The same is true of William of Saint-Thierry and Aelred of Rievaulx; there is no evidence of Greek influence in their works. 9. In his Commentary on the Song of Songs, Thomas the Cistercian "does not seem to care for Pseudo-Dionysius.... It is interesting to note the conspicuous lack of Dionysian ideas and terminology in Thomas's works ... Thomas, like Bernard, remains Latin." It is only much later that Alan of Lille (c. 1120-1202) made more of a case for Dionysius. 10. He is cited by Helinand of Froidmont (d. 1229) but with the comment that "his words evoke amazement and astonishment rather than knowledge." Helinand was satisfied with mentioning the words of Dionysius but was not concerned with the kind of academic debating that went on in the schools. The same was true for the Carthusians : both for Saint Bruno in his Commentary on the Psalms, and for Adam of Dryburgh, known as the Scot, who observed that the words of Dionysius were "profound but unclear (perplexa)." ____________________ 10. David N. Bell, "Love and Charity in the Commentary on the Song of Songs of Thomas the Cistercian," Cîteaux 29 (1978): 265; Ibid. 28 (1977): 213.

19 8.

Edmond Boissard, "S. Bernard et le Pseudo-Aréopagite," Recherches de théologie ancienne et mediévale 26 (1958): 214-63. 9. David N. Bell, "Greek, Plotinus and the Education of William of Saint-Thierry," in Cîteaux Commentarii Cistercienses 30 (1979): 221-46. -28There is, however, an exception in the monastic tradition provided by Isaac of Stella (died c. 1169), a representative of the second generation of Cistercian spiritual writers. At one time Dionysius's influence on Isaac had been thought extensive; a more measured estimate today indicates that it was moderate and limited to a few ideas that he might just as well have obtained from the Latin tradition. It seems most likely that as a student, Isaac was familiar with the Dionysian texts; once in the monastery he was able to blend harmoniously his scholastic knowledge with what was proper to the Cistercian tradition. 11. Moreover, at Clairvaux itself, some of the most prized possessions later on included all the works of Dionysius 12. as well as an important commentary that has been discovered just recently. 13. In addition, a sermon that took its inspiration from the writings of Dionysius and Eriugena was preached to the General Chapter of the Cistercian Order toward the close of the twelfth century by Garnier, an abbot of Clairvaux. III Scholasticism, Mysticism, and Politics The influence of Dionysius passed quite naturally from the schools of the twelfth century to those of the thirteenth. Among the Franciscans, Robert Grosseteste made the greatest contribution in this direction by bringing out a translation, with commentary, of the Dionysian corpus between 1240 and 1243. Shortly after, the Dominican Albert the Great provided a similar service, and the great doctors of the following generation were not content to do less. Thomas Aquinas wrote an explanation for several works and Saint Bonaventure hailed him as "the prince of mystics." 14. It was, in fact, in the area of mysticism that Dionysius revealed all his potentiality. Aquinas, great saint and thinker as he was, had the ability, as someone has said, "to shift the ____________________ 11. McGinn, "Pseudo-Dionysius," pp. 230-34. 12. Ferruccio Gastaldelli, "Proposed Inventory for the Greek Fathers in the Library of Clairvaux," in One Yet Two, p. 403. 13. Ferruccio Gastaldelli, "Il manoscritto Troyes 1003 et il testo del commento di Guglielmo di Lucca al De divinis nominibus," Salesianum 41 (1979): 37-72. 14. Guntriem G. Bischoff, "Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, the Gnostic Myth," in The Spirituality of Western Christendom, ed. E. Rozanne Elder (Kalamazoo, Mich., 1976), p. 39; J. G. Bougerol, "St Bonaventure and Pseudo Dionysius," Etudes Franciscaines 28, Suppl. (1968): 33-123. -29points of emphasis and counterpoise mysticism with scholasticism" in a synthesis of perfect balance. 15. From then on, the works of Dionysius provided a powerful contribution in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to the spirituality that flowered in the Rhine valley and elsewhere among theologians of the "abstract school," as historians have termed it. Master Eckhart (d. 1327) proved capable of adopting fundamental Dionysian themes, "while changing the meaning substantially." Several other writers did more or less the same, each in his own way: Tauler (d. 1361); Ruysbroeck (d. 1381), Gerson (d. 1429), Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1464), Denis the Carthusian (d. 1471), Harphius (d. 1477), and Marsilio Ficino (d. 1499).

20 During the golden age of Spanish mysticism, Dionysius's presence is felt in the writings of the Benedictine Abbot Cisneros (d. 1510) and among such Franciscan mystics as Francis of Osuna—here we limit ourselves to a mention of the greatest. His influence can also be traced in Saint John of the Cross and, later, in the Carmelite school of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and among the Jesuits and representatives of the French school, including Fénelon. He was debated as much as he was admired, and the resulting discussions avoided any interpretations that were either too simplified or too complicated. At the end of the nineteenth century, an innovation occurred in Benedictine tradition through M. Cécile Bruyère, abbess of SainteCécile de Solesmes. Acting apparently under the influence of Dom Paul Delatte, she presented a treatise on the life of monastic prayer that clearly pointed to the thought of Dionysius; 16. this well chosen experiment, however, provided insight only to those within a limited circle. In any survey of Dionysian influence, we cannot bypass the area of ecclesiology, and all its links with politics, for in this realm the impact of Dionysius was very strong from the thirteenth century on. 17. ____________________ 15. Sergej Averincer, "L'or dans le système des symboles de la culture byzantine," Studi medievali 20 (1979): 59. 16. Cécile Bruyère, La vie spirituelle et l'oraison d'après l'Écriture Sainte et la tradition monastique [Prayer and the spiritual life according to Sacred Scripture and the monastic tradition] (Solesmes, 1899). 17. J. Leclercq, Jean de Paris et l'ecclésiologie du XIIIème siècle [John of Paris and the ecclesiology of the 13th century] (Paris, 1942), pp. 80-81 and passim; Yves Congar, L'Eglise de S. Augustin à l'époque moderne [The Church from St Augustine to the modern age] (Paris, 1970), pp. 224-30. -30One of Dionysius's principles, often applied to political power both civil and religious, maintains that God's gifts are bestowed from on high through intermediaries who can guide others to the extent that they themselves are enlightened. What is deemed to be the case with the celestial hierarchy is considered to have a counterpart in the structure of the Church. Supporters of a pontifical theocracy concluded, therefore, that the Pope held power over all. John of Paris and others thought that this was equally true in the temporal order, independently of spiritual power. Some of Dionysius's ideas thus served as a key to interpreting canon law, and traces of opposing explanations remained in political-religious disputes until recent times. IV Conclusion: A Reflection on the History of Spirituality The successive stages recording the influence of Dionysius in the West illustrate the major pathways in the entire evolution of spirituality in that half of Christendom. Throughout the Middle Ages, the monastic order—Benedictine, Cistercian, and Carthusian—retained its identity with no appeal to the writings of Dionysius. In the twelfth century the Canons Regular took a definite turn in his direction, blazing a trail for him in Scholasticism. Dionysius's absence from monastic spirituality is even more significant when we realize that the abbeys possessed manuscripts of his works in translation that had been done by the monks. If they were unaware of him, their ignorance was willful. It was not that they rejected him; rather they felt he was unnecessary. On the one hand, Dionysius was unclear, a fact pointedly noted by Hugh of Saint-Victor. 18. If someone wanted to teach Dionysius, he had to do a commentary. But the monastic vocation disallowed any opportunity to be a schoolmaster. Dionysius's ideas, moreover, were frequently abstract and had little

21 basis in sacred scripture. The monks certainly found him insufficiently biblical. Did they therefore reject the whole Neoplatonic course of thought? Not at all; they welcomed many of its riches from Saint Augustine and several other Latin fathers. The monastic and Scholastic traditions thus were different but ____________________ 18. Hugh of Saint-Victor, Eapositio in Hierarchium coelestum S. Dionysii. 1, 5. P. L. 175931. -31not mutually exclusive. Knowledge passed between them without mingling, at least on the part of the great Cistercian authors. The Scholastic theologians and mystics for their part could not simply dismiss the monastic tradition, from which they had received so much. A wonderful balance is evident in the thirteenth century between spiritual experience and doctrinal teaching, and in bringing the two to fruition, the contribution of monasticism was as important as that of Dionysius. Later, however, as speculative theology took an ever greater place in philosophical abstraction, mystical wisdom tended to develop on its own, and appeal both to the symbols and ideas that Dionysius presented. From then on, he was influential in two often parallel but distinctly separate directions: theoretical, including trends in ecclesiology, and devotional. Two recent developments contribute to the relevance of Dionysius for our contemporary world. First is the importance he attributes to symbols in discursive thought and mysticism. Today, an ever greater recognition is given to the role of the imagination and this has caused a number of thinkers to return to what they call "a theology of symbolism." 19. Second, an increasing number of people today are involved in interreligious dialogue, and this has led to a highlighting of those concepts in Christian tradition that are akin to those of the East. Dom Bede Griffiths has put it very well: For Neo-Platonism, as found in Plotinus and later developed by St Gregory of Nyssa and Dionysius the Areopagite, is the nearest equivalent in the West of the Vedantic tradition of Hinduism in the East. 20. ____________________ 19. Charles A. Bernard, Théologie symbolique (Paris-Rome, 1978); "Les formes de la théologie chez Denys l'Aréopagite," Gregorianum 59 (1978): 38-69. 20. Dom Bede Griffiths, "Toward an Indian Christian Spirituality," in Prayer and Contemplation, ed. C. M. Vadakkekara, Studies in Christian and Hindu Spirituality (Asirivanan Benedictine Monastery, Kambalgud, Bangalore), p. 385. -32III Pseudo-Dionysius and the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century Karlfried Froehlich The Pseudo-Dionysian tradition in the West reached the sixteenth century in an impressive form. Except for the Bible and perhaps the works of Boethius, no writing of the early Christian era received similar attention in terms of translations, excerpts, commentaries, and even cumulative corpora that combined

22 1.

these elements into veritable encyclopedias of Dionysian scholarship. The thirteenth century Parisian corpus, for example, which H. F. Dondaine has studied with so much care, 2. combined the standard "Old Translation" of John Scotus Eriugena and the "New Translation" of John Sarrazin; then glosses and scholia by Maximus Confessor, John of Scythopolis, and others, translated and glossed in turn by Anastasius Bibliothecarius; the "Extracts" by Thomas Gallus and the Dionysian legend of Hilduin's Passion of Saint Denys; and also several commentaries such as John the Scot, John Sarrazin, and Hugh of Saint-Victor on The Celestial Hierarchy. The Dionysian tradition had deeply influenced not only medieval mystical thought but also Scholastic theology both through the practice of commenting on the treatises and by its doctrinal and spiritual content, whose apostolic authority was supported by Hil____________________ 1. A comparative collection of texts was published under the title Dionysiaca, ed. Ph. Chevallier, vols. 12 (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1937-1949). For the history of the tradition see the articles on Dionysius in Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 14 (1960): 290-303 (R. Roques; R. Aubert) and Dictionnaire de Spiritualité 3 (1957): 244-430; B. Faes de Mottoni, Il Corpus Dionysiacum nel Medioevo. Rassegna di Studi 1900-1972, Pubblicazioni di Centro di studio per la storia della storiografia filosofica, 3 (Bologna: Il Molino, 1977). 2. H. F. Dondaine, Le corpus dionysien de l'université de Paris au XIIIe siècle, Storia e Letteratura, 44 (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1953). -33duin's conflation of three Dionysii: the Areopagite, the first bishop of Paris, and the author of the corpus. 3. It is a fairly common assumption among scholars that the denial of Areopagitic authorship by the Italian humanist Lorenzo Valla dealt a mortal blow to all interest in the Dionysian writings among the Protestant Reformers, who had no use for a fraud and regarded every attempt at defending their authority as an expression of Roman traditionalism. Simply put: For Protestants, there was no church father called Dionysius. While there is some truth in this picture, it is a caricature of a far more complicated situation. It was not the mark of a true humanist during the sixteenth century to accept Valla's criticism, nor did the inauthentic Dionysian corpus fall into total oblivion among Protestants. The story of Pseudo-Dionysius and the Protestant Reformation belongs in the context of the reception of the humanist "new learning" itself among the adherents of both the old faith and the new. This story was complicated by a variety of trends and interests in humanist circles that had already contributed to a new climate in Dionysian studies during the fifteenth century and that found their echo in the following century among Protestant and Catholic scholars alike. Five such trends must be mentioned here. 1. The zeal of the humanists to procure better texts and translations resulted in a considerable advance over the older Dionysian corpora. Probably the most important novelty was Ambrogio Traversari's elegant Latin translation of 1436, which Nicholas of Cusa had suggested. 4. First printed at Bruges in 1480, it became the Latin text most widely read among humanists, including many Protestant Reformers. Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples featured it in his popular collection of apostolic fathers entitled Theologia Vivificans. Cibus Solidus (Paris, 1498), which also included the letters of Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna. From then on, it was printed as the standard "new ____________________ 3. Cf. D. Knowles, "The Influence of Pseudo-Dionysius on Western Mysticism," in Christian Spirituality: Essays in Honour of Gordon Rupp, ed. P. Brooks (London: SCM Press, 1975), pp. 79-94; D. Luscombe, "Some Examples of the Use Made of the Works of the Pseudo-Dionysius by University Teachers in the Later Middle Ages," in The Universities in the Late Middle Ages, ed. J. Ijsewijn and J.

23 Paquet (Louvain: University Press, 1978), pp. 228-41. The text is printed as line 6 in Chevallier's Dionysiaca (above, note 1). On Cusa see L. Baur, CusanusTexte III. Marginalien, 1. Nicolaus Cusanus und Pseudo-Dionysius im Lichte der Zitate und Randbemerkungen des Cusanus, Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philos.-hist. Klasse, 1940-1941, Abh. 4 (Heidelberg: Winter 1941).

4.

-34translation" in most of the Dionysian corpora. The humanists' philological interests helped to improve the condition of the Greek text as well. New manuscripts arrived in the West during the fifteenth century. Humanists copied their own text, lectured on it, and tried their hand at fresh translations in a burst of enthusiasm for the original sources. When Jacob Wimpfeling and his friend Johannes Vigilius visited the Rhenish monastery of Sponheim in 1496, they found its abbot, the humanist Trithemius, so absorbed in copying and translating Dionysius that, much to their delight, everything seemed Greek around him: "Greek was the abbot, Greek the monks, the dogs, the stones, the bushes." 5. In England, William Grocyn lectured on the Greek Dionysius in London at the turn of the century, having brought back from his travels on the continent not only Traversari's translation but also a copy of the Greek text. In 1516, the first Greek edition was published by Philippe Junta of Florence. After several reprints, it finally appeared from the Paris press of Guillaume Morel in 1562 in a revised form that dominated the textual history for the rest of the century. The later standard edition was published in 1634 by Balthasar Cordier, S. J., at the Plantin presses in Antwerp; it is the one reproduced in Abbé Migne's Patrologia Graeca. 6. 2. A widely shared tendency in the circles of the humanist "new learning" was the distaste for Scholastic intellectualism at the expense of spiritual depth and a simple inward piety. Earlier reform-minded leaders such as Jean Gerson or Nicholas of Cusa had drawn on Dionysius for their pastoral insistence that Christian learning and spiritual contemplation belong together. While this combination was criticized by some as a betrayal of the true Dionysius, who advocated only radical "unknowing," 7. the intellectual use of Dionysian mysticism became part and parcel of the reform ideas characteristic of many humanists. An influential monastic reformer like Johannes Trithemius, equally enamored of Dionysius and of Nicholas of Cusa, praised these thinkers as advocates of the ideal marriage between lib____________________ 5. Epist. 107 (Johannes Vigilius to Conrad Celtis), April 19, 1496 (Konrad Celtis Briefwechsel, ed. H. Rupprich [Munich: Beck, 1934] 179: 30ff.); Epist. 109 (Trithemius to Celtis on the same visit), April 29, 1496, ibid., pp. 183f. 6. Both Morel's text of 1562 and Cordier's Latin translation of 1634 are reproduced in the line-by-line version of Dionysiaca. 7. See E. Vansteenberghe, Autour de la docte ignorance: Une controverse sur la théologie mystique au XVe siècle, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, 14 (Münster: Aschendorff, 1915). -35eral arts and contemplative depth that he regarded as the necessary remedy for the ills of the time. 8. 3. The great Italian humanists shared the religious interest in reform as well as the anti-Scholastic bias that accompanied it, but they added a new dimension. The work of the Florentine Academy aimed at a revival of Plato and the Platonic tradition as a way of life. For its members, Dionysius was the quintessential Platonist, preferable even to the ancients, because he combined Platonic philosophy with the truth of the Christian faith. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola praised him as the master of the true Christian cabbala; Dionysius, he maintained, handed on the secret spiritual teachings of the Apostles, especially Paul, which

24 for Pico coincided with the religious truths Plato had taught. Marsiglio Ficino, the head of the Academy, not only drew on Dionysius for his programmatic Theologia Platonica of 1482 but undertook a new translation and commentary of The Divine Names and The Mystical Theology ten years later. 10. Dionysius was so integral to Ficino's argument that, like Pico and others, he fervently defended the Areopagitic authorship against any doubt. Plato, Paul, and Dionysius were the pillars of his religious synthesis. 11. 9.

The beginnings of English humanism were intimately connected with the Italian humanists' interest in Platonism, and thus in PseudoDionysius. When John Colet returned to Oxford from his extended visit to the continent in 1491, following other enthusiasts of the new learning such as William Grocyn, 12. Thomas Linacre, and William Lattimer, his interest in Ficino soon led him into an extensive study of Dionysius, whom he carefully excerpted and then integrated into his Oxford lectures on First Corinthians and Romans in 1498-1499. While fascinated by the potential of Dionysian thought for the spir____________________ 10. The translation is printed in Dionysiaca (above, note 1) from the Strassburg edition of 1502. 11. See R. Marcel, Marsile Ficin, 1433-1499 (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1958), and Dictionnaire de Spiritualité 3 (1957): 383-86. 12. No modern study on Grocyn seems to exist. On him: Montagu Burrows, "Linacre's Catalogue of Books Belonging to William Grocyn in 1520 together with his account as executor, followed by a Memoir of William Grocyn," Collectanea. Part IV of Second Series, Oxford Historical Society Publications, no. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1890), pp. 319-80 (esp. 332); and Dictionary of National Biography 8, pp. 709-12 (S. Lee). 8. N. L. Brann, The Abbot Trithemius (1462-1516): The Renaissance of Monastic Humanism, Studies in the History of Christian Thought, 24 (Leiden: Brill, 1981), pp. 192-203. 9. "Oration on the Dignity of Man," in Edizione nazionale dei classici del pensiero italiano, I, ed. E. Garin (Florence: Valecchi, 1942), pp. 112-14; 156-58; "Heptaplus" Expos. III Preface, in ibid., pp. 246-48; "De Ente et Uno," cap. 5, in ibid., pp. 420-22. -36itual reform of the Church, Colet, like Ficino, directed his main efforts toward the synthesis of Christianity and Platonism. 13. Erasmus heard him lecture during his first stay in England in 1499 and was impressed : "When I hear my Colet, I seem to hear Plato himself." 14. He certainly knew of Colet's current enthusiasm for Dionysius. Traces of Colet's Dionysian teachings may still be detected in certain attitudes of his pupils Thomas More and John Fisher, who, in full agreement with King Henry VIII, used their strong convictions about early Church tradition as a second source of revelation alongside Scripture to criticize Luther. 15. 4. In antithesis to this image of Pseudo-Dionysius as the Platonist, Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples and his French reform circle extolled the Dionysian writings as part of the normative ideal of the earliest Christian literature. 16. A lifelong staunch defender of their Areopagitic origin, Lefèvre found in them the purest form of apostolic theology, uncontaminated by foreign elements. In his view, it was Dionysius's teaching, deriving directly from Jesus, Paul, and Hierotheos, that opened up the depths of Plato to the Alexandrian philosophers as well as to the early Christian Platonists. This understanding of Dionysius's priority proved important for many Catholic polemicists during the Protestant Reformation. Their defense of the Areopagite did not simply sanction Church tradition but promoted what they regarded as a sound reform theology in full sympathy with the new learning. In 1515, Jodocus Clichtovaeus of Paris, esteemed by Erasmus as a learned humanist, reedited the Theologia Vivificans of his teacher Le____________________

25 13.

On Colet's relation to Ficino and the chronology of his career, see S. Jayne, John Colet and Marsilio Ficino (Oxford University Press, 1963); cf. also P. I. Kaufman, Augustinian Piety and Catholic Reform: Augustine, Colet, and Erasmus (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1982), pp. 92-105. The excerpts were published by J. H. Lupton in his edition of Colet's works (London: G. Bell, 1869). 14. Letter to John Fisher, December 5, 1499, Opus Epistolarum D. Erasmi Roterodami, vol. 1, ed. J. P. Allen, p. 273. 15. See B. Gogan, The Common Corps of Christendom: Ecclesiological Themes in the Writings of Sir Thomas More, Studies in the History of Christian Thought, 26 (Leiden: Brill, 1982), pp. 314f. Gogan suggests that the famous formula partim-partim, first used for Scripture and Tradition by Fisher, may derive from Traversari's translation of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 16. See Lefèvre's Preface to his Theologia Vivificans printed in The Prefatory Epistles of Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples and Related Texts, ed. E. F. Rice (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972), pp. 60-66. Cf. A. Renaudet, Préréforme et Humanisme d Parispendant les premières guerres d'Italie, 1494-1517, 2nd ed. (Paris: Librairie d'Argences, 1953), pp. 374-77; E. F. Rice, "The Humanist Idea of Christian Antiquity: Lefèvre d'Etaples and His Circle," Studies in the Renaissance 9 (1962): 126-60. -37fèvre with a commentary ad litteram. 17. John Eck's interest in the Areopagite had similar roots and objectives. His commentary on The Mystical Theology, finished in 1517, made use of humanistic scholarship from Cusa and Ficino to Lefèvre and Clichtovaeus; it was intended to contribute to the reform of true piety in Church and theology. 18. 5. A factor in addition to all these concerns but not eclipsing them was a strong interest in historical criticism that marked the work of many humanists. Nicholas of Cusa had already voiced doubts about the early dating of the Dionysian corpus, 19. but the critical step of suggesting pseudonymity was taken almost incidentally by another critic, Lorenzo Valla. We have two brief remarks of his on the issue, both dating from 1457. One comes from his curious "Encomium Sancti Thomae Aquinatis," which he delivered before the Dominicans in Rome. It pairs the Dionysian author as one of the "princes of theology" with Gregory the Great, noting that no earlier Latin author and none of the early Greek fathers quote him. 20. The second, an extended note on Acts 17:34 in his "Annotations to the New Testament," asserts that it is doubtful whether the Areopagite wrote anything at all: The term "Areopagite" denotes a judge, not a philosopher; furthermore, the claim of "Dionysius" in one of the Letters (Ep. 7:2) that he observed the eclipse of the sun at the hour of the Savior's death outside of Palestine is as blatant a fiction as the epistolary form of the report. Valla adds that "certain contemporary Greek scholars" suggest Apolinaris of Laodicea as the true author. 21. ____________________ 17. Later, Clichtovaeus tried to refute the critical arguments of Valla and Erasmus directly, especially in his Antilutherus (1525) and Propugnaculum Ecclesiae (1526). See J.-P. Massaut, Critique et tradition à la veille de la Réforme en France (Paris: Vrin, 1974), pp. 179-289, where a section of the Antilutherus and an unpublished earlier refutation of 1517 are printed. 18. See Georgette Epiney-Burgard, "Jean Eck et le commentaire de la Théologie Mystique du PseudoDenys," Bibliothèque d'humanisme et renaissance 34 (1972): 7-29, and below, note 40. 19. See The Prefatory Epistles of Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples (above, note 16), 68, n. 10. 20. Laurentius Valla. Opera Omnia, ed. E. Garin; Monumenta politica et philosophica rariora, Series I, no. 6 (Torino: Bottega d'Erasmo, 1962), vol. II, p. 351, reprinting the first edition by J. Vahlen, "Lorenzo Valla über Thomas von Aquin," Vierteljabresschrift für Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte der Renaissance 1 (1886): 384-96; French translation: P. Mesnard, "Une application curieuse de l'humanisme critique à la théologie: L'éloge de S. Thomas par Laurent Valla," Revue Thomiste 55

26 (1955): 175f. Cf. also Hanna Gray, "Valla's Encomium of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Humanist Conception of Christian Antiquity," in Essays in History and Literature Presented to Stanley Pargellis, ed. H. Bluhm (Chicago: The Newberry Library, 1965), pp. 37-52. 21. Opera Omnia, vol. 1, ed. Garin, 852b, reprinting the Basel edition of 1540. -38Both of these remarks found little circulation. The text of the "Encomium" remained unknown until its publication in 1886, and Valla himself never published the "Annotations," though several manuscripts seem to have circulated, reflecting two different redactions. 22. Pico and Ficino knew of Valla's position, as did William Grocyn in England. When Erasmus found a copy of the "Annotations" at the Abbey of Parc near Louvain on his return from a second visit to England in 1504, he decided to print it, in deep admiration of Valla's scholarship but not without some hesitation. 23. The note concerning Dionysius must have caused him to reconsider his earlier uncritical acceptance of the tradition, 24. although in a later account he gives equal credit to Grocyn. The latter had startled the circle of English humanists during a lecture series on The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy at Saint Paul's in the fall of 1501 by the public confession that he could no longer support Areopagitic authorship for the piece. 25. Unquestionably, however, it was through Erasmus's biblical works that Valla's position became widely known, though primarily as Erasmus's own opinion. First, Erasmus inserted a note on Acts 17: 34 in his famous Greek New Testament of 1516 in which he repeated Valla's critical arguments, adding the improbability of connecting the Dionysian ceremonies with the apostolic Church and rejecting the attribution to Appolinaris. 26. Three years later, we find a similar brief remark in the dedication of his "Paraphrase of the Corinthian Epistles." 27. To his very ____________________ 22. A. Morisi, "A proposito di due redazioni della 'Collatio Novi Testamenti' di Lorenzo Valla," Bulletino dell' Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo 78 (1967): 345-81. 23. Laurentii Vallensis viri tam graecae quam latinae linguae peritissimi in latinam Novi Testamenti interpretationem Adnotationes apprime utiles (Paris: Josse Bade de Assche, 1505); the text has been reprinted from the 1540 edition of Valla's works by Garin (above, note 20), vol. 1. 24. There are indications that Erasmus did not question the tradition in his earlier years; cf. his "Antibarbari" of 1494/95 (Erasmus. Opera Omnia [Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co., 1969], vol. 1.1), pp. 126f.; "Institutio Principis Christiani" of 1516, in ibid., vol. IV.1, 1974, p. 151. 25. The date of the event can be inferred from a mention by Thomas More in a letter to Arthur Prince of Wales, dated November 14, 1501 (The Correspondence of Sir Thomas More, ed. E. F. Rogers [Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1947], p. 4); Jayne, John Colet (above, note 13). Erasmus's account is found in his "Declarationes," cf. below, note 28. 26. Erasmus: Opera Omnia, ed. Johannes Clericus (Leiden: Vander Aa, 1706), vol. VI, 503C-F. A few months earlier, Erasmus had denounced the conflation of the three Dionysii in his Preface to the 1516 edition of Jerome's works, vol. II (Basel: Joh. Froben). 27. "Dionysius qui ... ritus satis copiose describit eruditis recentior quispiam fuisse videtur quam fuerit Areopagites ille," Epist. 916 (Allen, vol. III) 482: 50-52. -39end Erasmus was attacked for his stance by Catholic theologians, especially by the Carthusians. His most detailed defense is found in his answer to Article 31 of the censure by the Paris faculty in 1531. Here he repeated that he was only sharing a well-founded scholarly consensus indicated by the names of Valla and Grocyn. 28.

27 In the polemics of the early 1500s the denial of Areopagitic authorship was apt to put an end to a scholar's active involvement with the Dionysian tradition. It seems that after Grocyn's public declaration John Colet lost interest in Pseudo-Dionysius; so did Erasmus, if he had had any. Most Protestant Reformers of the first generation probably did read the Dionysian writings if only because of the intense interest they had found in humanist circles. For many of them, the timing of Erasmus's public doubts about their authorship simply rendered the Dionysian tradition irrelevant to the burning debate about Church authority. The one mention of Dionysius in Zwingli's works illustrates this. In his answer to the theologians of the Bishop of Constance in 1524, Zwingli brushes aside the reference to Dionysius : "About Dionysius you know very well from Erasmus' Annotations whether he is the one whom Paul converted to the faith in Athens." There is no further mention, although Zwingli possessed a copy of Pico's works and must have been familiar with Lefèvre's edition. 29. Melanchthon certainly knew of Ficino's enthusiasm for Dionysius through his Tübingen teachers Johann Reuchlin and Johann Stöffler and was probably familiar with the texts. 30. But when they were quoted as an authority for the earliest practices of the Church, he unhesitatingly dismissed Dionysius as a "novus auctor et fictus." 31. In a catalog of patristic witnesses Dionysius is placed between Origen and Tertullian; The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy has some value for church ____________________ 28. "Declarationes ad censuras Lutetiae vulgatas" (1532) Opera Omnia, ed. Clericus, vol. IX, 916-17; cf. Epist. 1620 (Allen, vol. VI) 182. On the attacks by the Carthusians of Cologne cf. Epist. 3006 (Allen, vol. XI) 110f. 29. "Christliche Antwort Zürichs an Bischof Hugo," CR (Corpus Reformatorum [Leipzig : Heinsius, vol. 90, 1914], p. 219); see also note 41 below. The edition of Pico's works is described by W. Köhler, "Huldrych Zwinglis Bibliothek," An die lernbegierige Zürcherische Jugend, 84; Neujahrsblatt zum Besten des Waisenhauses in Zürich für 1931 (Zürich, 1931) p. *31. 30. See W. Maurer, Der junge Melanchthon zwischen Humanismus und Reformation (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck, I, 1967), pp. 100, 140-42. 31. "Tractatus de potestate papae," Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 2nd ed. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1952), 492: 72f. -40history, but the other writings contain "vain speculations." 32. Calvin seems to have followed the same line. He was familiar with the Dionysian corpus but shared Erasmus's critical stance completely, adding his own reasons: Circumstances, style, and argumentation as well as the silence of Eusebius and Jerome point to a much later date. 33. The situation is more complicated when we turn to Martin Luther. 34. The young Luther knew the Dionysian writings quite well. He mentions the flood of new translations and commentaries on The Mystical Theology, especially from Italy and Germany, but also The Divine Names, the "hierarchies," and some of the Letters. 35. His reading must go back to the early monastic years. Along with Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventure, and more recent authors such as John Tauler and Jean Gerson, Dionysius belonged to a serious monk's spiritual diet. Luther's relation to the Pseudo-Areopagite is frequently pictured as a straightforward development: Early on, it is supposed, his assessment was positive, but during his years in Wittenberg it became increasingly negative, ending in total rejection. The turning point is often linked to the Leipzig Disputation of July 1519, where John Eck used the Dionysian writings as evidence for the apostolic origin of papal primacy. In the debate, Luther dismissed the references as irrelevant but did not yet attack the authority of the Dionysian corpus itself. 36. It is true, however, that Luther's explicit rejection of PseudoDionysius began

28 around that time. In the Psalms Commentary of 1519-1521, he used for the first time Erasmus's phrase "Dionysius ille ____________________ 32. "De ecclesia et de auctoritate Verbi Dei," Corpus Reformatorum 23 (1855) col. 601; 612f.; cf. P. Fraenkel, Testimonia Patrum. The Function of the Patristic Argument in the Theology of Philip Melanchthon, Travaux d'humanisme et de Renaissance, 46 (Geneva: Droz, 1961), p. 84 n. 172. 33. Commentary on Acts 17:34, Corpus Reformatorum 76 (1892): 423; "Vera ecclesiae reformandae ratio," Corpus Reformatorum 35 (1868): 656f.; the "ridiculous battle" between St. Omer and Regensburg over the possession of Dionysius's true body is mocked in the "Treatise on Relics," Corpus Reformatorum 34 (1867): 444. Calvin quotes Dionysius as a source of later patristic developments in Epist. 187, October 1539, Corpus Reformatorum 38:2 (1872): 389. 34. M. Van Rhijn, "Luther en Dionysius Areopagita," Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis 39 (1952): 100-13, surveys the material. See also W. Köhler, "Dionvsius Areopagita," in Luther und die Kirchengeschichte nach seinen Schriften, zunächst bis 1521 (Erlangen: Fr. Junge, 1900), pp. 289-99. 35. WA (Luthers Werke, Weimar Edition) 5, 163: 17ff.; WA 6, 561f.; WA 56, 152: 9-13; WA 8, 65: 28ff.; 128:6ff.; WA 1, 445: 1-3; 551: 36. 36. Eck: WA 2, 255: 24-256: 1; 262: 35-39; Luther: 257: 39f.; 267: 3-8; cf. 639: 8-11. Eck also adduced Dionysius in his argument about penance: WA 2, 359; Luther's answer again rejects the reference as immaterial: WA 2, 363: 25-28; and once more: 367: 19-22 (Eck), 371: 25-35 (Luther). -41quisquis fuerit," and warned against the intellectual pride of The Mystical Theology and its commentators. One of his strongest negative statements occurs in the "Babylonian Captivity" of 1520, and this position was never modified. 38. What needs to be reevaluated, however, is the young Luther's alleged positive attitude. 37.

Luther's main adversaries during the early 1520s, in good humanist fashion, were conspicuous defenders of the Dionysian writings : Eck, Cochlaeus, Latomus, Emser. 39. John Eck in particular spent considerable effort on their study. In 1519, just prior to the Leipzig Disputation, he published his new corpus of The Mystical Theology with a commentary that was fully in tune with humanist scholarship. 40. Even later, in 1526, he edited the "Epistle in Defense of Dionysius" written by a nephew of the famous Pico, Francesco Pico della Mirandola, because he believed that the criticism of Valla and Erasmus had not succeeded. 41. He and his colleagues drew on Dionysius to support their claims about the apostolic origins of the Roman Church's hierarchical constitution and its sacramental system. It was against this specific position, derived mainly from the two "hierarchies," that Luther polemicized, and for this task the late dating of the Dionysian corpus provided welcome support. ____________________ 37. WA 5, 503: 9-10; cf. 163: 17-29; 187: 23-27; 176: 28-33. 38. WA 6, 561f. (in the section on ordination); see below, note 45. Other texts: WA 8, 289f.; WA 13, 604. One report from the later Table Talk seems to suggest that Luther regarded the Parisian Dionysius as the author of the corpus: WA Tischreden 2, 654f. (no. 2779). 39. See Pontien Polman, L'élément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIe siècle (Universitas Catholica Lovaniensis, Diss. Theo., series II, 23; Gembloux: J. Duculot, 1932), pp. 321f. (on Eck); 327f. (on Cochlaeus); 333f. (on Latomus); 349f.; 20f.; 427 (on Emser). 40. Dionysii Areopagitae de mystica theologia liber I... Ioann. Eckius commentarios adiecit pro theologia negativa Ingolstadii (Augsburg: Joh. Miller, 1519). Looking back on his early years, Eck said in his "Epistolae de ratione studiorum suorum" of 1538 (ed. J. Mletzler, Corpus Catholicorum, 2 [Münster:

29 Aschendorff, 1921], pp. 52f.): "When I had read the books of the Areopagite often times in vain, I got hold of the works of Cusa, Honorius of Autun, Hugo of Palma, Petrus Hispanus, and Maro on Dionysius and tackled the negative or mystical theology with the assistance of Plotinus, Ammonius, the Hermetic books, Marsilio Ficino, Algazel, Faber Stapulensis, Symphorinus." 41. Francisci Pici Mirandulani ac coucordiae domini Epistola apologetica pro S. Dionysio Areopagita (Ingolstadt: Peter Apian, 1526). Apparently, the younger Pico had some difficulty finding a printer; see the letter of Mlichael Hummelberg to Zwingli, August 26, 1522; Corpus Reformatorum 94 (1911): 573: "Johannes Franciscus Picus pro Dionysio Areopagita contra Lutherum scripsit. Augustam misit librum denuo imprimendum, sed qui exprimere voluerit nemo repertus est." Eck's earliest writings already show him on the side of Ficino and Lefèvre against Valla's doubts: "Chrysopassus" (Augsburg, 1514) IV. 40; V. 2. -42Luther's early references, however, do not concern the Dionysius of the hierarchies but the Dionysius of The Mystical Theology. The first allusions known to us occur in the "Dictata super Psalterium" of 15131516. 42. One of them praises Dionysius's negative theology as vera cabbala, the "most perfect" theology in contrast to the imperfect babbling of Scholastic affirmative theology, as wine compared to milk. 43. The young teacher was obviously acquainted with the Dionysian enthusiasm of the admired humanists. He did not hesitate to employ Pico's and Ficino's spiritual vocabulary. Nevertheless, even Luther's early utterances imply a critical distance, as Karl Heinz Zur Mühlen has warned recently. 44. His understanding of the via negativa as the experience of Gottesferne and Anfechtung differed decisively from that of Pseudo-Dionysius. He was able to use the Dionysian terminology but gave it a new content. Thus, Erasmus's discovery of Valla's critique only reinforced by external argument an earlier rejection on internal grounds. This last point is important for the Protestant Reformation in general. It is true that the widespread acceptance of Valla's and Erasmus's doubts rather than Pico's and Ficino's defense of the Dionysian authorship discredited the writings in the eyes of many. This was not all, however. As I pointed out, the new learning brought a wider range of concerns to the Dionysian literature than just the question of origin. Even when the Hilduin legend with its identification of three Dionysii was abandoned and a different author as well as a later date were assumed, the corpus could still find interest as a patristic source, or at least as a target for polemics. For most Protestant Reformers, it was precisely the obvious Dionysian Platonism that became the focus of their unsympathetic assessment. This was the point at which the young Luther hesitated. Though he used Neoplatonic terms such as "negative theology," "excessus," "ecstasy," "divine darkness," "silence," he was uneasy about the Platonic content from the start. By 1520, the consequences had ____________________ 42. WA 3, 124: 29-33; 372: 12-25. Other early references are found in the "Lectures on Romans" (1516/17), WA 56, 152: 9-13; 299f.; 392f.; "Lectures on Hebrews" (1517/19), WA 57, 111: 21-112: 10; 179: 9-11. 43. WA 3, 372: 12-25 (Scholion to Ps 64:2). 44. K. H. Zur Mühlen, Nos extra nos: Luthers Theologie zwischen Mystik und Scholastik, Beiträge zur historischen Theologie, 46 (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1972), esp. 51-66; 11011; 200-03. -43-

30 45.

become clear to him: "Dionysius is most pernicious; he platonizes more than he Christianizes. " This statement implied a decisive step: By rejecting Dionysius's Platonism, Luther also opposed a central interest of many humanists and challenged the foundation of all Neoplatonic mystical piety. He was aware of this consequence in his later years. In a disputation of December 1537, he stated: "Thus, they taught that humans can converse and deal with the inscrutable, eternal majesty of God in this mortal, corrupt flesh without mediation. This is their doctrine which is regarded as highest divine wisdom; I also was in that camp for some time, not without great harm to myself. I admonish you to shun like the plague that 'Mystical Theology' of Dionysius and similar books which contain such idle talk." His alternative was the theology of the Cross. 46. It is well known that Calvin, like Melanchthon, had some sympathy for Plato, whom he could call the "most religious and sober of the philosophers." 47. But Calvin also harshly criticized Plato's cosmological speculation and even chided his beloved Augustine for being "too Platonic." 48. It comes as no surprise that he also polemicized against Dionysius "whoever he may be." The Celestial Hierarchy was his main target: Here Dionysius prates about the mysteries of God and the angels claiming to know more than humans can know. Thus, he is a prime example of curiositas, of illicit speculation beyond that which God has revealed. 49. Even so, Calvin admits that the book "contains some things not to be totally despised." 50. ____________________ 45. "Babylonian Captivity"(1520), WA6, 562; cf. "Judgment of the Paris Theologians" (1521), WA 8, 289f.; WA Tischreden 1, 303f. (no. 644). 46. "Disputation of Dec. 18, 1537," WA 39/1, 389: 18-390: 5. For the alternative see WA 5, 176: 28-33: WA 40/3, 542: 10-543: 2. 47. John Calvin, "Institutes of the Christian Religion" I. 5. 11, Ioannis Calvini Opera Selecta, ed. P. Barth and W. Niesel (Munich: Kaiser, vol. III, 1928), 55: 27f.; cf. the Commentary on Genesis 2:18, Corpus Reformatorum 51 (1882): 46; Commentary on the Gospel Harmony, to Luke 1:75, Corpus Reformatorum 73 (1891): 50. 48. John Calvin, Commentary on John 1:3, Corpus Reformatorum 75 (1892): 4. Cf. Ch. Partee, Calvin and Classical Philosophy, Studies in the History of Christian Thought, 14 (Leiden: Brill, 1977), pp. 110-15. 49. The main text is "Institutes" I. 14. 4, Ioannis Calvini Opera Selecta (III, 1928) 157: 8-20. See also the Commentary on Daniel 12:7, Corpus Reformatorum 69 (1889): 296; Commentary on Ezek. 13:20, Corpus Reformatorum 68 (1889): 294f.; Commentary on 2 Cor. 12:4, Corpus Reformatorum 78 (1893): 138; and the answer to Capunculus, Epist. 607, January 1545, Corpus Reformatorum 40 (1874): 17 (cf. ibid., 39 [1873]: 786). 50. John Calvin, Commentary on Acts 17:34 (see above, note 33). Cf. "Institutes" I. 14. 4 (above, note 49: "Dionysium illum, quicumque fuerit, nemo negaverit multa subtiliter et argute in coelesti hierarchia disputasse." -44On the other hand, the reformist interest in Dionysius as part of a normative patristic tradition could be pursued even when the Areopagitic authorship was denied. Valla had paired Dionysius with Gregory the Great, the first Western father to quote him; while demoting him from the exalted place of honor next to the Apostle Paul, he granted him a place of honor nevertheless. Once the dust had settled and critics were assigning Dionysius a date between the third and fifth centuries, even Protestants were ready to call on him for their extensive patristic argument against abuses in the medieval church. This distanced appreciation is visible, for example, in Martin Bucer of Strassburg and in the Lutheran polemicists of the later decades of the sixteenth century. We know that in his early years Bucer used Ficino's edition and commentary of The Divine Names. 51. Even later he appreciated the "sublime, almost inspired style characteristic of all his [i.e., Dionysius's] writings." 52. The authorship question is not discussed in Bucer's

31 works but he freely quoted Dionysius among his patristic sources on a number of issues: the question of the prayer for the dead; the double character of the mass, heavenly and earthly; the instrumentality of the Ministry. 53. For Bucer, Dionysius was not an apostolic writer but one of the "older" fathers; he is placed somewhere between Irenaeus and Augustine, being mentioned together with Cyprian, Gregory of Nazianzus, Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Cyril. Matthias Flacius Illyricus listed Dionysius in his Catalogue of Witnesses for the Truth (1556) as a witness against abuses in ceremonies and clerical celibacy. 54. Elsewhere, giving him a date around 300 on the authority of Erasmus, he used the Dionysian writings for his proof that the Eucharist of the early Church was simpler and more Communioncentered than the Roman Mass. 55. Martin Chemnitz refers to them for ____________________ 51. Letter to the Prior of Schlettstadt, April 30, 1518, Correspondance de Martin Bucer, ed. J. Rott; Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought, 25 (Leiden: Brill, 1979), 45: 42f. 52. Commentary on Romans (1536), Sec. 9 Pref., Common Places of Martin Bucer, ed. D. F. Wright; Courtenay Library of Reformation Classics (Sutton Courtenay Press, 1972), p. 194. 53. Letter to J. Pflug, April 13, 1548, Martin Bucer: Deutsche Schriften, ed. R. Stupperich (Gütersloh: Gerd Mohn, vol. 17, 1981), 430: 9; Letter to C. Cruciger, April 5/9, 1548, in ibid., 407: 28; Second memorandum concerning the Interim, "Gnad, trost und stercke," June 27, 1548, in ibid., 526: 25; "Apology of the Tetrapolitana" (1531), Deutsche Schriften 3 (1969): 281: 19-22; 289: 18; "Report from Holy Scripture" (1534), Deutsche Schriften 5 (1978): 250: 24; "Preparation for the Council" (1534), Deutsche Schriften 5 (1978): 302: 29. 54. Catalogus Testium Veritatis (Basel: I. Oporinus, 1556). 55. Missa latina quae olim ante romanam circa 700. Domini annum in usu fuit... (Strass-45a similar purpose in his Examen Concilii Tridentini, whose first volume appeared in 1565: Even though Dionysius was not the Areopagite but a later writer, he counts fewer than the seven sacraments of the Roman Church. 56. Georg Calixt, while dubbing the author "Dionysius Pseudo-Areopagita" and deploring the scholarly confusion the fraud had wrought, summed up the value of the writings for his generation: "Dionysius whoever he may be, though not the Areopagite and disciple of Paul mentioned in Acts, is nevertheless an ancient and learned writer." 57. Although it is hard to locate references, the same approach may also have been characteristic of the Spiritualists among the radical reformers of the sixteenth century: Dionysius was an authority, but not of the earliest patristic age. Balthasar Hubmaier must have known the writings through John Eck, who was his teacher in Ingolstadt, but he does not refer to them in his treatises. Caspar Schwenckfeld's edition of Krautwald's catechism mentions Dionysius "whom some scholars call the great, some the Areopagite" and quotes from The Mystical Theology. 58. Sebastian Franck refers to the same book along with other mystical writings in his discussion of the ineffable nature of God. 59. Thus, humanist criticism and Protestant biblicism did not remove the Dionysian corpus completely from sight. The writings were known and readily available, and the new dating, almost universally accepted in Protestant circles, opened the way for a more historical though often polemical approach to the enigmatic texts. ____________________ burg: Christian Mvlius, 1557), p. 73; Zwey Capitel Polydori Vergilii von Namen und Stiffiern der Mess... (Magdeburg: Christian Roedinger, 1550), f. A. IV. V. I owe these references to the kindness of Professor Oliver Olson. Cf. also Polman, L'élément historique (above, note 39), pp. 111-12.

32 56.

Examination of the Council of Trent, Part II, First Topic, Section 1, Art. 2, tr. F. Kramer (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing Co., II, 1978), pp. 30-31. 57. "Epitome of Theology" (1619), Georg Calixt: Werke in Auswahl, ed. Inge Mager (Göttingen : Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, vol. II, 1982), 198: 18-23; cf. 237: 3f.; "Apparatus" (1628), in ibid., vol. 1 (1978): 321; 395: 30. 58. Caspar Schwenckfeld, Ein kurtzer bericht von der weise des Catechismi, by V. Krautwald (1534), Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum (Leipzig, vol. 5, 1916), pp. 236f. 59. Sebastian Franck, Paradoxa (1534), ed. H. Ziegler (Jena: E. Diederich, 1909), pp. 14f. -46The Divine Names 1. ____________________ 1. The Divine Names has also been translated into English by C. E. Rolt and J. Jones, as indicated in the bibliography. Both of these editions overlook many scriptural citations and allusions. Jones pursues some pertinent philosophical issues and shows the frequent use made of this treatise by Thomas Aquinas. CHAPTER ONE Dionysius the Elder to Timothy the Fellow-Elder: What the goal of this discourse is, and the tradition regarding the divine names. 2. 585A 1. And so, my friend, after The Theological Representations, 3. I come now 585B to an explication of the divine names, as far as possible. Here too let us hold on to the scriptural rule that when we say anything about God, we should set down the truth "not in the plausible words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the power granted by the Spirit" 4. to the scripture writers, a power by which, in a manner surpassing speech and knowledge, we reach a union superior to anything available to us by way of our own abilities or activities in the realm of 588A discourse or of intellect. This is why we must not dare to resort to words or conceptions concerning that hidden divinity which transcends being, apart from what the sacred scriptures have divinely revealed. Since the unknowing of what is beyond being is something above and beyond speech, mind, or being itself, one should ascribe to it an understanding beyond being. Let us therefore look as far upward as the light of sacred scripture will allow, and, in our reverent awe of what is divine, let us be drawn together toward the divine splendor. For, if we may trust the superlative wisdom and truth of scripture, the things of God are revealed to each mind in proportion to its capacities ; and the divine goodness is such that, out of concern for our salvation, it deals out the immeasurable and infinite in limited mea sures. Just as the senses can neither grasp nor perceive the things of 588B the mind, just as representation and shape cannot take in the simple and the shapeless, just as corporal form cannot lay hold of the intangible and incorporeal, by the same standard of truth beings are surpassed by the infinity beyond being, intelligences by that oneness which is beyond intelligence. Indeed the inscrutable One is out of the ____________________ 2. The terminology of this and the other titles and subtitles may indicate an editorial process. For example, the terms "elder" (presbyter) and "fellow-elder" (cf. 1 Pt 5: 1) are found only in titles, namely, here and at the beginnings of the hierarchical treatises (CH 1 120A 2f. and EH 1 369 2f.), and nowhere in the body of the corpus. See EH 1, note 2, for further examples. Beyond the brief comments of B. Brons, Sekundäre Textparteien, p. 18, n. 80, and Gott und die Seienden, p. 65 (see also D. Le Nourry, "Dissertatio..." ch. 22 PG 3 53BC), the terminological peculiarities of the titles and subtitles have never been systematically examined. 3. A lost or fictitious treatise summarized in MT 3 1032D to 1033A 11, and perhaps below in DN 1 589D 38 to 592B 17 (see note 10). It is mentioned again in DN 1 593B 17f., DN 2 636C 16f., 640B 20-24,

33 644D 42 to 645A 5, and DN 11 953B 17-20. 1 Cor 2:4.

4.

-49reach of every rational process. Nor can any words come up to the inexpressible Good, this One, this Source of all unity, 5. this supra-existent Being. Mind beyond mind, word beyond speech, it is gathered up by no discourse, by no intuition, by no name. It is and it is as no other being is. Cause of all existence, and therefore itself transcending existence, it alone could give an authoritative account of what it really is. 2. Now as I have already said, we must not dare to apply words 588C or conceptions to this hidden transcendent God. We can use only what scripture has disclosed. In the scriptures the Deity has benevolently taught us that understanding and direct contemplation of itself is inaccessible to beings, since it actually surpasses being. Many scripture writers will tell you that the divinity is not only invisible 6. and incomprehensible, but also "unsearchable and inscrutable," 7. since there is not a trace for anyone who would reach through into the hidden depths of this infinity. And yet, on the other hand, the Good is not absolutely incommunicable to everything. By itself it generously reveals a firm, transcendent beam, granting enlightenments propor 588D tionate to each being, and thereby draws sacred minds upward to its permitted contemplation, to participation and to the state of becoming like it. What happens to those that rightly and properly make this ef fort is this. They do not venture toward an impossibly daring sight of 589A God, one beyond what is duly granted them. Nor do they go tumbling downward where their own natural inclinations would take them. No. Instead they are raised firmly and unswervingly upward in the direction of the ray which enlightens them. With a love matching the illuminations granted them, they take flight, reverently, wisely, in all holiness. 3. We go where we are commanded by those divine ordinances which rule all the sacred ranks of the heavenly orders. With our minds made prudent and holy, we offer worship to that which lies hidden 589B beyond thought and beyond being. With a wise silence we do honor to the inexpressible. We are raised up to the enlightening beams of the ____________________ 5. This expression, literally, "a henad unifying every henad," is the late Neoplatonic language of Proclus and his predecessors. See Saffrey, "Nouveaux liens ... ," p. 15, and 44 below. 6. Col 1:15; 1 Tm 1:17; Heb 11:27; see also CH 1 140D 43, DN 7 865B 17, and Ep. 5 1073A 4. 7. Rom 11:33. -50sacred scriptures, and with these to illuminate us, with our beings shaped to songs of praise, we behold the divine light, in a manner befitting us, and our praise resounds for that generous Source of all holy enlightenment, a Source which has told us about itself in the holy words of scripture. We learn, for instance, that it is the cause of everything, that it is origin, being, and life. To those who fall away it is the voice calling, "Come back!" and it is the power which raises them up again. It refurbishes and restores the image of God corrupted within them. It is the sacred stability which is there for them when the tide

589C

34 of unholiness is tossing them about. It is safety for those who made a stand. It is the guide bringing upward those uplifted to it and is the enlightenment of the illuminated. Source of perfection for those being made perfect, source of divinity for those being deified, principle of simplicity for those turning toward simplicity, point of unity for those made one; transcendently, beyond what is, it is the Source of every source. Generously and as far as may be, it gives out a share of what is hidden. To sum up. It is the Life of the living, the being of beings, it is the Source and the Cause of all life and of all being, for out of its goodness it commands all things to be and it keeps them going. 4. We learn of all these mysteries from the divine scriptures and 589D you will find that what the scripture writers have to say regarding the divine names refers, in revealing praises, to the beneficent processions of God. And so all these scriptural utterances celebrate the supreme Deity by describing it as a monad or henad, because of its supernatural simplicity and indivisible unity, by which unifying power we are led to unity. We, in the diversity of what we are, are drawn together by it and are led into a godlike oneness, into a unity reflecting God. They also describe it as a Trinity, for with a transcendent fecun 592A dity it is manifested as "three persons." This is why "all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is and is named after it." 8. They call it Cause of beings since in its goodness it employed its creative power to summon all things into being, 9. and it is hailed as wise and beautiful because beings which keep their nature uncorrupted are filled with ____________________ 8. Eph 3:15; see also DN 2 645B 19-24. 9. See also CH 4 177C 13, Ep. 8 1085D 46, and The Apostolic Constitutions VIII.12.6 (Funk 496.22). -51divine harmony and sacred beauty. But they especially call it loving toward humanity, because in one of its persons it accepted a true share of what it is we are, and thereby issued a call to man's lowly state to rise up to it. In a fashion beyond words, the simplicity of Jesus became something complex, the timeless took on the duration of the temporal, and, with neither change nor confusion of what constitutes him, he came into our human nature, he who totally transcends the natural order of the world. 10.

592B

This is the kind of divine enlightenment 11. into which we have been initiated by the hidden tradition of our inspired teachers, a tradition at one with scripture. We now grasp these things in the best way we can, and as they come to us, wrapped in the sacred veils of that love toward humanity with which scripture and hierarchical traditions 12. cover the truths of the mind with things derived from the realm of the senses. And so it is that the Transcendent is clothed in the terms of being, with shape and form on things which have neither, and numerous symbols are employed to convey the varied attributes of what is an imageless and supra-natural simplicity. But in time to come, when we are incorruptible and immortal, 13. when we have come at last to the blessed inheritance of being like Christ, then, as scripture says, "we shall always be with the Lord." 14. In most holy contempla 592C tion we shall be ever filled with the sight of God shining gloriously around us as once it shone for the disciples at the divine transfiguration. 15. And there we shall be, our minds away from passion and from earth, and we shall have a conceptual gift of light from him and, somehow, in a way we cannot know, we shall be united with him and, our ____________________ 10. This sequential description of God, moving from monad to triad to the cause of all creation to the one who became incarnate in the created realm of space and time (589D to 592B), is presented as a downward "procession" from simplicity to plurality. MT 3 1032D to 1033A 11 presents a similar

35 descending trajectory as a summary of The Theological Representations. Perhaps The Divine Names here begins by "summarizing" a treatise that was never written at all. See above, note 3, and below, note 18. 11. Literally, "theurgical lights"; see Saffrey, "Nouveaux liens," pp. 11-12. Our author used the term "theurgy" to mean "work of God," not as an objective genitive indicating a work addressed to God (as in lamblichus, e.g., de Mysteriis I, 2, 7:2-6) but as a subjective genitive meaning God's own work (EH 3 436C 41, 440B 27, 440C 29, 441 D 46, 445BC 22 and 28), especially in the incarnation (EH 3 429C 38f., 432B 18 and 22f., 441C 34 and 39). 12. The "hierarchical traditions" are elsewhere associated with the liturgy (CH 2 145C 32, EH 1 372A 3, EH 6 532D 43). Thus the "sacred veils," here and in CH 1 121B 25, seem to refer to biblical and liturgical symbols. 13. An allusion to 1 Cor 15:53f.? 14. 1 Thes 4:17. 15. Mt 17:1-8, Mk 9:2-8. -52understanding carried away, blessedly happy, we shall be struck by his blazing light. Marvelously, our minds will be like those in the heavens above. We shall be "equal to angels and sons of God, being sons of the resurrection." 16. That is what the truth of scripture affirms. But as for now, what happens is this. We use whatever appropriate symbols we can for the things of God. With these analogies we are raised upward toward the truth of the mind's vision, a truth which is simple and one. We leave behind us all our own notions of the di vine. We call a halt to the activities of our minds and, to the extent 592D that is proper, we approach the ray which transcends being. Here, in a manner no words can describe, preexisted all the goals of all knowledge and it is of a kind that neither intelligence nor speech can lay hold of it nor can it at all be contemplated since it surpasses everything and is wholly beyond our capacity to know it. Transcendently it contains within itself the boundaries of every natural knowledge and energy. At the same time it is established by an unlimited power beyond all 593A the celestial minds. And if all knowledge is of that which is and is limited to the realm of the existent, then whatever transcends being must also transcend knowledge. 17. 5. How then can we speak of the divine names? How can we do this if the Transcendent surpasses all discourse and all knowledge, if it abides beyond the reach of mind and of being, if it encompasses and circumscribes, embraces and anticipates all things while itself eluding their grasp and escaping from any perception, imagination, opinion, name, discourse, apprehension, or understanding? How can we enter upon this undertaking if the Godhead is superior to being and is unspeakable and unnameable?

593B

I said in my Theological Representations that one can neither discuss nor understand 18. the One, the Superunknowable, the Transcendent, Goodness itself, that is, the Triadic Unity possessing the same divinity and the same goodness. Nor can one speak about and have knowledge of the fitting way in which the holy angels can commune with ____________________ 16. Lk 20:36. 17. This paragraph summarizes the author's basic argument (cf. DN 4 708D). His ascent has two steps: first

36 through perceptible symbols up to the conceptions symbolized (MT 4 and the entire process of interpreting biblical and liturgical symbols in CH and EH), then beyond every conception (MT 5 and the final abandonment of speech and thought). Note the interplay of epistemology and metaphysics: Since human knowledge is of beings, that which transcends being must also transcend knowledge. 18. This argument and its terminology have already appeared in DN 1 588ABC 234. See notes 3 and 10, above. -53the comings or with the effects of the transcendently overwhelming Goodness. Such things can neither be talked about nor grasped except by the angels who in some mysterious fashion have been deemed worthy. Since the union of divinized minds with the Light beyond all de ity occurs in the cessation of all intelligent activity, the godlike unified 593C minds who imitate these angels as far as possible praise it most appropriately through the denial of all beings. Truly and supernaturally enlightened after this blessed union, they discover that although it is the cause of everything, it is not a thing since it transcends all things in a manner beyond being. Hence, with regard to the supra-essential being of God—transcendent Goodness transcendently there—no lover of the truth which is above all truth will seek to praise it as word or power or mind or life or being. No. It is at a total remove from every condition, movement, life, imagination, conjecture, name, discourse, thought, conception, being, rest, dwelling, unity, limit, infinity, the totality of existence. And yet, since it is the underpinning of goodness, 593D and by merely being there is the cause of everything, to praise this divinely beneficent Providence you must turn to all of creation. It is there at the center of everything and everything has it for a destiny. It is there "before all things and in it all things hold together." 19. Because it is there the world has come to be and exists. All things long for it. The intelligent and rational long for it by way of knowledge, the lower strata by way of perception, the remainder by way of the stirrings of being alive and in whatever fashion befits their condition. 20. 6. Realizing all this, the theologians praise it by every name—and 596A as the Nameless One. For they call it nameless when they speak of how the supreme Deity, during a mysterious revelation of the symbolical appearance of God, rebuked the man who asked, "What is your name?" and led him away from any knowledge of the divine name by countering, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?" 21. This surely is the wonderful "name which is above every name" 22. and is therefore without a name. It is surely the name established "above every name that is named either in this age or in that which is to come." 23. ____________________ 19. Col 1:17; this verse is also used in DN 2 637B 25-27, DN 4 700B 15f., DN 5 820A 6f., and DN 9 916B 22f. 20. See Gregory of Nyssa, On the Beatitudes, sermon 6, PG 44 1268B to 1272C. 21. Jg 13:17f.; see also Gn 32:29 and Ex 3:13f. 22. Phil 2:9. 23. Eph 1:21; cf. Gregory of Nyssa, in Cant. PG 44 893A. -54And yet on the other hand they give it many names, such as "I am being," 24. "life," 25. "light," 26. "God," 27. the "truth." 28. These same wise writers, 29. when praising the Cause of everything that is, use names drawn from all the things caused: good, 30. beautiful, 31. wise, 32. 596B 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. beloved, God of gods, Lord of Lords, Holy of Holies, eternal, existent, Cause of the ages. 39. They call him source of life, 40. wisdom, 41. mind, 42. word, 43. knower, 44. possessor beforehand of all the

37 treasures of knowledge, power, powerful, and King of Kings, ancient of days, the unaging and unchanging, 49. salvation, 50. righteousness 51. and sanctification, 52. redemption, 53. greatest of all and yet the one in the still breeze. 54. They say he is in our minds, in our souls, 55. and in ____________________ 24. Ex 3:14; Rv 1:4, 8; DN 5. 25. Jn 11:25, 14:6; cf. Jn 1:4, 5:26; DN 6. 26. Jn 8:12; cf. Jn 1:4-9, 9:5; 1 Jn 1:5; DN 4 697B to 701B. 27. Gn 28:13; Ex 3:6, 15; Is 40:28. 28. Jn 14:6. 29. The "theosophs" or "wise men of God" are invariably the scripture writers: CH 2 145A 4, CH 9 261A 8, CH 15 329C 36. 30. Mt 19:17; Lk 18:19; DN 4. 31. Sg 1:16; DN 4 701C to 704B. 32. Jb 9:4; Rom 16:27; DN 7. 33. Is 5:1; DN 4 701C. 34. Dt 10:17; Ps 50:1 (LXX); Ps 136:2; DN 12. 35. Dt 10:17; Ps 136:3; 1 Tm 6:15; Rv 17:14, 19:16; DN 12. 36. Dn 9:24 (LXX); DN 12. 37. Is 40:28, Bar 4:8; DN 10. 38. Ex 3:14, cf. above, note 24. 39. Heb 1:2; "king of ages" in 1 Tm 1:17. 40. God is called "source" in 2 Maccabees 1.25 and in Iamblichus, Frag. 53 (ed. Dillon). For "source of living water," see CH 2 144D 42; for "fount of life," see EH 1 373C 40 and Ep. 9 1104B 20. 41. Prv 8:22-31; 1 Cor 1:30; DN 7. 42. Is 40:13, cited in Rom 11:34 and 1 Cor 2:16; DN 7 868D to 869B. 43. Jn 1:1; Heb 4:12; DN 7 872C. 44. Susanna 42; DN 7 868D 42 (variant reading). 45. Col 2:3; DN 7 868A 8f. 46. Rv 19:1; 1 Cor 1:18; Ps 24:8; DN 8 889C to 893D. 47. 1 Tm 6:15; Rv 17:14, 19:16; DN 12. 48. On 7:9, 13, 22; DN 10 937B. 49. Mal 3:6; DN 10 937B 23. 50. Ex 15:2 (?); Rv 19:1; cf. Mt 1:21; DN 8 896D-897A. 51. 1 Cor 1:30; DN 8 893D-896C. 52. 1 Cor 1:30. 53. 1 Cor 1:30; DN 8 897AB 15-27. 54. 1 Kgs 19:12 (LXX); DN 9 909B 10, see also "air" in MT 3 1033C 43. 55. Wis 7:27. 45.

46.

47.

48.

-55our bodies, 56. in heaven and on earth, 57. that while remaining ever within himself 58. he is also in 59. and around and above the world, that 596C he is above heaven 60. and above all being, that he is sun, 61. star, 62. and fire, 63. water, 64. wind, 65. and dew, 66. cloud, 67. archetypal stone, 68. and rock, 69. that he is all, that he is no thing. 7. And so it is that as Cause of all and as transcending all, he is rightly nameless and yet has the names of everything that is. Truly he has dominion over all and all things revolve around him, for he is their cause, their source, and their destiny. He is "all in all," 70. as scripture affirms, and certainly he is to be praised as

38 being for all things the creator and originator, the One who brings them to completion, their preserver, their protector, and their home, 71. the power which returns them to itself, and all this in the one sin 596D gle, irrepressible, and supreme act. For the unnamed goodness is not just the cause of cohesion or life or perfection so that it is from this or that providential gesture that it earns a name, but it actually contains everything beforehand within itself—and this in an un 597A complicated and boundless manner—and it is thus by virtue of the unlimited goodness of its single allcreative Providence. Hence the songs of praise and the names for it are fittingly derived from the sum total of creation. 8. These are not the only names for God favored by the scripture writers, these drawn from universal or individual acts of Providence ____________________ 56. 1 Cor 6:19. 57. Ps 115:3; Is 66:1; Jer 23:24. 58. Ps 102:27. 59. Jn 1:10. 60. Ps 113:4. 61. Mal 4:2; CH 2 144C 38f. 62. 2 Pt 1:19; Rv 22:16; CH 2 144C 39. 63. Ex 3:2; see CH 2 144D 41 for God as a "harmless" fire, CH 15 328D to 329C, and Ep. 9 1108C 39. 64. Jn 7:38, see CH 2 144D 42-44. 65. See "spirit" or wind in Jn 3:5-8, 4:24. 66. Is 18:4; Hos 14:5; Ep. 9 1112A 12. 67. Ex 13:21f., 24:16, 33:9; Jb 36:27f.; Is 4:5, 18.4 (cloud of dew); I Cor 10:1f.; on the angels as clouds, see CH 15 336AB 10-19. 68. Ps 118:22, cited in Mt 21:42; Mk 12:10; Acts 4:11 and 1 Pt 2:4, 7; Is 8:14, cited in Rom 9:33 and 1 Pt 2:8; Is 28:16, cited in Rom 9:33, Eph 2:20, 1 Pt 2:4, 6. For "cornerstone" (Is 28:16, cited in Eph 2:20), see CH 2 144D 45f. 69. Ex 17:6 and Nm 20:7-11, cited in 1 Cor 10:4; 2 Sm 22:2; Is 8:14, cited in Rom 9:33 and 1 Pt 2:8. 70. 1 Cor 15:28, cf. Col 3:11. 71. On this expression, see Jones, p. 115, note 50. -56or from those provided for. Some too have their origin in spiritual visions which enlightened initiates or prophets in the holy places or elsewhere. For all sorts of reasons and because of all sorts of dynamic energies they have applied to the divine Goodness, which surpasses every name and every splendor, descriptions of every sort 72. —human, 73. fiery, or amber shapes and forms; 74. they praise its eyes, 75. cars, 76. hair, 77. face, 78. and hands, 79. back, 80. wings, 81. and 597B arms, 82. a posterior, 83. and feet. 84. They have placed around it such things as crowns, 85. chairs, 86. cups, 87. mixing bowls, 88. and similar mysterious items of which I will do my best to speak in The Symbolic Theology. 89. However let us for the moment proceed to an explication of the conceptual names of God, collecting, for this purpose, what scripture has to say and being guided in the manner I have already mentioned. And as hierarchical law leads us whenever we study the entire Word of God, let us behold these acts of heavenly contemplation—which is indeed what they are—ready for a sight of God and our

39 hearing made holy as we listen to the explication of the divine names. As the divine tradition so commands ____________________ 72. These biblical symbols regarding God are all based on sense perception and are thus the stated subject of The Symbolical Theology (note 89 below). Some of them are mentioned in Ep. 9. The Bible's perceptible symbols for the angels, including many of these anthropomorphic descriptions, are discussed in CH 15. 73. Gn 3:8, 18:2; Ez 8:2; Rv 1:13-17; cf. Ep. 9 1105AB. 74. Ez 1:26f. On the symbol of fire, see note 63 above. 75. Pss 11:4, 17:2, 33:18, 34:15, Sir 23:19. 76. Pss 17:6, 34:15, 102:2; Jas 5:4. 77. Dn 7:9 uses a different term for hair. 78. Ex 33:23; Pss 34:16, 102:2; Mt 18:10. 79. Ex 33:22; Jb 10:8; Pss 44:3, 75:8, 89:13, 89:23, 98:1 (?), 145:16; Ez 6:14, 8:2f. 80. Dt 32:11 (LXX); Ps 91:4. 81. Dt 32:11; Pss 17:8, 91:4; regarding the angels' wings, see CH 15 332D. 82. Dt 33:27; 1 Sm 30:30; Jb 40:9; Pss 89:13, 98:1. 83. Ex 33:23. 84. Gn 3:8 (?); Ex 24:10; Ps 45:3. 85. Rv 14:14. 86. For "thrones," see Ep. 9 1105B 16. 87. Ps 75:8. 88. Prv 9:2; Ep. 9 1109BC. 89. The lost or fictitious Symbolical Theology concerned those biblical symbols for God taken from the realm of sense perception (see note 72 above). As such, it follows the presentation of names taken from the realm of concepts (The Divine Names) as part of the descent or procession from lofty simplicity to lowly plurality (DN 4 700C 38f., DN 9 913B 19-23, and DN 13 984A 9-12). The treatise is mentioned again in MT 3 1033AB 14-26 (see note 17) and CH 15 336A 3-5; it may be summarized in the Ninth Letter: Ep. 9 1104B 8f., 1113BC 22-30. -57us, let the holy be there only for the holy, 90. and let such things be 597C kept away from the mockery and the laughter of the uninitiated. Or, rather, let us try to rescue such men and turn them from their hostility to God. So, my good Timothy, you must guard these things in accordance with divine command 91. and you must never speak nor divulge divine things to the uninitiated. As for me, I pray that God should allow me to praise in a divine way the beneficent and divine names of the unutterable and unnameable Deity, and that he "take not the word of truth from out of my mouth. " 92. CHAPTER TWO Concerning the unified and differentiated Word of God, and what the divine unity and differentiation is. 636B 636C fines and reveals that to be—which is praised by the scriptures. How else are we to understand the sacred Word of God when it declares that the Deity, speaking of itself, had this to say: "Why do you ask me about what is good? No one is good but God alone." 93. 1. It is the entire divine subsistence—whatever absolute goodness de

40 I have discussed all this elsewhere and I have shown how in scripture all the names appropriate to God are praised regarding the whole, entire, full, and complete divinity rather than any part of it, and that they all refer indivisibly, absolutely, unreservedly, and totally to God in his entirety. Indeed, as I pointed out in my Theological Representations, 94. anyone denying that such terminology refers to God in all that he is may be said to have blasphemed. He is profanely daring to sun der absolute unity.

637A

So all this terminology has to be employed in respect to the entire divinity. In fact the absolutely good Word says of himself: "I am good," 95. and one of the inspired prophets lifts a hymn of praise to the ____________________ 90. The Apostolic Constitutions VII.13; see EH 1 372A 8, 377B 18. 91. 1 Tm 6:20? 92. Ps 119:43. 93. The question is from Mt 19:17; the answer is from Mk 10:18. 94. On this treatise, see DN 1, note 3, and below, 637C 39-43, 640B 20-22, and 6441) 43f. 95. Mt 20:15, not In 10:11. The name "Good" is the subject of DN 4. -58"good" spirit. 96. The same applies to "I am being." 97. If people force these terms to indicate a part rather than the whole Godhead, how will they understand the following: "Thus says the One who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" 98. or "Thou art the same" 99. or "The spirit of truth that is and proceeds from the Father"? 100. And if they do not accept that the whole Godhead is life, what truth can there be in the holy words, "As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will," 101. and "It is the Spirit that gives life"? 102. And when it comes to the rule of the entire Deity 637B over all the world, concerning the Fatherhood or the Sonship within God, how often is the term "Lord" used by scripture in regard to both the Father and the Son? 103. The Spirit too is "Lord." 104. So also with "beauty" and "wisdom," which are ascribed to the divinity in its totality. The scriptures also uplift into the praises of the entire divinity the terms "light," "deifying power," and "cause" and whatever other things are of the whole divinity. It is the same with "all things are from God" 105. and, more specifically, "all things were created through him and for him" and "in him all things hold together" 106. and "when thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created." 107. Actually it was all summed up by the divine Word himself: "I and the Father are one" 108. and "all that the Father has is mine" 109. and "all mine are thine and 637C thine are mine." 110. And, again, whatever belongs to the Father and to himself he also ascribes to the divine Spirit within their shared unity. I am thinking here of the divine works, the worship, the unfailing and inexhaustible Cause, the dispensation of bountiful gifts. Indeed, it ____________________ 100. Jn 15:26 is here slightly expanded (by the addition of the phrase "that is") to fit the argument. 101. Jn 5:21. 102. Jn 6:63. 103. For example, 1 Cor 1:2f. 104. 2 Cor 3:17. 105. 1 Cor 11:12; cf. 1 Cor 8:6. 106. Col 1:16a and 17b; see DN 1, note 19. 107. Ps 104:30. 108. Jn 10:30.

41 109.

Jn 16:15. Jn 17:10. 96. Ps 143:10; see also Neh 9:20. The expression "inspired prophets" is also used regarding the "Alleluia," a word found frequently in the Psalms (EH 2 396C 33f., EH 4 473A 9f., 485AB 15-21). In Ep. 5 1073A 11-13 the "prophetic" saying is Ps 139:6. 97. Ex 3:14; DN 5. 98. Rv 1:8; Rv 1:4 also uses the term "being," or "who is." 99. Ps 102:27, quoted in Heb 1:12.

110.

-59seems to me that only through perversity would anyone, reared on holy scripture, deny that the attributes of God refer in all their truth and meaning to the complete Deity. Therefore, following the brief and fragmentary discussion here—and, in any case, I have elsewhere provided from scripture a lengthy proof and analysis of the question 111. —I will take it that whatever divine name is explicated it refers to the entire Deity. 2. Anyone claiming that this procedure involves a confusion of 637D the distinctions within God will not be able, I believe, to prove the 640A truth of his claim, even to himself. And if, in this, he is entirely at loggerheads with scripture, he will be far removed also from what is my philosophy, and if he thinks nothing of the divine wisdom of the scriptures, how can I introduce him to a real understanding of the Word of God? If, on the other hand, he heeds the truth of scripture then here is the standard, here is the light by which, so far as I can, I speak in my own defense and by virtue of which I assert that the Word of God operates sometimes without, sometimes with distinctions. Hence we are not entitled to make distinctions where there are none nor to jumble together what has been distinguished. Rather, we must follow in whatever way we can and we must lift up our eyes to the divine rays. Thus receiving in a divine revelation the loveliest stan dard of truth, let us preserve the treasures lying therein, adding noth 640B ing to it and in no way diminishing or distorting it. If we watch over the scriptures we ourselves will be watched over by them, guarding them and being guarded. 3. The unified names apply to the entire Godhead, as I showed at length and by way of scriptural examples in my Theological Representations. Hence, titles such as the following—the transcendently good, the transcendently divine, the transcendently existing, the transcendently living, the transcendently wise. These and similar terms concern a denial in the sense of a superabundance. Likewise, the names which have a causal sense, names like good, beautiful, existent, life-giving, wise, and so forth, are ascribed to the Cause of all good things because of all the good gifts it has dispensed.

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Then there are the names expressing distinctions, the transcendent name and proper activity of the Father, of the Son, of the Spirit. Here the titles cannot be interchanged, nor are they held in common. ____________________ 111. Namely, in The Theological Representation, according to 63 C 16f.; see note 3 above, and 640B 20-22. -60Also said to be differentiated is the perfect and unchangeable being of Jesus among us, and the mysteries of his existence and his love for humanity which are manifested here. 112.

42 4. Still, I think we must go more deeply into explaining the full 640D manner of speaking about divine unity and differentiation. This is necessary in order to clarify all that I have to say so that, when confusion and obscurity have been removed as far as possible, I may speak, as far as possible, in a distinct, wise, and orderly fashion. As I said elsewhere, those fully initiated into our theological tradition assert that the divine unities are the hidden and permanent, supreme foundations of a steadfastness which is more than ineffable and more than unknowable. They say that the differentiations within the Godhead have to do with the benign processions and revelations of God. And, following sacred scripture, they also say that there are cer 641A tain specific unities and differentiations within the unity and differentiation, as discussed above. Thus, regarding the divine unity beyond being, they assert that the indivisible Trinity holds within a shared undifferentiated unity its supra-essential subsistence, its supra-divine divinity, its supra-excellent goodness, its supremely individual identity beyond all that is, its oneness beyond the source of oneness, its ineffability, its many names, its unknowability, its wholly belonging to the conceptual realm, the assertion of all things, the denial of all things, that which is beyond every assertion and denial, 113. and finally, if one may put it so, the abiding and foundation of the divine persons who are the source of oneness as a unity which is totally undifferentiated and transcendent. 114. Let me resort here to examples from what we perceive and from what is familiar. In a house the light from all the lamps is completely interpenetrating, yet each is clearly distinct. There is distinction in 641B unity and there is unity in distinction. When there are many lamps in a house there is nevertheless a single undifferentiated light and from all of them comes the one undivided brightness. I do not think that anyone would mark off the light of one lamp from another in the atmosphere which contains them all, nor could one light be seen sepa- ____________________ 112. On the trinitarian names, see MT 3 1033A 1-11. 113. This is the argument of MT 5 1048B. 114. This appearance of the Neoplatonic term "moné" (as in the first word in "remaining, procession, and return," see CH 1 note 4) is accompanied by a disclaimer, "if one may put it so," which also appears in 645B 20f. (following note), 648B 19, and DN 4 697B 14f. In each case, this qualification seems to apologize for Neoplatonic language. -61rately from the others since all of them are completely mingled while being at the same time quite distinctive. Indeed if somebody were to carry one of the lamps out of the house its own particular light would leave without diminishing the light of the other lamps or supple menting their brightness. As I have already explained, the total union 641C of light, this light that is in the air and that emerges from the material substance of fire, involved no confusion and no jumbling of any parts. But turn now to that unity above being. I say that it surpasses not only the union of things corporeal, but also the union of souls, and even that of minds themselves. These minds purely, supernaturally, and thoroughly possess the godlike and celestial lights, but they do so in a participation proportionate to their participations in the unity which transcends all things.

43 5. Theology, in dealing with what is beyond being, resorts also 641D to differentiation. I am not referring solely to the fact that, within a unity, each of the indivisible persons is grounded in an unconfused and unmixed way. I mean also that the attributes of the transcendentally divine generation are not interchangeable. The Father is the only source of that Godhead which in fact is beyond being and the Father is not a Son nor is the Son a Father. Each of the divine persons continues to possess his own praiseworthy characteristics, so that one has here examples of unions and of differentiations in the inexpressible unity and subsistence of God. On the other hand, if differentiation can be said to apply to the generous procession of the undifferentiated divine unity, itself 644A overflowing with goodness and dispensing itself outward toward multiplicity, then the things united even within this divine differentiation are the acts by which it irrepressibly imparts being, life, wisdom and the other gifts of its all-creative goodness. It is according to these gifts that the [supreme] things which are participated in, but which do not themselves participate [in anything higher], are praised through the participations and those who participate. Now this is unified and one and common to the whole divinity, that the entire wholeness is participated in by each of those who participate in it; none participates in only a part. It is rather like the case of a circle. The center point of the circle is shared by the surrounding radii. Or take the example of a seal. There are numerous impressions of the seal and these all have a share in the original prototype; it is the same whole seal in each of the impressions and none participates in only a part. -62However, the nonparticipation of the all-creative Godhead rises 644B far beyond comparisons of this kind since it is out of the reach of perception and is not on the same plane as whatever participates in it. 6. Maybe someone will say that the seal is not totally identical in all the reproductions of it. My answer is that this is not because of the seal itself, which gives itself completely and identically to each. The substances which receive a share of the seal are different. Hence the impressions of the one entire identical archetype are different. If the substances are soft, easily shaped, and smooth, if no impressions have been made on them already, if they are not hard and resistant, if they are not excessively soft and melting, the imprint on them will 644C be clear, plain, and long-lasting. But if the material is lacking in this receptivity, this would be the cause of its mistaken or unclear imprint or of whatever else results from the unreceptivity of its participation. An instance of differentiation is that benevolent act of God in our favor by which the transcendent Word wholly and completely took on our human substance and acted in such a way as to do and to suffer all that was particularly appropriate and exalted within his divinely human activity. This was something in which the Father and the Spirit had no share, unless, of course, one is talking of the benevolent and loving divine will and of the entire supreme and ineffable act of God performed in the human realm by him who as God and as Word of God is immutable. And so it is that in our argument we try to differentiate or to unify the divine attributes according as these are undifferentiated or differ entiated.

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44 7. All the causes of the unions or differentiations in the divine nature as revealed by scripture were systematically discussed by me to the best of my abilities in my Theological Representations, by consid 645A ering what is appropriate to each one. Some of these causes I explicated by putting forward a true explanation and in this way I tried to lead the pure and holy mind to the shining visions of the scriptures. As for the others, I have followed divine tradition and I have tried to come to grips with these mysteries in a manner that went beyond the workings of intellect. For the truth is that everything divine and even everything revealed to us is known only by way of whatever share of them is granted. Their actual nature, what they are ultimately in their own source and ground, is beyond all intellect and all being and all knowledge. When, for instance, we give the name of "God" to that transcendent hiddenness, when we call it "life" or "being" or "light" -63or "Word," what our minds lay hold of is in fact nothing other than certain activities apparent to us, activities which deify, cause being, bear life, and give wisdom. For our part, as we consider that hiddenness and struggle to break free of all the working of our minds, we find ourselves witnessing no divinization, no life, no being which 645B bears any real likeness to the absolutely transcendent Cause of all things. Or, again, we learn from the sacred scriptures that the Father is the originating source of the Godhead and that the Son and the Spirit are, so to speak, divine offshoots, the flowering and transcendent lights of the divinity. 115. But we can neither say nor understand how this could be so. 8. The procession of our intellectual activity can at least go this far, that all fatherhood and all sonship are gifts bestowed by that su 645C preme source of Fatherhood and Sonship on us and on the celestial powers. This is why Godlike minds come to be and to be named "Gods" or "Sons of Gods" or "Father of Gods." 116. Fatherhood and Sonship of this kind are brought to perfection in a spiritual fashion, that is incorporeally, immaterially, and in the domain of mind, and this is the work of the divine Spirit, which is located beyond all conceptual immateriality and all divinization, and it is the work too of the Father and of the Son who supremely transcend all divine Fatherhood and Sonship. In reality there is no exact likeness between caused and cause, for the caused carry within themselves only such images of their originating sources as are possible for them, whereas the causes themselves are located in a realm transcending the caused, according 645D to the argument regarding their source. 117. Take a familiar example. Joys and woes are said to be the cause in us of joy and woe without themselves being the possessors of such feelings. The fire which warms and burns is never said itself to be burnt and warmed. Similarly, it would be wrong, I think, to say that life itself lives or that light itself is enlightened, unless such words happened to be employed in a different sense to suggest that the caused things preexist more fully and more truly in the causes. ____________________ 115. The "lights" may refer to Jas 1:17. The term "flowering" may come from The Chaldean Oracles through Proclus. See Saffrey, "Nouveaux liens," p. 13; MT 3 1033A 4-7, Ep. 9 1105A 4. The disclaimer (here translated as "so to speak") is identical to that in 641A 11; see note 114, above. 116. As discussed below in DN 12 972B (see note 260) and in CH 12 293B. 117. This passage could be used to protect the author from the charge of pantheism. -64-

45 9. The most evident idea in theology, namely, the sacred incar 648A nation of Jesus for our sakes, is something which cannot be enclosed in words nor grasped by any mind, not even by the leaders among the front ranks of the angels. That he undertook to be a man is, for us, entirely mysterious. We have no way of understanding how, in a fashion at variance with nature, he was formed from a virgin's blood. We do not understand how with dry feet and with his body's solid weight he walked on the unstable surface of the water. 118. And we do not understand whatever else has to do with the supernatural nature of Jesus. I have said enough about this elsewhere and my famous teacher has marvelously praised in his Elements of Theology 119. whatever he learned directly from the sacred writers, whatever his own perspica cious and laborious research of the scriptures uncovered for him, or 648B whatever was made known to him through that more mysterious inspiration, not only learning but also experiencing the divine things. 120. For he had a "sympathy" 121. with such matters, if I may express it this way, and he was perfected in a mysterious union with them and in a faith in them which was independent of any education. And I would like to present in the briefest way the many wonderful visions of his outstanding judgment. Regarding Jesus, this is what he has to say in his Elements of Theology: 10. From the Elements of Theology by the most holy Hierotheus. 648C The divinity of Jesus is the fulfilling cause of all, and the parts of that divinity are so related to the whole that it is neither whole nor part while being at the same time both whole and part. Within its total unity it contains part and whole, and it transcends these too and is antecedent to them. This perfection is found in the imperfect as the source of their perfection. But it also transcends perfection, and in the perfect it is manifest as transcending and anticipating their perfection. It is the form which is the source of form for the formless. But it also transcends form among the formed. It is the Being pervading all ____________________ 118. Mt 14:22f.; Mk 6:45-52; Lk 6:16-21. 119. The Areopagite frequently acknowledges his dependence on his teacher, Hierotheus, and The Elements of Theology; see DN 3 681A 1-3 and note 128. 120. Aristotle, Frag. 15 (Rose, ed.); Heb 5:8. 121. The term "sympathy," again with the same disclaimer mentioned above in note 114, is borrowed from Neoplatonic theurgy. "Each god has his 'sympathetic' representative in the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral world" (E. R. Dodds, "Theurgy," in Proclus, The Elements of Theology, p. 292; see also Andrew Smith, Porphyry's Place in the Neoplatonic Tradition: A Study in Post-Plotinian Neoplatonism [The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1974], pp. 90-94). -65beings and remains unaffected thereby. It is the supra-being beyond every being. It sets the boundaries of all sources and orders and yet it is rooted above every source and order. It is the measure of all things. It is eternity and is above and prior to eternity. It is abundance where there is want and superabundance where there is plenty. It is inex pressible and ineffable, and it transcends mind, life, and being. It is the supernatural possessor of the supernatural. It is the transcendent possessor of transcendence.

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And out of love he has come down to be at our level of nature and has become a being. He, the transcendent God, has taken on the name of man. (Such things, beyond mind and beyond words, we must praise with all reverence.) In all this he remains what he is—supernatural, transcendent—and he has come to join us in what we are

46 without himself undergoing change or confusion. His fullness was un 649A affected by that inexpressible emptying of self, 122. and, most novel of all, amid the things of our nature he remained supernatural and amid the things of being he remained beyond being. From us he took what was of us and yet he surpassed us here too. 11. So much, then, for all this. But let us now move on to the object of our discussion, for I must try to explain the common and united names that are applied to the differentiated being of God. Now 649B I must be clear about what it is that has to be defined: as I have already said, the term "divine differentiations" is given to the benevolent processions of the supreme Godhead. This Godhead is granted as a gift to all things. It flows over in shares of goodness to all. And it becomes differentiated in a unified way. It is multiplied and yet remains singular. It is dispensed to all without ceasing to be a unity. Since God is a "being" in a way beyond being, he bestows existence upon everything and brings the whole world into being, so that his single existence is said to be manifold by virtue of the fact that it brings so many things to being from itself. Yet he remains one, nothing less than himself. He remains one amid the plurality, unified throughout the procession, and full amid the emptying act of differentiation. Transcendently he surpasses the being of everything, even in the unique leading of all things into being and in the ceaseless flow of his undi 649C minishing bounties. He is one and he dispenses his oneness to every part of the universe as well as to its totality, to the single as well as to the multiple. He is one in an unchanging and transcendent way. He ____________________ 122. The "kenosis" of Phil 2:7. -66is not one part of a plurality nor yet a total of parts. Indeed his oneness is not of this kind at all, for he does not share in unity nor have it for his possession. Rather, he is one in a manner completely different from all this. He transcends the unity which is in beings. He is indivisible multiplicity, the unfilled overfullness which produces, perfects, and preserves all unity and all multiplicity. Furthermore, since there are many who are by his gift raised, so far as they can be, to divinization, it would seem that here there is not only differentiation but actual replication of the one God. In fact he is nothing less than the archetypal God, the supra-divine transcendentally one God who dwells indivisibly in every individual and who is in himself undifferentiated unity with no commixture and no multiplication arising out of his presence among the many. This is a thought granted supernaturally to that guide in divine 649D illumination, that light of the world by whom I and my teacher are led, the one great in divine things. 123. Inspired, he says in his sacred writings, "For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth— as indeed there are many 'gods' and many 'lords'—yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and 652A 124. through whom we exist." In the divine realm unities hold a higher place than differentiations. They have the first place and they remain united even after the One, while retaining its singularity, has turned outward to differentiation. Such common and unified differentiations, such kindly processions of the entire Godhead, I shall seek to praise as well as I can, using the divine names which reveal them in scripture. But, as I have already said, one thing must be understood. Every kindly name of God, even when applied to any one of the divine persons, must be taken as belonging, without distinction, to the entire Godhead.

47 ____________________ 123. Dionysius here uses Christological language (the "light of the world," Jn 8:12) to refer to Saint Paul, called "my and my teacher's sun" in DN 7 865B 10f. The strange expression "ho polus ta theia" (649D 40f.) may be a pun on "Paul the divine" as in DN 3 681A 13. 124. 1 Cor 8:5f. -67CHAPTER THREE The power of prayer; concerning the blessed Hierotheus, piety, and our writings on theology. 1. For a start, then, let us look, if you will, at the most important

680A 680B

name, "Good," which shows forth all the processions of God. But we should really begin with an invocation of the Trinity, the source and, indeed, the superior of what is good. The Trinity shows forth every one of its most excellent processions and we should be uplifted to it and be shaped by it so as to learn of those good gifts which are gathered together around it. For the Trinity is present to all things, though all things are not present to it. 125. But if we invoke it with prayers that are holy, with untroubled mind, with a suitability for union with God, then we are surely present to it. For the Trinity is not in any one location in such a manner as to be "away from" one place or moving from "one spot to another." Even to speak of it as "present in everything" is inaccurate since this does not convey the fact that it infinitely transcends everything and yet gathers everything within it. So let us stretch ourselves prayerfully upward to the more lofty 680C elevation of the kindly Rays of God. Imagine a great shining chain hanging downward from the heights of heaven to the world below. We grab hold of it with one hand and then another, and we seem to be pulling it down toward us. Actually it is already there on the heights and down below and instead of pulling it to us we are being lifted upward to that brilliance above, to the dazzling light of those beams. Or picture ourselves aboard a boat. There are hawsers joining it to some rock. We take hold of them and pull on them, and it is as if we were dragging the rock to us when in fact we are hauling ourselves and our boat toward that rock. And, from another point of view, when 680D someone on the boat pushes away the rock which is on the shore he will have no effect on the rock, which stands immovable, but will make a space between it and himself, and the more he pushes the greater will be the space. That is why we must begin with a prayer before everything we do, but especially when we are about to talk of God. We will not pull ____________________ 125. Proclus, Elements of Theology, 142. -68down to ourselves that power which is both everywhere and yet nowhere, but by divine reminders and invocations we may commend ourselves to it and be joined to it. 126.

48 2. Now it may be that some explanation is due for the fact that 681A even though Hierotheus, our famous teacher, has put together his splendid Elements of Theology, 128. I too have composed other theological works together with this present one as though what he wrote were not quite sufficient. If he had set out to deal with all theological questions and indeed had provided an account of every area of theology, I would not have been so mad or so foolish as to believe that in dealing with these same theological topics I could have displayed a more divine insight that he, and certainly I would not have wasted time in a repetition of these same things. And it would have been quite an injustice to my teacher and friend if I were to put forward as my own the renowned contemplation and revelation of someone who, next to the divine Paul, has been my elementary instructor. Since he, like an 681B elder, has in fact served as our guide in these divine things, laying down a condensed summary of our boundaries and encompassing so much in one statement for us and for all our teachers of newly converted souls, I am therefore encouraged to explicate and to separate the condensed and singular mental gymnastics of that man's most powerful intellect, although of course in an argument proportionate to my own powers. 127.

You also have frequently urged me to do the same. Indeed you returned his book to me, claiming that it was too lofty for you. And so while acknowledging his special place as the teacher of those advanced and perfect judgments far ahead of the ordinary, and accepting his writings as second only to the divinely anointed scriptures themselves, I propose to speak, as well as I can, of the things of God and ____________________ 126. The Neoplatonist Iamblichus also taught that prayer does not affect the gods, but rather those who pray (dM I, 12, 42.2-5; I, 13, 43.8; I, 15, 46.13f.; V, 26, 237.16 to 238.6). But, of course, so did Origen (On Prayer VIII.2 to X.2) and other church fathers. 127. The authenticity of the rest of this chapter is challenged by Brons, Sekundäre ... , p. 110. His argument rests entirely on the internal consideration of unusual vocabulary. Yet some continuities with the rest of the corpus can be observed, as mentioned in note 131 below. 128. The presentation throughout the corpus of one "Hierotheus" as the author's mentor seems part of the overall fiction. Yet I. P. Sheldon-Williams has argued that the Areopagite makes some allusions to a historical figure, one with Neoplatonic ideas ("The ps. Dionysius and the holy Hierotheus," Studia Patristica 8, Part 2 (1966): 108-17 [Texte und Untersuchungen, 93]). -69to do so for those of my own kind. If solid food may be given only to 681C the perfect, 129. how much perfection is required when this food is given to others? In fact I believe I am right in saying that a direct look at the conceptual scriptures and at their comprehensive teaching is only for those of an elder's powers, whereas to understand and to learn the thinking preliminary to all this is for the lesser, yet sacred, initiators. Accordingly I have made it a rule to keep away from anything thoroughly dealt with and explained by my own saintly teacher and I have done so to avoid repetitiousness. Furthermore I do not copy the explanation which he may have set down for any given passage. As you know, we and he and many of our holy brothers met together for a vision of that mortal body, that source of life, which bore God. 130. James, the brother of God, was there. So too was Peter, that

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49 summit, that chief of all those who speak of God. After the vision, all these hierarchs chose, each as he was able, to praise the omnipotent goodness of that divine frailty. But next to the sacred writers themselves was my teacher. He surpassed all the divinely rapt hierarchs, all the other sacred initiators. Yes indeed. He was so caught up, so taken out of himself, experiencing communion with the things praised, that everyone who heard him, everyone who saw him, every 684A one who knew him (or, rather, did not know him) considered him to be inspired, to be speaking with divine praises. 131. But I do not need to tell you of the marvelous things that were said there about God. For if I am not mistaken, I know well that you also heard some of the wonderful praises spoken then. For, of course, you are zealous enough not to pursue the divine things from a secondary work. 3. I say nothing of those mysterious experiences. You know them well, and they cannot be explained to the multitude. And when 684B it did become necessary to communicate with the multitude in order ____________________ 129. Heb 5:14; see Ep. 9 1112A. 130. This text has traditionally been taken as an account of the "dormition" of the Virgin Mary; see the Scholia (PG 4 236) and Andrew of Crete, PG 97 1064f. See also Gabriele M. Roschini, O. S. M., Lo Pseudo-Dionigi l'Areopagita e la morte di Maria SS (Rome: Marianum, 1958), and the bibliographies in Michael O'Carroll, C. S. Sp., Theotokos. A Theological Encyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Wilmington, Del.: Glazier, 1982). 131. Like Carpos (Ep. 8 1097C-1110D) and Moses (MT 1 1000CD-1001A), Hierotheus here has an extraordinary experience, often characterized as "mystical" but in fact identifiable as liturgical; the phrase "experiencing communion with the things praised" echoes the eucharistic language of EH 3 425 D 48-50, 440B 28, and 444A 5. On his "ecstasy" or being "taken out of himself," see DN 13 981B 1620. -70to bring as many as possible into our sacred knowledge, he spent more time than most sacred teachers on this labor, and such was the purity of his mind, the scrupulous accuracy of his exposition, and such were his other sacred words that I could not take it on myself to look upon this great sun. I know well that I am not really capable of comprehending those conceptual truths. I know that I lack the words to articulate such knowledge of God. I am so far from having the kind of understanding possessed by those holy men regarding theological truth that in my reverence I would not even listen to, let alone speak of, the divine philosophy were it not that I am convinced in my mind that one may not disregard the received knowledge of divine things. 684C I believe this not merely because one's spirit naturally yearns for and seeks whatever contemplation of the supernatural may be attainable but also because the splendid arrangement of divine laws commands it. We are told not to busy ourselves with what is beyond us, since they are beyond what we deserve and are unattainable. 132. But the law tells us to learn everything granted to us and to share these treasures generously with others. In obedience to such injunctions, in my determination neither to grow weary nor to falter as I seek for whatever is permitted of divine truth, and conscious too that I must not fail those with contemplative capacities no greater than my own, I have decided to put pen to paper. I do not aim foolishly to introduce new ideas. I want only to analyze and with some orderly detail to expand 684D upon the truths so briefly set down by Hierotheus. CHAPTER FOUR

50 Concerning "good," "light," "beautiful," "love," "ecstasy," and "zeal"; and that evil is neither a being, nor from a being, nor in beings. 1. Let us move on now to the name "Good," which the sacred writers

693A 693B

have preeminently set apart for the supra-divine God from all other names. 133. They call the divine subsistence itself "goodness." This essential Good, by the very fact of its existence, extends goodness into all things. ____________________ 132. Ps 131:1; Sir 3:21-23? 133. Despite its title, this long chapter's dominant subject is the name "good" (Mt 19:17, 20:15; Lk 18:19), as already mentioned (DN 1 596B 16) and as applied to the entire Godhead (DN 2 637A 2-6). -71Think of how it is with our sun. It exercises no rational process, no act of choice, and yet by the very fact of its existence it gives light to whatever is able to partake of its light, in its own way. So it is with the Good. Existing far above the sun, an archetype far superior to its dull image, it sends the rays of its undivided goodness to everything with the capacity, such as this may be, to receive it. These rays are responsible for all intelligible and intelligent beings, for every power and every activity. Such beings owe their presence and their un eclipsed and undiminished lives to these rays, owe them their purifi 693C cation from corruption and from death, from corporeality and from the process of birth. They owe them too their immunity to motion, to flux and to all that goes with change. They are understood as bodiless and immaterial, and as minds they too understand, although in a supra-mundane way. They enlighten the reasonings of beings, and they pass on what they know to their own kind. They abide in the 696A goodness of God and draw from it the foundation of what they are, their coherence, their vigilance, their home. Their longing for the Good makes them what they are and confers on them their well-being. Shaped by what they yearn for, they exemplify goodness and, as the Law of God requires of them, they share with those below them the good gifts which have come their way. 2. Because of all this they have their own orders beyond the cosmos, their own unities, their mutual relationships, their unconfused distinctions. They have the capacities which lift up the lower to the 696B higher and the providential powers which enable the superiors to come down to the level of those beneath them. They watch over whatever special powers they have and they keep unchanged their individual concentrated thoughts. They remain supremely constant in their desire for the Good. They preserve among themselves all the qualities which I described in my book The Properties and Ranks of the Angels. 134. Everything having to do with the hierarchy of heaven, namely, the angelic purifications, the illuminations which occur beyond the cos- ____________________ 134. Even though the subject matter is similar, this lost or fictitious treatise should be distinguished from The Celestial Hierarchy, for several reasons. In particular, "The Symbolical Theology" ostensibly follows The Divine Names (DN 13 984A 11f.) and precedes The Celestial Hierarchy (CH 15 336A 35). Thus The Celestial Hierarchy must follow The Divine Names, whereas this essay seems to precede it. See R. Roques, "Denys," Dictionnaire de Spiritualité 3 262f. The triad of purification, illumination, and perfection appears throughout the two treatises on the hierarchies (e.g., CH 7 208BCD and EH 5) but rarely elsewhere.

51 -72mos, and the achievements which are part of the perfection of angels, all comes from the universal Cause and Source of goodness. From this Source it was given to them to exemplify the Good, to manifest that hidden goodness in themselves, to be, so to speak, the angelic messengers of the divine source, to reflect the light glowing in the inner sanctuary. Next to these sacred and holy intelligent beings are the souls, to 696C gether with all the good peculiar to these souls. These too derive their being from the transcendent Good. So therefore they have intelligence, immortality, existence. They can strive towards angelic life. By means of the angels as good leaders, they can be uplifted to the generous Source of all good things and, each according to his measure, they are able to have a share in the illuminations streaming out from that Source. They too, in their own fashion, possess the gift of exemplifying the Good and they have all those other qualities which I described in my book The Soul. 135. And, if we must speak of the matter, all this applies also to the irrational souls, to the living creatures which fly through the air or walk the earth, those that live in the waters, the amphibians as well as those which are burrowed into the ground, in short, every sentient 696D and living being. They all have soul and life because of the existence of the Good. And the plants too have nourishment and life and motion from this same Good. So also with soulless and lifeless matter. It is there because of the Good; through it they received their state of existence. 3. Given that the Good transcends everything, as indeed it does, 697A its nature, unconfined by form, is the creator of all form. In it is nonbeing really an excess of being. It is not a life, but is, rather, superabundant Life. It is not a mind, but is superabundant Wisdom. Whatever partakes of the Good partakes of what preeminently gives form to the formless. And one might even say that nonbeing itself longs for the Good which is above all being. Repelling being, it struggles to find rest in the Good which transcends all being, in the sense of a denial of all things. 4. In my concern for other matters I forgot to say that the Good 697B is the Cause even for the sources and the frontiers of the heavens, ____________________ 135. This treatise is otherwise unknown. The author here (696) sequentially covers minds (angels), souls (humans), creatures, plants, and objects. -73which neither shrink nor expand, and it brought into being the silent (if one must put it this way) 136. and circular movements of the vast heavens, the fixed orders of starry lights decorating the sky and those special wandering stars, particularly those two rotating sources of light described as "great" by the scriptures 137. and enabling us to reckon our days and our nights, our months, and our years. They set the framework in which time and events are numbered, measured, and held together. And what of the sun's rays? Light comes from the Good, and light is an image of this archetypal Good. Thus the Good is also 697C praised by the name "Light", just as an archetype is revealed in its image. The goodness of the transcendent God reaches from the highest and most perfect forms of being to the very lowest. And yet it remains above and beyond them all, superior to the highest and yet stretching out to the lowliest. It gives light to everything capable of receiving it, it creates them, keeps them alive, preserves and perfects them. Everything looks to it for measure, eternity, number, order. It is the power which embraces the universe. It is the Cause of the universe and its end.

52 The great, shining, ever-lighting sun is the apparent image of the divine goodness, a distant echo of the Good. It illuminates whatever is capable of receiving its light and yet it never loses the 697D utter fullness of its light. It sends its shining beams all around the visible world, and if anything fails to receive them the fault lies not in the weakness or defect of the spreading light but in the unsuitability of whatever is unable to have a share in light. For of course light passes over many such substances and illuminates others be yond them. Actually there is nothing in the visible world to which 700A the light does not reach in all its abundance. It is responsible for the origins and life of perceptible bodies, nourishing them and causing them to grow, perfecting them, purifying them, and renewing them. Light too is the measure and the enumerator of the hours, of the days, and indeed of all the time we have. It was this light, then unshaped, which, according to the divine Moses, marked the first three days at the beginning of time. 138. ____________________ 136. On this disclaimer, see DN 2, note 114. 137. Gn 1:16. 138. Gn 1:3-5, 19. -74The Good returns all things to itself and gathers together whatever may be scattered, for it is the divine Source and unifier of the sum total of things. Each being looks to it as a source, as the agent of cohesion, and as an objective. The Good, as scripture testifies, produced everything and it is the ultimately perfect Cause. In it "all things hold together" 139. and are maintained and preserved as if in 700B some almighty receptacle. All things are returned to it as their own goal. All things desire it: Everything with mind and reason seeks to know it, everything sentient yearns to perceive it, everything lacking perception has a living and instinctive longing for it, and everything lifeless and merely existent turns, in its own fashion, for a share of it. So it is with light, with this visible image of the Good. It draws and returns all things to itself, all the things that see, that have motion, that are receptive of illumination and warmth, that are held together by the spreading rays. Thus is it the "sun" for it makes all things a "sum" and gathers together the scattered.

140.

Every perceptible thing seeks it, as they seek to see, to be moved, 700C to receive its light and warmth, to be kept together by it. The old myth used to describe the sun as the provident god and creator of this universe. I do not say this. But I do say that "ever since the creation of the world, the invisible things of God, his eternal power and deity, have been clearly perceived in the things that have been made." 141. 5. All of this will be dealt with in The Symbolic Theology. 142. What I wish to do here is to praise the conceptual content of the term "light" as applied to the Good. The Good is described as the light of the mind because it illu

700D

53 minates the mind of every supra-celestial being with the light of the mind, and because it drives from souls the ignorance and the error squatting there. It gives them all a share of sacred light. It clears away the fog of ignorance from the eyes of the mind and it stirs and unwraps those covered over by the burden of darkness. At first it deals out the light in small amounts and then, as the wish and the longing for light 701A begin to grow, it gives more and more of itself, shining ever more ____________________ 139. Col 1:17 (see DN 1, note 19); perhaps 1 Cor 8:6. 140. See Plato, Cratylus, 409a. 141. Rom 1:20. 142. The Symbolic Theology concerns the perceptible symbols for God, which would include physical light. See DN 1, note 89. -75abundantly on them because they "loved much," 143. and always it keeps urging them onward and upward as their capacity permits. 6. So then, the Good which is above all light is given the name "light of the mind," "beam and spring," "overflowing radiance." It crams with its light every mind which is above and beyond the world, or around it or within it. It renews all the powers of their minds. It steps beyond everything inasmuch as it is ordered beyond everything. It precedes everything inasmuch as it transcends everything. Quite simply, it gathers together and supremely anticipates in itself the au thority of all illuminating power, being indeed the source of light and 701B actually transcending light. And so it assembles into a union everything possessed of reason and of mind. For just as it is ignorance which scatters those in error, so it is the presence of the light of the mind which gathers and unites together those receiving illumination. It perfects them. It returns them toward the truly real. It returns them from their numerous false notions and, filling them with the one unifying light, it gathers their clashing fancies into a single, pure, coherent, and true knowledge. 7. The sacred writers lift up a hymn of praise to this Good. They 701C call it beautiful, beauty, love, and beloved. 144. They give it the names which convey that it is the source of loveliness and is the flowering of grace. But do not make a distinction between "beautiful" and "beauty" as applied to the Cause which gathers all into one. For we recognize the difference in intelligible beings between qualities that are shared and the objects which share them. We call "beautiful" that which has a share in beauty, and we give the name of "beauty" to that ingredient which is the cause of beauty in everything. But the "beautiful" which is beyond individual being is called "beauty" because of that beauty bestowed by it on all things, each in accordance with what it is. It is given this name because it is the cause of the harmony and splendor in everything, because like a light it flashes onto everything the beauty-causing impartations of its own well-spring ray. Beauty "bids" all things to itself (whence it is called "beauty") 145. and gathers every 701D thing into itself. And they name it beautiful since it is the all-beautiful ____________________ 143. Lk 7:47? 144. Sg 1:16?; 1 Jn 4:16; Is 5:1; Ps 45:2. 145. The word play on "kallos" and "kaleo" is also found in Plato, Cratylus, 416c, and Proclus, Theo. Plat. 1.24, 108.6ff., and Alc. 53.6. See W. Beierwaltes, "Negati Affirmatio," Dionysius 1 (1977): 149. Rolt's translation (p. 95) plays on "fair" and "fare."

54 -76and the beautiful beyond all. It is forever so, unvaryingly, unchangeably so, beautiful but not as something coming to birth and death, to growth or decay, not lovely in one respect while ugly in some other way. It is not beautiful "now" but otherwise "then," beautiful in relation to one thing but not to another. It is not beautiful in one place and not so in another, as though it could be beautiful for some and not 704A for others. Ah no! In itself and by itself it is the uniquely and the eternally beautiful. It is the superabundant source in itself of the beauty of every beautiful thing. In that simple but transcendent nature of all beautiful things, beauty and the beautiful uniquely preexisted in terms of their source. From this beauty comes the existence of everything, each being exhibiting its own way of beauty. For beauty is the cause of harmony, of sympathy, of community. Beauty unites all things and is the source of all things. It is the great creating cause which bestirs the world and holds all things in existence by the longing inside them to have beauty. And there it is ahead of all as Goal, as the Beloved, as the Cause toward which all things move, since it is the longing for beauty which actually brings them into being. It is a model to which they conform. The Beautiful is therefore the same as the Good, for everything 704B looks to the Beautiful and the Good as the cause of being, and there is nothing in the world without a share of the Beautiful and the Good. And I would even be so bold as to claim that nonbeing also shares in the Beautiful and the Good, because nonbeing, when applied transcendently to God in the sense of a denial of all things, is itself beautiful and good. This—the One, the Good, the Beautiful—is in its uniqueness the Cause of the multitudes of the good and the beautiful. From it derives the existence of everything as beings, what they have in common and what differentiates them, their identicalness and differences, their similarities and dissimilarities, their sharing of opposites, the way in which their ingredients maintain identity, the providence of the higher ranks of beings, the interrelationship of those of the same rank, the return upward by those of lower status, the protecting and unchanged remaining and foundations of all things amid themselves. Hence, the interrelationship of all things 704C in accordance with capacity. Hence, the harmony and the love which are formed between them but which do not obliterate identity. Hence, the innate togetherness of everything. Hence, too, the intermingling of everything, the persistence of things, the unceasing -77emergence of things. Hence, all rest and hence, the stirrings of mind and spirit and body. There is rest for everything and movement for everything, and these come from that which, transcending rest and movement, establishes each being according to an appropriate principle and gives each the movement suitable to it. 8. The divine intelligences are said to move as follows. First they 704D move in a circle while they are at one with those illuminations which, without beginning and without end, emerge from the Good and the Beautiful. Then they move in a straight line when, out of Providence, they come to offer unerring guidance to all those below them. Finally they move in a spiral, for even while they are providing for those be neath them they continue to remain what they are and they turn un 705A ceasingly around the Beautiful and the Good from which all identity comes.

55 146.

9. The soul too has movement. First it moves in a circle, that is, it turns within itself and away from what is outside and there is an inner concentration of its intellectual powers. A sort of fixed revolution causes it to return from the multiplicity of externals, to gather in upon itself and then, in this undispersed condition, to join those who are themselves in a powerful union. From there the revolution brings the soul to the Beautiful and the Good, which is beyond all things, is one and the same, and has neither beginning nor end. But whenever the soul receives, in accordance with its capacities, the enlightenment of divine knowledge and does so not by way of the mind nor in some 705B mode arising out of its identity, but rather through discursive reasoning, in mixed and changeable activities, then it moves in a spiral fashion. And its movement is in a straight line when, instead of circling in upon its own intelligent unity (for this is the circular), it proceeds to the things around it, and is uplifted from external things, as from certain variegated and pluralized symbols, to the simple and united contemplations. 147. 10. The Good and the Beautiful is the cause of these three movements, as also of the movements in the realm of what is perceived, and ____________________ 146. Charles-André Bernard, S. J., attempts to identify the straight, circular, and spiral motions of the soul with symbolical, mystical, and "discursive" theology, respectively ("Les formes de la Théologie chez Denys l'Aréopagite," Gregorianum 59 [1978]: 39-69, especially p. 46). See also DN 9 916CD 36-44. 147. The imagery of a downward procession and an uplifting ascent is closely related to the "procession and return" pattern discussed in CH 1, note 4. -78of the prior remaining, standing, and foundation of each one. This is what preserves them. This is their goal, itself transcending all rest and 705C all motion. It is the source, the origin, the preserver, the goal, and the objective of rest and of motion. The being and the life of the mind and of the soul derive from it. Also from it come the small, the equal, and the great in nature, the measure and the proportion of all things, the mixtures, the totalities, and the parts of things, the universal one and the many, the links between parts, the unity underlying everything, the perfection of wholes. From it come quality, quantity, magnitude and infinity, conglomeration and distinction, the limitless and the limited, boundaries, orders and superachievements, elements and forms, all being, power, and activity, all states, perceptions, and expression, all conception, apprehension, understanding, all union. To put the 705D matter briefly, all being drives from, exists in, and is returned toward the Beautiful and the Good. Whatever there is, whatever comes to be, is there and has being on account of the Beautiful and the Good. All things look to it. All things are moved by it. All things are preserved by it. Every source exists for the sake of it, because of it, and in it and this is so whether such source be exemplary, final, efficient, formal, or elemental. In short, every source, all preservation and ending, everything in fact, derives from the Beautiful and the Good. Even 708A what is not still there exists transcendentally in the Beautiful and the Good. Here is the source of all which transcends every source, here is an ending which transcends completion. "For from Him and through Him and in Him and to Him are all things" says holy scripture. 148. And so it is that all things must desire, must yearn for, must love, the Beautiful and the Good. Because of it and for its sake, subordinate is returned to superior, equal keeps company with equal, superior turns providentially to subordinate, 149. each bestirs itself and all are stirred to do and to will whatever it is they

56 do and will because of the yearning for the Beautiful and the Good. And we may be so bold as to claim also that the Cause of all things loves all things in the superabundance of his goodness, that because of this goodness he makes all things, brings all things to perfection, holds all things together, re 708B turns all things. The divine longing is Good seeking good for the sake of the Good. That yearning which creates all the goodness of the ____________________ 148. Rom 11:36. 149. See below 713AB 8-14, note 160. -79world preexisted superabundantly within the Good and did not allow it to remain without issue. It stirred him to use the abundance of his powers in the production of the world. 11. Let no one imagine that in giving status to the term "yearning" I am running counter to scripture. 150. In my opinion, it would be unreasonable and silly to look at words rather than at the power of the meanings. Anyone seeking to understand the divine things 708C should never do this, for this is the procedure followed by those who do not allow empty sounds to pass beyond their ears, who shut them out because they do not wish to know what a particular phrase means or how to convey its sense through equivalent but more effective phrases. People like this are concerned with meaningless letters and lines, with syllables and phrases which they do not understand, which do not get as far as the thinking part of their souls, and which make empty sounds on their lips and in their hearing. It is as though it were quite wrong to explain "four" by "twice two," "a straight line" by "a direct line," "the motherland" by "the fatherland," or to make any sort of interchange among words which mean exactly the same thing. The truth we have to understand is 708D that we use letters, syllables, phrases, written terms and words because of the senses. But when our souls are moved by intelligent energies in the direction of the things of the intellect then our senses and all that go with them are no longer needed. And the same happens with our intelligent powers which, when the soul becomes divinized, concentrate sightlessly and through an unknowing union on the rays of "unapproachable light." 151. When, as a result of the work ings of perception, the mind is stirred to be moved up to contem 709A plative conceptions, it sets a particular value on most unambiguous perceptions, on the clearest words and on the things most distinctly seen, for when sense data are in confusion then the senses cannot themselves report properly to the mind. Now if in saying this I would appear to be misusing holy scripture, let the critics of the word "yearning" listen to this: "Yearn for her and she shall keep you; exalt her and she will extol you; honor her and she will embrace ____________________ 150. This discussion of "yearning" (eros) and "love" (agape, 1 Jn 4:16) continues through 716A. The opening statement (708B 24 to 709A 5) concerns the author's method of interpreting the scriptures. 151. 1 Tm 6:16. The upward movement from the senses to the intellect and beyond is discussed above in DN 1, n. 17. -80you." 152. And there are many other scriptural passages in which the yearning of God is praised. 12. Indeed some of our writers on sacred matters have thought the title "yearning" to be more divine than "love." The divine Ignatius

709B

57 153.

writes: "He for whom I yearn has been crucified." In the introductory scriptures you will note the following said about the divine wisdom : "I yearned for her beauty." 154. So let us not fear this title of "yearning" nor be upset by what anyone has to say about these two names, for, in my opinion, the sacred writers regard "yearning" and "love" as having one and the same meaning. They added "real" to the use of "yearning" regarding divine things because of the unseemly nature such a word has for men. The title "real yearning" is praised by us and by the scriptures themselves as being appropriate to God. Others, however, tended naturally to think of a partial, physical, and di vided yearning. This is not true yearning but an empty image or, 709C rather, a lapse from real yearning. The fact is that men are unable to grasp the simplicity of the one divine yearning, and, hence, the term is quite offensive to most of them. So it is left to the divine Wisdom to lift them and to raise them up to a knowledge of what yearning really is, after which they no longer take offense. And it is clear to us that many lowly men think there is something absurd in the lovely verse: "Love for you came on me like love for women," someone says. 155. To those listening properly to the divine things the name "love" is used by the sacred writers in divine revelation with the exact same meaning as the term "yearning." What is signified is a capacity to effect a unity, an alliance, and a particular commingling in the 709D Beautiful and the Good. It is a capacity which preexists through the Beautiful and the Good. It is dealt out from the Beautiful and the Good through the Beautiful and the Good. It binds the things of the same order in a mutually regarding union. It moves the superior to provide for the subordinate, and it stirs the subordinate in a return toward the superior. ____________________ 152. Prv 4:6 and 8 (LXX). 153. The author would seem to be jeopardizing his apostolic pseudonym by quoting Ignatius, who died around A. D. 107 (Rom 7:2). See Saffrey, "Nouveaux liens," pp. 5f. 154. Wis of Sol 8:2. The author does not distinguish this book as apocryphal or deutero-canonical. In DN 7 872C 30 he quotes it as canonical scripture. See also DN 4 717D 46 (note 164) and 724B 21 (note 167). Perhaps it is "introductory" in the way that all of the Old Testament is introductory to the New (EH 3 432B). 155. 2 Sm 1:26. This text is not exactly that of the Septuagint. -8113. This divine yearning brings ecstasy so that the lover belongs 712A not to self but to the beloved. This is shown in the providence lavished by the superior on the subordinate. It is shown in the regard for one another demonstrated by those of equal status. And it is shown by the subordinates in their divine return toward what is higher. 156. This is why the great Paul, swept along by his yearning for God and seized of its ecstatic power, had this inspired word to say: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." 157. Paul was truly a lover and, as he says, he was beside himself for God, 158. possessing not his own life but the life of the One for whom he yearned, as exceptionally beloved. And, in truth, it must be said too that the very cause of the universe in the beautiful, good superabundance of his benign yearning for all is also carried outside of himself in the loving care he has for everything. He is, as it were, beguiled by goodness, by love, and by 712B yearning and is enticed away from his transcendent dwelling place and comes to abide within all things, and he does so by virtue of his supernatural and ecstatic capacity to remain, nevertheless, within himself. That is why those possessed of spiritual insight describe him as "zealous" because his good yearning for all things is so great and because he stirs in men a deep yearning desire for zeal. In this way he proves himself to be zealous because zeal is always felt for what is desired and because he is zealous for the

58 creatures for whom he provides. In short, both the yearning and the object of that yearning belong to the Beautiful and the Good. They preexist in it, and because of it they exist and come to be. 14. Why is it, however, that theologians sometimes refer to God 712C as Yearning and Love and sometimes as the yearned-for and the Beloved ? On the one hand he causes, produces, and generates what is being referred to, and, on the other hand, he is the thing itself. He is stirred by it and he stirs it. He is moved to it and he moves it. So they call him the beloved and the yearned-for since he is beautiful and good, and, again, they call him yearning and love because he is the power moving and lifting all things up to himself, for in the end what is he if not Beauty and Goodness, the One who of himself reveals himself, the good procession of his own transcendent unity? He is yearn____________________ 156. See below, 713AB 8-14, note 160. 157. Gal 2:20. 158. 2 Cor 5:13. On this terminology of "ecstasy," see DN 13 981B 16-20, note 266. -82ing on the move, simple, self-moved, self-acting, preexistent in the Good, flowing out from the Good onto all that is and returning once again to the Good. In this divine yearning shows especially 712D its unbeginning and unending nature traveling in an endless circle through the Good, from the Good, in the Good and to the Good, unerringly turning, ever on the same center, ever in the same di rection, always proceeding, always remaining, always being re 713A stored to itself. All this has been set out in a divinely inspired manner by my illustrious teacher in his Hymns of Yearning from which it will be appropriate to remember as a certain sacred chapter amid what I have to say about yearning. 15. From the Hymns of Yearning by the most holy Hierotheus: 159. When we talk of yearning, whether this be in God or an angel, in the mind or in the spirit or in nature, we should think of a unifying and co-mingling power which moves the superior to provide for the sub 713B ordinate, peer to be in communion with peer, and subordinate to return to the superior and the outstanding. 160.

16. From the same writer and work: I have set out in due order the many yearnings springing from the One and I have explained the nature of the knowledge and power appropriate to the yearnings within the world and beyond. These are surpassed, according to the clear intention of the argument, by the orders and ranks of the intel ligent and intelligible yearnings. After them are found the most truly 713C beautiful yearnings which are self-intelligible and divine and which quite rightly are praised by us. But now, once more, let me take all of these yearnings and concentrate them into the single yearning which is the father of all yearnings. First let me divide in two their general powers as yearnings. The irrepressible cause of all yearning has command and primacy over them and is the cause beyond them all and indeed is the goal toward which everything everywhere strives upward, each as best it can. ____________________ 159. On Hierotheus, see DN 3, note 128. 160. The author here credits Hierotheus with a pattern found frequently in this corpus : Superior beings relate to inferior beings by providing for them, inferior to superior by returning to them. Thus

59 "providence and return" is part of the overall motif of "procession and return" (CH 1, note 4). See CH 15 333D 41, 337B 18-20; DN 4 696B 11-13, 704B 2729, 704D 44f., 708A 8-10, 709D 45-50, 712A 16 and 15f.; DN 9 912D 33-38, DN 12 972B 21-23, and Ep. 9 1109CD 38-48. See B. Brons, "Pronoia und das Verhältnis von Metaphysik und Geschichte bei Dionysius Areopagita," Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie 24 (1977): 165-86. -8317. From the same writer and work: Come, let us gather all these 713D once more together into a unity and let us say that there is a simple self-moving power directing all things to mingle as one, that it starts out from the Good, reaches down to the lowliest creation, returns then in due order through all the stages back to the Good, and thus turns from itself and through itself and upon itself and toward itself in an everlasting circle. 161. 18. Someone may make this observation: "Granted that the Beautiful and Good is something yearned for, wished for, and loved by all—as I have already said, even that which is not wishes for a place 716A in it since even in the unformed it evokes form, which is why nonbeing is said to be transcendentally in it—granted that the Beautiful and Good is all this, how is it that the multitude of demons has no wish for it and indeed is inclined to the material and is lapsed from the angelic condition of longing for the Good? Actually it becomes a cause of evil to itself and is responsible for that state in others which we characterize as evil. How is it that the demons whose origins lie wholly in the Good are themselves not shaped like goodness? How is it that, good offspring of the Good, they have changed? What was it that made them evil? What in fact is evil? Where did it come from? And where is it to be found? How was it that Goodness itself willed it to be there? And after this decision how did he produce it? Furthermore, if evil comes from a different cause, what other cause can there be for things except the Good? If there is any providence at all how can it be 716B that there is evil, that it comes to be, that it is not done away with? And how could anything choose it in preference to the Good?" 162. 19. Someone amid difficulties might speak in this fashion. But now I will ask him to look at the truth of things, and I would venture to say this much for a start. Evil does not come from the Good. If it were to come from there it would not be evil. Fire cannot cool us, and likewise the Good cannot produce what is not good. If everything comes from the Good—and the Good naturally gives being and main 716C ____________________ 161. Here, again, Hierotheus expresses the Neoplatonic concept of a descent and return ; see CH 1, note 4. 162. The rest of this chapter concerns the question of evil. Its apparent use of the writings of Proclus helped date the corpus c. A. D. 500 and name its author Pseudo-Dionysius (H. Koch, "Der pseudoepigraphische Character der dionysischen Schriften," Theologische Quartalschrift 77 [1895]: 353-421; J. Stiglmayr, "Der Neuplatoniker Proclus als Vorlage des sogen. Dionysius Areopagiten in der Lehre vom Übel," Historisches Jahrbuch 16 [1895]: 25373 and 721-48). -84tains, just as evil naturally tries to corrupt and to destroy—then no being comes from evil. Nor will evil itself exist if it acts as evil upon itself, and unless it does this then evil is not entirely evil but has something of the Good within it which enables it to exist at all. Now if it is the case that things which have

60 being also have a desire for the Beautiful and the Good, if all their actions are done for what seems to be a good, and if all their intentions have the Good as their source and goal (for nothing does what it does while looking at the nature of evil), what place is left for evil among the things that have being and how can it exist at all if it is bereft of good purpose? Furthermore, if all the things that have being come from the Good, and if the Good itself transcends being, then that which is not in being is also in the Good. Evil is not a being; for if it were, it would not be totally evil. 716D Nor is it a nonbeing; for nothing is completely a nonbeing, unless it is said to be in the Good in the sense of beyond-being. For the Good is established far beyond and before simple being and nonbeing. Evil, by contrast, is not among the things that have being nor is it among what is not in being. It has a greater nonexistence and otherness from the Good than nonbeing has. So then someone asks: Where does evil come from? If evil does not have being, then virtue and vice must be exactly the same, both totally and in particular details. And whatever conflicts with virtue cannot be evil. Yet the 717A opposite of moderation is excess and the opposite of justice is injustice. Nor am I talking here of the just or unjust man, of the temperate or intemperate man, for long preceding the visible evidence for the virtuous man or his opposite is the distinction made within the soul between virtue and evils, and the inner conflict between passion and reason. Hence one must concede that there is something contrary to goodness and that this is evil. Goodness is not contrary to itself. It comes, rather, from a single source and is the product of a single cause so that it rejoices in communion, unity, and concord. A lesser good is not the opposite of the greater good. What is less hot or cold is not opposite to what is more so. Therefore evil is a being. It is in things that have being. And it is in opposition to and contrary to the Good. If it destroys things that have being it does not thereby lose its own being. It retains being 717B and transmits it to its offspring, for is it not often the case that the destruction of one thing is the birth of another? Hence evil con -85tributes to the fulfillment of the world and by its very existence it saves it from imperfection. 163. 20. The true answer to this will be that evil, qua evil, never produces being or birth. All it can do by itself is in a limited fashion to debase and to destroy the substance of things. And if anyone should say that it is a begetter of things and that by the destruction of one thing it gives birth to something else, the correct reply is that it is not qua destructiveness that it brings this about. Inasmuch as it is des 717C tructiveness and evil it destroys and debases. Birth and being occur because of the Good. That is to say, evil in itself is a destructive force but is a productive force through the activity of the Good. Insofar as it is evil it neither is nor confers being. Through the workings of the Good it is a being, a good being, and confers being on good things. Of course we cannot call the same thing both good and bad in the same respect, and the destruction and the birth of the same thing are not the same power and faculty working at the same level to produce and to destroy. Evil therefore in itself has neither being, goodness, the capacity to beget, nor the ability to create things which have being and goodness. But the Good, wherever it is present completely, succeeds in producing goodness that is perfect, untainted, and total. When things have a lesser share in it, then the goodness is incomplete and is mixed in with other ingredients in proportion to its deficiency of the Good. Evil, then, is neither good nor productive of good, and every 717D

61 thing is good to the extent that it draws near to the Good. Perfect goodness reaches out to all things and not simply to immediate good neighbors. It extends as far as the lowliest of things. 164. In some beings it is present in full measure, to a lesser extent in others, and in the least measure in yet others. It is there in proportion to the capacity to re 720A ceive it. Some share completely in the Good, others participate in it more or less, others have a slight portion only, and to others, again, the Good is but a far-off echo. The Good is present in proportion to capacity. This has to be so, for otherwise the most honored, the most divine things would be on the order with the lowliest. Anyway, how could all things share equally in the Good since not all are equally receptive to have a share? Yet "immeasureable greatness of his good ____________________ 163. Proclus, de mal. sub. 200.12, 202.12, 206.21. 164. Wis of Sol 7:26, 8:1? See note 154 above. -86power" 165. is shown by the fact that it gives power even to the very things lacking it, insofar as they participate in it. And, if we must speak the full truth, even the things that resist it owe their being and their capacity for resistance to its power. To put the matter briefly. All beings, to the extent that they ex 720B ist, are good and come from the Good and they fall short of goodness and being in proportion to their remoteness from the Good. In the case of other qualities such as heat or cold the things which have experienced warmth can lose warmth. Indeed there are things even which have no life and no mind. True, there is God who is on a level above being and is therefore transcendental. But with entities generally, if a quality is lost for them, or was never there in fact, it is still the case that these entities possess being and subsistence. However, that which is totally bereft of the Good never had, does not have, never shall have, never can have any kind of being at all. Take the example of someone who lives intemperately. He is deprived of the Good in direct proportion to his irrational urges. To this extent he is lacking in being and his desire is for what has no real existence. Nevertheless he has some share in the Good, since there is in him a distorted echo of real love and of real unity. Anger too has a share in the Good 720C to the extent it is an urge to remedy seeming evils by returning them toward what seems beautiful. Even the person who desires the lowest form of life still desires life and a life that seems good to him; thus he participates in the Good to the extent that he feels a desire for life and for what—to him at least—seems a worthwhile life. Abolish the Good and you will abolish being, life, desire, movement, everything. So it is not the power of evil which causes birth to emerge out of destruction. It is the Good which is responsible for this, the Good in some measure however small. Disease is a disorder and yet it does not obliterate everything since if this were to happen the disease itself could not exist. No, the disease remains. It exists. But it is by way of being a minimum presence, and subsists at the lowest order. For that which 720D totally lacks a share in the Good has neither being nor a place in existence, whereas that which has a composite nature owes to the Good whatever place it has among beings, and its place among them and the extent of its being are directly proportionate to the share it has of this Good. In other words, all things in being will have more or less of ____________________ 165. Eph 1:19. -87being according as they share more or less in the Good. For in regard to being, that which possesses no being in any respect will not exist at all, and that which possesses being in some respect, though not in some other, does not exist to the extent that it has fallen away from

eternal being, but insofar as it has a share of that being then to that extent it has existence, and its whole being and nonbeing are protected and preserved.

62 721A

The same applies to evil. What has fallen away totally from the Good can have no place among the things which are more or less good. Whatever is good in some respect and not in some other is in conflict with a particular good but not with the totality of the Good. It is protected by having within it some participation of the Good so that the Good gives substance to what lacks itself precisely for the [eventual] full share of itself. Remove the Good entirely and there will be nothing—good, or mixed with something else, or absolutely evil. For if evil is imperfect Goodness, the complete absence of the Good will do away with complete and incomplete goodness. Evil will only be and be seen by contrast with what it opposes, for it will be distinct from them, since they are good. The fact is that things of the same kind cannot 721B wholly contradict each other in the same respects. And so it is that evil is not a being. 21. Nor does evil inhere in beings, for if all beings derive from 721C the Good and if the Good is inherent in and embraces all beings, then evil has no place among the things that have being or else it is to be located in the Good. But it can no more have a place in the Good than cold may be found in fire. The capacity to turn evil cannot be found in that which actually transforms evil into good. But just suppose that evil could be found in the Good. How would it come to be in there? By derivation from the Good? But that is absurd and impossible, for scripture truly states that "a good tree cannot bear evil fruit," 166. and vice versa. If, on the other hand, its source is not the Good, then it must have some other source and cause. That is, evil must come from the Good, or the Good from evil; or else, if this is impossible, both Good and evil must derive from a different source and cause. And no duality can be an originating source; the source of every duality is a monad. But it is also absurd to suppose that two opposites can owe their origin and their being to the same ____________________ 166. Mt 7:18.

721D

-88thing, since this would mean that the source itself was not simple and unique but was actually divided, double, internally in a state of contradiction, and discordant. Furthermore, it is impossible that there are two mutually opposing sources of beings existing in each other and in everything—and always in conflict. If this were to be assumed, then God himself cannot be free of pain and beyond suffering, since there would be something grating him and, consequently, everything else would be in an eternal condition of strife and disorder. But in fact the sacred theologians sing a hymn of praise to the Good for giving friend 724A ship and peace to all beings, which is why all good things show friendship, inherent harmony, and their descent from the one Life. This is why they turn to the one Good. This is why they are similar, benevolent, kindly to each other. So, then, evil is not in God, is not divine, does not come from God. For either God is not good or else he fashions and creates what is good. And he does not act in this fashion at one time but not at another or in the case of some things and not of everything. If this were the way he acted, then he would be subject to change and variation—and this in respect to what is most truly divine in him, namely, his work as Cause. And if the Good in him is an aspect of his substance, then God must travel between being and nonbeing whenever he turns away from the Good. Of course if all he has is simply a share in the Good and if he derives it from another, then he will possess it sometimes, and sometimes not.

63 So, therefore, evil does not come from God and it is not in God either absolutely or at some stage in time. 22. Evil is not to be found in the angels either. For if the good 724B angel brings tidings of the divine goodness he is himself participating in and only at one remove from the primary, caused goodness which he is announcing. The angel is an image of God. He is a manifestation of the hidden light. He is a mirror, 167. pure, bright, untarnished, unspotted, receiving, if one may say so, the full loveliness of the divine goodness and purely enlightening within itself as far as possible the goodness of the silence in the inner sanctuaries. So, then, there is no evil in angels. They are "evil" only because of the punishment they deal out to the sinners. Of course, where this is concerned, anyone who chastises the errant is "evil." This is true also of the priests who drive the profane man away from the sacred mysteries. Still, it is not ____________________ 167. Wis of Sol 7:26. See note 154 above and CH 13 165A 6f. -89the fact of being punished which is evil but the fact of having deserved 724C it. It is not the just exclusion from the sacred things which is evil, but the condition of being unclean and unworthy and unfit for the holy. 23. Not even the devils are evil by nature, since if they were, then they would not owe their origin to the Good. Nor would they have a place among the things that are, and they certainly would not have fallen from Goodness if they had always been essentially evil. Then there is this problem. Are they totally evil with respect to themselves or with respect to others? If the former, they are self-destructive ; if the latter, in what way do they bring about destruction and what is it that they destroy? Do they obliterate being? Power? Activity ? If it is being that they allegedly destroy, then first, they cannot really obliterate something in defiance of what it happens to be by 724D nature. They can do away not with what is naturally indestructible but what is actually capable of being destroyed. Secondly, the fact of being destroyed is not evil in every case and in all circumstances. However, no one of the things which have being can be destroyed in the domain of its being and nature. The destruction is actually some failure of its order in nature. It is a weakening of the expression of harmony and symmetry. Yet it is not a total weakness, for if it were total then it would necessarily have obliterated both the actual process of destruction and the being which endured that destruction. And this in turn would be the equivalent of self-destruction. So what is here is 725A not evil itself but rather a falling-short of goodness. That which has no share at all of the Good will not be found among the things which have being. This same principle applies regarding the destruction of a capacity or of an activity. And, furthermore, devils cannot be evil since they owe their origin to God. The Good is the creator and preserver of good things. If they are called evil it is not in respect of their being, since they owe their origin to the Good and were the recipients of a good being, but rather because being is lacking to them by virtue of their inability, as scripture puts it, "to hold on to their original source." 168. For, I ask you, in what way are the demons evil except in the fact that they have put an end to the habit and the activity of divine good things? If this is not so, then the devils are naturally evil and they must ever remain evil. But evil is impermanent, and if the devils are always in the same condition they cannot be evil. Permanence is a ____________________ 168. Jude 6. -90-

64 property of the Good, and if the devils are not permanently evil then 725B they are not evil by nature. Their evil consists in the lack of the angelic virtues! Therefore they do not totally lack a share of the Good, for they certainly exist and live and exercise their intelligence and have within them some stirrings of desire. If they are declared to be evil, the reason lies in their weakness regarding their natural activity. Their deviation is the evil in them, their move away from what befits them. It is a privation in them, an imperfection, a powerlessness. It is a weakness, a lapse, an abandonment of the capacity they have to be perfect. Or, again, what is this evil in them? It is unreasoning anger, mindless desire, headlong fancy, and yet qualities of this sort, even if they are to be found among demons, are not totally, completely, and innately evil. For in other living beings it is not the possession of such qualities but rather the loss of them which brings ruin to a creature and is therefore evil. Possession of them can actually ensure life, can form the nature of the living being which has them. So, therefore, the 725C tribe of demons is evil not because of what it is in its nature but on account of what it is not. And that complete goodness bestowed on them has not been altered. No. What has happened is that they have fallen away from the complete goodness granted to them, and I would claim that the angelic gifts bestowed on them have never been changed inherently, that in fact they are brilliantly complete even if the demons themselves, through a failure of their powers to perceive the good, are not able to look upon them. Whatever is, is from the Good, is good and desires the beautiful and the Good, by desiring to exist, to live, and to think. They are called evil because of the deprivation, the abandonment, the rejection of the virtues which are appropriate to them. And they are evil to the extent that they are not, and insofar as they wish for evil they wish for what is not really there. 24. Maybe someone will claim that souls are evil. The reason for 725D saying this may be that human souls have dealings with evil whenever they make provision to avoid evil. This, however, is not evil. It is good, offspring of the Good, turning evil into good. 728A But if the reason for saying this is that we acknowledge that souls can become evil, what else is this if not a deficiency in the domain of good habits and activities, a falling away from these because of innate frailty? We say that the surrounding air turns dark because of a deficiency, an absence of light. But light itself is always light and illu -91minates the darkness. So too with evil. It is neither in demons nor in us qua evil. What it is actually is a deficiency and a lack of the perfection of the inherent virtues. 25. Nor is evil to be found among the irrational animals. Take 728B away anger, desire, and such like, which are said to be naturally evil but in fact are not so, then the lion, minus its courage and pride, will no longer be a lion, and the barking dog, whose value is in its ability both to allow its owner to come near and also to drive away the stranger, will no longer be a dog if it fawns on everybody. So, then, evil does not lie in the destruction of one's own proper nature; the destruction of nature is in the weakness and deficiency of natural qualities, activities, and powers. And if all things generated in time have their destined perfection, then their imperfection will not be completely at variance with nature. 26. Evil is not an inherent part of nature as a whole. If all the 728C

65 laws of nature derive from the universal system of nature, no contrary will be found there. It is only in the realm of particulars that something is said to be natural or unnatural. With regard to what is unnatural, it can be so in one respect and not so in another. Evil in the domain of nature is against nature, a deficiency of what should be there in nature. Thus, there is no evil nature, for this is evil to nature. Rather, evil lies in the inability of things to reach their natural peak of perfection. 27. And there is no evil in our bodies, for ugliness and disease are a defect in form and a lack of due order. What is here is not pure 728D evil but a lesser beauty. If beauty, form, and order could be destroyed completely the body itself would disappear. It is also obvious that the body is not the cause of evil in the soul. Evil does not require a body to be nearby, as is clear in the case of demons. Evil in minds, in souls, and in bodies is a weakness and a defect in the condition of their natural virtues. 28. There is no truth in the common assertion that evil is inher 729A ent in matter qua matter, since matter too has a share in the cosmos, in beauty and form. If matter lacked these, if it were inherently deficient in quality and form, if it lacked even the capacity to be affected, how could it produce anything? Surely matter cannot be evil. If it has being in no way at all, then it is neither good nor evil. If it has some kind of being then it must derive from the Good, since every being owes its origin to the Good. Hence Good produces evil, because evil coming from Good is good, -92or else the Good is itself produced by evil and is therefore evil because of its source. Or, once again, it may be that there are two sources. But if so these must in turn be derived from some anterior source. If it is said that matter is a necessity for the fulfillment of the whole cosmos, how can matter be evil? Evil and necessity are two dif ferent things. How can the Good bring something into being from 729B evil? And how can that be evil which needs the Good, for evil surely flees the nature of the Good? How indeed could matter produce and sustain nature if it is evil? Evil qua evil cannot produce and cannot sustain anything, cannot make or preserve anything. But if it is asserted that matter does not cause the evil in souls but that it pulls them down, how can this be true? For many souls have their gaze directed toward the Good and how could this happen if matter completely drags them down to evil? Hence the evil in souls does not owe its origin to matter but comes from disorder and error. However, if it is claimed that souls always follow matter, and that unstable matter is required for things that could not stand by themselves, why in that case should evil be actually necessary or that this necessity be evil in fact? 29. Nor is it the case that deprivation enters into conflict with

729C

66 the Good by its own power. Total deprivation means total powerlessness. A partial capacity, however, has some power, not in that it is a deprivation but in that it is not a total deprivation. A lack of Good, a lack which is not total, is not evil; and when goodness is perfect then evil disappears. 30. To sum up. Good comes from the one universal Cause, and evil originates in numerous partial deficiencies. God knows evil under the form of good, and with him the causes of evil things are capacities which can produce good. But if evil is eternal, creative and powerful, if it has being and is active, from where does it get all this? From the 732A Good? From evil produced by the Good? Or are both of them from some other cause? Now all things in nature owe their origin to a specific cause, but if evil has no specific cause then it must be contrary to nature, and what is against nature has no place in nature, just as lack of skill has no place in skill. What about the soul? Is it the cause of evil, in the same way that fire is the cause of warmth? Does the soul fill its neighborhood with evil? Or is it the case that while the nature of the soul is good its activities are sometimes of one kind, sometimes of another? If its being is by nature evil, where does its being come from? Does it come from -93the good creative Cause of everything? But if this is where it comes from, how can it be essentially evil, since all of the offspring of this Cause are good? If, however, the evil resides in its activities, this is not something fixed unalterably, for where else are the virtues located if it does not adapt itself also to good? What we are left with is this, namely, that evil is a weakness and a deficiency of the Good.

732B

31. The Cause for all good things is one. If, however, evil is contrary to the Good, then evil must have numerous causes. And it is not principles and powers which produce evil but impotence and weakness and an inharmonious commingling of discordances. Evil things are not immobile and eternally unchanging but indeterminate, indefinite, and bearing themselves differently in different things. But the Good must be the source and the goal even of what is evil for all things good and bad are for the sake of the Good. Even when we do [wrong] we do so out of our longing for it since there is no one who deliberately does wrong for the sake of wrong. Hence evil has no substance. It is 732C opposed to substance since it comes into being not on its own account but for the sake of the Good. 32. We have to assume that evil exists as an accident. It is there by means of something else. Its source does not lie within itself. Hence something we do for the sake of the Good looks right and yet is not really so when we consider to be good what is actually not so. Desire and event are clearly different. Thus, evil is contrary to prog ress, purpose, nature, cause, source, goal, definition, will, and sub 732D stance. It is a defect, a deficiency, a weakness, a disproportion, a sin. It is purposeless, ugly, lifeless, mindless, unreasonable, imperfect, unfounded, uncaused, indeterminate, unborn, inert, powerless, disordered. It is errant, indefinite, dark, insubstantial, never in itself possessed of any existence. But then how is it that evil, if it is mixed with good, can achieve something? Whatever is totally lacking in a share of the Good has no

67 733A

being and no power, and if the Good has being, will, power, and ac tion, how can that which is its opposite—that which lacks being, will, power, and activity—have any power against it? The reason is that evil things are not totally evil in every respect. The evil in demons lies in opposing a mind shaped by goodness, the evil in the soul lies in the activity contrary to reason, and the evil in the body lies in the renunciation of what is natural. -94-

33. Given the fact of Providence, how can there be evil? 169. But evil as such has no being nor is it inherent in the things that have being. However, nothing possessed of being lies outside the workings of Providence, and evil has no share of being except in an admixture 733B with the Good. So if no being is without some share in the Good and if evil is a deficiency of the Good and if no being is completely devoid of the Good, the Providence of God must then be in all beings and nothing can be lacking it. Providence even makes good use of evil effects to turn these or others to good use individually and collectively. It provides for each particular being. Therefore we should ignore the popular notion that Providence will lead us to virtue even against our will. Providence does not destroy nature. 170. Indeed its character as Providence is shown by the fact that it saves the nature of each individual, so that the free may freely act as individual or as groups, in sofar as the nature of those provided for receives the benefactions of 733C this providing power appropriate to each one. 34. So, then, evil has no being nor does it inhere in the things that have being. There is no place for evil as such and its origin is due to a defect rather than to a capacity. And as for the demons, the Good is their source and the fact of their existence is itself good. They are evil insofar as they have fallen away from the virtues proper to them. They have changed in the domain of what was permanent in them. A weakness has appeared in the angelic perfection suitable to them. They too desire the Good, at least to the extent that they have a wish 733D for existence, for life, and for understanding, and their desire for what has no being is proportionate to their lack of desire for the Good. Indeed this latter is not so much a desire as sin against real desire. 35. Scripture speaks of men who sin knowingly. The reference is to those who in the matter of knowing Good and doing good show a weakened grasp. Scripture also refers to "those who know the will 736A of God and who do not do it," 171. that is to say, those who, having heard, are too weak in faith either to trust the Good or to do what is ____________________ 169. This is the basic question addressed by both Proclus (in Parm. 1056, 10-16) and also Boethius (The Consolation of Philosophy I, 4, 30 and IV, 1, 3). 170. Cf. "grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it," Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I, 1, 8, ad 2. See the related texts discussed by B. Stoeckle, "Gratia supponit naturam": Geschichte und Analyse eines theologischen Axioms (Rome: Herder, 1962), especially pp. 99-112 (Studia Anselmiana, 49). 171. Lk 12:47. -9533. Given the fact of Providence, how can there be evil? 169. But evil as such has no being nor is it inherent in the things that have being. However, nothing possessed of being lies outside the workings

68 of Providence, and evil has no share of being except in an admixture 733B with the Good. So if no being is without some share in the Good and if evil is a deficiency of the Good and if no being is completely devoid of the Good, the Providence of God must then be in all beings and nothing can be lacking it. Providence even makes good use of evil effects to turn these or others to good use individually and collectively. It provides for each particular being. Therefore we should ignore the popular notion that Providence will lead us to virtue even against our will. Providence does not destroy nature. 170. Indeed its character as Providence is shown by the fact that it saves the nature of each individual, so that the free may freely act as individual or as groups, in sofar as the nature of those provided for receives the benefactions of 733C this providing power appropriate to each one. 34. So, then, evil has no being nor does it inhere in the things that have being. There is no place for evil as such and its origin is due to a defect rather than to a capacity. And as for the demons, the Good is their source and the fact of their existence is itself good. They are evil insofar as they have fallen away from the virtues proper to them. They have changed in the domain of what was permanent in them. A weakness has appeared in the angelic perfection suitable to them. They too desire the Good, at least to the extent that they have a wish 733D for existence, for life, and for understanding, and their desire for what has no being is proportionate to their lack of desire for the Good. Indeed this latter is not so much a desire as sin against real desire. 35. Scripture speaks of men who sin knowingly. The reference is to those who in the matter of knowing Good and doing good show a weakened grasp. Scripture also refers to "those who know the will 736A of God and who do not do it," 171. that is to say, those who, having heard, are too weak in faith either to trust the Good or to do what is ____________________ 169. This is the basic question addressed by both Proclus (in Parm. 1056, 10-16) and also Boethius (The Consolation of Philosophy I, 4, 30 and IV, 1, 3). 170. Cf. "grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it," Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I, 1, 8, ad 2. See the related texts discussed by B. Stoeckle, "Gratia supponit naturam": Geschichte und Analyse eines theologischen Axioms (Rome: Herder, 1962), especially pp. 99-112 (Studia Anselmiana, 49). 171. Lk 12:47. -95good. There are some whose will is so perverse or weak that they do not want to know how to do good. In short, evil, as I often, so often said, is weakness, impotence, a deficiency of knowledge, of ceaseless knowledge, of belief, of desire, and of activity of the Good. Now it may be argued that weakness should be pardoned not punished, and this would be reasonable if one had to do with what is outside of human capacities. But the Good, as scripture says, generously bestows such capacities on each as needed and, therefore, there can be no excuse for any sin in the realm of one's own good, for any turning aside, any desertion, any lapse. I have said enough about this in what I set 736B down to the best of my abilities in Concerning Justice and the Judgment of God. In that sacred work the truth of scripture rejected as crazy chatter those clever arguments which unjustly and falsely malign God. But here in this present work I am lifting a hymn of praise to the Good for being so truly marvelous, for being the Source and the end of all things. It is the power embracing all things and giving form to things which have not yet acquired being. It is the Cause of all good things and is not the cause for the bad. It is Providence and absolute goodness, surpassing the things that are and the things that are not. It is the power

69 which makes good both evils and the very lack of itself. All things desire it, yearn for it, love it, and it has all those other qualities which, in my opinion, the foregoing argument has set out. CHAPTER FIVE Concerning "Being," and also concerning paradigms. 816A 1. We must go on now to the name of "being" which is rightly applied 816B by theology to him who truly is. 172. But I must point out that the purpose of what I have to say is not to reveal that being in its transcendence, for this is something beyond words, something unknown and wholly unrevealed, something above unity itself. What I wish to do is to sing a hymn of praise for the beingmaking procession of the absolute divine Source of being into the total domain of being. The divine name "Good" tells of all the processions of the universal Cause; it extends to beings and nonbeings and that Cause is superior to being and nonbeings. The name "Being" extends to all beings ____________________ 172. The name "being," or "he who is," comes from Ex 3:14 ("I am who I am") and Rv 1:4, 8, as mentioned above in DN 1 596A 13, and discussed in DN 2 637A 6-12. -96which are, and it is beyond them. The name of "Life" extends to all living things, and yet is beyond them. The name "Wisdom" reaches out to everything which has to do with understanding, reason, and sense perception, and surpasses them all. 173. 2. I must speak now of those names which tell of the Providence 816C of God. I do not promise to express the absolutely transcendent goodness, being, life, and wisdom of that Godhead beyond all which, as scripture tells us, has its foundation in a secret place 174. above all goodness, divinity, being, wisdom, and life. What I have to say is concerned with the benevolent Providence made known to us, and my speech of praise is for the transcendentally good Cause of all good things, for that Being and Life and Wisdom, for that Cause of existence and life and wisdom among those creatures with their own share in being, life, intelligence, expression, and perception. I do not think of the Good as one thing, Being as another, Life and Wisdom as yet other, and I do not claim that there are numerous causes and different Godheads, all differently ranked, superior and inferior, and all pro ducing different effects. No. But I hold that there is one God for all 816D these good processions and that he is the possessor of the divine names of which I speak and that the first name tells of the universal Provi 817A dence of the one God, while the other names reveal general or specific ways in which he acts providentially. 3. Someone might say, "Given that being is more extensive than life and that life ranges farther than wisdom, how is it that living beings are superior to things which merely are, that sentient things are better than the things which simply have life, that reasoning beings surpass those which only have feeling, and that pure intelligences are superior to beings which only have reason? Why does this have to be the order in which creatures approach the presence of God and a closer relationship to him? One would have expected that the greater one's share in the gifts of God, the higher one would be and the more one would be superior to others." A good point, assuming 817B that intelligent beings have neither being nor life. The reality is this. Divine intelligences do exist in a manner superior to other beings and ____________________ 173. These four names (Good, Being, Life, and Wisdom) are the respective subjects of chapters four

70 through seven. These central chapters of The Divine Names and their relationship to the Neoplatonic triad of "being, life, and mind" are discussed in E. Corsini, Il trattato 'De Divinis Nominibus' dello pseudo-Dionigi e i commenti neoplatonici al Parmenidi (Turin: Giappichelli, 1962), pp. 156ff. 174. Ps 18:11 (LXX; see also MT 1 1000B 10); Ps 81:7. -97they live in a fashion surpassing other living things. They have understanding and they have knowledge far beyond perception and reason. They desire and participate in the Beautiful and the Good in a way far above the things which exist. They are very much closer to the Good and participate much more in the Good, from which they have received more and certainly greater gifts. And in a similar manner, creatures endowed with reason surpass those having perception simply because of the greater powers of reason. And these are the superior [to those who are merely alive] by virtue of having perception and these are superior [to those who are merely beings] by virtue of having life. For, as it seems to me, the truth is this. The more a thing participates in the one infinitely generous God, the closer one is to him and the more divine one is with respect to others.

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4. So much for that problem. But now let me speak about the Good, about that which truly is and which gives being to everything else. The God who is 175. transcends everything by virtue of his power. He is the substantive Cause and maker of being, subsistence, of existence, of substance, and of nature. He is the Source and the measure of the ages. 176. He is the reality beneath time and the eternity behind being. He is the time within which things happen. He is being for whatever is. He is coming-tobe amid whatever happens. From him who is come eternity, essence and being, come time, genesis, and becoming. He is the being im manent in and underlying the things which are, however they are. For 817D God is not some kind of being. No. But in a way that is simple and indefinable he gathers into himself and anticipates every existence. So he is called "King of the ages," 177. for in him and around him all being is and subsists. He was not. He will not be. He did not come to be. He is not in the midst of becoming. He will not come to be. No. He is not. Rather, he is the essence of being for the things which have being. Not only things that are but also the essence of what they are come from him who precedes the ages. For he is the age of ages, the "predecessor of the ages." 178. 5. To repeat. Every being and all the ages derive their existence 820A from the Preexistent. All eternity and time are from him. The Preexistent is the source and is the cause of all eternity, of time and of every ____________________ 175. Or "Being," as in Ex 3: 14. 176. An allusion to Heb 1:2? 177. 1 Tm 1:17. 178. Ps 55:19 (LXX). -98kind of being. Everything participates in him and none among beings falls away. 179. "He is before all things and in him all things hold together." 180. In short, the existence of anything whatsoever is there in the Preexistent, and is perceived and preserved. Being precedes the entities which participate in it. Being in itself is more revered than the being of Life itself and Wisdom itself and Likeness to divinity itself. Whatever beings participate in these things must,

71 before all else, participate in Being. More precisely, those absolute qualities of which things have a share must themselves partic ipate in being itself. Consider anything which is. Its being and 820B eternity is Being itself. So therefore God as originator of everything through the first of all his gifts is praised as "He who is." In a surpassing fashion he possesses preexistence and preeminence and he originated being, I mean absolute being, and with that as instrument he founded every type of existent. All the sources of whatever there is both exist and are sources by virtue of their participation in Being. First, they are, and then, they are sources. You could express it this way. Life itself is the source of everything alive. Similarity itself is the source of everything similar, Unity itself of everything unified, Order itself of everything orderly. So it goes, you will find, with all other things which participate in this quality or in that, in both or in many. 820C What they have primarily is existence, and this existence ensures for them that they remain and that they are then themselves the source of this or that. It is only because of their participation in Being that they exist themselves and that things participate in them. If they have being as a result of the participation in Being itself, all the more so is this the case with the things which participate in them. 6. The first gift therefore of the absolutely transcendent Goodness is the gift of being, and that Goodness is praised from those that first and principally have a share of being. From it and in it are Being itself, the source of beings, all beings and whatever else has a portion of existence. This characteristic is in it as an irrepressible, comprehensive, and singular feature.

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Every number preexists uniquely in the monad and the monad holds every number in itself singularly. Every number is united in the monad; it is differentiated and pluralized only insofar as it goes forth from this one. All the radii of a circle are brought together in the unity ____________________ 179. See Saffrey, "Nouveaux liens," p. 13f. 180. Col 1:17.

821A

-99of the center which contains all the straight lines brought together within itself. These are linked one to another because of this single point of origin and they are completely unified at this center. As they move a little away from it they are differentiated a little, and as they fall farther they are farther differentiated. That is, the closer they are to the center point, the more they are at one with it and at one with each other, and the more they travel away from it the more they are separated from each other. 7. In the totality of nature all the laws governing each individual nature are gathered together in one unity within which there is no con 821B fusion, and in the soul the individual powers providing for all the parts of the body are assembled together as one. So there is nothing absurd in rising up, as we do, from obscure images to the single Cause of everything, rising with eyes that see beyond the cosmos to contemplate all things, even the things that are opposites, in a simple unity within the universal Cause. For that Source is the beginning of everything and from it come Being itself and every kind of being, all source and all end, all life and immortality and wisdom, all order and harmony and power, all maintenance and establishment and arrangement, all intelligence and reason and perception, all quality and rest and motion, all unity and intermingling and attraction, all cohesiveness and differentiation, all definition, and indeed every attribute

which by the mere fact of being gives a character thereby to every existing thing.

72 821C

8. From this same universal Cause come those intelligent and intelligible beings, the godlike angels. From it also come the nature of souls, the nature of everything in the cosmos, together with all the qualities said to subsist in other objects or in our thinking processes. And from it too come those all-holy and most venerable powers which have the most real existence and which have their foundation, so to speak, in the anteroom of the transcendent Trinity. 181. They draw being from it. They exist in it. And from it they derive their godlike being. Next come the subordinate beings, and these too [receive their being and godlike being] in subordinate status from the same Cause. Below these again are the lowliest beings whose [being and godlike being] comes from this Cause, but in the lowliest way. If they are the ____________________ 181. On this Proclean term "anteroom" see CH 7 208A 12, note 74.

821D

-100lowliest, this is in comparison with the other angels since in comparison with us they are above and beyond the world. And then there are the souls, together with all the other creatures. It is in accordance with the same principle that they too possess being and well-being. They are and are well, and they have this being and this well-being from the Preexistent, in whom they are, in whom they are well, from whom they have their beginning and their protection, toward whom they come as a final goal. He grants the highest measure of existence to those more exalted beings described in scripture as eternal. 182. But beings are never without being which, in turn, comes from the Preexistent. He is not a facet of being. Rather, being 824A is a facet of him. He is not contained in being, but being is contained in him. He does not possess being, but being possesses him. 183. He is the eternity of being, the source and the measure of being. He precedes essence, being, and eternity. He is the creative source, middle, and end of all things. That is why scripture applies to the truly Preexistent the numerous attributes associated with every kind of being. To him is properly attributed past, present, and future, came-to-be, coming-to-be, will-come-to-be. 184. All these characteristics, when divinely understood, indicate the complete transcendence of his Being and show him to be Cause responsible for every mode of being. It is not that he exists here and not there. He does not possess this kind of ex 824B istence and not that. No. He is all things since he is the Cause of all things. The sources and the goals of all things are in him and are anticipated in him. But he is also superior to them all because he precedes them and is transcendentally above them. Therefore every attribute may be predicated of him and yet he is not any one thing. He has every shape and structure, and yet is formless and beautyless, for in his incomprehensible priority and transcendence he contains the sources, mean terms, and ends of all things and he undefiledly enlightens Being for them in one undifferentiated cause. The sun, as we know it, is one. It is a single illuminating light, acting upon the essences and the qualities of the many and various things we perceive. It renews them, nourishes them, protects them and perfects them. It establishes the differences between them and it ____________________

73 182.

Ps 24:7-9, 2 Cor 4:18; see the discussion in DN 10 937B to 940A. The emendation proposed by S. Lilla reads "Being does not possess Him, but He possesses being" ("Osservazioni sul testo," #234, p. 116). 184. Rv 1:4 and 8. 183.

-101unifies them. It warms them and makes them fruitful. It makes them 824C exist, grow, change, take root, burst forth. It quickens them and gives them life. Each thing therefore has, in its own way, a share of the one and the same sun and the one sun contains within itself as a unity the causes of all the things which participate in it. All this holds all the more truly with respect to the Cause which produced the sun and which produced everything else. The exemplars of everything preexist as a transcendent unity within It. 185. It brings forth being as a tide of being. We give the name of "exemplar" to those principles which preexist as a unity in God and which produce the essences of things. Theology calls them predefining, divine and good acts of will which determine and create things and in accordance with which the Transcendent One predefined and brought into being everything that is. 824D 9. Now it may well be that Clement, 186. the philosopher, uses the term "exemplar" in relation to the more important things among beings but his discourse does not proceed according to the proper, perfect, and simple naming. Even if we were to concede all this to him, we would still be obliged to remember the scriptural statement, "I did 825A not show these things to you, so that you might follow after them." 187. That is, through the knowledge we have, which is geared to our faculties, we may be uplifted as far as possible to the Cause of everything. We must attribute all things to this Cause and we must regard them as joined together in one transcendental unity. Starting with being and initiating the creative procession of goodness, reaching out to fill all things with being as a gift from itself, rejoicing in all things, it anticipates all things in itself. In its total simplicity it shakes off all duplication and it embraces everything in its transcendent infinity. It is therefore shared indivisibly by all in the same way that one and the same sound is perceived by numerous ears. 10. And so it is that the Preexistent is the Source and the end of 825B all things. 188. He is their Source, for he is their Cause. He is their end, for he is the "for the sake of whom." He is the boundary to all things ____________________ 185. See Saffrey, "Nouveaux liens," p. 14. 186. The Dionysian pseudonym would seem jeopardized by this reference to a Clement, since the reader could think of Clement the Apostolic Father (c. 100) or the philosopher Clement of Alexandria (c. 150c. 215). But Saint Paul's reference to a co-worker named Clement (Phil 4:3) may have prevented suspicion. 187. Hos 13:4 (LXX). 188. A variation of Rv 21:6? -102and is the unbounded infinity about them in a fashion which rises above the contradiction between finite and infinite. 189. As was often said, he contains beforehand and created everything in a single act. He is present to all and he is everywhere, according to one and the same and the totality of everything. He proceeds to everything while yet remaining within himself. He is at rest and astir, is neither resting nor stirring and has neither source, nor middle nor end. He is in nothing. He is no thing. The categories of eternity and of time do not apply to him, since he transcends both and transcends whatever lies within

74 them. Eternity itself and beings and the measures of beings and the measured world exist through him and from him. However, so far as these last topics are concerned, let that suffice which I shall more fittingly say elsewhere. 190. CHAPTER SIX Concerning "Life." 191.

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1. Let us now praise Eternal Life, since from it comes life itself and all life and by it life is appropriately distributed to all who in any way partake of life. From it and through it exist and subsist the life and immortality of the immortal angels, and the indestructability of the angelic eternal life. That is why they are described as ever-living and 856B immortal. Though, again, they are not immortal, since they do not have immortality and eternal life by themselves. This is something they have from the creative Cause which produces and preserves all life. Just as when talking of Being I said it is an eternity of absolute being, so now I say that the divine Life beyond life is the giver and creator of life itself. All life and living movement comes from a Life which is above every life and is beyond the source of life. From this Life souls have their indestructibility, and every living being and plant, down to the last echo of life, has life. As scripture says, 192. take this away and all life is eclipsed and the things which faded because ____________________ 189. On the concept of infinity, see S. Lilla, "The Notion of Infinitude in Ps.-Dionysius," The Journal of Theological Studies 31 (1980): 93-103. 190. The topics of time and eternity are discussed below in DN 10 937C to 940A. 191. The name "Life" comes from In 11:25 and 14:6 (cf. Jn 1:4, 5:26). It is introduced in DN 1 596A 13 and applied to the entire divinity in DN 2 637A 12-16. 192. Ps 104:29f. -103of having a weakening share of it come alive once again when they are returned to it.

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2. First, it gives to life itself the capacity to be life, and it gives to everything alive and to every form of life the existence appropriate to it. On the living heavenly lives it bestows their immaterial, divine, and unchangeable immortality, their unswerving, unerring, and continuous motion. So overabundant is its goodness that it reaches down even to demonic life which draws its life and its demonic life from this and from no other cause. To men, with their composite nature, it 856D grants whatever angelic life they are able to absorb and, overflowing with love for mankind, it returns us and calls us back to itself after we have strayed, and, more marvelous still, it has promised us that it will transform what we are—I mean our souls and the bodies yoked to them 193. —and will bring us to perfect life and immortality. To antiquity this looked to be contrary to nature, but to me and to you and to the truth it appears divinely supernatural. I call it supernatural be 857A cause while it rises above the visible order of things, it does not transcend the mighty nature of divine Life. This is the nature of all lives and especially of the more divine lives and so far as it is concerned there is no life which is contrary to nature or supernatural. The faulty arguments, therefore, of mad Simon 194. must not enter the company of God's holy company. Nor must they find a place in your sacred soul.

75 For despite his reputation for wisdom he forgot, I think, that no one with a bit of sense ought to set an apparent argument from the senses against the invisible Cause of everything. What he is saying is contrary to nature, and we must tell him so, for there is nothing contrary to the Universal Cause. 3. All animals and plants receive life and warmth from it. And 857B whether you talk of the life of intelligence, of reason, of perception, of nourishment, of growth or whatever, if you talk of life, or the source of life or the essence of life, it lives and grants life out of that Life surpassing all life and it preexists in it as the single Cause of life. The transcendently originating Life is the cause of all life, produces it, brings it to completion, gives it specific form. When we speak in praise of it our words must be drawn from all of life, for we have to remember that it teems with every kind of life. It may be contemplated and praised amid every manifestation of life, for it lacks nothing ____________________ 193. See EH 7 553BC for further discussion of the body and the soul in the afterlife. 194. Acts 8:9? -104or, rather, it is overflowing with life. It is absolute Life and working far beyond life it transcendently fashions all life, or however else one might humanly praise the ineffable Life.

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CHAPTER SEVEN Concerning "Wisdom," "Mind," "Word," "Truth," "Faith." 195. 1. Now, if you will, let us give praise to the good and eternal Life for 865B being wise, for being the principle of wisdom, the subsistence of all wisdom, for transcending all wisdom and all understanding. It is not simply the case that God is so overflowing with wisdom that "his understanding is beyond measure" 196. but, rather, he actually transcends all reason, all intelligence, and all wisdom. This is something which was marvelously grasped by that truly divine man, my teacher and yours and the light of our common instructor. For this is what he said: "The foolishness of God is wiser than men." 197. Those words are true not only because all human thinking is a sort of error when compared with the solid permanence of the perfect divine thoughts but also because it is customary for theologians to apply negative terms to God, but contrary to the usual sense of a deprivation. Scripture, for example, calls the all-apparent light "invisible." 198. It says regarding the One of many praises and many names that he is ineffable and name 865C less. 199. It says of the One who is present in all things and who may be discovered from all things that he is ungraspable and "inscrutable." 200. And here the divine apostle is said to be praising God for his "foolishness," which in itself seems absurd and strange, but uplifts [us] to the ineffable truth which is there before all reasoning. 201. But, as I have ____________________ 195. Despite the title, this chapter concentrates on the divine name "Wisdom" (Prv 8:22-31 and 1 Cor 1:30; "wise" in Jb 9:4 and Rom 16:27; see DN 1 596B 16 and 19). It also considers the name "Logos," or word or reason, beginning at 872C. 196. Ps 147:5. 197. 1 Cor 1:25. Saint Paul is here presented as the teacher of our author and Timothy, and of their common instructor, Hierotheus (DN 3 681A 1f.). 198. Col 1:15; 1 Tm 1:17, 6:16; Heb 11:27; see DN 1 588C 39, note 6. 199. DN 1 596A 1-12. 200. Rom 11:33. 201. The apparent absurdity of 1 Cor 1:25 is "anagogical," that is, it uplifts the reader to a higher truth. The Areopagite's view of incongruous and absurd symbolism is thoroughly discussed in CH 2, with the necessary background of The Mystical Theology. See also DN 1 592C 40 to 593A 5, and DN 4 709C

76 33f. -105often said elsewhere, we have a habit of seizing upon what is actually beyond us, clinging to the familiar categories of our sense perceptions, and then we measure the divine by our human standards and, of course, are led astray by the apparent meaning we give to divine and unspeakable reason. What we should really consider is this. The human mind has a capacity to think, through which it looks on conceptual things, and a unity which transcends the nature of the mind, through which it is joined to things beyond itself. And this transcend ing characteristic must be given to the words we use about God. They 865D must not be given the human sense. We should be taken wholly out of ourselves 202. and become wholly of God, since it is better to belong 868A to God rather than to ourselves. Only when we are with God will the divine gifts be poured out onto us. Therefore let us supremely praise this foolish "Wisdom," which has neither reason nor intelligence and let us describe it as the Cause of all intelligence and reason, of all wisdom and understanding. All counsel belongs to it, from it come all knowledge and understanding, and "in it are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 203. From all that has been said above, it follows that the transcendently wise Cause is indeed the subsistence of absolute wisdom and of the sum total and individual manifestations of wisdom. 2. The intelligent and intelligible powers of the angelic minds 868B draw from Wisdom their simple and blessed conceptions. They do not draw together their knowledge of God from fragments nor from bouts of perception or of discursive reasoning. And at the same time, they are not limited to perception and reason. Being free from all burden of matter and multiplicity, they think the thoughts of the divine realm intelligently, immaterially, and in a single act. Theirs is an intelligent power and energy, glittering in an unmixed and undefiled purity, and it surveys the divine conceptions in an indivisible, immaterial, and godlike oneness. They become shaped as close as possible to the transcendently wise mind and reason of God, and this happens through the workings of the divine Wisdom. 204. Human souls also possess reason and with it they circle in discourse around the truth of things. Because of the fragmentary and va____________________ 202. On this "ecstasy" as the interpretive process of negating and rising above human words and symbols, see DN 13 981B 16-20, note 266. 203. Col 2:3. 204. On the angels' knowledge and its comparison with human knowledge, see EH 1, note 7. -106ried nature of their many activities they are on a lower level than the 868C unified intelligences. Nevertheless, on account of the manner in which they are capable of concentrating the many into the one, they too, in their own fashion and as far as they can, are worthy of conceptions like those of the angels. Our sense perceptions also can properly be described as echoes of wisdom, and even the intelligence of demons, to the extent that it is intelligence, comes from it, though we could more accurately describe this as a falling away from wisdom, since demonic intelligence stupidly has no idea how to obtain what it really wants and indeed does not want it.

77 I have said already that the divine Wisdom is the source, the cause, the substance, the perfection, the protector, and the goal of Wisdom itself, of mind, of reason, and of all sense perception. How, then, is it that God who is more than wise, is praised as wisdom, 868D mind, word, and a knower? 205. If he does not have intellectual activi ties, how can he possess understanding of conceptual things? How does he have knowledge of sense data when he himself transcends the domain of sense, while scripture, on the other hand, proclaims that he knows everything 206. and that nothing escapes the divine knowl edge? But, as I have often said previously, we must interpret the 869A things of God in a way that befits God, and when we talk of God as being without mind and without perception, this is to be taken in the sense of what he has in superabundance and not as a defect. Hence we attribute absence of reason to him because he is above reason, we attribute lack of perfection to him because he is above and before perfection, and we posit intangible and invisible darkness of that Light which is unapproachable 207. because it so far exceeds the visible light. The divine Mind, therefore, takes in all things in a total knowledge which is transcendent. Because it is the Cause of all things it has a foreknowledge of everything. 208. Before there are angels he has knowledge of angels and he brings them into being. He knows everything else and, if I may put it so, he knows them from the very beginning and therefore brings them into being. This, I think, is what scripture ____________________ 205. The variant reading "knower," instead of "knowledge," is supported by DN 1 19f. It comes from Daniel 13:42 (Susanna 42), partially quoted below in 869A 13f. (note 209). S. Lilla reports that most of the codices he consulted support this reading ("Osservazioni sul testo," #265, p. 171). 206. Jn 21:17. 207. 1 Tm 6:16. 208. Proclus, in Plat. Theo. 4, 5. -107means with the declaration, "He knows all things before their birth." 209. The divine Mind does not acquire the knowledge of things from things. Rather, of itself and in itself it precontains and compre hends the awareness and understanding and being of everything in 869B terms of their cause. This is not a knowledge of each specific class. What is here is a single embracing causality which knows and contains all things. Take the example of light. In itself it has a prior and causal knowledge of darkness. What it knows about darkness it knows not from another, but from the fact of being light. So too the divine Wisdom knows all things by knowing itself. Uniquely it knows and produces all things by its oneness: material things immaterially, divisible things indivisibly, plurality in a single act. If with one causal gesture God bestows being on everything, in that one same act of causation he will know everything through derivation from him and through their preexistence in him, and, therefore, his knowledge of things will not be owed to the things themselves. He will be a leader, giving to each the knowledge it has of itself and of others. Consequently, God 869C does not possess a private knowledge of himself and a separate knowledge of all the creatures in common. The universal Cause, by knowing itself, can hardly be ignorant of the things which proceed from it and of which it is the source. This, then, is how God knows all things, not by understanding things, but by understanding himself. Scripture also says that the angels know the things of earth 210. not because these latter may be perceived by the senses but because of the proper capacity and nature inherent in a Godlike intelligence.

78 3. If God cannot be grasped by mind or sense-perception, if he is not a particular being, how do we know him? This is something we must inquire into. It might be more accurate to say that we cannot know God in his nature, since this is unknowable and is beyond the reach of mind or of reason. But we know him from the arrangement of everything, be 869D cause everything is, in a sense, projected out from him, and this order possesses certain images and semblances of his divine paradigms. We therefore approach that which is beyond all as far as our capacities allow us and we pass by way of the denial and the transcendence of 872A all things and by way of the cause of all things. God is therefore known in all things and as distinct from all things. He is known through ____________________ 209. Dn 13:42 (Susanna 42). 210. Mt 18:10? -108knowledge and through unknowing. Of him there is conception, reason, understanding, touch, perception, opinion, imagination, name, and many other things. On the other hand he cannot be understood, words cannot contain him, and no name can lay hold of him. He is not one of the things that are and he cannot be known in any of them. He is all things in all things and he is no thing among things. He is known to all from all things and he is known to no one from anything. This is the sort of language we must use about God, for he is praised from all things according to their proportion to him as their Cause. But again, the most divine knowledge of God, that which comes through unknowing, 211. is achieved in a union far beyond mind, when mind turns away from all things, even from itself, and when it 872B is made one with the dazzling rays, being then and there enlightened by the inscrutable depth of Wisdom. Still, as I have said already, we must learn about Wisdom from all things. As scripture says, Wisdom has made and continues always to adapt everything. 212. It is the cause of the unbreakable accommodation and order of all things and it is forever linking the goals of one set of things with the sources of another and in this fashion it makes a thing of beauty of the unity and the harmony of the whole. 4. God is praised as "Logos" [word] by the sacred scriptures not 872C only as the leader of word, mind, and wisdom, but because he also initially carries within his own unity the causes of all things and because he penetrates all things, reaching, as scripture says, to the very end of all things. 213. But the title is used especially because the divine Logos is simpler than any simplicity and, in its utter transcendence, is independent of everything. This Word is simple total truth. Divine faith revolves around it because it is pure and unwavering knowledge of all. It is the one sure foundation for those who believe, binding them to the truth, building the truth in them as something unshakably firm so that they have an uncomplicated knowledge of the truth of what they believe. If knowledge unites knower and known, while ig 872D norance is always the cause of change and of the inconsistency of the ____________________ 211. This entire discussion on the knowledge of God through unknowing should be read with the "negative theology" of MT 1-5 and CH 2. This particular passage was cited in The Cloud of Unknowing, chap. 70. 212. Ps 104:24; Prv 8:30 (LXX).

79 Heb 4:12 (DN 9 912A 8-10); Wisd of Sol 7:24, 8:1 (?). The word "logos" must be translated by several terms, depending on the context. It appears in this chapter as "word" or "reason," elsewhere as "speech" (e.g., MT 5 1045D 5f.).

213.

-109ignorant, then, as scripture tells us, 214. nothing shall separate the one who believes in truth from the ground of true faith and it is there that he will come into the possession of enduring, unchanging identity. The man in union with truth knows clearly that all is well with him, even if everyone else thinks that he has gone out of his mind. What they fail to see, naturally, is that he has gone out of the path of error and has in his real faith arrived at truth. He knows that far from being mad, 215. as they imagine him to be, he has been rescued from the in 873A stability and the constant changes which bore him along the variety of error and that he has been set free by simple and immutable stable truth. That is why the principle leaders of our divine wisdom die each day for the truth. They bear witness in every word and deed to the single knowledge of the truth possessed by Christians. 216. They prove that truth to be more simple and more divine than every other. Or, rather, what they show is that here is the only true, single, and simple knowledge of God. CHAPTER EIGHT Concerning "Power," "Righteousness," "Salvation," "Redemption"; and also inequality. 1. Theologians praise the divine Truth and transcendent Wisdom for being Power and Righteousness, Salvation and Redemption, 217. divine 889C names which I must now try to explicate. It seems to me that anyone reared on scripture cannot be unaware of the fact that the Godhead transcends and surpasses every real and every conceivable power. Theology regularly speaks of the "Lordship" of the Godhead and makes a distinction between this and the heavenly powers. So, therefore, in what sense do the theologians praise it as power when it is in fact superior to power? In what sense do we apply the name "Power" to God? 2. This is how I would answer. God is Power in that all 889D power is initially contained within his own self. He is Power in- ____________________ 214. Rom 8:39, 11:20? 215. Acts 26:24. 216. Perhaps derived from Rom 8:36 (Ps 44:22), this reference to martyrs is unique in the corpus. But see Ep. 10 1117A 8-12. 217. These four names are mentioned in DN 1 596B 21-24. Power: 2 Chr 20:6; Ps 24:8 (LXX); 1 Cor 1:18; Rv 19:1; Righteousness: 1 Cor 1:30; Salvation: Ex 15:2; Mt 1:21; Rv 19:1; Redemption: 1 Cor 1:30. -110sofar as he exceeds all power. He is the cause of all power. He gives being to all things through his power which is total and unthwarted. He is the cause of power in its totality and in its specific form. His power is infinite because all power comes from him and because he transcends all power, even absolute power. He possesses 892A a superabundance of power which endlessly produces an endless number of other powers. The created powers never blunt the super-unbounded work of his power-producing power. His transcendent power is inexpressible, unknowable, inconceivably great, and, as it flows over, it empowers whatever is weak and it preserves and directs the humblest of its echoes. What happens may be compared to powers in the domain

80 of the senses. Brilliant light can reach through to the dimmest sight, and the loudest sounds can penetrate a deafened ear, for, of course, that which is absolutely incapable of hearing is not an ear and that which is absolutely unable to see is not sight. 3. God's infinite power is distributed among all things and 892B there is nothing in the world entirely bereft of power. There has to be some manifestation of power, whether it be by way of intuition, reason, perception, life, or being. Indeed, if one may put it so, this last has its power for "being" from a Power beyond being. 4. Certainly it is from this that there emerge the godlike powers of the ranks of angels. It is from here that they derive the immutability of what they are and their perpetual movements of 892C intellect and immortality. Their stability and their ceaseless desire for the Good come from that infinitely good Power which itself bestows on them their own power and existence, inspiring in them the ceaseless desire for existence, giving them the very power to long for unending power. 5. The benefits of this inexhaustible Power reach out to humans, to animals, to plants, and indeed to all of nature. They enable the assembly of all things to achieve mutual harmony and communion and they enable the distinguished to be so in accordance with the natural laws and qualities of each and without any confusion or intermingling of their characteristics. This Power ensures that the orders and direc tions of the universe achieve their proper good and it preserves in im mortality the unharmed lives of the angelic henads. 218. It keeps the ____________________ 218. Saffrey, "Nouveaux liens," p. 15.

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-111stars of heaven in their shining and unchanging orders. It gives them the power to be eternal. It distinguishes the circlings of time from its procession and duly brings them back to base. It fashions the unquenchability of fire and the ceaseless moisture of water. It keeps the atmosphere fluid, founds the earth upon the void, making its labors endlessly fruitful. It preserves the shared harmony and mixture of the linked elements in their distinctiveness and their separateness. It rein 893A forces the bonds of soul and body. It stirs the powers which give nourishment and growth to plants. It guides the powers which keep each creature in being. It establishes the unshakable remaining of the world. To those made godlike it grants the power for deification itself. In short, nothing in the world lacks the almighty power of God to support and to surround it, for that which completely lacks power has neither existence, nor individuality, nor even a place in the world. 893B 6. Elymas the magician 219. has this to say: "If God is all-powerful, how then is it possible for your theologian to declare that there are some things he cannot do?" He is here criticizing the divine Paul for stating that God "cannot deny himself." 220. Such is his objection, and I may be laughed at for folly if I proceed to pull down tottering houses built by idle children on sand. I may be ridiculed for aiming at an inaccessible target when I undertake to deal with this theological issue. Still, this is how I would answer. Denial of the true self is a falling away from truth. Now truth is a being and a falling away from truth is a falling away from being. If the truth is a being and if a denial of the truth is a falling away from being, God cannot fall from being. One might say that he is not lacking in being, that he is not able to lack power, that he does not know how to lack knowledge. The wise 893C magician apparently did not grasp this. He is a bit like one of those incompetent athletes who is under the illusion that his competitor is weak. He judges him by his own standards, and so he misses him each time as he sends a mighty blow at his shadow, manfully batters the wind, 221. imagines he is the winner and, not knowing the power of the others, boasts of his abilities. But, on the other hand, I am on target, the target

81 set by the theologian; and I praise the super-powerful God for being omnipotent, blessed, the sole and mighty ruler, as sovereign in the reign of eternity. He has in no way fallen from being. Rather, ____________________ 219. Acts 13:8. 220. 2 Tm 2:13. 221. The theme, but not the vocabulary, of 1 Cor 9:26. -112in his transcendent power he is above all things and he has advance possession of all things. He it is who has granted the power to be everything. This gift of existence comes through the unstinted out pouring of his overwhelming power.

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7. Again, the title "Righteousness" is given to God because he assigns what is appropriate to all things; he distributes their due pro portion, beauty, rank, arrangement, their proper and fitting place and 896A order, according to a most just and righteous determination. He is the cause of their individual activity. It is the righteousness of God which orders everything, setting boundaries, keeping things distinct and unconfused, giving each thing what it inherently deserved. This being so, those who criticize the righteousness of God unwittingly stand condemned for utter unrighteousness. Such people claim that immortality should be given to what is mortal, perfection to what is imperfect, self-movement to those moved from without, 222. immutability to the changing, strength to the weak, eternity to the time-bound, im mobility to the mobile, durability to fleeting pleasure. In short, they 896B want everything changed around. What they really should know is that the righteousness of God is truly righteousness in that it gives the appropriate and deserved qualities to everything and that it preserves the nature of each being in its due order and power. 8. Someone might say that it is not a characteristic of righteousness to leave pious men without some help when they are oppressed by the wicked. To this the answer must be that if those whom you describe as pious are actually lovers of things basely sought on earth, then they have certainly fallen away from the yearning for God. I can not therefore understand why they are called pious when they do this 896C injustice to what is truly lovable and divine, when they so evilly abandon these out of a preference for things unworthy of their ambition and of their yearning. If they were to yearn for the truly real, if their desire were for this, then there should be joy when they obtain it. Would they not be closer to the virtues of the angels if, in their longing for the things of God, they shed their attachment to material things and bravely trained themselves for this in their quest for the beautiful? It would be very much more in keeping with righteousness if God were to refrain from undermining the courage of the noblest ones through giving them material goods, if he were to give help to them ____________________ 222. The translation follows the variant reading adopted by S. Lilla ("Osservazioni sul testo," #293, p. 175). -113when anyone tried to corrupt them, if he strengthened them in their admirable and firm steadiness, and if he gave them whatever befits their calling.

82 9. This divine Righteousness is also praised as the "Salvation of 896D the world," 223. since it ensures that each being is preserved and maintained in its proper being and order, distinct from everything else. It is so called also because it is pure cause of everything active in the world. And if one were to praise Salvation as being that saving force which rescues the world from the influence of evil, I would certainly 897A accept this, since in fact Salvation takes many forms. I would only add that, basically, Salvation is that which preserves all things in their proper places without change, conflict, or collapse toward evil, that it keeps them all in peaceful and untroubled obedience to their proper laws, that it expels all inequality and interference from the world, and that it gives everything the proportion to avoid turning into its own opposite and to keep free of any kind of change of state. Someone might say—not apart from the intention of theology—that this Salvation, benevolently operating for the preservation of the world, redeems everything in accordance with the capacity of things to be saved and it works so that everything may keep within its appropriate virtue. This is why the theologians name it "Redemption," because it does not permit the truly real to fall to nothingness and 897B because it redeems from the passions, from impotence and deficiency anything which has gone astray toward error or disorder or has suffered a failure to reach its proper virtues. Redemption is like a loving father making up for what is missing and overlooking any slack. It raises a thing up from an evil condition and sets it firmly where it ought to be, adding on lost virtue, bringing back order and arrangement where there was disorder and derangement, making it perfect and liberating it from defects. This, then, is the theme of Righteousness, by which the equality of things is measured and bounded, by which the inequality or defect of equality affecting individual things is kept away. And even the in 897C equality of things, the difference between all things for the whole, is protected by Righteousness which will not permit confusion and disturbance among things but arranges that all things are kept within the particular forms appropriate to each of them. ____________________ 223. See DN 1 596B 23f., note 50. -114CHAPTER NINE Concerning greatness and smallness, sameness and difference, similarity and dissimilarity, rest, motion, equality. 1. Greatness and smallness, sameness and difference, similarity and 909B dissimilarity, rest and motion—these all are titles applied to the Cause of everything. They are divinely named images 224. and we should now contemplate them as far as they are revealed to us. God is praised in scripture as "great" and as in greatness 225. and in the "still, small breeze" 226. which reveals the divine smallness. Sameness is ascribed to him in the scriptural word, "Thou art the same," 227. and difference is evoked in the scriptural discussion of his many forms and qualities. His similarity is adverted to in the context of the fact that he is the subsistence of things similar and is responsible for this similarity of theirs. Yet he is also dissimilar to all in that "there is none quite like him." 228. There are references also to his being standing, 229. immovable, "enthroned forever," 230. moved and going forth into all things. These, and names like them, are given in scripture to God. 2. God is called great because of that characteristic greatness of 909C his which gives of itself to everything great, is poured out on all greatness and indeed reaches far beyond it. His greatness takes in all space, surpasses all number, moves far beyond infinity in its abundance, in the overflowing of its great works and in the gifts welling up from it. These are gifts which however widely

83 they are shared by all remain nevertheless undiminished and possess the same super-fullness. They are not lessened by being partaken. Indeed, they pour out all the more generously. This greatness is infinite, with neither quantity nor number, and it reaches a flood as a result of the absolute transcendent outpouring of incomprehensible grandeur. 3. "Smallness" or subtlety is predicated of God's nature because 912A he is outside of the bulky and the distant, because he penetrates with- ____________________ 224. Saffrey, "Nouveaux liens," pp. 6-11. 225. Pss 86:10, 145:3, 147:5. 226. 1 Kgs 19:12 (LXX). See DN 1 596B 25f. and MT 3 1033C 43. 227. Ps 102:27; 1 Cor 12:6; Heb 13:8; Mal 3:6. 228. 2 Chr 6:14; Pss 83:1 (LXX), 86:8. 229. Ps 82:1. 230. Ps 29:10; Bar 3:3. -115out hindrance through everything. 231. Indeed smallness is the most elementary cause of everything and you will find no part of the world without its share of smallness, which is why we use the word in this sense in regard to God. For what is here is something penetrating unhindered into and through all things, energizing them, "piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" and of everything, since "before 912B 232. him no creature is hidden. " This smallness has neither quantity nor magnitude. It is unconquerable, infinite, and unlimited, comprehending everything and itself never comprehended. 4. God is transcendently, eternally, unalterably, and invariably the "same." He is forever thus, forever the same to all things, forever assuredly and unshakably located within the fine boundaries of his own supraessential identity. In him there is no change, decline, deterioration, or variation. He is unalloyed, immaterial, totally simple, self-sufficient, subject to neither growth nor diminution. He is un 912C born, by which is meant here that he was not once as yet unborn, that he was not in any way imperfect, that he did not come to birth from this or that source. Nor is it meant that he once was not. What is to be understood is that God is entirely and fully unbegotten, that he is eternal, absolutely perfect and always the same. He is defined by his singularity and sameness. He is the same enlightener in everything receptive to participation in it. He orders others with others in an abundant cause of sameness. In himself he precontains all opposites in one single, universal cause of all sameness. 5. But "difference" too is ascribed to God since he is providen 912D tially available to all things and becomes all things in all 233. for the salvation of them all. Yet at the same time he remains within himself and in his one unceasing activity he never abandons his own true identity. With unswerving power he gives himself outward for the sake of the divinization of those who are returned to him. "Difference" means that the many visions of God differ in appearance from one another and this difference must be understood to indicate something other than what was outwardly manifested. Imagine a discourse which rep 913A resented the soul in corporeal form, so that what is actually indivisible would be thought of as having bodily parts. We would give each of ____________________ 231. Wis of Sol 7:24; cf. DN 7 872C 29. 232. Heb 4:12f. 233. 1 Cor 15:28.

84 -116the parts a significance appropriate to the indivisible character of the soul. We would therefore say that the head signifies the intellect, the neck opinion, since it is halfway between the rational and the irrational. We would take the breast to mean passion, the stomach desire, the legs and feet nature. In this way we would be using the names for parts of the body as symbols of faculties. Therefore when we speak of him who is beyond all things it is much more important for us to use holy, god-pleasing, and mystical explications in our clarification of the difference of forms and shapes attributed to God. You may, if you wish, attribute to the intangible and unshaped God the three dimensions of bodies so that his breadth is the immensity of his procession to all things, his length is his powers surpassing the universe, his depth the hiddenness and unknowing incomprehensible to all crea 913B tures. 234. Still, in explicating these differing forms and figures, we must not fall into the error of confusing the bodiless divine names with those which include perceptible symbols. The latter is what I will discuss in my Symbolic Theology 235. but I would like now to emphasize that difference in God must not be supposed to indicate any variation of his totally unchanging sameness. What is meant is his unity amid many forms and the uniform processions of his fecundity to all. 6. Now while God is called "same" to indicate that he is totally, 913C uniquely, and undividedly like himself, he is also described as "similar" and this is a divine name which we must not reject. The theologians say that the transcendent God is inherently similar to no other being, but that he also bestows a similarity to himself on all those who are returning to him in imitation as far as possible, of what is beyond all definition and understanding. It is the power of the divine similarity which returns all created things toward their Cause, and these things must be reckoned to be similar to God by reason of the divine image and likeness. 236. But we cannot say that God is similar to them, any more than we can say that man is similar to his own portrait. Things on the same level may be similar to one another with the result that similarity can be predicated of either of them. And they can be similar to each other through the workings of a prior form of similarity which they share. But an interchange of this sort cannot be admitted 913D in regard to Cause and effects, for God does not grant similarity ____________________ 234. Eph 3:18. 235. On The Symbolic Theology, see DN 1, notes 72 and 89. 236. Gn 1:26. -117merely to some objects. He is in fact the Cause of this in all that have the quality of similarity. He is the subsistence of absolute similarity, and all the similarity in the world is similar to a trace of the divine similarity so that all creation is thereby made a unity.

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7. But surely there is no need to dwell on this point, for scripture itself asserts that God is dissimilar and that he is not to be compared with anything, that he is different from everything and, stranger yet, that there is none at all like him. Nevertheless words of this sort do not contradict the similarity of things to him, for the very same things are both similar and dissimilar to God. They are similar to him to the extent that they share what cannot be shared. They are dissimilar to him in that as effects they fall so very far short of their Cause and are infinitely and incomparably subordinate to him. 237. 8. What, then, are we to say regarding the divine attributes

916B

85 "resting" and "sitting"? Just this much, namely, that God remains what he is in himself, that he is established alone in his immovable sameness and definitive grounding, that his actions are forever in the same mold and with the same objective and from the same unchanging center, that his stability begins totally from within himself, that he is absolutely immutable and immobile, and that all these qualities are his in a transcendent manner. He is the Cause of the rest and of the stability of everything and is himself beyond all stability and all rest. "In him all things hold together" 238. and they are so guarded that they are not dragged away from the rest of their own virtues. 9. And yet what do the theologians mean when they assert that 916C the unstirring God moves and goes out into everything? This is surely something which has to be understood in a way befitting God, and out of our reverence for him we must assume that this motion of his does not in any way signify a change of place, a variation, an alteration, a turning, a movement in space either straight or in a circular fashion or in a way compounded of both. Nor is this motion to be imagined as occurring in the mind, in the soul, or in respect of the nature of God. What is signified, rather, is that God brings everything into being, that he sustains them, that he exercises all manner of providence over them, that he is present to all of them, that he embraces all of them in a way which no mind can grasp, and that from him, providing for everything, arise countless processions and activities. ____________________ 237. The full discussion of similar and dissimilar symbols is found in CH 2. 238. Col 1:17; see DN 1 593D 45f. (note 19). -118And yet, in some mode conforming to what befits both God and reason, one has to predicate movement of the immutable God. One must understand the straight motion of God to mean the unswerving procession of his activities, the coming-to-be of all things from him. The spiral movement attributed to him must refer to the continuous 916D procession from him together with the fecundity of his stillness. And the circular movement has to do with his sameness, to the grip he has on the middle range as well as on the outer edges of order, so that all things are one and all things that have gone forth from him may return to him once again. 239. 10. Someone may take from scripture the titles "same" and 917A "righteous" and "equal." God is called equal not simply because he is without parts and is unswerving, but also because he reaches out equally to all things through all things, and because he is the absolute subsistence of the equality by which he brings about the equal commingling of all things, the proportionate share, in accordance with their receptivity, which all things have in equality, and the equal gift all things have as their due. All equality, whether intelligent or intelligible, rational or perceptible, whether essential, natural, or willed, is transcendentally contained beforehand as something unified in him and as a super-abundant power which originates everything equal. CHAPTER TEN Concerning "Omnipotent," "Ancient of Days," and also concerning eternity and time. 1. It is time now for this treatise of mine to celebrate our many-named 936D 240. 241. and "Ancient of Days." The first of these names is given because as God for being "Omnipotent" the omnipotent foundation of everything he preserves and embraces all the world. He founds it. He makes it secure. He holds it together. He binds the whole universe totally to himself. He generates everything from out of himself as from some omnipotent root and he returns all things back to himself as 937A though to some omnipotent storehouse. Being their omnipotent foundation, he holds them all together. He keeps them thus in a transcend- ____________________ 239. On these three motions, see DN 4, note 151.

86 240.

2 Sm 7:8 (LXX); Zec 1:3; 2 Cor 6:18; Rv 1:8, 11:17. On 7:9, 13, 22.

241.

-119ent bond and he does not permit them either to fall away from him or to be destroyed by being moved from their perfect home. The divinity is described as omnipotent because he has power over all, and is in total control of the world. He is so called too because he is the goal of all yearning and because he lays a happy yoke on all who wish it, the sweet toil of that holy, omnipotent, and indestructible yearning for his goodness. 2. They call him Ancient of Days because he is the eternity and 937B time of everything, and because he precedes days and eternity and time. And an appropriate sense is required too for those other names of his, "Time," "Day," "Season," "Eternity," all of which refer to someone totally free of change or movement, someone who in his everlasting movement remains nonetheless in himself, someone who is the cause of eternity, of time and the days. So in those sacred revelations of himself during mystical visions he is depicted as ancient and new, meaning that he is the primal and "from the very beginning," 242. and that he does not grow old. The two names "Ancient" and "New" reveal that he goes forth from the beginning of the world through all things until the very end. Each name, as my divine sacred-initiator says, conveys the notion of the primacy of God's being, Ancient sig nifying that he is first from the point of view of time, Young signifying 937C that he is primary in the context of number, since the first one and those near it have primacy over the more advanced numbers. 3. Now, I think we have to be clear about the nature of time and eternity in the scriptures. When describing things as eternal the intention of scripture is not always to suggest that they are absolutely uncreated, everlasting, incorruptible, immortal, unchanging, and immutable. I have in mind here texts such as "Rise up, you eternal doors." 243. Actually, the designation "eternity" is frequently given to something very ancient or, again, to the whole course of earthly time, since it is characteristic of eternity to be very old, unchanging, and the measure of being. Time, on the other hand, has to do with the 937D process of change manifested, for instance, in birth, death, and variety. Hence theology tells us that we who are bound in by time are destined to have a share of eternity when at last we attain the incorruptible, unchanging Eternity. 244. And then scripture talks sometimes ____________________ 242. 1 Jn 1:1. 243. Ps 24:7, 9 (LXX). 244. 1 Cor 15:53. -120of the splendors of a temporal eternity and of an eternal time. 245. But 940A of course it is clear to us that, strictly speaking, what scripture discusses and denotes is that eternity is the home of being, while time is the home of things that come to be. Therefore it must not be imagined that things named as eternal are simply co-eternal with the God, who precedes eternity. No. Better here to follow carefully the sacred words of scripture and to take "eternal" and "temporal" in the sense appropriate to them. And we should look upon those things which share partly in eternity and partly in time as somehow midway between things which are and things which are coming-to-be. 246. One can take eternity and time to be predicates of God since, being the Ancient of Days, he is the cause of all time and eternity.

87 Yet he is before time and beyond time and is the source of the variety of time and of seasons. Or, again, he precedes the eternal ages, for he is there before eternity and above eternity, and "his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." 247. Amen. CHAPTER ELEVEN Concerning "peace," and what is intended by "being-itself," "life-itself," "power-itself," and things said in this vein. 1. With reverent hymns of peace we should now sing the praises of 948D God's peace, 248. for it is this which brings all things together. This is what unites everything, begetting and producing the harmonies and the agreement of all things. All things therefore long for it, and the manifold and the divided are returned by it into a total unity; every 949A civil war is changed into a unified household. Sharing in the divine peace, the higher gathering powers are drawn to themselves, to each other, and to unity and are at one with the source of peace in all the world. The ranks below them are united to themselves, to one another, and to the one perfect Source and Cause of universal peace. This Cause reaches out in its unsundered unity to everything, nailing down, as it were, the severed parts, giving to all things their defini- ____________________ 245. Ps 77:5 (LXX); Rom 16:25; 2 Tm 1:9; Ti 1:2. 246. On the Neoplatonic language of "mean terms" see DN 11 952A 5, note 250, and CH 9 257C 24f., note 99. 247. Ps 145:13. 248. Eph 2:14. -121tions, their limits, and their guarantee, allowing nothing to be pulled apart or scattered in some endlessly disordered chaos away from God's presence, away from their own unity and in some total jumbled confusion. Now the sacred Justus 249. gives to that quality of divine peace and tranquility the name of "ineffable" and "unmoving," in terms of any known procession. The name is given to the way in which God is still and tranquil, keeping to himself and within himself in an absolutely transcendent unity of self, turning in upon himself and multiplying 949B himself without ever leaving his own unity, superabundantly one as he goes forth to all things while yet remaining within himself. With regard to such matters, what right has any creature to devise words or conceptions? How could he possibly do so? Therefore when talking of that peace which transcends all things, let it be spoken of as ineffable and unknowable. But to the extent that it is feasible for men and for me, the inferior of many good men, let us examine its conceptual and spoken participations. 2. The first thing to say is this. God is the subsistence of absolute 949C peace, of peace in general, and of instances of peace. He brings everything together into a unity without confusion, into an undivided communion where each thing continues to exhibit its own specific form and is in no way adulterated through association with its opposite, nor is anything of the unifying precision and purity dulled. Let us therefore contemplate the one simple nature of that peaceful unity which joins all things to itself and to each other, preserving them in their distinctiveness and yet linking them together in a universal and unconfused alliance. From this comes the fact that the divine intelligences are at one with the workings and the objects of their intelligent activities, and they rise up to meet with what is beyond knowledge and mind. So too with souls. They bring together their various pow 949D ers of reasoning and they concentrate them in one act of pure intelligence. In their own way and in their own order they rise through immaterial and indivisible conceptions to a unity beyond all conceptions.

88 Hence there is one unshakable bond in all things, a divine harmony, a perfect concord, a oneness of mind and disposition, an alliance in which nothing is confused and all things are held insepar 952A ably together. Perfect Peace ranges totally through all things with the simple undiluted presence of its unifying power. It unites all things, ____________________ 249. Acts 1:23, 18:7; Col 4:11. -122joining the farthest frontiers with what is in between, binding all with the one homogeneous yoke. 250. It grants the enjoyment of its presence to the outermost reaches of the universe. It grants unity, identity, union, communion, and mutual attraction to things, thereby ensuring their kinship. For the divine Peace is indivisible and is revealing of all in a single act and it permeates the whole world without ever departing from its own identity. It goes out to all things. It gives of itself to all things in the way they can receive it, and it overflows in a surplus of its peaceful fecundity. And yet because it is transcendently one it remains in its own complete and utter unity.

952B

3. "How is it that everything wishes for peace?" someone may ask. "There are many things which take pleasure in being other, different, and distinct, and they would never freely choose to be at rest." This is true, assuming that what is meant here is that being other and being different refer to the individuality of each thing and to the fact that nothing tries to lose its individuality. Yet, as I will try to show, this situation is itself due to the desire for peace. For everything loves to be at peace with itself, to be at one, and never to move or fall away from its own existence and from what it has. And perfect Peace is 952C there as a gift, guarding without confusion the individuality of each, providentially ensuring that all things are quiet and free of confusion within themselves and from without, that all things are unshakably what they are and that they have peace and rest. 4. If all moving things wish never to be at rest but aim always for their own appropriate movement, this too is because of a wish for that divine Peace of the universe which keeps everything firmly in its own place and which ensures that the individuality and the stirring 952D life of all moving things are kept safe from removal and destruction. This happens as a result of the inward peace which causes the things in movement to engage in the activity proper to themselves. 5. That peace may not be yearned for by all could possibly be imagined in the context of the opposition evident when there is a falling away from peace. Yet there is nothing which has totally fallen away from unity. That which is completely unstable, unbounded, 953A unestablished, undefined, has neither being nor a place among the things that have being. To the objection that hatred both of peace and of the benefits of peace is shown by those rejoicing in strife, anger, ____________________ 250. As in DN 10 940A 6-8, this is the vocabulary of Neoplatonic "mean terms" between extremes. See CH 9 257C 24f., note 225. -123-

89 change, and instability, I would answer that these too are influenced, however dimly, by the desire for peace. Stirred by various passions in ways they do not understand, they try to set these at rest. They imagine that a surfeit of ephemeral pleasure will give them peace, for they are actually disturbed by those unsatisfied urges which have swept over them. Now there is no need to tell of the loving-kindness of Christ, bathed as it is in peace. But we must learn from it to cease from strife within ourselves, against each other and against the angels. We must work together and with the angels to do the things of God, and we must do so in accordance with the Providence of Jesus "who works all things in all," 251. making that Peace which is ineffable and was foreor dained from eternity, reconciling us to himself and in himself to the Father.

953B

But, using the testimony of the sacred inspiration of the scriptures, I have said enough about these supernatural gifts in my Theological Representations. 252. 6. In a letter to me you once asked what I meant by being itself, life itself, and wisdom itself. You said you failed to understand why I sometimes call God "life itself" and sometimes "subsistence of life itself." Therefore, sacred man of God, I have thought it necessary to solve your problem.

953C

To repeat something frequently asserted already, to call God "life itself' and "power itself" and then "subsistence of life itself," "subsistence of peace itself," "subsistence of power itself," involves no contradiction. The former names are derived from beings, especially the primary beings, and they are given to God because he is the cause of all beings. The latter names are put up because he is transcendentally superior to everything, including the primary beings. "But," you may say, "what is meant when we talk of being itself, life itself, and all those other things to which we ascribe an absolute and primary existence derived ultimately from God?" My answer is this. This is not something oblique, but is in fact quite straightforward, and there is a simple explanation for it. The absolute being underlying individual manifestations of being as their cause is not a divine or an angelic being, for only transcendent being itself can be the source, the being, and the cause of the being of beings. Nor have we to do with some ____________________ 251. 1 Cor 12:6. 252. On The Theological Representations, see DN 1, note 3.

953D

-124other life-producing divinity distinct from that supra-divine life which is the originating Cause of all living beings and of life itself. Nor, in summary, is God to be thought of as identical with those originating and creative beings and substances which men stupidly describe as certain gods or creators of the world. Such men, and their fathers before them, had no genuine or proper knowledge of beings of this kind. Indeed, there are no such beings. What I am trying to express is something quite different. "Being itself," "life itself," "divinity itself," are names signifying source, divinity, and cause, and these are applied to 956A the one transcendent cause and source beyond source of all things. But we use the same terms in a derivative fashion and we apply them to the provident acts of power which come forth from that God in

90 whom nothing at all participates. I am talking here of being itself, of life itself, of divinity itself which shapes things in a way that each creature, according to capacity, has his share of these. From the fact of such sharing come the qualities and the names "existing," "living," "possessed by divinity," and suchlike. Hence the good is called the subsistence of the first beings, then of the whole, then of the parts, then of those with a complete share in the whole, and then of those with only a partial share. But my divine and sacred teachers have treated all this and it is unnecessary for me to say any more about it. It was they who gave the title "subsistence of goodness itself and of absolute divinity [itself]" to the One who is superior to goodness and to divinity. They bestowed the name "goodness itself" and "divinity itself" on that gift which grants goodness and divinity to created beings. They 956B gave the name "beauty itself" to the outpourings of what produces beauty itself, and in the same vein they talk of "whole beauty" and "partial beauty," things beautiful as a whole or in part. They talk in similar fashion of those other qualities which reveal that providence and goodness, shared by beings, come forth from the unshared God in a great flood rushing and overflowing from him. For the cause of all things is surely beyond them all and what he is, transcendently and supernaturally, is far above creatures, above their being and above their nature. -125CHAPTER TWELVE Concerning "Holy of Holies," "King of Kings," "Lord of Lords," "God of Gods." 1. It seems to me that I have now said what was needed in regard to 969A those themes. And we must all offer up a hymn of praise to the God of infinite names, and we must call him "Holy of Holies" 253. and "King of Kings," 254. "who rules for all eternity, to the very end of eternity and beyond," 255. and who is "Lord of lords" 256. and "God of gods." 257. But, first, I had better say what I mean by "holiness itself," "king 969B ship," "lordship," "deity," and by the scriptural sense of the duplication of these titles. 2. In my way of speaking, holiness is freedom from all defilement. 258. It is a purity that is total and is utterly untainted. Kingship is the power to arrange every border, realm, law, and order. Lordship is not simply a matter of being superior with respect to inferiors but a complete possession of all that is beautiful and good, and is further more a true and unshakable stability. The word is derived from the 969C idea of "lording," "having the capacity to lord" and "actually lording." And as for deity, this is the Providence which sees all things 259. and which in its utter goodness makes the round of all things, holding them together, filling them with itself, transcending all the things that enjoy the benefit of its providence. 3. The names must be praised in the absolute sense of that cause which transcends everything. In addition, we must say that this cause is a preeminent holiness and lordship, a supreme kingship and a totally simple divinity. From out of this cause there has emerged as something to be spread about, as a unity and as a collectivity, the unmixed perfection of utter purity. From it has come every law and ranking of all things which gets rid of all disharmony, inequality, and dispro portion, which rejoices in well-ordered consistency and rightness, and which embraces everything worthy of sharing in it. From it too comes ____________________ 253. Dn 9:24 (LXX). 254. 1 Tm 6:15; Rv 17:14, 19:16. 255. Ex 15:18 (LXX); cf. Ps 10:16. 256. Dt 10:17; Ps 136:3; 1 Tm 6:15; Rv 17:14, 19:16.

972A

91 257.

Dt 10:17; Ps 136:2; Ps 50:1 (LXX). The author acknowledges his fondness for puns, such as this one: "Holiness is hole-less." 259. The word play on divinity (theos) and sight (thea) was standard, e.g., Plato Cratylus 293. 258.

-126the complete possession of every beauty, every good providence which contemplates and preserves what in providence it has fashioned, and that generous giving of self for the divinization of whatever is being returned to it. 4. Since the Cause of all things is himself overflowing with them in one transcendent excess of all, he is called "Holy of Holies" and all those other names. For he is, you might say, brimming causality and supreme transcendence. Just as there are things which are surpassed 972B by being, holiness, divinity, lordship, and kingship, just as the things sharing in these attributes are inferior to the attributes themselves, so it is that the things which have being are surpassed by the One who is beyond them all. Those sharing in the attributes, together with the attributes themselves, are far outstripped by their unshared Cause. Scripture gives the name of "holy ones," "kings," "lords," and "gods" 260. to the primary ranks in themselves, through whom the secondary ones receive from God the gifts they possess, pluralizing the simplicity of their portion in terms of their differentiations. And the very first ranks in their providential godlike activity draw this variegation into the unity of their own being. CHAPTER THIRTEEN Concerning "Perfect" and "One." 1. So much, then, for these names; and, if you will, let us proceed 977B 261. now to the most enduring of them all. Theology, attributing every ____________________ 260. Lv 11:44; Nm 11:28; Ps 82:6; see CH 12 293B. 261. While the names "Perfect" and "One" are here considered the most steadfast or enduring, the name "Good" is given preeminence even in this chapter ("most revered," 981A 10-14; see also DN 3 680B 57, DN 4 693B 4-6). As a whole, The Divine Names considers designations that come from the domain of ideas rather than that of sense perception (see note 269 below). But its internal sequence of names, chapter by chapter, has been variously interpreted. Thomas Aquinas discerned the pattern of "procession and return" (see CH 1, note 4) in that the treatise began with the primary name "Good," descended to consider less exalted names, and here returns to the lofty names "Perfect" and "One" (In de divinis nominibus IV, 1, 261-65; W. Hankey, "Aquinas' First Principle: Being or Unity?," Dionysius 4 [1980]: 158). Hans Urs von Balthasar carries this pattern further: introduction (DN 1-3), procession (DN 4-7a), return (DN 7b-11), and names of unity and transcendence (DN 12-13) (Herrlichkeit. Eine theologische Ästhetik II [Einsiedeln: Johannes Verlag, 1962], pp. 192f.). E. Corsini's argument for DN 5-7 has already been noted (DN 5, note 172). E. von Ivanka considers the same question, noting the possible connection to the three Constantinian churches in Constantinople: Hagia Sophia (wisdom, DN 7), Hagia Dynamis (power, DN 8), and Hagia Eirene (peace, DN 11) ("Der Aufbau der Schrift 'De divinis nominibus' des Ps.-Dionysios," Scholastik 15 [1940]: 386-99). -127quality to the cause of everything, calls him "Perfect" and "One." He is perfect 262. not only insofar as he is absolute perfection, defining perfection in himself and from his singular existence and total perfection, but also because he is far beyond being so. He sets a boundary to the boundless and in his total unity he rises above all limitation. He is neither contained nor comprehended by anything. He reaches out to everything and beyond everything and does so with unfailing generosity and unstinted activity.

92 To speak of perfection is to proclaim that it cannot be increased or diminished, for it is eternally perfect, that it contains all things beforehand in itself, that it overflows in one unceasing, identical, over977C flowing, and undiminished supply, thereby perfecting the perfect and filling all things with its own perfection. 2. The name "One" means that God is uniquely all things through the transcendence of one unity and that he is the cause of all without ever departing from that oneness. Nothing in the world lacks its share of the One. Just as every number participates in unity—for we refer to one couple, one dozen, one-half, onethird, one-tenth-so everything, and every part of everything, participates in the One. By being the One, it is all things. The One cause of all things is not one of the many things in the world but actually precedes oneness and multiplicity and indeed defines oneness and multiplicity. For multi 977D plicity cannot exist without some participation in the One. That 980A which is many in its parts is one in its entirety. That which is many in its accidental qualities is one in its subject. That which is many in number or capabilities is one in species. That which is numerous in species is one in genus. That which is numerous in its processions is one in its source. For there is nothing at all lacking a share in that One which in its utterly comprehensive unity uniquely contains all and every thing beforehand, even opposites. Without the One there is no multiplicity, but there can still be the One when there is no multiplicity, just as one precedes all multiplied number. And, then, if one thinks of all things as united in all things, the totality of things must be presumed to be one. 3. There is something else to remember also. When things are 980B said to be unified, this is in accordance with the preconceived form of the one proper to each. In this way the One may be called the underlying element of all things. And if you take away the One, there will ____________________ 262. Mt 5:48; Heb 2:10, 5:9, 7:28. -128survive neither whole nor part nor anything else in creation. The reality is that all things are contained beforehand in and are embraced by the One in its capacity as an inherent unity. Hence scripture describes the entire thearchy, the Cause of everything, as the One. Furthermore, "there is one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ" 263. and "one and the same Spirit," 264. and this is so in the overwhelming indivisibility of that oneness of God within which all things are banded together as one in the possession of a transcendent unity and in the transcendence of their preexistence. So all things are rightly ascribed to God since it is by him and in him and for him that all things exist, are co-ordered, remain, hold together, are completed, and are re turned. You will find nothing in the world which is not in the One, 980C by which the transcendent Godhead is named. Everything owes to the One its individual existence and the process whereby it is perfected and preserved. Given this power of God's unity, we must be returned from the many to the One and our unique song of praise must be for the single complete deity which is the one cause of all things and which is there before every oneness amid multiplicity, before every part and whole, before the definite and indefinite, before the limited and the unlimited. It is there defining all things that have being, defining being itself. It is the cause of things and of the sum total of things. It is simultaneously there with them and before them and beyond them. It is there beyond the one itself, defining this one. Unity among creatures is a unity of number, and number has its own share of being. But the transcendent unity defines the one itself and every num 980D ber. For it is the source, and the cause, the number and the order of the one, of number, and of all being. And the fact that the transcendent Godhead is one and triune must not be understood in any of our

93 own typical senses. No. There is the transcendent unity of God and 981A the fruitfulness of God, and as we prepare to sing this truth we use the names Trinity and Unity for that which is in fact beyond every name, calling it the transcendent being above every being. But no unity or trinity, no number or oneness, no fruitfulness, indeed, nothing that is or is known can proclaim that hiddenness beyond every mind and reason of the transcendent Godhead which transcends every being. There is no name for it nor expression. We cannot follow it into ____________________ 263. 1 Cor 8:6; see also Eph 4:4-6 and 1 Tm 2:5. 264. 1 Cor 12:11. -129its inaccessible dwelling place so far above us 265. and we cannot even call it by the name of goodness. In our urge to find some notion and some language appropriate to that ineffable nature, we reserve for it first the name which is most revered. Here, of course, I am in agreement with the scripture writers. But the real truth of these matters is in fact far beyond us. That is why their preference is for the way up 981B through negations, since this stands the soul outside everything which is correlative with its own finite nature. 266. Such a way guides the soul through all the divine notions, notions which are themselves transcended by that which is far beyond every name, all reason and all knowledge. Beyond the outermost boundaries of the world, the soul is brought into union with God himself to the extent that every one of us is capable of it. 4. These, then, are the divine names. They are conceptual 981C names, and I have explained them as well as I can. But of course I have fallen well short of what they actually mean. Even the angels would have to admit such a failure and I could scarcely speak praises as they do. Even the greatest of our theologians are inferior to the least of the angels. But in this I have fallen wretchedly short not only of the theologians, their hearers and their followers but even of my own peers. So if what I have said is right and if, somehow, I have correctly understood and explicated something of the names of God, the work must be ascribed to the cause of all good things for having given me the words to speak and the power to use them well. It may be that I have omitted some [name] of similar power, and if so this should be explained using the same methods. 267. And perhaps there is something incorrect or imperfect about what I have done. Perhaps I have com 981D pletely or partly strayed from the truth. If so I ask you to be chari- ____________________ 265. Cf. Proclus, in Alc. 319C; DN 1 588C 37, Ep. 9 1104B 15. 266. Ultimately, affirmative theology falls short. Even the most revered name of "Good" fails to express what God is. Thus, as discussed in MT and CH 2, the scriptures prefer negations since they render the soul "ecstatic," that is, they place it outside itself. For Dionysius, the term "ecstasy" can carry the literal meaning of standing outside oneself, as in being drunkenly out of one's wits. This (inebriated) ecstasy, as applied to God, signifies the divine transcendence (Ep. 9 1112C) and the procession "downward" in a loving and creative excess of goodness (DN 4 712A). Human ecstasy has to do with rightly interpreting the divine manifestations (DN 7 865D and 872D 45 to 873A 3), specifically interpreting them "up through negations," as stated in the text here annotated. Thus procession and return describe, respectively, divine and human ecstasy. See R. Roques, "Symbolisme et théologie negative," Structures, p. 179, and Völker, Kontemplation und Ekstase, pp. 200-17. 267. See also the comments concluding other treatises: CH 15 340B and EH 7 568D 46 to 569A 5 (note 225). -130-

94 table, to correct my unwished-for ignorance, to offer an argument to one needing to be taught, to help my faltering strength and to heal my unwanted frailty. I beg that you pass on to me whatever you have discovered by yourself or from others, all received from the Good. 984A Please, let not this kindness to a friend be a burden to you. 268. I have not kept to myself any of the hierarchical words which were handed down to me. I have passed them on unchanged to you and to other sacred men, and I will continue to do so as long as I have the power of words and you have the power to listen. I do an injustice to the tradition only when the strength to conceive and to utter these truths leaves me. May what I do and what I speak be pleasing to God. So here I finish my treatise on the conceptual names of God, and, with God's guidance, I will move on to The Symbolic Theology. 269. ____________________ 268. 2 Thes 3:13. 269. The Symbolical Theology is next in the sequence as the argument follows God's descent from names in the realm of concepts down to names drawn from perceptible symbols (DN 1 597B, note 89; DN 9 913B 19-23). -131This small essay is the key to the Dionysian method and to the structure of the entire corpus. It exerted a vast influence on the theology and mysticism of later centuries, especially in the West (Völker, Kontemplation, pp. 218-63). J. Vanneste (Le Mystère de Dieu, pp. 30-36) has argued for a major division within the corpus between this work and The Divine Names, on the one hand, and The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, on the other hand. In the alternative argument suggested below (especially in MT 3, note 17), The Mystical Theology first summarizes the preceding Divine Names and then previews the method of interpreting the perceptible symbols of the Bible and of the liturgy which is put into practice in the two subsequent hierarchical treatises. On the general question of treatise headings and titles in the corpus, see DN 1, note 2 and EH 1, note 2. Regarding this title in particular, the term "mystical" is considered in the following note. In the PseudoDionysian vocabulary, "theology" usually carried the literal sense of the "Word of God," namely, in the scriptures. See R. Roques, "Note sur la notion de THEOLOGIA selon le Pseudo-Denys l'Aréopagite," Revue d'Ascétique et de Mystique 25 (1949): 200-12. This essay is reprinted in Roques, Structures, pp. 135-45. For examples of "theology" as the scriptural "Word of God," see CH 4 180B 20, CH 9 261C 38, CH 12 293AB 7-15, EH 3 437B 22f., EH 5 501C 39f., DN 5 824D 49, DN 10 937D 45, and the unusual usage in EH 3 432B 22f. (note 82). The term can also mean discourse about God, such as Simon Peter's confession (EH 7 564C 38), St. John's revelation (Ep. 10 1120A 2), or the subsequent tradition, including the author's own "theology" (DN 2 640D 41-46, DN 3 681A 4f.). The Mystical Theology 1. ____________________ 1. This small essay is the key to the Dionysian method and to the structure of the entire corpus. It exerted a vast influence on the theology and mysticism of later centuries, especially in the West (Völker, Kontemplation, pp. 218-63). J. Vanneste (Le Mystère de Dieu, pp. 30-36) has argued for a major division within the corpus between this work and The Divine Names, on the one hand, and The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, on the other hand. In the alternative argument suggested below (especially in MT 3, note 17), The Mystical Theology first summarizes the preceding

95 Divine Names and then previews the method of interpreting the perceptible symbols of the Bible and of the liturgy which is put into practice in the two subsequent hierarchical treatises. On the general question of treatise headings and titles in the corpus, see DN 1, note 2 and EH 1, note 2. Regarding this title in particular, the term "mystical" is considered in the following note. In the PseudoDionysian vocabulary, "theology" usually carried the literal sense of the "Word of God," namely, in the scriptures. See R. Roques, "Note sur la notion de THEOLOGIA selon le Pseudo-Denys l'Aréopagite," Revue d'Ascétique et de Mystique 25 (1949): 200-12. This essay is reprinted in Roques, Structures, pp. 135-45. For examples of "theology" as the scriptural "Word of God," see CH 4 180B 20, CH 9 261C 38, CH 12 293AB 7-15, EH 3 437B 22f., EH 5 501C 39f., DN 5 824D 49, DN 10 937D 45, and the unusual usage in EH 3 432B 22f. (note 82). The term can also mean discourse about God, such as Simon Peter's confession (EH 7 564C 38), St. John's revelation (Ep. 10 1120A 2), or the subsequent tradition, including the author's own "theology" (DN 2 640D 41-46, DN 3 681A 4f.). CHAPTER ONE What is the divine darkness? 1. Trinity!! Higher than any being, any divinity, any goodness! Guide of Christians in the wisdom of heaven! Lead us up beyond unknowing and light, up to the farthest, highest peak of mystic scripture, where the mysteries of God's Word lie simple, absolute and unchangeable in the brilliant darkness of a hidden silence. Amid the deepest shadow they pour overwhelming light on what is most manifest. Amid the wholly unsensed and unseen they completely fill our sightless minds with treasures beyond all beauty.

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For this I pray; and, Timothy, my friend, my advice to you as you look for a sight of the mysterious things, is to leave behind you everything perceived and understood, everything perceptible and understandable, all that is not and all that is, and, with your understanding laid aside, to strive upward as much as you can toward union with him who is beyond all being and knowledge. By an undivided and 2.

absolute abandonment of yourself and everything, shedding all and 1000A freed from all, you will be uplifted to the ray of the divine shadow which is above everything that is. 3. ____________________ 2. The terms "mystic" (see line 7 of poem above) and "mysterious" both translate mustikos, with some reservations. The former translation is not meant in the later sense of a "mystical" or extraordinary, private experience of transcending one's self, but rather in the more general sense of something "mysterious" or secret or hidden. See Vanneste, Le Mystère de Dieu, p. 47, and Louis Bouyer, "Mystique, essai sur l'histoire du mot," Supplement de la Vie spirituelle 9 (May 15, 1949). Bouyer's excellent discussion of the term "mystical" in Pseudo-Dionysius is more accessible in The Spirituality of the New Testament and the Fathers (New York: The Seabury Press, 1963), pp. 406-16. 3. This advice to Timothy introduces both the specific account of Moses' ascent up Mt. Sinai (Vanneste, Le Mystère de Dieu, pp. 48f.) and also the general uplifting that goes beyond the perceptible (Chapter 4

96 and the hierarchical treatises) and even beyond the intelligible (Chapter 5). -1352. But see to it that none of this comes to the hearing of the uninformed, 4. that is to say, to those caught up with the things of the world, who imagine that there is nothing beyond instances of individual being and who think that by their own intellectual resources they can have a direct knowledge of him who has made the shadows his hiding place. 5. And if initiation into the divine is beyond such people, what is to be said of those others, still more uninformed, who describe the transcendent Cause of all things in terms derived from the lowest orders of being, and who claim that it is in no way superior to the 1000B godless, multiformed shapes they themselves have made? What has actually to be said about the Cause of everything is this. Since it is the Cause of all beings, we should posit and ascribe to it all the affirmations we make in regard to beings, and, more appropriately, we should negate all these affirmations, since it surpasses all being. Now we should not conclude that the negations are simply the opposites of the affirmations, but rather that the cause of all is considerably prior to this, beyond privations, beyond every denial, beyond every assertion. 6. 3. This, at least, is what was taught by the blessed Bartholomew. 7. He says that the Word of God is vast and minuscule, that the Gospel is wide-ranging and yet restricted. To me it seems that in this 1000C he is extraordinarily shrewd, for he has grasped that the good cause of all is both eloquent and taciturn, indeed wordless. It has neither word nor act of understanding, since it is on a plane above all this, and it is made manifest only to those who travel through foul and fair, who pass beyond the summit of every holy ascent, who leave behind them every divine light, every voice, every word from heaven, and who plunge into the darkness where, as scripture proclaims, there dwells the One who is beyond all things. 8. It is not for nothing that the blessed Moses is commanded to submit first to purification and then to depart from those who have not undergone this. When every purification is ____________________ 4. See Socrates' similar warning in Plato's Theaetetus, 155e. On literary secrecy in general, see EH 1, note 4. 5. Ps 18:11. 6. This passage directly contradicts a passage from Aristotle, who used identical terminology to argue that negations are the opposites of affirmations (On Interpretation 17a 31-33). Here at the outset and again at its conclusion (MT 5 1048B 16-21), the treatise refutes the impression that negations can capture the transcendent Cause of all. 7. Like the other apostles, the Bartholomew of the New Testament (Mt 10:3; Mk 3:18; Lk 6:14; Acts 1:13) was later credited with several apocryphal works. 8. Ex 20:21; cf. Ex 19. -136complete, he hears the many-voiced trumpets. He sees the many 1000D lights, pure and with rays streaming abundantly. Then, standing apart from the crowds and accompanied by chosen priests, he pushes ahead to the summit of the divine ascents. And yet he does not meet God himself, but contemplates, not him who is invisible, but rather where he dwells. This means, I presume, that the holiest and highest of the things perceived with the eye of the body or the mind are but the rationale which presupposes all that lies below the Transcendent One. Through them, however, his unimaginable presence is shown, 1001A

97 walking the heights of those holy places to which the mind at least can rise. But then he [Moses] breaks free of them, away from what sees and is seen, and he plunges into the truly mysterious darkness of unknowing. 9. Here, renouncing all that the mind may conceive, wrapped entirely in the intangible and the invisible, he belongs completely to him who is beyond everything. Here, being neither oneself nor someone else, one is supremely united to the completely unknown by an inactivity of all knowledge, and knows beyond the mind by knowing nothing. 10. ____________________ 10. The biblical narrative of Moses' ascent (Ex 19 and 20:18-21) was also the subject of Gregory of Nyssa's The Life of Moses, especially Part II, #152-170 (PG 44 372C-380A), where many of the Areopagite's themes are anticipated. As in the accounts of Hierotheus (DN 2 648AB 10-20 and DN 3 681C 41 to 684A 3) and of Carpos (Ep. 8 1097BC 21-26), this passage uses terminology otherwise associated with religious ritual. Here the Sinai events correspond to the liturgical experience of the hierarch, for whom Moses is indeed the prototype (EH 5 501C 33f.). While Gregory made this correspondence more explicit (#160), Dionysius lets his specialized terminology suggest it. Like Moses, the hierarch is first purified, both with the other worshipers (EH 2 397B 14-21 and EH 3 428B 16) and also in his own ceremonial "purification" (EH 3 440A 1114). In the liturgical dismissal the hierarch and those who have not yet completed their purification are separated (EH 3 436A 3-5) just as Moses stands apart from the crowds. Like Moses, the hierarch knows how to transcend the bare sounds of the scriptures (DN 4 708C 28) and the material lights of the rite (CH 1 121D 42f.). The hierarch and his "chosen" assistants approach the altar and, like Moses, contemplate the divine things (EH 3 425D 4446). "Contemplation" is indeed the very name of the liturgical interpretation in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 9. This expression is perhaps better known as "the cloud of unknowing" because of the treatise by an anonymous English author of the fourteenth century: The Cloud of Unknowing, ed. James Walsh (New York: Paulist Press, 1981). -137CHAPTER TWO How one should be united, and attribute praises, to the Cause of all things who is beyond all things. I pray we could come to this darkness so far above light! If only we 1025A lacked sight and knowledge so as to see, so as to know, unseeing and unknowing, that which lies beyond all vision and knowledge. For this would be really to see and to know: to praise the Transcendent One in a transcending way, namely through the denial of all beings. We would be like sculptors who set out to carve a statue. They remove 1025B every obstacle to the pure view of the hidden image, and simply by this act of clearing aside 11. they show up the beauty which is hidden. Now it seems to me that we should praise the denials quite differently than we do the assertions. When we made assertions we began with the first things, moved down through intermediate terms until we reached the last things. But now as we climb from the last things up to the most primary we deny all things 12. so that we may unhiddenly know that unknowing which itself is hidden from all those possessed of knowing amid all beings, so that we may see above being that darkness concealed from all the light among beings. CHAPTER THREE What are the affirmative theologies and what are the negative? 13. In my Theological Representations, I have praised the notions which are most appropriate to affirmative theology. I have shown the sense in

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98 which the divine and good nature is said to be one and then triune, 1033A how Fatherhood and Sonship are predicated of it, the meaning of the theology of the Spirit, how these core lights of goodness grew from the incorporeal and indivisible good, and how in this sprouting they have remained inseparable from their co-eternal foundation in it, in ____________________ 11. "Clearing aside" here translates a term (aphairesis) that is otherwise rendered "denial." 12. These cryptic references to descending assertions and ascending denials are expanded in the next chapter. 13. This lost or fictitious treatise is mentioned and perhaps summarized in the first chapter of The Divine Names (DN 1 585B 10f. and 589D 38 to 592B 17). See DN 1, notes 3 and 10, for additional references. -138themselves, and in each other. 14. I have spoken of how Jesus, who is above individual being, became a being with a true human nature. Other revelations of scripture were also praised in The Theological Representations. In The Divine Names I have shown the sense in which God is described as good, existent, life, wisdom, power, and whatever other things pertain to the conceptual names for God. 15. In my Symbolic Theology 16. I have discussed analogies of God drawn from what we perceive. I have spoken of the images we have of him, of the forms, fig ures, and instruments proper to him, of the places in which he lives 1033B and of the ornaments he wears. I have spoken of his anger, grief, and rage, of how he is said to be drunk and hungover, of his oaths and curses, of his sleeping and waking, and indeed of all those images we have of him, images shaped by the workings of the symbolic representations of God. And I feel sure that you have noticed how these latter come much more abundantly than what went before, since The Theological Representations and a discussion of the names appropriate to God are inevitably briefer than what can be said in The Symbolic Theology. The fact is that the more we take flight upward, the more our words are confined to the ideas we are capable of forming; so that now as we plunge into that darkness which is beyond intellect, we shall find ourselves not simply running short of words but actually speech less and unknowing. In the earlier books my argument traveled down 1033C ward from the most exalted to the humblest categories, taking in on this downward path an ever-increasing number of ideas which multiplied with every stage of the descent. But my argument now rises from what is below up to the transcendent, and the more it climbs, the more language falters, and when it has passed up and beyond the ascent, it will turn silent completely, since it will finally be at one with him who is indescribable. Now you may wonder why it is that, after starting out from the highest category when our method involved assertions, we begin now from the lowest category when it involves a denial. The reason is this. When we assert what is beyond every assertion, we must then proceed from what is most akin to it, and as we do so we make the affirmation ____________________ 14. The symbolism of lights and sprouting plants is also used for the Son and the Spirit in DN 2 645B 1924. 15. These five biblical names for God are the first to be discussed in The Divine Names (chapters four through eight). 16. On this lost or fictitious treatise, see DN 1, note 89. -139-

99 on which everything else depends. But when we deny that which is beyond every denial, we have to start by denying those qualities which differ most from the goal we hope to attain. Is it not closer to reality to say that God is life and goodness rather than that he is air or stone? Is it not more accurate to deny that drunkenness and rage can be attributed to him than to deny that we can apply to him the terms of speech and thought? 17.

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CHAPTER FOUR That the supreme Cause of every perceptible thing is not itself perceptible. So this is what we say. The Cause of all is above all and is not inex istent, lifeless, speechless, mindless. It is not a material body, and ____________________ 17. Or, "is it not more incorrect to say that God gets drunk or raves than that he is expressed or conceived?"

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"Life," "goodness," "air," etc., are all biblical examples and are discussed elsewhere in the corpus (DN 1 596ABC, CH 2 144CD, Ep. 9 1105B; "air" refers to the "still small breeze" of 1 Kings 19:12 in the Septuagint). The point here is that not all affirmations concerning God are equally inappropriate; they are arranged in a descending order of decreasing congruity. Affirmative theology begins with the loftier, more congruous comparisons and then proceeds "down" to the less appropriate ones. Thus, as the author reminds us, The Theological Representations began with God's oneness and proceeded down into the multiplicity of affirming the Trinity and the incarnation. The Divine Names then affirmed the more numerous designations for God which come from mental concepts, while The Symbolic Theology "descended" into the still more pluralized realm of sense perception and its plethora of symbols for the deity. This pattern of descending affirmations and ascending negations can be interpreted in terms of late Neoplatonism's "procession" from the One down into plurality and the "return" of all back to the One (CH 1, note 4). In the "return," not all negations concerning God are equally appropriate; the attributes to be negated are arranged in an ascending order of decreasing incongruity, first considering and negating the lowest or most obviously false statements about God and then moving up to deny those that may seem more congruous. Thus the first to be denied are the perceptible attributes, starting with The Mystical Theology, Chapter 4, which therefore previews the two subsequent treatises on perceptible symbols, The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Chapter 2 of the former work will continue the theme of negating and transcending symbols, namely, interpreting first the most incongruous of the perceptible symbols attributed to the celestial, whether to the angels or to God. The anagogical or uplifting method of interpretation in these two treatises incorporates into itself the principles of negative theology. Both the spatial, material depictions of the angels in the scriptures and also the temporal, sequential images of God in the liturgy must be transcended in the ascent from the perceptible to the intelligible. Thus, "as we climb higher," Chapter 5 of The Mystical Theology denies and moves beyond all our concepts or "conceptual" attributes of God and concludes by abandoning all speech and thought, even negations. On this sequence of treatises, see P. Rorem, "The Place of The Mystical Theology in the PseudoDionysian Corpus," Dionysius 4 (1980): 87-98. -140hence has neither shape nor form, quality, quantity, or weight. It is not in any place and can neither be seen nor be touched. It is neither perceived nor is it perceptible. It suffers neither disorder nor disturbance and is overwhelmed by no earthly passion. It is not powerless and subject to the disturbances caused by

100 sense perception. It endures no deprivation of light. It passes through no change, decay, division, loss, no ebb and flow, nothing of which the senses may be aware. None of all this can either be identified with it nor attributed to it. CHAPTER FIVE That the supreme Cause of every conceptual thing is not itself conceptual. Again, as we climb higher we say this. It is not soul or mind, nor does 1045D it possess imagination, conviction, speech, or understanding. Nor is it speech per se, understanding per se. It cannot be spoken of and it cannot be grasped by understanding. It is not number or order, great ness or smallness, equality or inequality, similarity or dissimilarity. It 1048A is not immovable, moving, or at rest. It has no power, it is not power, nor is it light. It does not live nor is it life. It is not a substance, nor is it eternity or time. It cannot be grasped by the understanding since it is neither knowledge nor truth. It is not kingship. It is not wisdom. It is neither one nor oneness, divinity nor goodness. Nor is it a spirit, in the sense in which we understand that term. It is not sonship or fatherhood and it is nothing known to us or to any other being. It falls neither within the predicate of nonbeing nor of being. Existing beings do not know it as it actually is and it does not know them as they are. There is no speaking of it, nor name nor knowledge of it. Darkness and light, error and truth—it is none of these. It is beyond assertion 1048B and denial. We make assertions and denials of what is next to it, but never of it, for it is both beyond every assertion, being the perfect and unique cause of all things, and, by virtue of its preeminently simple and absolute nature, free of every limitation, beyond every limitation; it is also beyond every denial. -141The Celestial Hierarchy 1. ____________________ 1. The Celestial Hierarchy has no other dependable modern translation into English. The best translation yet in print, abundantly annotated and accompanying a critical Greek text, is the French rendition by M. Gandillac (Sources Chrétiennes 58), to be abbreviated as Gandillac, CH. As to the overall structure of the treatise, Giuseppa Saccaro Battisti has argued for certain similarities with classical rhetoric: exordium (chapters 1-2), narratio (35), divisio (6-10), confutatio (11-14), confirmatio (15), and conclusio (the final sentence of chapter 15) ("Strutture e figure retoriche nel 'de Caelesti Hierarchia' dello Pseudo-Dionigi: Un mezzo di espressione dell' ontologia Neoplatonica," Archivio di Filosofia 51 [1983]: 293319). CHAPTER ONE Dionysius the Elder to Timothy the Fellow-Elder: Even though in various ways every divine enlightenment proceeds, out of its goodness, toward those provided for, it not only remains simple in itself but also unifies those it enlightens. 2. 120A 1. "Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, com 120B 3. ing down from the Father of lights." But there is something more. Inspired by the Father, each procession of the Light spreads itself generously toward us, and, in its power to unify, it stirs us by lifting us up. It returns us back to the oneness and deifying simplicity of the Father who gathers us in. For, as the sacred Word says, "from him 121A and to him are all things." 4.

101 2. Let us, then, call upon Jesus, the Light of the Father, the "true light enlightening every man coming into the world," 5. "through whom we have obtained access" 6. to the Father, the light which is the source of all light. To the best of our abilities, we should raise our eyes to the paternally transmitted enlightenment coming from sacred scripture and, as far as we can, we should behold the intelligent hierarchies of heaven and we should do so in accordance with what scripture has revealed to us in symbolic and uplifting fashion. We must lift up the immaterial and steady eyes of our minds to that outpouring of Light which is so primal, indeed much more so, and which comes from that ____________________ 2. On the doubtful authenticity of these chapter headings, see DN 1, note 2, and EH 1, note 2. 3. Jas 1:17. 4. Rom 11:36; cf. DN 4 708A 4f., DN 13 980B 27f. This opening paragraph has bracketed the Neoplatonic theme of procession and return with two supporting biblical quotations. The cyclical pattern of "remaining," a downward "procession," and an upward "return" is essential to the structure of late Neoplatonism. Proclus received this motif from his predecessors lamblichus and Syrianus and summarized it succinctly: "Every effect remains in its cause, proceeds from it, and returns to it" (The Elements of Theology, ed. E. R. Dodds, no. 35, p. 38; see also nos. 25-39, pp. 28-43, and the comments by Dodds, XIX-XX and pp. 212f.). The language of a logical cause and effect helps avoid both the obvious mistake of interpreting this theme literally as a movement in space and also the more subtle pitfalls of understanding it sequentially as a movement in time. Stephen Gersh has organized a major monograph around this construct of the "downward and upward processes" (From Iamblichus, see especially pp. 46, 224, and 286). Dionysius used this framework primarily to express the divine revelation, which "descends" to its recipients and then "uplifts" them, as perhaps suggested by the very sequence of his treatises (see MT 3, note 17) and as clearly stated in several passages: CH 1 120B to 121C 27, CH 2 141B 21-31, CH 9 260B 15-21, EH 3 428D 38 to 429B 25, DN 4 712C 29 to 713A 2, MT 3 1033C. 5. Jn 1:9. 6. Rom 5:2; cf. Eph 2:18, 3:12 -145source of divinity, I mean the Father. This is the Light which, by way 121B of representative symbols, makes known to us the most blessed hierarchics among the angels. But we need to rise from this outpouring of illumination so as to come to the simple ray of Light itself. Of course this ray never abandons its own proper nature, or its own interior unity. Even though it works itself outward to multiplicity and proceeds outside of itself as befits its generosity, doing so to lift upward and to unify those beings for which it has a providential responsibility, nevertheless it remains inherently stable and it is forever one with its own unchanging identity. And it grants to creatures the power to rise up, so far as they may, toward itself and it unifies them by way of its own simplified unity. However, this divine ray can enlighten us only by being upliftingly concealed in a variety of sacred veils which the Providence of the Father adapts to our nature as human beings. 7.

121C

3. All this accounts for the fact that the sacred institution and source of perfection established our most pious hierarchy. He modeled it on the hierarchies of heaven, and clothed these immaterial hierarchies in numerous material figures and forms so that, in a way appropriate to our nature, we might be uplifted from these most venerable images to interpretations 8. and assimilations which are simple and inexpressible. For

102 it is quite impossible that we humans should, in any immaterial way, rise up to imitate and to contemplate the heavenly hierarchies without the aid of those material means capable of guiding us as our na 121D ture requires. Hence, any thinking person realizes that the appearances of beauty are signs of an invisible loveliness. The beautiful odors which strike the senses are representations of a conceptual diffusion. Material lights are images of the outpouring of an immaterial gift of light. The thoroughness of sacred discipleship indicates the immense contempla tive capacity of the mind. Order and rank here below are a sign of the 124A harmonious ordering toward the divine realm. The reception of the most divine Eucharist is a symbol of participation in Jesus. And so it goes for all the gifts transcendently received by the beings of heaven, gifts which are granted to us in a symbolic mode. 9. ____________________ 7. This entire paragraph echoes the full Neoplatonic structure of remaining, procession, and return. See note 4, above. The veils that "upliftingly conceal" are the scriptures and the liturgy, as indicated in the rest of this chapter and in DN 1 592B 20-27. 8. On this use of the term "uplifting" (anagogy) to mean an "interpretation," see CH 15 337D 47, note 179. 9. These references to the Eucharist and to the beauties, odors, and lights there per-146The source of spiritual perfection provided us with perceptible images of these heavenly minds. He did so out of concern for us and because he wanted us to be made godlike. He made the heavenly hierarchies known to us. He made our own hierarchy a ministerial colleague of these divine hierarchies by an assimilation, to the extent that is humanly feasible, to their godlike priesthood. He revealed all this to us in the sacred pictures of the scriptures so that he might lift us in spirit up through the perceptible to the conceptual, from sacred shapes and symbols to the simple peaks of the hierarchies of heaven. CHAPTER TWO That divine and heavenly things are appropriately revealed even through dissimilar symbols. 1. The first task I think is to set down the purpose of every hierarchy 136D and to indicate how this is to the advantage of its members. Then, following on what scripture has revealed to us, a hymn of praise must be offered up to the heavenly hierarchies. I must describe the sacred forms given to these heavenly ranks by scripture, for one has to be 137A 10. lifted up through such shapes to the utter simplicity of what is there. We cannot, as mad people do, profanely visualize these heavenly and godlike intelligences as actually having numerous feet and faces. 11. They are not shaped to resemble the brutishness of oxen or to display the wildness of lions. They do not have the curved beak of the eagle or the wings and feathers of birds. 12. We must not have pictures of flaming wheels whirling in the skies, 13. of material thrones made ready ____________________ ceived by the senses suggest that the opening of The Celestial Hierarchy also introduces "our" hierarchy, more thoroughly discussed in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Chapter 3 of The Celestial Hierarchy concludes the introduction to both hierarchies; Chapter 4 then begins the specific discussion of the angelic hierarchy. 10. This opening paragraph may outline the rest of the treatise. The purpose of a hierarchy is discussed in CH 3. Perhaps CH 4-14 could loosely be called a hymn of praise. The specific discussion of the "sacred forms" is found in CH 15.

103 All of these introductory examples are discussed later in the treatise, most of them in Chapter 15. The angels' facial features and feet are explained in CH 15 332A-D. 12. The symbols of the ox, the lion, and the eagle (Ez 1:10) are considered in CH 15 336D to 337A. 13. The flaming wheels (Dn 7:9) and the entire image of fire are discussed in CH 15 328D to 329D. 11.

-147to provide a reception for the Deity, 14. of multicolored horses, 15. or of spear-carrying lieutenants, 16. or any of those shapes handed on to us amid all the variety of the revealing symbols of scripture. The Word of God makes use of poetic imagery when discussing these formless 137B 17. intelligences but, as I have already said, it does so not for the sake of art, but as a concession to the nature of our own mind. It uses scriptural passages in an uplifting fashion as a way, provided for us from the first, to uplift our mind in a manner suitable to our nature. 2. These pictures have to do with beings so simple that we can neither know nor contemplate them. What if someone therefore thinks that the scriptural imagery for these minds is incongruous and that the names given to the angels have the inadequacy of a pretense? Indeed, it could be argued that if the theologians wanted to give cor 137C poreal form to what is purely incorporeal, they should have resorted to a more appropriate and related fashioning, that they should have begun with what we would hold to be noblest, immaterial and transcendent beings, instead of drawing upon a multiplicity of the earthiest forms and applying these to godlike realities which are utterly simple and heavenly. Now perhaps this intends to lift us upward and not lead the celestial appearances down into incongruous dissimilarities. But in fact it illicitly defies the divine powers and also misleads our mind, entangling it in profane compositions. One would likely then imagine that the heavens beyond really are filled with bands of lions and horses, that the divine praises are, in effect, great moos, that 137D flocks of birds take wing there or that there are other kinds of creatures all about or even more dishonorable material things, whatever the completely dissimilar similarities of the revealing scriptures depict as tending toward the absurd, counterfeit, and emotional. But if one looks at the truth of the matter, the sacred wisdom of 140A scripture becomes evident, for, when the heavenly intelligences are represented with forms, great providential care is taken to offer no insult to the divine powers, as one might say, and we ourselves are spared a passionate dependence upon images which have something ____________________ 14. Dn 7:9; Rv 4:2; cf. Ep. 9 1105B 16. Of course, "thrones" as a celestial name is treated below in Chapter 7 (205D). 15. Zech 1:8, 6:2; Rv 6:1-9; cf. CH 15 337AB. 16. Jos 5:13; cf. CH 15 333A 19. 17. R. Roques has considered this phrase, and its Latin translation by Eriugena, in " 'Valde artificialiter': le sens d'un contresens," Annuaire de l'école pratique des Hautes Études 77 (1969-1970): 31-72. -148of the lowly and the vulgar about them. Now there are two reasons for creating types for the typeless, for giving shape to what is actually without shape. 18. First, we lack the ability to be directly raised up to conceptual contemplations. We need our own upliftings that come naturally to us and which can raise before us the permitted forms of the marvelous and unformed sights. Second, it is most fitting to the mysterious passages of scripture that the sacred and hidden truth

about the celestial intelligences be concealed through the inexpressible and the sacred and be inaccessible to the hoi polloi. Not everyone is sacred, and, as scripture says, knowledge is not for everyone. 19.

104 140B

As for the incongruity of scriptural imagery or the impropriety of using humble forms to represent the divine and holy ranks, this is a criticism to which one must say in reply that sacred revelation works in a double way. 3. It does so, firstly, by proceeding naturally through sacred im 140C ages in which like represents like, while also using formations which are dissimilar and even entirely inadequate and ridiculous. 20. Sometimes the mysterious tradition of the scriptures represents the sacred blessedness of the transcendent Deity under the form of "Word," "Mind," and "Being." It shows thereby that rationality and wisdom are, necessarily, attributes of God, that he is also to be deemed a true subsistence and the true cause of the subsistence of every being, and that he may also be represented as light and hailed as life. 21. Now these sacred shapes certainly show more reverence and seem vastly superior to the making of images drawn from the world. Yet they are actually no less defective than this latter, for the Deity is far beyond every manifestation of being and of life; no reference to light can characterize it; every reason or intelligence falls short of similarity to it. 140D Then there is the scriptural device of praising the deity by presenting it in utterly dissimilar revelations. He is described as invisi____________________ 18. The double rationale for symbolism is also discussed later in this chapter in 145A 8-10, and in EH 1 377A 1-5, Ep. 9 1105C 36-45, and 1108AB 7-20. 19. 1 Cor 8:7; cf. Mt 13:11; Lk 8:10; cf. EH 1 376C 34f. 20. Note that the author does not advance two separate types of images that are mutually exclusive. The rest of the corpus explains that this is a "double" way in that "the very same things are both similar and dissimilar to God" (DN 9 916A 8-10). Thus later in this chapter, the author arranges some scriptural symbols in a continuum of similarity and dissimilarity (144C to 145A). 21. "Word": Jn 1:1; for further biblical examples and discussion, see DN 1 596B 20 and DN 7 872C. "Mind": Is 40:13; see DN 1 596B 19. "Being": perhaps Ex 3:14; see DN 1 596A 13 and DN 5 816B to 825B. "Light": 1 Jn 1:5; see DN 1 596A 13. "Life": Jn 11:25; see DN 1 596A 13 and DN 6 856B to 857C. -149ble, 22. infinite, ungraspable, and other things which show not what he is but what in fact he is not. This second way of talking about him seems to me much more appropriate, for, as the secret and sacred tra dition has instructed, God is in no way like the things that have being 141A and we have no knowledge at all of his incomprehensible and ineffable transcendence and invisibility. Since the way of negation appears to be more suitable to the realm of the divine and since positive affirmations are always unfitting to the hiddenness of the inexpressible, a manifestation through dissimilar shapes is more correctly to be applied to the invisible. 23. So it is that scriptural writings, far from demeaning the ranks of heaven, actually pay them honor by describing them with dissimilar shapes so completely at variance with what they really are that we come to discover how those ranks, so far removed from us, transcend all materiality. Furthermore, I doubt that anyone would refuse to acknowledge that

105 incongruities are more suitable for lifting our minds up into the domain of the spiritual than similarities are. High-flown shapes could well mislead someone into thinking that the heavenly beings are golden or gleaming men, glamorous, wearing lustrous 141B clothing, giving off flames which cause no harm, or that they have other similar beauties with which the word of God has fashioned the heavenly minds. 24. It was to avoid this kind of misunderstanding among those incapable of rising above visible beauty that the pious theologians so wisely and upliftingly stooped to incongruous dissimilarities, for by doing this they took account of our inherent tendency toward the material and our willingness to be lazily satisfied by base images. At the same time they enabled that part of the soul which longs for the things above actually to rise up. Indeed the sheer crassness of the signs is a goad so that even the materially inclined cannot accept that it could be permitted or true that the celestial and divine sights could be conveyed by such shameful things. And remember too 141C 25. that there is nothing which lacks its own share of beauty, for as scripture rightly says, "Everything is good." 26. ____________________ 22. Col 1:15; 1 Tm 1:17; Heb 11:27. 23. CH 2 here continues the discussion of affirmations and negations begun in MT 3, applying the principles of negative theology to the interpretation of perceptible symbols, beginning with those most easily denied in their literal sense. 24. Dn 10:5f. (LXX); cf. Mt 28:3; see also CH 15 328D 41, 333A 6-10. 25. See also CH 4 177CD 19-21, DN 4 720B 15f., and DN 7 868C 31-33. 26. Gn 1:31. -1504. Everything, then, can be a help to contemplation; and dissimilar similarities derived from the world, about which I have been talking, can be applied to those beings which are both intelligible and intelligent. 27. Of course one has always to remember the enormous difference between what is typical of the domain of intelligence and that of the senses. 28. Thus, among those lacking in intelligence, anger is a 141D raging, passionate and irrational urge, whereas among those endowed with reason it is something else, and has to be understood to be such. For intelligent beings anger is, I believe, the sturdy working of reason in them and the capacity they have to be grounded tenaciously in holy and unchanging foundations. Similarly with desire. For those lacking in reason it is a limitless appetite for the material, a thrust originating in that chronic urge to 144A dwell with the ephemeral, that living, mastering longing to remain with whatever is applauded by the senses. Now when we apply dissimilar similarities to intelligent beings, we say of them that they experience desire, but this has to be interpreted as a divine yearning for that immaterial reality which is beyond all reason and all intelligence. It is a strong and sure desire for the clear and impassible contemplation of the transcendent. It is a hunger for an unending, conceptual, and true communion with the spotless and sublime light, of clear and splendid beauty. Intemperance then will be an unfailing and unturning power, seen in the pure and unchanging yearning for divine beauty and in the total commitment to the real object of all desire. 29. 144B What we call lack of intelligence and lack of perception in animals and in objects is in fact the deficiency of reason and of perception. But when we are talking of immaterial and intelligent beings we say this, as

106 befits holy beings. They, as transcendent beings, far surpass our discursive and bodily reason, just as material perception is something far beneath those entities which are intelligent and disembodied. So, then, forms, even those drawn from the lowliest matter, can be used, not unfittingly, with regard to heavenly beings. Matter, after all, owes its subsistence to absolute beauty and keeps, throughout its ____________________ 27. On this expression for the angels, see Gandillac, CH, p. 81, n. 1. 28. Cf. Iamblichus, de Myst. I, 21, 66.5-9. On the comparison and contrast of Dionysius and Iamblichus regarding perceptible symbols, especially those connected to ritual, see P. Rorem, "Iamblichus and the Anagogical Method in Pseudo-Dionysian Liturgical Theology," Studia Patristica XVII, ed. E. A. Livingstone (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1982), pp. 453-60. 29. On these emotions, see Gandillac, CH, pp. 81-83. -151earthly ranks, some echo of intelligible beauty. Using matter, one may be lifted up to the immaterial archetypes. Of course one must be care 144C ful to use the similarities as dissimilarities, as discussed, to avoid oneto-one correspondences, to make the appropriate adjustments as one remembers the great divide between the intelligible and the perceptible. 5. We will find that the mysterious theologians employ these things not only to make known the ranks of heaven but also to reveal something of God himself. They sometimes use the most exalted imagery, calling him for instance sun of righteousness, 30. star of the morning which rises into the mind, 31. clear and conceptual light. 32. 144D Sometimes they use more intermediate, down-to-earth images. They call him the blazing fire which does not cause destruction, 33. water filling up life and, so to speak, entering the stomach and forming inexhaustible streams. 34. Sometimes the images are of the lowliest kind, such as sweet-smelling ointment 35. and corner stone. 36. Sometimes the imagery is even derived from animals so that God is described as a lion or a panther, a leopard or a charging bear. 37. Add to this what seems 145A the lowliest and most incongruous of all, for the experts in things divine gave him the form of a worm. 38. In this way the wise men of God, exponents of hidden inspiration, separate the "Holy of Holies" from defilement by anything in the realm of the imperfect or the profane. They therefore honor the dissimilar shape so that the divine things remain inaccessible to the profane and so that all those with a real wish to see the sacred imagery may not dwell on the types as true. So true negations and the unlike ____________________ 30. Mal 4:2. For further physical symbols of God such as those considered here in notes 30-38, see Ep. 9 1104C 25 to 1105B 28. 31. 2 Pt 1:19; Rv 22:16. Neither of these verses is precisely echoed in the Areopagite's wording; see Plotinus, Enneads, II, 3, 12, 20. 32. 1 Jn 1:5; see DN 1 596A 13, note 26, for other biblical texts. Mt 5:14-16 concerns an unhidden light. 33. Ex 3:2 concerns a nonconsuming fire. Wisd of Sol 18:3 refers to the pillar of fire (Ex 13:21f.) as a harmless sun. For other discussions of fire as a symbol for God and for the angels, see Ep. 9 1108C 39 and CH 15 329A. 34. Jn 7:38, from Prv 18:4; cf. Jn 4:14. See also EH1 373C 40, DN1 596B 19, Ep. 9 1104B 20; Plotinus,

107 Enneads, VI, 9, 9, 49. Sg 1:3; EH 4 concerns the sacrament of the ointment or myron as a symbol for Christ. 36. Is 28:16; Eph 2:20 (Ez 10:1); see the fuller range of biblical sources in note 68 to DN 1 596C 30f. 37. Is 31:4; Hos 5:14, 13:7f. Dove: Mt 3:16; Eagle: Dt 32:11. 38. Ps 22:6. 35.

-152comparisons with their last echoes offer due homage to the divine things. For this reason there is nothing ridiculous about representing heavenly beings with similarities which are dissimilar and incon gruous, for the reasons mentioned. And I myself might not have been 145B stirred from this difficulty to my current inquiry, to an uplifting through a precise explanation of these sacred truths, had I not been troubled by the deformed imagery used by scripture in regard to the angels. My mind was not permitted to dwell on imagery so inadequate, but was provoked to get behind the material show, to get accustomed to the idea of going beyond appearances to those upliftings which are not of this world. 39. But enough now about these material and incongruous images of the angels as found in sacred scripture. What I must now do is to explain what I mean by hierarchy and to say what advantage such hierarchy offers to those who are members of it. So, I hope that my discourse will be guided by Christ, by my Christ, if I may put it this way, the inspiration of what has been made known about the hier archy. And you, my child, must follow the recommendations of our 145C hierarchic tradition. Listen carefully to things sacredly said and be inspired by them in an initiation into inspired things. Keep these holy truths a secret in your hidden mind. Guard their unity safe from the multiplicity of what is profane, 40. for, as scripture says, you must not throw before swine that pure, shining and splendid harmony of the conceptual pearls. 41. CHAPTER THREE What a hierarchy is and what its benefit is. 164D 1. In my opinion a hierarchy is a sacred order, a state of understanding and an activity approximating as closely as possible to the divine. 42. And it is uplifted to the imitation of God in proportion to the enlightenments divinely given to it. The beauty of God—so simple, so good, ____________________ 39. This remark is perhaps genuinely (unintentionally) autobiographical. For "uplifting" (anagogy) as an "interpretation," see CH 15, note 179. 40. 1 Tm 6:20. 41. Nit 7:6 42. This definition of hierarchy (order, understanding, and activity) provides the organizing principle for R. Roques's masterful L'Univers Dionysien (see p. 30). Other statements of general definition for hierarchy are found below, 165BC 17-32, in EH 1 373C and EH 5 500D to 504A3. -153so much the source of perfection—is completely uncontaminated by dissimilarity. It reaches out to grant every being, according to merit, a share of light and then through a divine sacrament, in harmony and in peace, it bestows on each of those being perfected its own form.

108 2. The goal of a hierarchy, then, is to enable beings to be as like 165A as possible to God and to be at one with him. 43. A hierarchy has God as its leader of all understanding and action. It is forever looking directly at the comeliness of God. A hierarchy bears in itself the mark of God. Hierarchy causes its members to be images of God in all respects, to be clear and spotless mirrors 44. reflecting the glow of primordial light and indeed of God himself. It ensures that when its members have received this full and divine splendor they can then pass on this light generously and in accordance with God's will to beings further down the scale. It would be quite wrong for those granting initiation in the sacred things, as indeed for those sacredly initiated, ever to do anything or even to exist against the sacred orderings of him who is after all the source of all perfection. This would certainly be wrong, particularly if they themselves desire the splendor of God, if they are forever gaz ing on this splendor in a way appropriate to its sacred character, and if it is to this splendor that they are conformed, proportionately to each mind.

165B

If one talks then of hierarchy, what is meant is a certain perfect arrangement, an image of the beauty of God which sacredly works out the mysteries of its own enlightenment in the orders and levels of understanding of the hierarchy, and which is likened toward its own source as much as is permitted. 45. Indeed for every member of the hierarchy, perfection consists in this, that it is uplifted to imitate God as far as possible and, more wonderful still, that it becomes what scripture calls a "fellow workman for God" 46. and a reflection of the workings of God. Therefore when the hierarchic order lays it on some to be purified and on others to do the purifying, on some to receive illumination and on others to cause illumination, on some to be per fected and on others to bring about perfection, each will actually im itate God in the way suitable to whatever role it has. ____________________ 43. On this goal of assimilation and union, see Gandillac, CH, p. 88, n. 1. 44. Wisd of Sol 7:26. 45. For other definitions of hierarchy, see note 42 above. 46. 1 Cor 3:9; 1 Thes 3:2.

165C

-154What we humans call the beatitude of God is something uncontaminated by dissimilarity. It is full of a continuous light and is perfect, indeed it lacks no perfection whatsoever. It is purifying, illuminating, and perfecting; or rather it is itself purification, illumination, and perfection. 47. It is beyond purification; it is beyond light; it is the very source of perfection which is more than perfect. It is also the cause of every hierarchy and yet it surpasses by far every sacred thing. 3. Now it seems to me that those who have been purified 165D should in fact be perfectly uncontaminated, that they should be free of all dissimilar blemish. I think that those receiving sacred illumination should receive the divine light in full, that they should be uplifted in the holy eyes of their mind so as to be fully able to engage in contemplation. I think that those being perfected should draw away from imperfection and join the company of those who behold sacred things with a perfected understanding. It is also right 168A that those who purify should give of their superabundant purity to others. It is right too that those who give illumination—those minds clearer than the others, joyfully full of the sacred radiance, and obviously able both to receive the light and to pass on what they acquire—that these should spread their overflowing light everywhere among those worthy of it. Finally, it is only proper that those charged with the task of

109 creating perfection, as those who understand the perfecting impartation, should cause the perfect to be what they are by introducing them to an understanding of the sacred things so reverently beheld. And so it comes about that every order in the hierarchical rank is uplifted as best it can toward cooperation with God. By grace and a God-given power, it does things which belong naturally and supernaturally to God, things performed by him transcendently and revealed in the hierarchy for the permitted imitation of God-loving minds. 168B ____________________ 47. The triad of purification, illumination, and perfection is particularly prominent in the discussion of the three clerical orders of deacons, priests, and hierarchs. See EH 5 504A 5 to 509A 3, and CH 7, note 75. On the origins of this famous trio, see the argument of A. Louth, The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon, 1981), pp. 57-59. -155CHAPTER FOUR What the designation "angel" signifies. 1. I think I have now explained what I mean by hierarchy itself and I must, accordingly, lift up a song of praise to the angelic hierarchy. 48. With eyes that look beyond the world I must behold the sacred forms 177C attributed to it by the scriptures, so that we may be uplifted by way of these mysterious representations to their divine simplicity. 49. Then with due worship and thanksgiving we will glorify God, the source of everything we understand concerning the hierarchy. One truth must be affirmed above all else. It is that the transcendent Deity has out of goodness established the existence of everything and brought it into being. 50. It is characteristic of the universal Cause, of this goodness beyond all, to summon everything to communion with him to the extent that this is possible. Hence everything in some way partakes of the providence flowing out of this transcendent Deity which is the originator of all that is. Indeed nothing could exist with out some share in the being and source of everything. Even the things 177D which have no life participate in this, for it is the transcendent Deity which is the existence of every being. The living, in their turn, have a share in that power which gives life and which surpasses all life. Beings endowed with reason and intelligence have a share in that absolutely perfect, primordially perfect wisdom which surpasses all reason and all intelligence. 51. And, clearly, these latter beings are nearer to God, since their participation in him takes so many forms. 2. Compared with the things which merely are, with irrational 180A forms of life and indeed with our own rational natures, the holy ranks of heavenly beings are obviously superior in what they have received of God's largess. Their thinking processes imitate the divine. They look on the divine likeness with a transcendent eye. They model their intellects on him. Hence it is natural for them to enter into a more ____________________ 48. The author here turns from the general discussion of any hierarchy, whether angelic or human, to the specific subject of this treatise on the celestial hierarchy. 49. Note the similarities between this statement on biblical exegesis and the one on liturgical interpretation in EH 4 472 D 9-12. 50. Apostolic Constitutions VIII, 12, 6 (Funk, 496.22); cf. DN 1 592A 3f. and Ep. 8 1085D 45. 51. The participation in the source of all by thinking, living, or merely existing beings (the Neoplatonic triad of mind, life, existence) is also discussed in DN 4 720B 15f., and DN5 816B-817B.

110 -156generous communion with the Deity, because they are forever marching towards the heights, because, as permitted, they are drawn to a concentration of an unfailing love for God, because they immaterially receive undiluted the original enlightenment, and because, ordered by such enlightenment, theirs is a life of total intelligence. They have the first and the most diverse participation in the divine and they, in turn, provide the first and the most diverse revelations of the divine hid denness. That is why they have a preeminent right to the title of angel 180B or messenger, since it is they who first are granted the divine enlightenment and it is they who pass on to us these revelations which are so far beyond us. Indeed the Word of God teaches us that the Law was given to us by the angels. 52. Before the days of the Law and after it had come, it was the angels who uplifted our illustrious ancestors toward the divine and they did so by prescribing roles of conduct, by turning them from wandering and sin to the right way of truth, or by coming to announce and explain sacred orders, hidden visions, or transcendent mysteries, or divine prophecies. 53. 3. Someone might claim that God has appeared himself and 180C without intermediaries to some of the saints. But in fact it should be realized that scripture has clearly shown that "no one ever has seen" 54. or ever will see the being of God in all its hiddenness. Of course God has appeared to certain pious men in ways which were in keeping with his divinity. He has come in certain sacred visions fashioned to suit the beholders. This kind of vision, that is to say, where the formless God is represented in forms, is rightly described by theological discourse as a theophany. The recipients of such visions are lifted up to the divine. They are granted divine enlightenment and are somehow initiated in the divine things themselves. Yet it was the heavenly powers which initiated our venerable ancestors to these divine visions. It could be argued that in the scriptural tradition the sacred or 180D dinances of the Law were given directly by God himself to Moses, so that he might truly teach us that these ordinances are themselves a copy of the divine and the sacred. Yet theology quite clearly teaches 181A that these ordinances were mediated to us by angels so that God's order might show us how it is that secondary beings are uplifted through ____________________ 52. Acts 7:38, 53; Gal 3:19, Heb 2:2. 53. For example, Ex 23:20-23; see below, 181BC. 54. Jn 1:18; Ex 33:20-23; 1 Tm 6:16; 1 Jn 4:12; cf. Ep. 1 1065A 9-11. -157the primary beings. 55. Now the Law which was laid down by the transcendent source of all order has prescriptions affecting not only the highest and the lowest groups of intelligent beings but also those of equal order and it establishes that in every hierarchy appropriate order and power must be distributed within the primary, middle, and lowest strata and that those closer to God should be the initiators of those less close by guiding them to the divine access, enlightenment, and communion. 4. I note that the mystery of Jesus' love for humanity was first 181B revealed to the angels and that the gift of this knowledge was granted by the angels to us. 56. It was the most divine Gabriel who guided Zechariah the hierarch into the mystery that, contrary to all hope and by God's favor, he would have a son who would be a prophet of the divine and human work of Jesus, who was beneficently about to appear for the salvation of the world. 57. Gabriel revealed to Mary how in her would be born the divine mystery of the ineffable form of God. 58. Another angel forecast to Joseph the true fulfillment of the divine promises made to his ancestor David. 59. Yet another angel brought the good news to the shepherds who, because of their quiet life withdrawn from the crowd, had somehow been

111 purified. And with him "a multitude of the heavenly host" passed on to those on earth that famous song of jubilation. 60. But let us lift our eyes now to the most exalted revelations of 181C scripture. Jesus himself, the transcendent Cause of those beings which live beyond the world, came to take on human form without in any way changing his own essential nature. But I observe that never once did he abandon that human form which he had established and chosen, and he obediently submitted to the wishes of God the Father as arranged by the angels. It was the angels who announced to Joseph ____________________ 55. The biblical tension between a direct gift of the law to Moses (Ex 31:18) and an angelic mediation (see note 52 above) is partially relieved by the possibility of calling Moses himself an angel since he, like all hierarchs, is also an "announcer" or mediator (CH 12 293A 7-12, EH 7 561C 39-41, 564A 6f.). 56. That Jesus' "philanthropy" or love for humanity is directly tied to the incarnation is apparent not only from the context here but from other uses of the term (EH 4 437A 12, 441A 12, 444A 14, 444C 36, 444C 39, DN 1 592A 8, DN 2 640C 33, 648D 42, Ep. 3 1069B 13, Ep. 4 1072A 9, 1072B 21). 57. Lk 1:11-20. 58. Lk 1:26-39. 59. Mt 1:20-25; 2 Sm 7:12-17. 60. Namely, the "Gloria in excelsis" in Lk 2:8-14; the shepherd's "withdrawal" seems presented as almost a monastic virtue. -158the Father's arrangements regarding the withdrawal into Egypt and the return to Judaea. 61. The commands of the Father were given to Jesus himself by the angels. I do not need to remind you of the sacred tradition concerning the angel who comforted Jesus 62. or of the fact 181D that because of his generous work for our salvation he himself entered the order of revealers and is called the "angel of great counsel." 63. Indeed, when he announced what he knew of the Father, was it not as an angel? 64. CHAPTER FIVE Why the heavenly beings are all called "angel" in common. 196B So, then, this is the reason, as far as I know, for the use of the designation "angel" in scripture. But I think we must ask why it is that on the one hand theologians give the title of angel to every heavenly being without distinction while yet at the same time in their discussions of these transcendent ranks they reserve the "angelic" order for the one which finally completes the divine and heavenly orders, 65. that is for those subordinate to the ranks of archangels, principalities, authorities, and powers, in short, those groups deemed by scriptural tradition to be superior. Now in every sacred rank the higher orders have all the illuminations and powers of those below them and the subordinate have none of 196C those possessed by their superiors. Theologians give the name "angel" also to the highest and holiest orders of the heavenly beings by virtue of the fact that they too make known the enlightenment proceeding from the Deity. But if one is talking about the last order among the heavenly beings it would be silly to give to the members of this the title of principalities or thrones or seraphim since they lack participation in these latter supreme powers. However, just as this order lifts our own inspired hierarchs up toward whatever light of God is known to it, so the sacred power of the highest beings lifts up the subordinate ____________________ 61. Mt 2:13, 19-22.

112 62.

Lk 22:43; Mt 4:11. Is 9:6 (LXX). 64. Jn 15:15. The word play between "announce" and "angel" is unmistakable in Greek. 65. Just as "theology" usually means the word of God in the scriptures, so here and elsewhere the "theologians" are the scripture writers: Ps 103:20; Mt 25:31; Heb 1:4. See CH 8, note 90, and MT 1, note 1. 63.

-159members of the angelic hierarchy toward the divine. 66. If scripture gives a shared name to all the angels, the reason is that all the heavenly powers hold as a common possession an inferior or superior capacity to conform to the divine and to enter into communion with the light coming from God. 67. But to clarify all this, let us look with a clear eye on the holy at tributes of each of the heavenly ranks, such as they have been revealed to us in scripture. CHAPTER SIX What is the first rank of the heavenly beings, what is the middle, and what is the last? 1. How many ranks are there among the heavenly beings? What kind are they? How does each hierarchy achieve perfection?

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Only the divine source of their perfection could really answer this, but at least they know what they have by way of power and enlightenment and they know their place in this sacred, transcendent order. As far as we are concerned, it is not possible to know the mystery of these celestial minds or to understand how they arrive at most holy perfection. We can know only what the Deity has mysteriously granted to us through them, for they know their own properties well. I have therefore nothing of my own to say about all this and I am content merely to set down, as well as I can, what it was that the sacred theologians contemplated of the angelic sights and what they shared with us about it. 2. The word of God has provided nine explanatory designations 200D 68. for the heavenly beings, and my own sacred-initiator has divided these into three threefold groups. According to him, the first group is forever around God and is said to be permanently united with him ahead of any of the others and with no intermediary. Here, then, are the most holy "thrones" and the orders said to possess many eyes and many wings, called in Hebrew the "cherubim" and "seraphim." Fol 201A ____________________ 66. See CH 10 272D 11 to 273A 5 and its note (note 108). 67. See the arguments in Chapter 11 on why the celestial beings can all be called "heavenly powers" (284B-285A). 68. The author admits that the triadic arrangement of the nine biblical names is not itself scriptural but is taken from Hierotheus (DN 3, note 128). This triple triad is also enumerated in EH 1 372C 31-42. -160lowing the tradition of scripture, he says that they are found immediately around God and in a proximity enjoyed by no other. This threefold group, says my famous teacher, forms a single hierarchy which is truly first and whose members are of equal status. No other is more like the divine or receives more directly the first enlightenments from the Deity. 69.

113 The second group, he says, is made up of "authorities," "dominions," and "powers." And the third, at the end of the heavenly hierarchies, is the group of "angels," "archangels," and "principalities." 70. CHAPTER SEVEN Concerning the seraphim, cherubim, and thrones, and theirs, the first hierarchy. 1. We accept that this is how the holy hierarchies are ordered and we 205B agree that the designations given to these heavenly intelligences signify the mode in which they take on the imprint of God. Those with a knowledge of Hebrew are aware of the fact that the holy name "seraphim" means "fire-makers," that is to say, "carriers of warmth." 71. The name "cherubim" means "fullness of knowledge" or "outpouring of wisdom." 72. This first of the hierarchies is hierarchically ordered by truly superior beings, for this hierarchy possesses the highest order as God's immediate neighbor, being grounded directly around God and receiving the primal theophanies and perfections. Hence the descrip- ____________________ 69. The first triad is the subject of the following chapter, CH 7. See also EH 4 480B 10-484A I 1 and its note (note 125). Dionysius here applies to both seraphim and cherubim the description of "many eyes" (Ez 1:18) and "many wings" (six wings in Is 6:2 and four in Ez 1:6). 70. The second and third triads are treated below in Chapters 8 and 9, respectively. 71. The seraphim make their only explicit biblical appearance in Is 6:2-6, a passage discussed at length in CH 13. This scriptural image of the seraphim and their wings is the source of the author's interpretation of the "wings" which cover the sacramental ointment or myron (EH 4 480B 10 to 484A 11). The seraphim are also briefly discussed in CH 10 273B 16-20, and in CH 15 329A 4f., where the image of fire is pursued more fully. See Gandillac, CH, pp. 105f., n. 5, on this etymology for "seraphim," which is expanded below in 205BC 17-26 and repeated in CH 13 304A 7, 304D 39-44, and EH 4 481CD 2637. 72. This etymology for "cherubim" is repeated immediately in 205B 15f., expanded below in 205C 26-32, and perhaps echoed in CH 10 272D 11 and CH 13 304A 8. On the cherubim, see also CH 8 241AB 1436 and CH 12 292CD 14-18. The biblical cherubim are mentioned in Gn 3:24; Ex 25:18-22, 37:6-9; Nm 7:89; 1 Sm 4:4; 1 Kgs 6:23-28, 8:6-7; Pss 18:10, 80:1, 99:1; Is 37:16; Ez 10:3-22. Dionysius also uses Ez 1:4-28 in his description of the cherubim, although that passage does not explicitly name them. -161tions "carriers of warmth" and "thrones." Hence, also, the title "outpouring of wisdom." These names indicate their similarity to what God is. For the designation seraphim really teaches this—a perennial circling around the divine things, penetrating warmth, the overflowing heat of a movement which never falters and never fails, a capacity to 205C stamp their own image on subordinates by arousing and uplifting in them too a like flame, the same warmth. It means also the power to purify by means of the lightning flash and the flame. It means the ability to hold unveiled and undiminished both the light they have and the illumination they give out. It means the capacity to push aside and to do away with every obscuring shadow. The name cherubim signifies the power to know and to see God, to receive the greatest gifts of his light, to contemplate the divine splendor in primordial power, to be filled with the gifts that bring wisdom and to share these generously with subordinates as a part of the beneficent outpouring of wisdom. The title of the most sublime and exalted thrones conveys that

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114 in them there is a transcendence over every earthly defect, as shown by their upward-bearing toward the ultimate heights, that they are forever separated from what is inferior, that they are completely intent upon remaining always and forever in the presence of him who is truly the most high, that, free of all passion and material concern, they are utterly available to receive the divine visitation, that they bear God and are ever open, like servants, to welcome God. 73. 2. This, then, is the explanation insofar as we can understand it 208A of why they are called what they are, and I must now say something about how I understand the hierarchy which exists among them. Now I think I have already said enough about the fact that the aim of every hierarchy is always to imitate God so as to take on his form, that the task of every hierarchy is to receive and to pass on undiluted purification, the divine light, and the understanding which brings perfection. What I have now to do is to discuss, in words which, I pray, will ____________________ 73. Although the cherubim act as a throne (Pss 80:1, 99:1), Col 1:16 presents "thrones" as heavenly beings among others. See the "fiery thrones" in CH 15 329A 3, the thrones as a symbol connected to God in Ep. 9 1105B 16, and Jesus' throne in Ep. 8 1100C 36. On this image in the church fathers and in Neoplatonism, see Gandillac, CH, p. 108, n. 2. -162be worthy of these superior intelligences, the scriptural revelation concerning their hierarchy. The first beings have their place beside the Godhead to whom they owe their being. They are, as it were, in the anteroom of divinity. 74. They surpass every visible and every invisible power which is subject to becoming. They constitute an entirely uniform hierarchy. One has to think of them as utterly "pure," 75. not because they are free 208B of all profane blemishes and of all tarnish or because they are innocent of earthly imaginings, but because they utterly transcend all weakness and all the lesser grades of the sacred. Because of their supreme purity, they are established beyond all the most godlike powers, and firmly adhere to their own order which is eternally self-moved according to an immutable love for God. They know no diminution at all toward inferior things, for they have as their own godlike property an eternally unfailing, unmoved, and completely uncontaminated foundation. They are "contemplative" too, not because they contemplate symbols of the senses or the mind, or because they are uplifted to God by way of a composite contemplation of sacred writing, but, rather, because they are full of a superior light beyond any knowl edge and because they are filled with a transcendent and triply lu 208C minous contemplation of the one who is the cause and the source of all beauty. They are contemplative also because they have been allowed to enter into communion with Jesus not by means of the holy images, reflecting the likeness of God's working in forms, but by truly coming close to him in a primary participation in the knowledge of the divine lights working out of him. To be like God is their special gift and, to the extent that is allowed them, they ____________________ 74. For this Neoplatonic terminology of "anteroom" see also DN 5 821C 34f. and Gandillac, CH, p. 109, n. 2. 75. In applying the motif of purification, illumination, and perfection to these angelic beings (see also CH 3 165B 27 to 168B 16, note 47), Dionysius makes two characteristic adjustments. First, he transposes the category of purity from the realm of morality, where the angels have no need to progress, to that of knowledge, e.g., "purified of ignorance" 209C 35f. and EH 6 537ABC. Second, he substitutes the language of "contemplation" for that of "illumination" (208B 26). This equivalent language is also used when discussing the motifs application to the human hierarchy (e.g., EH 6 532BC). In applying these

115 three concepts to the angels, he first contrasts this application to the normal use of the terms "pure," "contemplative," and "perfect" as applied to humans. Thus, by way of contrast with its proper subject, this section also provides a capsule definition of purification, illumination or contemplation, and perfection on the human level, as also discussed in EH5 504A5 to 509A 3. -163share, with a primordial power, in his divine activities and his loving virtues. They are "perfect," then, not because of an enlightened understanding which enables them to analyze the many sacred things, but rather because of a primary and supreme deification, a transcendent and angelic understanding of God's work. They have been directed hierarchically not through other holy beings but directly from God 208D himself and they have achieved this thanks to the capacity they have to be raised up directly to him, a capacity which compared to others is the mark of their superior power and their superior order. Hence they are founded next to perfect and unfailing purity, and are led, as permitted, into contemplation regarding the immaterial and intellectual splendor. As those who are the first around God and who are hierarchically directed in a supreme way, they are initiated into the understandable explanations of the divine works by the very source of 209A perfection. 3. The theologians have clearly shown that the lower ranks of heavenly beings have harmoniously received from their superiors whatever understanding they have of the operations of God, whereas the higher ranks have been enlightened in initiations, so far as per mitted, by the very Godhead. For they tell us that some of them are 209B sacredly initiated by those of higher rank. Some learn that the "King of Glory," the one raised up into the heavens in a human form, is the "Lord of the heavenly powers." 76. Others, as they puzzle over the nature of Jesus, acquire an understanding of his divine work on our behalf and it is Jesus himself who is their instructor, teaching them directly about the kindly work he has undertaken out of love for man. "I speak of righteousness and of saving judgment." 77. Still, there is something here which I find surprising. The very first of the heavenly beings, those who are so very superior to the others, are nevertheless quite like those of more intermediate status when it comes to desiring enlightenment concerning the Godhead. They do not first ask, "Why are your garments red?" 78. They begin by exchang ing queries among themselves, thus showing their eagerness to learn 209C and their desire to know how God operates. They do not simply go leaping beyond that outflow of enlightenment provided by God. ____________________ 76. Ps 24:10. 77. Is 63:1 (LXX). 78. Is 63:2 (LXX). Pseudo-Dionysius apparently sees Isaiah 63: If as a conversation between Jesus and the highest angelic beings. -164So, then, the first hierarchy of the heavenly minds is hierarchically directed by the source of all perfection, because of its own capacity to be raised up directly to this source. It is filled with its due measure of utter

116 purification, of infinite light, of complete perfection. It becomes purified, illuminated and perfected in that it is unmixed with any weakness, filled with the first of all light, and achieves perfection as a partaker of primary knowledge and understanding. In summary, we can reasonably say that purification, illumination, and perfection are all three the reception of an understanding of the Godhead, namely, being completely purified of ignorance by the proportionately granted knowledge of the more perfect initiations, being illuminated by this same divine knowledge (through which it 209D also purifies whatever was not previously beheld but is now revealed through the more lofty enlightenment), and being also perfected by this light in the understanding of the most lustrous initiations. 79.

4. This, so far as I know, is the first rank of heavenly beings. It 212A 80. circles in immediate proximity to God. Simply and ceaselessly it dances around an eternal knowledge of him. It is forever and totally thus, as befits angels. In a pure vision it can not only look upon a host of blessed contemplations but it can also be enlightened in simple and direct beams. It is filled with divine nourishment which is abundant, because it comes from the initial stream, and nevertheless single, because the nourishing gifts of God bring oneness in a unity without diversity. This first group is particularly worthy of communing with God and of sharing in his work. It imitates, as far as possible, the beauty of God's condition and activity. Knowing many divine things in so superior a fashion it can have a proper share of the divine knowledge and understanding. Hence, theology has transmitted to the men of earth those hymns sung by the first ranks of the angels whose gloriously transcendent enlightenment is thereby made manifest. Some of these hymns, if one may use perceptible images, are like the "sound 212B 81. 82. of many waters" as they proclaim: "Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place." Others thunder out that famous and venerable song, ____________________ 79. Note that in this definitive, summary statement purification, illumination, and perfection are not three separate subjects but rather three levels of spiritual knowledge. See also 208BCD and EH 6 537ABC. 80. Is 6:2 (LXX); Rv 4:4. 81. Ez 1:24; Rv 14:2, 19:6. 82. Ez 3:12 (LXX). -165telling of God: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory." 83. In my book Divine Hymns I have already explicated, to the best of my ability, the supreme praises sung by those holy intelligences which dwell beyond in heaven. 84. I think I have set down there all that needed to be said. For the sake of my present purpose, I will simply repeat that when the first rank has directly and properly received its due understanding of God's Word from the divine goodness itself, then it passes this on, as befits a benevolent hierarchy, to those next in line. The teaching, briefly, amounts to this. It is right and good 212C that the revered Godhead, which in fact is beyond all acclamation and deserves all acclamation, is known and praised by those minds which receive God, as far as possible. To the extent that they conform to God they are the divine place of the Godhead's rest, as scripture says. 85. And this first group passes on the word that the Godhead is a monad, that it is one in three persons, 86. that its splendid providence for all

117 reaches from the most exalted beings in heaven above to the lowliest creatures of earth. It is the Cause and source beyond every source for every being and it transcendently draws everything into its 212D perennial embrace. CHAPTER EIGHT Concerning the dominions, powers, and authorities, and theirs, the middle hierarchy. 1. I must turn now to the middle rank of the heavenly intelligences 237B and, with eyes that look beyond the world, I must behold, as far as possible, the dominions and the astonishing sights of the divine authorities and powers. 87. Each designation of the beings far superior to us indicate ways in which God is imitated and conformed to. 237C ____________________ 83. Is 6:3; cf. Rv 4:8. 84. A treatise or chapter thereof which is either lost or, more likely, fictitious. 85. This is an oblique biblical reference involving the imagery of the ark of the covenant. In Isaiah 66:1 (quoted in Acts 7:49), the mention of the divine "rest" echoes the tradition of the ark (Nm 10:36; 1 Chr 6:31; 2 Chr 6:41) where God is "enthroned on the cherubim" (Ex 37:7-9, 1 Sm 4:4; 2 Sm 6:2; 2 Kgs 19:15; Pss 80:1, 99:1; and Song of the Three Young Men 42). 86. The expression "in three persons" or "tri-upostatic" is trinitarian terminology, as also found in DN 1 592A 1, EH 2 396D 43f., and EH 6 533B 25f. 87. On the dominions, authorities, and powers which form the second triad, see Eph 1:21, 3:10; Col 1:16, 2.10; 1 Pt 3:22; and perhaps Rom 8:38. -166The revealing name "dominions" signifies, in my view, a lifting up which is free, unfettered by earthly tendencies and uninclined toward any of those tyrannical dissimilarities 88. which characterize a harsh dominion. Because it does not give way to any defect, it is above any abject creation of slaves, and, innocent of any dissimilarity, it is forever striving mightily toward the true dominion and the true source of all dominion. Benevolently and in accordance with capacity, it receives—as does its subordinates—the semblance of that domination. It rejects empty appearances, returns completely to the true Lord, and shares as far as it can in that everlasting and divine source of all dominion. As for the holy "powers," the title refers to a kind of masculine 237D and unshakable courage in all its godlike activities. It is a courage which abandons all laziness and softness during the reception of the 240A divine enlightenments granted to it, and is powerfully uplifted to imitate God. Far from abandoning its godlike movement out of cowardice, it looks undeviatingly to that transcendent power which is the source of all power. Indeed this courage becomes, so far as possible, the very image of that power to which it shapes itself, being powerfully returned to it because it is the source of all power. And at the same time, it transmits to its own inferiors its dynamic and divinizing power. The holy "authorities," as their name indicates, have an equal order with the divine dominions and powers. They are so placed that they can receive God in a harmonious and unconfused way and indicate the ordered nature of the celestial and intellectual authority. Far from employing their authoritative powers to do tyrannous harm to the inferiors, they are harmoniously and unfailingly uplifted toward the things of God and, in their goodness, they lift up with them the

240B

118 ranks of those inferior to them. They are likened, insofar as they can be, to that authority which is the source of all authority and creates all authority; and they make that authority evident, to the extent that angels can, in their harmonious orders of authoritative power. Hence the middle rank of the heavenly intelligences manifests its conformity to God. This, as has been said, is how it achieves purification, illumination, and perfection, at second hand from the divine enlightenments by way of the first hierarchical rank, and passed on secondarily through that mediating rank. ____________________ 88. On this expression, see Gandillac, CH, p. 120, note 2. -1672. This process of handing on from angel to angel can be a sym 240C bol for us of that perfection which comes complete from afar and grows dimmer as it proceeds from the first to the second group. Our holy instructors in the sacred sacraments have taught us that the directly revealed fulfillments of divine reality are superior to that participation in the divine visions which comes by way of others. Similarly, it seems to me, the immediate participation in God of those angels first raised up to him is more direct than that of those perfected through a mediator. Hence—to use the terminology handed down to us—the first intelligences perfect, illuminate, and purify those of inferior status in such a fashion that the latter, having been lifted up through them to the universal and transcendent source, thereby ac quire their due share of the purification, illumination, and perfection 240D of the One who is the source of all perfection. The divine source of all order has established the all-embracing principle that beings of the second rank receive enlightenment from the Godhead through the beings of the first rank. This has been asserted frequently by the scripture writers, as you may discover. Now God, out of his fatherly love for humanity, chastised Israel so as to return it to the road of sacred salvation. In order to cause a change of heart he handed Israel over to the vengeance of the barbar ian nations. This was to ensure that the men who were under his spe 241A cial providence would be transformed for the better. Later, in his kindness, he released Israel from captivity 89. and restored it to its former state of contentment. Zechariah, a theologian, had a vision concerning this. It was an angel of the first group, one of those in the immediate entourage of God, who was learning from God himself what scripture calls the "comforting words." 90. (Incidentally, the term "angel," as already stated, refers to all of the heavenly beings without distinction.) An angel of an inferior rank met the first and received enlightenment from him. Instructed thus by him as by a hierarch in the matter of what God willed, he, in turn, was entrusted to initiate the theologian that "Jerusalem will be fully inhabited once again with crowds of people." 91. ____________________ 89. Is 61:1 and Lk 4:18. 90. Zec 1:13. Note that Zechariah, Ezekiel a few lines later, and Isaiah throughout CH 13 are all called "theologians." The generic use of the term "angel" is discussed in CH 5 196BCD. 91. Zec 2:4 (LXX). -168Ezekiel, another theologian, says that all this was sacredly or

119 dained by God himself who in his supreme glory stands over the cher 241B ubim. 92. God, out of fatherly love for humanity, willed correction for the sake of Israel's improvement and in an act of righteousness appropriately divine he commanded the innocent to be separated from the guilty. The one first initiated in this, after the cherubim, was the one whose loins were girt in sapphire and who wore a full-length cloak as a symbol of the hierarch. 93. He in turn announced the divine decision to other angels, those who carry the axes, and he did so on the instructions of the Deity who is the source of order. To the one, the orders were to traverse all of Jerusalem and to put a mark on the foreheads of the innocent. The others were told: "Follow him into the city, lay about you and do not spare your eyes. But do not go near any of those who have been given the sign." 94. And what is one to say about the angel who said to Daniel, "The 241C word went forth"? 95. or about the first who took the fire from the midst of the cherubim? or of the cherubim who gave the fire into the hands of the one wearing "the holy stole," 96. something which shows in particular the good order existing among the angels? What is to be said regarding the one who summoned the most divine Gabriel and declared, "Make him understand the vision"? 97. And are there not other examples, given by the sacred theologians, of the divine and harmonious arrangement befitting the heavenly hierarchy? This arrangement is copied by our own hierarchy which tries to imitate angelic beauty as far as possible, to be shaped by it, as in images, and to be uplifted to the transcendent source of all order and of all hierarchy. 241D CHAPTER NINE Concerning the principalities, archangels, and angels, and theirs, the final hierarchy. 257A 1. It remains now to contemplate that final rank in the hierarchy of 257B angels, I mean the godlike principalities, archangels, and angels. 98. ____________________ 92. Ez 10: 18. 93. Ez 9:2. (LXX), 10:6-8. See below 241C 35f (note 96) and CH 15 333A 10. 94. Ez 9:5f. The symbolism of the ax is taken up in CH 15 333B 20. 95. Dn 9:23. 96. Ez 10:6-8 (LXX); see above 241B 22f. (note 93) and CH 15 333A 10. 97. Dn 8:16. 98. The "principalities" (archai) are mentioned in Eph 1:21, 3:10; Col 1:16, 2:10. Hu-169However, I think I should first explain, as best I can, the significance of these holy designations. The term "heavenly principalities" refers to those who possess a godlike and princely hegemony, with a sacred order most suited to princely powers, the ability to be returned completely toward that principle which is above all principles and to lead others to him like a prince, the power to receive to the full the mark of the Principle of principles and, by their harmonious exercise of princely powers, to make manifest this transcendent principle of all order. 2. The holy archangels have the same order as the heavenly prin 257C cipalities and, as I have already indicated, they join with the angels to form a single hierarchy and rank. Still, every hierarchy has first, middle, and last powers, and the holy order of the archangels has something of both the others by virtue of being a mean between extremes. 99. It communes with the most holy principalities and with the holy angels. Its relationship with the former derives from the fact that like a principality it is returned to its transcendent principle [source], that it receives upon itself as far as possible the mark of this principle, and that it brings about the unity of the angels, thanks to those invisible powers of ordering and arranging which it has received from that principle. Its relationship with the angels is due to their shared order as interpreters of those divine enlightenments mediated by the first pow

120 257D

ers. It generously announces these to the angels and through them to us insofar as we are capable of being sacredly enlightened. As I have already said, the angels complete the entire ranking of 260A the heavenly intelligences. Among the heavenly beings it is they who possess the final quality of being an angel. For being closer to us, they, more appropriately than the previous ones, are named "angels" insofar as their hierarchy is more concerned with revelation and is closer to the world. Now I have already said that the superior rank—superior because it is closer to what is hidden—hierarchically directs the second group. This second group, made up of holy dominions, powers, and authorities, is in charge of the hierarchy of principalities, arch ____________________ man rulers seem intended in Lk 12:11, 20:20, and Ti 3:1. The principalities in 1 Cor 15:24; Eph 6:12; and Col 2:15 are hostile powers. The term "archangel" is found only in 1 Thes 4:16 and Jude 9. 99. "Mean terms" in triads were a typical Neoplatonic concern, as in lamblichus dM V.8.225.5-8. See EH 5 501C 42f., where "our" hierarchy is a mean term between the hierarchy of the Law and the angelic hierarchy. See also DN 10, note 245, and DN 11, note 250. -170angels, and angels. Its revelations are clearer than those of the first hierarchy, more hidden than those of the one after it. The revealing rank of principalities, archangels, and angels presides among them

selves over the human hierarchies, in order that the uplifting and re 260B turn toward God, and the communion and union, might occur according to proper order, and indeed so that the procession might be benignly given by God to all hierarchies and might arrive at each one in a shared way in sacred harmony. 100. So, then, it is the angels who take care of our own hierarchy, or so the Word of God tells us. Michael is called the ruler of the Jewish people, and other angels are described as rulers of other nations, for "the Most High has established the boundaries of the nations by the number of his angels." 101. 3. Someone might ask why it was that only the Hebrew people 260C were lifted up to the divine enlightenment. The answer to this is that the angels have fully done their work of guardianship and that it is no fault of theirs if other nations wandered off into the cult of false gods. Indeed it was on their own initiative that these others abandoned the good uplifting toward the divine. Their irrational worship of what they took to be god-pleasing was an index of selfishness and presumption, and this can be proved by what happened to the Hebrew people. "You rejected the knowledge" of God, it says, and you followed the call of your heart. 102. Our way of life is not predetermined and the free will of those benefiting from the gift of divine Light does not take away from such light its attribute of being a providential source of enlightenment. What actually happens is this. The dissim ilarity of the intelligent sights either makes the overflowing gift of light 260D of the Father's goodness completely unpartaken and unbestowed, because of their resistance, or there is an unequal participation in these gifts in large or small amounts, in clarity or obscurity. And in the meantime the shining well-spring of all this continues to be single and simple, forever the same and forever overflowing. All this can be said of the other nations, those peoples from whom we ourselves are come so that we too might raise our gaze up to the 261A ____________________ 100. This passage, unusual for its reference to plural human hierarchies, illustrates the author's adaptation of the Neoplatonic concept of procession and return. See CH 1, note 4. 101. Dt 32:8 (LXX); Michael: Dn 10:13-21, 12:1; others: Dn 10:13 (Persia) and Dn 10:20 (Greece).

121 102.

A composite of Hos 4:6 and a variation on Jer 7:24 and Hos 5:11 (LXX). Was Dennis quoting from memory? See Gandillac, CH, p. 133, n.2. -171-

limitless and bounteous ocean of divine Light, that Light which forever unfolds and bestows its gifts upon all beings. No strange gods were in command here. There is one universal source and it is toward this source that the angels, charged with the sacred and hierarchical direction of each nation, led those willing to follow them. Think of Melchizedek. He was filled with love for God and he was a hierarch not of false deities but of the true God on high. Experts in sacred learning were not satisfied to describe Melchizedek as a friend of God. They described him as a priest 103. so as to make clear to sensible men that his task was not simply to be returned to the true God but, rather, as a hierarch to lead others in their uplifting toward the one true God. 4. And here is another item for your understanding of the hier 261B archy. It was revealed to Pharaoh by the angel presiding over the Egyptians and to the ruler of the Babylonians by their angel that there is a concerned and authoritative Providence and Lordship over all things. Servants of the true God were established as leaders for those nations, and the manifestation of things represented by the angelic visions were revealed by God through the angels to certain sacred men near the angels, namely Joseph and Daniel. 104. For there is only one ruling source and Providence in the world, and we must not imagine that the Deity took charge of the Jewish people alone and that angels or gods, on an equal footing with him or even hostile to him, had charge of the other peoples. The passage which might suggest this no tion must be understood in this sacred sense, 105. for it could not mean 261C that God shared the government of mankind with other gods or angels or that he reigned in Israel as a local prince or chieftain. The single Providence of the Most High for all commanded angels to bring all peoples to salvation, but it was Israel alone which returned to the Light and proclaimed the true Lord. That is why the word of God indicates that Israel chose itself for special devotion to the true God by saying: "He became the portion of the Lord." 106. But the theologians also say that Michael presides over the government of the Jewish people and that this is in order to make clear that Israel, like the other 261D nations, was assigned to one of the angels, to recognize through him the one universal ruling source. For there is only one Providence over all the world, a supra-being transcending all power visible and invis____________________ 103. Gn 14:18-22; Ps 110:4; Heb 7:1. 104. Joseph: Gn 41:1-32; Daniel: Dn 2:1-45, 4:1-27. 105. Namely Dt 32:8 (LXX), quoted above at 260B 24f., note 101. 106. Dt 32:9 (LXX). -172ible; and over every nation there are presiding angels entrusted with the task of raising up toward that Providence, as their own source, everyone willing to follow, as far as possible. CHAPTER TEN Repetition and Conclusion regarding the angels' coordination. 1. So, then, the most primordial rank of those intelligent beings in 272D God's company is hierarchically ordered by enlightenments coming from the source of all perfection, and they rise up to it with the help of no intermediary. For them, thanks to the gift of the hidden and

122 resplendent lights of the Godhead, there is purification, illumination, and perfection. Such lights are all the more hidden because they have to do with what is all the more conceptual, and they bring all that much more simplification and union. And they are all the more resplendent for being received directly, firstly, and completely. As they are poured forth, they are radiant with that greater proximity to their source. 107. Then by this rank [of angels] the second one, and by the second 273A the third, and by the third our hierarchy is hierarchically uplifted, in due proportion and divine concord and according to this regulation of the harmonious source of order, toward that source beyond every source and consummation of all harmony. 108. 2. All angels bring revelations and tidings of their superiors. The first bring word of the God who is their inspiration, while the others, according to where they are, tell of those inspired by God. For the transcendent harmony of all the world has providentially looked after every being endowed with reason and intelligence and has ensured that they are rightly ordered and sacredly uplifted. In a fashion ap propriate to its own sacred character this harmony has arranged the 273B hierarchical groups, making due allowance for what is particular to ____________________ 107. "Poured forth" is an expression that seems to depend on the author's pun on the name of the cherubim as "an outpouring of wisdom" in CH 7 205BC 9f., 15f., 32f. "Do not imagine that the proximity here is physical. Rather, what I mean by nearness is the greatest possible capacity to receive God" (Ep. 8 1092B 18-20). 108. Note the interlocking agency in the overall anagogical or uplifting movement: Each rank, including the human hierarchy, is uplifted by the one above it. See also CH 5 196C 26-30. -173each group, arranging them as we have seen as first, middle, and lower powers, and, finally, harmoniously managing them in a way suitable to the degree of participation in the divine which each of them has. Furthermore, the theologians tell us that the holiest of the seraphim "cry out to one another," 109. and, it seems to me, this shows that the first ranks pass on to the second what they know of God. 3. There is something else which I could reasonably add here. 273C Each intelligent being, heavenly or human, has his own set of primary, middle, and lower orders and powers, and in accordance with his capacities these indicate the aforementioned upliftings, directly relative to the hierarchic enlightenment available to every being. It is in accordance with this arrangement that each intelligent entity—as far as he properly can and to the extent he may—participates in that purification beyond purity, that superabundant light, that perfection preceding all perfection. Nothing is perfect of itself. Nothing is completely free of the need for perfection. Nothing, that is, except that Being truly perfect in himself and truly preceding all perfection. CHAPTER ELEVEN Why all heavenly beings are called "heavenly powers" in common. 1. Having made all these distinctions, it is right that we should now 284B consider why we actually have the habit of giving the name of "heavenly powers" to all of the angelic beings. 110. For of course one may not proceed as we have done when using the word "angels." That is to say, one may not assert that the rank of the holy powers is the last of 284C the ranks, that the ranks of superior beings participate in the holy enlightenment available to inferiors, and that these latter have no part in what is there for their superiors. Hence the title "heavenly powers" cannot be stretched to include all the divine minds, any more than one could do so in the case of seraphim, thrones, and dominions. For the final ranks have no share in the attributes of the superior.

123 Yet the angels and, before them, the archangels, the principalities, and authorities, which are held by theology to be subordinate to ____________________ 109. Is 6:3. 110. Namely, the Greek term behind the English translation "hosts," as in "Lord of hosts" in Pss 24:10 and 46:11. The term "angel" is also applied to all the heavenly beings, but for a different reason (CH 5 196BCD). -174the "powers," are nevertheless often called "heavenly powers" by us, just like all the other holy beings. 2. I would claim that, whenever we use the designation "heav 284D enly powers" as a collective term for all of these beings, this results in no confusion of the attributes peculiar to each rank. One clearly observes that, for reasons beyond this world, there is within all divine minds the threefold distinction between being, power, and activity. 111. Now suppose that we loosely describe some or all of them as "heav enly beings" or "heavenly powers," it must be recognized that in talk 285A ing thus of beings and powers we are engaging in circumlocution, because of the being or power that is in each one. There can be no question of a blanket attribution to inferior beings of the preeminent characteristic of the holy powers, such as I have already described. To do so would be to upset that principle of order which controls the ranks of the angels and which excludes all confusion. For the reason so frequently and so rightly expounded by me, the superior ranks possess in eminent degrees the sacred attributes of their inferiors, while the final ones do not possess the transcendent fullnesses of those more honored, although the initial enlightenments are partially conveyed to them through the first ones, proportionately to themselves. CHAPTER TWELVE Why human hierarchs are called "angels." 1. There is another problem facing those devoted to the understand 292C ing of scripture. If the last ones do not partake in what is available to the higher, why is it that our human hierarch is designated in scriptures as "angel of the all-powerful Lord"? 112. 2. Now it seems to me that this expression does not actually contradict what has been said already. We affirmed that the final ranks lack the full and complete power of the more senior ones. But they do have a partial, proportionate share in that power and they do so as part of that one, harmonious, intertwined communion of all. Thus, even if it is the case that the order of the holy cherubim possesses a higher wisdom and knowledge, the ranks of beings below them also have 292D ____________________ 111. This interior triad within each mind has Neoplatonic overtones. See Gandillac, CH, p. 143, n.2. 112. Namely, "the messenger of the Lord of hosts," Mal 2:7 (LXX); see also Mal 3:1; Gal 4:14; and perhaps the "angels" of the seven churches in Rv 2-3. Cf. EH7 561C 40f. -175some share of wisdom and knowledge, although this is partial and inferior as compared to them. Indeed all intelligent godlike beings have their own participation in wisdom and knowledge, and the difference between them depends on whether this share is direct and primary or

124 293A

secondary and inferior, relative to the capacities of each. This is some thing which can rightly be said of all the divinely intelligent beings, and just as the first possess, in a complete fashion, the holy attributes of their subordinates, so too do the latter possess those of their superiors, though not in the same way but in a humbler mode. Hence, I see nothing wrong in the fact that the Word of God calls even our hierarch an "angel," for it is characteristic of him that like the angels he is, to the extent of which he is capable, a messenger and that he is raised up to imitate, so far as a man may, the angelic power to bring revelation. 3. You will also notice how God's word gives the title of "gods" 293B not only to those heavenly beings who are our superiors, 113. but also to those sacred men among us who are distinguished for their love of God. 114. Now the hiddenness of the Godhead is a transcendent one. It is far above everything. No being can in any way or as a matter of right be named like to it. Yet every being endowed with intelligence and reason, which, totally and as far as it can, is returned to be united with him, which is forever being raised up toward his divine enlightenments, which if one may say so, tries as hard as possible to imitate God—such a one surely deserves to be called divine. CHAPTER THIRTEEN Why the prophet Isaiah is said to have been purified by the seraphim. 1. There is something else which we must consider as best we can. 300B 115. Someone could well be puzzled Why is it said that one of the theologians was visited by a seraphim? by the fact that it was not one of the subordinate angels but someone from among the most senior beings who came to purify the interpreter. 116. ____________________ 113. Pss 82:1, 95:3; cf. Gn 32:28-30. 114. Ex 4:16, 7:1; Pss 45:6 (LXX), 82:6; Jn 10:34. 115. Is 6:6. Dionysius never used the singular term "seraph." In fact, he suggested elsewhere that he knew no Hebrew (CH 7 205B 7f., EH 4 481C 31f. and 485B 17.). 116. This term for interpreter applies to biblical authors (here and CH 2 145A 5) as well as to the hierarch (EH 7 564A 7) and to the priests (Ep. 8 1088C 40). -1762. Some would say this. Given the earlier explanation of what it is that all these intelligent beings have in common, the scriptural passage does not declare that the intelligent mind which came down to purify the theologian belonged to that senior rank of those in immediate proximity to God. What was here was one of those angels assigned to us. He had the sacred task of purifying the prophet. He was named one of the seraphim since he had to wipe out the sins referred to by means of fire and he had to rekindle obedience to God in the one 300C who had been purified. On this interpretation, therefore, when the passage refers just to seraphim what is not meant is one of those enthroned beside God but one of those powers assigned to purify us. 3. Someone else has provided me with an answer to this problem which is not completely inappropriate. He says that this mighty angel, whoever he was, caused a vision so as to initiate the theologian into the divine things, then he attributed to God and, after God, to the senior hierarchy his own sacred work of purification. Could this 300D statement also be true? The person who affirmed this was saying that the power of the Godhead spreads out everywhere, penetrates all 301A things irresistibly and yet remains inapparent to all, 117. not only because it is transcendently above everything but also because it transmits all its providential activities in an ungraspable way. Nevertheless it manifests itself in due measure to every intelligent being. It bestows the gift of its own light on the most

125 senior beings and, because of their premier rank, it uses them as intermediaries to pass that same light harmoniously along to beings of lower order in a way which is adapted to the capacity of each rank to look upon the divine. Let me make myself clearer by means of appropriate examples, more apparent to us, I mean, even if they all fall short of the absolutely divine transcendence. The rays of the sun pass easily through the front line of matter since it is more translucent than all the others. The real light of the sun lights up its own beams more resplendently through that section of matter. But as it encounters more opaque matter, it appears dimmer 301B and more diffused, because this matter is less suited to the passage of the outpouring of light. This unsuitability becomes progressively greater until finally it halts completely the journey of light. Similarly, the heat of fire passes more easily into those entities which are good conductors, more receptive and in fact quite like it. But when its burning activity comes up against resistant or even opposing entities, it be____________________ 117. Wis of Sol 7:24; see also Heb 4:12? -177comes ineffective or leaves only a very slight trace of itself. This is fully seen when fire moves through those things properly disposed to it, and then comes to things not akin to it, as when something on fire first happens to affect things which can be ignited and then through them either water or something else not easily ignited is proportionately heated. Following that same harmonious law which operates throughout nature, the wonderful source of all visible and invisible order and har 301C mony supernaturally pours out in splendid revelations to the superior beings the full and initial brilliance of his astounding light, and successive beings in their turn receive their share of the divine beam, through the mediation of their superiors. The beings who are first to know God and who, more than others, desire the divine virtue have been deemed worthy to become the prime workers of the power and activity which imitate God, as far as possible. In their goodness they raise their inferiors to become, so far as possible, their rivals. They ungrudgingly impart 118. to them the glorious ray which has visited them so that their inferiors may pass this on to those yet farther below them. Hence, on each level, predecessor hands on to successor whatever of the divine light he has received and this, in providential proportion, is spread out to every being. Of course God himself is really the source of illumination for 301D those who are illuminated, for he is truly and really Light itself. He is the Cause of being and of seeing. But, in imitation of God, it has been established that each being is somehow superior to the one to whom he passes on the divine light. And so all the other angelic beings follow the first rank of intelligent beings in heaven as the source, after God, of all sacred knowledge of God and of all imitation of God, for 304A it is this latter order which mediates the divine enlightenment to all other beings, including ourselves. All their sacred activity, done in imitation of God, is attributed on the one hand to God as ultimate Cause, and on the other hand to the senior intelligent beings who live in conformity with God and who are the first ministers and teachers of the divine things. Angels of the first rank possess, more than the others, the power of fire and a share of the divine wisdom which has been poured out to them, 119. a knowledge of the ultimate in divine enlightenment, and that capacity which is summed up in the word ____________________ 118. Wis of Sol 7:13; cf. EH 4 481C 26. 119. More word plays on "seraphim" and "cherubim"; see CH 7 205BC. -178-

126 "thrones" and which indicates their special power to be open to receive God. Beings of lower ranks have their share of fire, of wisdom, of knowledge, of openness to receive God, but this is so in a lesser fashion and on condition that they look upward to those intelligent beings of the first rank through whom, as the ones primarily worthy of im 304B itating God, they will be uplifted to the possible likeness of God. Since the secondary beings share in these holy properties through the mediation of the primary beings, they attribute such properties to those primary beings, the ones who, after God, are like hierarchs to them. 4. The person who said all the above declared that the vision revealed to the theologian came from one of those holy and blessed an gels assigned to look after us. Under the illuminating guidance of this 304C angel he was raised up to such a sacred contemplation that, if I may speak in symbols, he was able to look upon the most superior beings established under, around, and with God. He was able to look beyond those beings to that summit, beyond every source, enthroned amid the subordinate powers, and yet superineffably transcending them and all things. In this vision the theologian learned that the Deity surpasses every visible and invisible power in a total excess of transcendence. It is completely set apart from everything. It is unlike even the foremost of beings. It is the Cause and the source of being for every entity. It is the unchanging basis of the stability of everything and is, for even the most exalted powers, the author of being and indeed of 304D well-being. Then he was instructed regarding the godlike powers of the most holy seraphim themselves. The name "seraphim" signifies fiery, and I will shortly explain as well as I can how it is that the power of fire causes a lifting up to the godlike. 120. The sacred image of their six wings signifies an endless, marvelous upward thrust toward God by the first, middle, and lower conceptions. Seeing the limitless number 305A of feet, the multitude of faces, those wings blocking out the contemplation of their faces above and their feet below, and the unending beat of the middle set of wings, the sacred theologian was uplifted to a conceptual knowledge of the things seen. There were shown to him the many facets of the most exalted of the intelligent minds, the power of their multifarious vision. He witnessed that sacred caution of theirs which, in an unearthly fashion, they maintain regarding any brash, ____________________ 120. See note 119 above, and CH 15 328C 36 to 329C 38. -179bold, and unpermitted search of the highest and the deepest things. He saw the harmony among them as they acted to be like God amid a stirring that was ceaseless, exalted, and forever. 121. He was also introduced to the mystery of that divine and muchhonored hymnody, for the angel of his vision taught the theologian, as far as possible, whatever he knew himself of the sacred. He taught him, furthermore, that for anyone purification consists of a partici pation in the transparent clarity of the Godhead. For reasons out of 305B this world, all the sacred and intelligent beings are given a mysterious and transcendent initiation by the Deity itself into this clarity. It is something which is more obvious, more evident and better known to those dwelling in the neighborhood of the Deity since they are superior powers. As for the powers of the second and last rank, together with our own intelligent powers, he concentrates his clear enlightenment for

127 the unknown union with his own hiddenness, in proportion to the degree of distance from conformity to God. He enlightens the second ranks by way of the first, on each level. Indeed, to sum up, the Deity first emerges from secrecy to revelation by way of mediation by those first powers. This, then, was what the theologian learned from the angel sent to lead him to the light. What he discovered was that purification, to gether with all those other activities of the Deity which are reflected 305C through the superior beings, is spread out among all the others in proportion to the share that these have in the Word of God. And this was why he reasonably attributed to the seraphim, next to God, the property of bringing the fire of purification. Hence it is not out of place to say that it was a seraphim who purified the theologian. God purifies all beings insofar as he is himself the cause of every purification. Or rather, if I may use a more familiar example, there is our own hierarch. Through his deacons and his priests he brings purification and light. But he himself is said to purify and to illuminate, since those orders ordained by him attribute to him the sacred activities in which 305D they themselves engage. 122. So, in like fashion, the angel who sacredly worked out the purification of the theologian attributed his own purifying understanding and power first to God, as the Cause, and then to the seraphim, as the initial hierarch. ____________________ 121. On the imagery of the wings, see also CH 15 332D 43-48. 122. For example, the hierarch disrobes the candidate for baptism "by means of the deacons" in EH 2 396B 12f.; see also EH 5 505BC 22-34 and 508A. -180It is as if, informing the one he purified, the angel were prudently to say this: "The purification which I am sacredly working in you has as its source, being, creator, and cause that Transcendent One who 308A led into being the first ranks, who holds and preserves them, immobile and unchanged in a foundation next to Him, who stirs them first of all to share in his providential activities." (This is what I learned from my teacher regarding the mission 123. of the seraphim.) "After God, the hierarch and ruler is the rank of primary beings, the one which so divinely instructed me in the task of purification and which, by my agency, is purifying you. Through their mediating efforts he who is the Cause and indeed the author of all purification has brought out from the domain of the hidden the workings of his own providence down to the point where they are available to us." This was what I learned from him, and I pass them on to you. And it is up to your intelligence and your critical understanding to decide on one or another of the solutions to the problem referred to, accepting it as more likely, more reasonable, and hence closer to the 308B truth. Unless, of course, you yourself have a solution closer to the real truth or have learned it from someone else—God having given the word 124. and angels having explained what he said. And then you might be able to reveal to me, a lover of the angels, a contemplation which is clearer and thus more beloved to me. CHAPTER FOURTEEN What the traditional number of angels signifies. I think we also ought to reflect on the tradition in scripture that the 321A angels number a thousand times a thousand and ten thousand times ten thousand. 125. These numbers, enormous to us, square and multiply themselves and thereby indicate clearly that the ranks of the heavenly beings are innumerable. So numerous indeed are the blessed armies of transcendent intelligent beings that

128 they surpass the fragile and limited realm of our physical numbers. Only a conception and understanding of their own kind—transcendent and heavenly, the blessed gift to them of the Deity and the all-knowing creator of wis- ____________________ 123. Did Dionysius see a pun on "mission" or "apostolate" in the reference to "send" in Is 6:6? 124. Ps 68:11 (LXX). 125. Dn 7:10; Rv 5:11. -181dom—could know them and define them. For this transcendently real Godhead is the source of everything. It is the cause which gives being. It is the power holding all things together and the goal embracing all things. CHAPTER FIFTEEN What are the formed images of the angelic powers? the fiery property, the human likeness, the eyes, the nostrils, the ears, mouth, sense of touch, eyelids, eyebrows, fingers, teeth, shoulders, elbows and hands, heart, chest, back, feet, wings, nakedness, garments, the bright clothing, the clerical clothing, the belts, the sceptres, the spears, axes, plumb lines, winds, clouds, brass, electron, choirs, clapping, colors of different stones, the likeness of the lion, of the ox, of the eagle, the horses, the differences in the horses' colors, the rivers, chariots, wheels, the previously mentioned joy of the angels. 325D 328A effort by which it tries to reach the solitary heights of contemplation befitting the angels. We must come down to the plains of distinction and multiplicity, to the many variegated forms and shapes adopted by the angels. Then, once more, we will take off from these images, and will, by retracing, rise up again to the simplicity of the heavenly minds. 126. 1. So now, if you will, the eye of our intelligence is going to relax the

But, for a start, remember this much. The explanations of the sacred imagery indicate that the same ranks of heavenly beings sometimes direct in sacred things, and sometimes are themselves directed, 127. that those of the last rank direct and those of the first rank are directed, that, as I have said already, they all have powers that are superior, intermediate, and subordinate. This mode of explication has nothing foolish about it. It would have been a silly mix-up and a stupid 328B confusion to assert that such and such ranks are exclusively directed ____________________ 126. This use of the motif of procession and return is unique in the corpus in that it is the exegete who "comes down" and "rises up" in interpretation rather than God who descends in revelation and then returns, uplifting the interpreter. See CH1, note 4. 127. The author makes a verb out of "hierarchy," as in "to hierarchize" or "to be hierarchized." While the sense of this language is largely preserved in the translation "to direct in spiritual things," the role of the hierarchy in mediating revelation should be remembered. -182-

129 dom—could know them and define them. For this transcendently real Godhead is the source of everything. It is the cause which gives being. It is the power holding all things together and the goal embracing all things. CHAPTER FIFTEEN What are the formed images of the angelic powers? the fiery property, the human likeness, the eyes, the nostrils, the ears, mouth, sense of touch, eyelids, eyebrows, fingers, teeth, shoulders, elbows and hands, heart, chest, back, feet, wings, nakedness, garments, the bright clothing, the clerical clothing, the belts, the sceptres, the spears, axes, plumb lines, winds, clouds, brass, electron, choirs, clapping, colors of different stones, the likeness of the lion, of the ox, of the eagle, the horses, the differences in the horses' colors, the rivers, chariots, wheels, the previously mentioned joy of the angels. 325D 328A effort by which it tries to reach the solitary heights of contemplation befitting the angels. We must come down to the plains of distinction and multiplicity, to the many variegated forms and shapes adopted by the angels. Then, once more, we will take off from these images, and will, by retracing, rise up again to the simplicity of the heavenly minds. 126. 1. So now, if you will, the eye of our intelligence is going to relax the

But, for a start, remember this much. The explanations of the sacred imagery indicate that the same ranks of heavenly beings sometimes direct in sacred things, and sometimes are themselves directed, 127. that those of the last rank direct and those of the first rank are directed, that, as I have said already, they all have powers that are superior, intermediate, and subordinate. This mode of explication has nothing foolish about it. It would have been a silly mix-up and a stupid 328B confusion to assert that such and such ranks are exclusively directed ____________________ 126. This use of the motif of procession and return is unique in the corpus in that it is the exegete who "comes down" and "rises up" in interpretation rather than God who descends in revelation and then returns, uplifting the interpreter. See CH1, note 4. 127. The author makes a verb out of "hierarchy," as in "to hierarchize" or "to be hierarchized." While the sense of this language is largely preserved in the translation "to direct in spiritual things," the role of the hierarchy in mediating revelation should be remembered. -182regarding sacred things by their superiors and, at the same time, that these latter are themselves directed by the former, or, again, that superior directs inferior and is in turn directed by the very one it has directed. When I say that the same beings both direct and are directed, I do not mean that director is directed by the very one it has directed. All I wish to say is that each rank is directed in sacred matters by its predecessors and that it directs those which come after it. There is therefore nothing odd about declaring that the holy forms described by scripture can properly and correctly be attributed sometimes to the superior powers, sometimes to the intermediate, and sometimes to the inferior. The power to be raised upward in an everreturning movement, the capacity unfailingly to turn about oneself while still holding on to one's own special powers, the ability to share in the power of Providence in a procession which shares with successively lower orders—this surely is typical

328C

130 of all heavenly beings, typical of some, as I have said often, in a transcendent and complete way, typical of others in a partial and inferior way. 2. This question must now be discussed, and our explication must begin with the question of why the Word of God seems to honor the depiction of fire above all others. 128. You will find that it depicts not only flaming wheels, 129. but also burning animals 130. and even men who are somehow aglow. 131. It places masses of lighted embers sur 329A rounding these heavenly beings 132. and rivers roaring with endless fire. 133. It speaks of fiery thrones 134. and invoking the etymology of the word "seraphim," it describes them as on fire and attributes to them the characteristics and the activity of fire. 135. In general, whether the reference be to high or low within the hierarchy, the Word of God always honors the representation of fire. And indeed it seems to me that this imagery of fire best expresses the way in which the intelligent beings of heaven are like the Deity. ____________________ 128. On the symbol of fire, including its nonbiblical background, and the other symbols discussed in this chapter, see the notes by Gandillac, CH, pp. 165ff. See also Buffière, Les mytbes d'Homère et la pensée grecque (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1956), pp. 155f. 129. Dn 7:9. 130. Ez 1:13; 2 Kgs 2:11 (horses). 131. Mt 28:3; Lk 24:4; Ez 1:4-7; Dn 10:1. 132. Ez 1:13, 10:2. 133. Dn 7:10. 134. Dn 7:9. On "thrones" as a title, see CH 7 205D, note 73. Rv 4:5. 135. Is 6:6; on "seraphim" as "heating," see CH 7 205B. -183Actually this is why the sacred theologians frequently describe the transcendent and shapeless Being as fiery. 136. As an image derived from the things that are visible it does reflect, if one may say so, many of the characteristics of the Deity. Visible fire, after all, is, so to speak, in everything. It passes undiluted through everything and yet continues to be completely beyond them. It lights up everything and remains hidden at the same time. In itself it is undetectable and becomes evident only through its own workings on matter. It is unstoppable. 329B It cannot be looked upon. Yet it is master of everything. Wherever it is, it changes things toward its own activity. It bestows itself upon all who draw near. With kindling warmth it causes renewal. With unveiled enlightenments it grants illumination, yet continues to be pure and undiluted. It makes distinctions and is nevertheless unchanging. It rises up and penetrates deeply. It is exalted and is never brought low. It is ever on the move, moving itself and others. It extends in all directions and is hemmed in nowhere. It needs no one. It grows unseen and it manifests its greatness wherever it is received. It is dynamic, powerful, invisibly present in everything. If ignored it does not seem to be there, but when friction occurs, it will seek out some thing; it appears suddenly, naturally and of itself, and soon it rises up 329C irresistibly and, losing nothing of itself, it communes joyfully with everything. One could discover many other attributes of fire which, like images drawn from perceived things, can be applied to the activities of the Deity, and the connoisseurs of things sacred revealed their understanding of this when they described heavenly beings as fiery. In this way they show how closely these resemble the divine and how much they are, to the extent possible, imitators of God.

131 137.

3. But they also describe them with forms drawn from the realm of the human. For man is, after all, intelligent and capable of looking toward the higher things. Sturdy and upright he is, by nature, a leader and a ruler, and even if by comparison with the irrational ani____________________ 136. On God as fire (e.g., Dt 4:24), see Ep. 9 1108CD 39f. The presumed subject of The Symbolical Theology is the perceptible symbols for God, see below 336A 1-5. 137. On the bodily shapes in general, the most quoted biblical passage is Dn 10:5f., followed by Ez 1:5-10. Other texts include Mk 16:5; Lk 24:4; Rv 4:7; and Rv 10:1f. For some of the patristic precedents for these interpretations, see the Gandillac notes, p. 173. Most, but not all, of the specific powers or features discussed here are explicitly biblical. Some seem extrapolated from the general anthropomorphic descriptions, for example, the sense of smell, the teeth, the heart, and the breast. -184mals he is least in the scale of the power of sense perception, still it is 329D he who dominates all with the superior power of his intelligence, with the mastery deriving from rational understanding, and with the natural freedom and independence of his spirit. I also think that each of the many parts of the human body can 332A provide us with images which are quite appropriate to the powers of heaven. One could say that the powers of sight 138. suggest their ability to gaze up directly toward the lights of God and, at the same time, to receive softly, clearly, without resistance but flexibly, purely and openly the enlightenments coming from the Deity, yet without emotion. The powers to discern smells 139. indicate their capacity to welcome fully those fragrances which elude the understanding and to discern with understanding those opposites which must be utterly avoided. The powers of hearing 140. signify the ability to have a know ing share of divine inspiration. Taste 141. has to do with the fill of con 332B 142. ceptual nourishment and their receptiveness to the divine and nourishing streams. Touch is understanding how to distinguish the profitable from the harmful. Eyelids and eyebrows 143. signify the guarding of what the mind has observed of God. Adolescence and youth 144. indicate the perennial vigor of living power. Teeth 145. have to do with the skill which produces divisions in the intake of nourishing perfection, for it is a fact that every intelligent being, having received from one which is more divine the gift of a unified conception, proceeds to divide it and to make provision for its diffusion in order that 332C an inferior may be lifted up as far as possible. Shoulders, arms, 146. and 147. also the hands signify acting, achieving. The heart symbolizes life lived in conformity to God, benevolently dispensing the life-giving power to those in its care. The breast 148. signifies the indomitable vir- ____________________ 138. Ez 1:18 and 10:12; Dn 10:6; Rv 4:6-8. 139. In Tb 6:17 and 8:3, the demon has a sense of smell. See note 137. 140. Ps 103:20. 141. Does the author mean that the angels ate with Abraham (Gn 18:1-8) and with Lot (Gn 19:3)? 142. An angel touched Jacob's thigh in Gn 32:35. 143. These terms do not appear in the Bible; see note 137. 144. Mk 16:5. 145. See notes 137 and 141. 146. Dn 10:6; 2 Sm 24:16. 147. Jg 6:21; Ps 91:12 (cited in Mt 4:6); Ez 1:8, 8:3?, 10:8, 10:21; Dn 10:10, 12:7 (cited in Rv 10:5). 148. On the heart and breast, see note 137. -185-

132 tue which guards the living outpourings of the heart underneath. The back reveals the bringing together of all life-giving powers. The feet 150. are the nimble movement and speed of that perpetual journey to the divine things. (Hence the Word of God has fashioned wings 151. 149.

on the feet of intelligent beings, for wings signify their uplifting swift 332D ness, the climb to heaven, the ever-upward journey whose constantly upward thrust rises above all earthly longing. The lightness of wings symbolizes the freedom from all worldly attraction, their pure and untrammeled uplifting towards the heights.) The bare feet and body 152. signify detachment, freedom, independence, the fact of being untarnished by anything external, the greatest possible conformity to the divine simplicity. 4. The simple and yet "manifold wisdom" 153. clothes the naked 333A and speaks of how they are accoutred. So I must therefore try to offer an explication of the sacred vestments and the sacred instruments attributed to the intelligent beings of heaven. I think that the shining and fiery robe 154. symbolizes the divine form. This accords with the imagery of fire. And the power to illuminate is a consequence of the inheritance of heaven which is the abode of light. It makes all things enlightened in the mind and is enlightened in the mind. The priestly vestment 155. signifies the capacity to guide spiritually to the divine and mysterious sights, and to consecrate one's whole life. And the cinctures 156. are an indication of the control exercised by these intelligent beings over their generative powers. They signify also their practice of gathering together, their unifying absorption, the harmo nious ease with which they tirelessly circle about their own identity.

333B

5. The sceptres 157. designate the royal power and sovereignty with which they guide the achievement of everything. The spears and ____________________ 149. Ez 1:18, 10:12 (LXX). 150. Is 6:2; Ez 1:7; Dn 10:5 (LXX); Rv 10:1f. 151. Note that the wings are considered under the human form, as variations on feet! Is 6:2; Ez 1:6, 22; Ez 10:5-16. See also EH 4 480B 10-484A 11. 152. Being barefooted may be implied in the washing of feet in Gn 18:4 and 19:2. The term is used in Is 20:2-4 (LXX) but not for angels. 153. Eph 3:10. 154. Rv 9:17 and 15:6. See above, 328D 41 (note 131). Instead of exact references to "shining, fiery, or illuminating" garments, the scriptures often call the angelic robes "white": Mt 28:3; Mk 16:5; Jn 20:12; Acts 1:10; Rv 4:4. 155. Ez 9:2, 10:6-8; cf. CH 8 241BC 22f. and 35f. ("the holy stole"). Rv 1:13. 156. Ez 9:2 (LXX); Rv 15:6. See Gandillac, CH, p. 178, n. 3. 157. Jgs 6:21. -186the axes 158. represent their discriminating skills amid the unlikeness of things, the sharp clarity and efficacy of their powers of discernment. The geometric and architectural equipment 159. has to do with their activity in founding, building, and bringing to completion, in fact they have to do with everything connected with the providence which uplifts and returns their subordinates. Occasionally the depicted instruments 160. of the holy angels sym

133 bolize the judgments of God regarding us, some representing cor 333C recting discipline or punishing righteousness, some pointing to freedom from danger, the completion of discipline, the return to earlier felicity, or else the grant of new gifts great and small, gifts which can be seen or which are of the intellect. To sum up, a discerning mind would not be hard put to find a correlation between visible signs and invisible reality. 6. They are also named "winds" 161. as a sign of the virtually in stant speed with which they operate everywhere, their coming and 333D going from above to below and again from below to above as they raise up their subordinates to the highest peak and as they prevail upon their own superiors to proceed down into fellowship with and concern for those beneath them. One could add that the word "wind" means a spirit of the air and shows how divine and intelligent beings live in 336A conformity with God. The word is an image and a symbol of the activity of the Deity. It naturally moves and gives life, hurrying forward, direct and unrestrained, and this in virtue of what to us is unknowable and invisible, namely the hiddenness of the sources and the objectives of its movements. "You do not know," says scripture, "whence it comes and whither it goes." 162. This was all dealt with in more detail by me in The Symbolic Theology when I was explicating the four elements. 163. The word of God represents them also as clouds. 164. This is to show that the holy and intelligent beings are filled in a tran____________________ 158. Axes: Ez 9:2 (LXX); see CH 8 241B 23f. On a "sword" see Gn 3:24; Nm 22:23; Jos 5:13; 1 Chr 21:15f.; Rv 19:21 and 20:1. Angels separate the good from the bad in Mt 13:49. 159. Ez 40:3; Am 7:7; Zec 2:1 (LXX); Rv 21:15. 160. Rv 8:6, 14:14-17, 20:1. 161. Ps 104:4; Heb 1:7; perhaps Ps 18:10 and Dn 7:2. 162. Jn 3:8. 163. On The Symbolic Theology, see DN 1 597B, note 89. 164. Ez 1:4, 10:3; Rv 10:1. The biblical symbol for God as a cloud is mentioned in DN 1 596C 30. -187scendent way with hidden light. Directly and without arrogance they have been first to receive this light, and as intermediaries, they have generously passed it on so far as possible to those next 336B to them. They have a generative power, a life-giving power, a power to give increase and completion, for they rain understanding down and they summon the breast which receives them to give birth to a living tide. 7. The Word of God furthermore attributes to the heavenly beings the form of bronze, of electrum, of multicolored stones, and if it does so the reason lies in the fact that electrum, 165. which contains gold and silver, 166. symbolizes both the incorruptible, priceless, unfailing, and unpolluted radiance of gold as well as the gleam, the gloss, the splendor, and the heavenly glow of silver. As for bronze 336C it recalls either fire or gold, for the reasons given. With regard to the multicolored stones, 167. these must be taken to work symbolically as follows: white for light, red for fire, yellow for gold, green for youthful vitality.

134 Indeed you will find that each form carries an uplifting explanation of the representational images. But since I think I have dealt as much as I can with this matter, I feel we should now move on to the sacred explication of those animal figures attributed by scripture to the intelligent beings of heaven. 336D 8. Consider the form of the lion. 168. It must be taken as revealing their powerful indomitable command. And the heavenly beings approximate as much as they can the hiddenness of the unspeakable Deity, by covering the tracks of their own intellects. Humbly and mysteriously they draw a veil over the upward journey of divine enlightenment. The figure of the ox 169. is a token of strength and of might, of the 337A capacity to plough deeply the furrows of knowledge on which the fertile rains of heaven will fall. The horns are a mark of the power to guard and to be invincible. ____________________ 165. Ez 1:4, 1:27, 8:2. 166. Ez 1:7, 40:3; Dn 10:6. 167. Rv 4:3, 21:19-21. 168. Ez 1:10, 10:14; Rv 4:7 and 10:3. "Thy footprints were unseen," Ps 77:19. 169. Ez 1:10 and Rv 4:7 mention oxen, but with a term different from that of PseudoDionysius. Horns are usually depicted in the Bible as malevolent, except for the lamb in Rv 5:6. -188The eagle 170. tells of regal might, of the thrust to the pinnacle, of the speeding wing, of the agility, readiness, speed, and cunning to locate nourishing food, of the contemplation which is freely, directly, and unswervingly turned in stout elevations of the optical powers toward those generously abundant rays of the divine sunshine. Horses 171. mean obedience and docility. Their whiteness is the gleam of their kinship with the light of God; their blue color is the sign of hiddenness, the red is the power and sweep of fire; the piebald 337B is the alliance of opposite extremes, and the capacity to move from one to the other, that adaptability of superior to inferior and of inferior to superior which comes of return and providence. 172. If I did not have to keep in mind a due sense of proportion in my discourse, I could reflect upon the individual parts and the physical details of those animals mentioned by me. One could rightly apply them, in terms of dissimilar similarities, 173. to the powers of heaven. Thus, their anger is an image of intellectual bravery of which anger is the outermost echo; their desire is that longing felt by the angels in the presence of God; 174. and indeed, to put the matter briefly, all the feelings and all the various parts of the irrational animals uplift us to immaterial conceptions and to the unifying powers of the heavenly beings. Not only do these things suffice to the wise but the explanation of one incongruous image suffices for the like-mannered interpretation of comparable ones. 175.

337C

9. I must now look at the reason for applying to heavenly beings the titles of rivers, wheels, and chariots. The rivers of fire 176. signify ____________________ 170. Ez 1:10, 10:14; Dn 7:4; Rv 4:7. Ex 19:4? God is depicted as an eagle in Dt 32:11. Looking into the sun is part of the myth of the eagle. 171. 2 Kgs 2:11 and 6:17; Zec 1:8-10, 6:1-5; Rv 6:1-8, 19:14. 172. The colors of these horses are not exactly those of Zec 1:8, 6:2f., or Rv 6:3-7. They are closest to Zec 6

135 insofar as "navy blue" is close to black. See Gandillac, CH, p. 187. The movement from superior to inferior is that of providential "procession," the movement from inferior "up" to superior is that of the "return" or "reversion" to the divine. See DN 4, note 160. 173. For the expression "dissimilar similarities," see also CH 2 137D 44 to 140A 1, 141C 37, 144A 5, and 145A 14. 174. See CH 2 141D on courage and desire. 175. As at the end of The Divine Names (DN 13 981C), the author suggests that the method he has presented can be applied to other cases. 176. Dn 7:10; Ez 47:1 (cited in Rv 22:1). Regarding fire, see above, 328D 36 to 329C 38. -189those divine channels which are forever dispensing their generous and unchecked flow and nourishing with their life-giving fruitfulness. The chariots 177. signify the fellowship binding together beings of the same order. As for the winged wheels 178. which go ahead with neither twist 337D nor swerve, these have to do with the power to keep right on along the straight road, directly and without wandering off, and all this because the wheel of their intelligence is guided in a way which has nothing in it of this world. Yet it is possible that the iconography of the wheels of the mind be explained by another uplifting [of the mind from perceptible images to intelligent meanings]. 179. For, as the theologian has pointed out, they are called "Gelgel," 180. which in Hebrew 340A signifies both "revolving" and "revealing." Those Godlike wheels of fire "revolve" about themselves in their ceaseless movement around the Good, and they "reveal" since they expose hidden things, and lift up the mind from below and carry the most exalted enlightenments down to the lowliest. Finally, I must explain something about what scripture intends in the reference to the joy of the heavenly ranks. Now these ranks could never experience the pleasures we draw from the passions. The reference therefore is to the way they participate in the divine joy caused by the finding of the lost. 181. They undergo a truly divine sense of well-being, the good and generous delight at the providence and salvation of those who are returned to God. They are unspeakably happy in the way that, occasionally, sacred men are happy when God arranges for divine enlightenments to visit them. This, then, is what I have to say regarding the sacred represen 340B tations. Perhaps it falls a good deal short of making everything clear. Nevertheless I believe it will keep us from the wretchedness of being stuck in the fictional appearances. Perhaps it may also be objected that I have not mentioned all the powers, all the acts and all the images referred to by scripture in regard to the angels. This is true. But in leaving certain things out, it was in recognition of the fact that I am at a loss when it comes to understanding their transcendent reality. ____________________ 177. 2 Kgs 2:11, 6:17; Ps 104:3; Zec 6:1-8. 178. Ez 1:15-21, 10:1-13; Dn 7:9 has fiery wheels. 179. This is a rare use of the term "anagogy" or uplifting to mean "an interpretation." While the author usually avoids this technical usage of Origen and successors, it also appears in CH 1 121 C 34, CH 2 145B 22f., and EH 473B 16; see also CH 15 336C 32-34. 180. Gelgel: Ez 10:13 (LXX). 181. Lk 15:7-10; the term is used of human joy in Jn 16:22-24. -190What I really needed was the light of a guide to these. The omission of matters similar to those with which I have been dealing may be explained by a twofold concern of mine, not to overextend my discourse and to honor in respectful silence the hidden things which are beyond me.

136 -191The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 1. ____________________ 1. This treatise is also translated and copiously annotated in Thomas L. Campbell's 1955 doctoral dissertation at the Catholic University of America under Dr. Johannes Quasten. It was published without change in 1981 (see bibliography). Although Campbell's notes do not reflect the intervening work of, for example, R. Roques, they should be consulted regarding the complex patristic precedents for the rites here discussed. CHAPTER ONE Dionysius the Elder to Timothy the Fellow-Elder: What is the tradition of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and what is its purpose? 2. 1. Most sacred of sacred sons: Our hierarchy consists of an inspired, divine, and divinely worked understanding, activity, and perfection. With the aid of the transcendent and most sacred scriptures, I must demonstrate this to those who have been initiated in the sacrament of the sacred mystagogy by our hierarchy's mysteries and traditions. 3.

369 372A

But see to it that you do not betray the holy of holies. Let your respect for the things of the hidden God be shown in knowledge that comes from the intellect and is unseen. Keep these things of God unshared and undefiled by the uninitiated. Let your sharing of the sacred befit the sacred things: Let it be by way of sacred enlightenment for sacred men only. 4. Indeed the Word of God teaches those of us who are its disciples that in this fashion—though more clearly and more intellectually—Jesus enlightens our blessed superiors, 5. Jesus who is transcendent mind, utterly divine mind, who is the source and the ____________________ 2. The authenticity of the titles and subtitles in this treatise, and in most of the corpus, is extremely doubtful. See DN 1, note 2, on the terms "elder" and "fellow-elder," and on the general literature. Even the term "ecclesiastical" in this title and subtitle is inconsistent with the rest of the treatise where the human hierarchy is always called "our hierarchy" (EH 1 369 10, EH 1 377A 3f., EH 6 536D 45f.). In the body of the text, the term "ecclesiastical" refers not to the whole range of rites and offices but only to the assembly gathered at worship (EH 3 425B 27f.; see the nominal form "ecclesia" in EH 2 393C 35, 396A 11, EH 3 425C 39, and 445A 1). B. Brons, Gott und die Seienden, p. 65. 3. In the Dionysian vocabulary the word "mystagogy" is to be understood almost literally as guidance into something mysterious or secretly revealed, such as the meaning of baptism's triple immersion (EH 2 404BC 22-28). See the other uses, verbal and nominal, in CH 4 181B 16, CH 5 200C 13, CH 13 305A 13, EH 3 440C 32, MT 1 1000A 9, and Ep. 9 1105D 52f. The term "mystery" has several shades of meaning in the corpus: ineffable conceptions regarding divine things in general (MT 1 997A 12, Ep. 9 1104B 16) and the incarnation in particular (CH 4 181 B 13 and 21, DN 2 640C 34, Ep. 3 1069B 19), certain sacred ceremonies (EH 3 429C 27, EH 5 505B 17, Ep. 8 1097B 24, Ep. 9 1108A 1), and the eucharistic elements themselves (EH 3 445A 1-3, EH 6 533C 29 and 536C 33). The use of the singular form as the name of a specific rite is found in the subtitles only: baptism (EH 2 393A 1), the synaxis (EH 3 425B 20), the ointment or "myron" (EH 4473A 1), ordination (EH 5 509A 8), tonsure (EH 6 533A 11), and funerals (EH 7 556B 25). This pattern may also suggest an editor's hand (see note 2 above). The body of the text never classifies these six rites together but identifies only the first three as the triad of sacraments (see EH 4, note 138, on the

137 term "sacrament"). An admonition to secrecy is also found at the end of the chapter (377AB 12-21), CH 2 145C and MT 1 1000A 4-8. See note 15 below for secrecy as one of the two stated reasons for using symbols in the Bible and in the liturgy. 5. The author does not mean human superiors but rather the celestial beings of the angelic hierarchy (see note 7 below). 4.

-195being underlying all hierarchy, all sanctification, all the workings of God, who is the ultimate in divine power. He assimilates them, as much as they are able, to his own light. As for us, with that yearning 372B for beauty which raises us upward (and which is raised up) to him, he pulls together all our many differences. He makes our life, disposition, and activity something one and divine, and he bestows on us the power appropriate to a sacred priesthood. Approaching therefore the holy activity of the sacred office we come closer to those beings who are superior to us. We imitate as much as we can their abiding, unwavering, and sacred constancy, and we thereby come to look up to the blessed and ultimately divine ray of Jesus himself. Then, having sacredly beheld whatever can be seen, enlightened by the knowledge of what we have seen, we shall then be able to be consecrated and consecrators of this mysterious understanding. Formed of light, initiates in God's work, 6. we shall be perfected and bring about perfection. 2. You will find that I have already written about the hierarchy 372C of angels, archangels, and transcendent principalities, of authorities, powers, and dominions, and of divine thrones and those beings named cherubim and seraphim in Hebrew, who are of equal order with the thrones and of whom the Word of God says that they are always and forever near God and with God. I wrote about the holy order and divisions of their ranks and of their hierarchies. I wrote praising this heavenly hierarchy, not as they deserve, but to the extent that was possible and as the Word of God in the most sacred writings led the way. 7. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to discuss how that hierarchy and every hierarchy, including the one being praised by us now, has one and the same power throughout all its hierarchical endeavor, namely the hierarch himself, and how its being and proportion and 372D order are in him divinely perfected and deified, and are then imparted to those below him according to their merit, whereas the sacred dei 373A fication occurs in him directly from God. 8. Subordinates, in turn, are to pursue their superiors and they also promote the advance of those below them, while these too, as they go forward, are led by others. ____________________ 6. For "theurgy" as "God's work," especially in the incarnation, see DN 1, note 11. 7. This reference to The Celestial Hierarchy is part of the transition from that treatise to the current work. Further comparisons of the human and the angelic hierarchies follow in 373AB 7-20 and 376BC (note 13); see also CH 7 208BCD and EH 5 501A-D. 8. Cf. EH 5 505AB 10-22. -196-

138 And so it happens that because of this inspired, hierarchical harmony each one is able to have as great as possible a share in him who is truly beautiful, wise, and good. Of course, as I have said already, those beings and those orders which are superior to us are also incorporeal. Their hierarchy belongs to the domain of the conceptual and is something out of this world. We see our human hierarchy, on the other hand, as our nature allows, pluralized in a great variety of perceptible symbols lifting us upward hierarchically until we are brought as far as we can be into the unity of divinization. The heavenly beings, because of their intelligence, 373B have their own permitted conceptions of God. For us, on the other hand, it is by way of the perceptible images that we are uplifted as far as we can be to the contemplation of what is divine. 9. Actually, it is the same one whom all one-like beings desire, but they do not participate in the same way in this one and the same being. Rather, the share of the divine is apportioned to each in accordance with merit. This, however, is something which I dealt with more clearly when I was discussing The Conceptual and the Perceptible. 10. For the present, therefore, I will only seek to describe our own hierarchy, to discuss its source and its being, and to do so having first called upon Jesus, the source and the perfection of every hierarchy. 3. We have a venerable sacred tradition which asserts that every 373C hierarchy is the complete expression of the sacred elements comprised within it. It is the perfect total of all its sacred constituents. Our own hierarchy is therefore said to embrace every one of its sacred constituents. Thanks to this, the divine hierarch, following upon his consecration, will attend to all his most sacred activities. Indeed this is why he is called a "hierarch." Indeed, if you talk of "hierarchy" you are referring in effect to the arrangement of all the sacred realities. Talk of "hierarch" and one is referring to a holy and inspired man, someone who understands all sacred knowledge, someone in whom an entire hierarchy is completely perfected and known. 11. ____________________ 10. This treatise is either lost or completely fictitious. See EH 2 397C 31, Ep. 9 1108C 32-37, and the previous note for other references to the subject indicated by this title. 11. Although the term "hierarch" had a prehistory designating a cultic leader, the derivation "hierarchy" was new with Dionysius, at least in the sense that he and subsequent 9. For other summary statements on the role of perceptible symbols (biblical and liturgical) in the uplifting or "anagogical" movement, see DN 4 705B 19-21, CH 1 124A 12f., EH 1 377A 4f., and EH 5 501D 44-46. -197The source of this hierarchy is the font of life, 12. the being of goodness, the one cause of everything, namely, the Trinity which in good ness bestows being and well-being on everything. Now this blessed 373D Deity which transcends everything and which is one and also triune has resolved, for reasons unclear to us but obvious to itself, to ensure the salvation of rational beings, both ourselves and those beings who are our superiors. This can only happen with the divinization of the 376A saved. And divinization consists of being as much as possible like and in union with God. The common goal of every hierarchy consists of the continuous love of God and of things divine, a love which is sacredly worked out in an inspired and unique way, and, before this, the complete and unswerving avoidance of everything contrary to it. It consists of a knowledge of beings as they really are. It consists of both the seeing and the understanding of sacred truth. It consists of an inspired participation

139 in the one-like perfection and in the one itself, as far as possible. It consists of a feast upon that sacred vision which nourishes the intellect and which divinizes everything rising up to it. 4. What we must say is this. The blessed Deity which of itself 376B is God, is the source of all divinization. Out of its divine generosity it grants to the divinized the fact of this divinization. It has bestowed hierarchy as a gift to ensure the salvation and divinization of every being endowed with reason and intelligence. It has given it in a more immaterial and intellectual fashion to those who are blessedly above this world. (For it is not from without that God stirs them toward the divine. Rather he does so via the intellect and from within and he willingly enlightens them with a ray that is pure and immaterial.) As for us, this gift which the heavenly beings have received uniquely and unitedly has been passed on to us by the divinely transmitted scriptures in a way suited to us, that is, by means of the variety and abundance of composite symbols. Hence, the being of our hierarchy is laid down by the divinely transmitted scriptures. Furthermore, we say that these writings are to be honored, whatever our inspired sacred ____________________ generations used it (J. Stiglmayr, "Über die Termini Hierarch und Hierarchie" Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie 22 [1898]: 180-87). The general definition of "hierarchy" is also discussed in CH 3, especially 164D 4-7 and 165BC 17-32 and in EH 5 500D to 504A 3. See also G. I. Dragulin, Eclesiologia tratatelor Areopagitice si importanta ei pentru ecumenismul contemporan (Bucharest, 1979) for a thorough study of the Areopagite's ecclesiological "hierarchy" and its contrasting legacy in the East and the West, according to Fr. John Meyendorff's review in St. Vladimir Theological Quarterly 24 (1980): 272. 12. Jer 2:13, 17:13; Ps 36:9; cf. Ep. 9 1105A 4f. -198initiators set down for us in the holy tablets of written scripture. Fur 376C thermore, whatever was given by these sacred men in a more immaterial initiation, as already given to our neighbors in the heavenly hierarchy, from mind to mind, this too our leaders have revealed, through the means of verbal expression and thus corporeal, but at the same time more immaterial since it is free from writing. But the inspired hierarchs have transmitted these things not in the common part of the sacred act in undisguised conceptions, but in the sacred symbols. 13. For not everyone is holy and, as scripture affirms, knowledge is not for everyone. 14. 5. The first leaders of our hierarchy received their fill of the sa 376D cred gift from the transcendent Deity. Then divine goodness sent them to lead others to this same gift. Like gods, they had a burning and generous urge to secure uplifting and divinization for their subordinates. And so, using images derived from the senses they spoke of the transcendent. They passed on something united in a variegation and plurality. Of necessity they made human what was divine. They put material on what was immaterial. In their written and unwritten initiations, they brought the transcendent down to our level. As they had been commanded to do they did this for us, not simply because 377A of the profane from whom the symbols were to be kept out of reach, but because, as I have already stated, our own hierarchy is itself symbolical and adapted to what we are. In a divine fashion it needs perceptible things to lift us up into the domain of conceptions. 15. Now the reasons for such symbolism were revealed to the divine sacred-initiators and it would have been wrong of them to explain them fully to those still on the road to initiation. They understood quite well that those empowered by God to lay down sacred norms went about organizing the hierarchy into fixed and unconfused orders, giving each, as was due, its appropriate allotment.

140 I am giving you this gift of God, together with other things pertaining to the hierarchs. I do so because of the solemn promises you made, of which I am now reminding you, promises never to pass to ____________________ 13. The true subject of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy is this unwritten, "more immaterial initiation" regarding the symbols of the liturgy, especially after the "common part" of the rites and the dismissal. 14. 1 Cor 8:7; cf. CH 2 140B 18-20. 15. This double rationale for the biblical and liturgical use of symbolism, i.e., secrecy and accommodation, is also presented in CH 2 140AB 7-18, 145A 8-10, Ep. 9 1105C 3645 and 1108AB 7-20. -199anyone except sacred-initiators of your own order the hierarch's superior sacred words. And I am satisfied that, following the hierarchic ordinance, you will exact a promise to deal in purity with what is pure 377B and to share the divine operations only with men of God, to share perfection only with those who actually are perfected, to share the holy only with the most holy. 16. CHAPTER TWO I The rite of the illumination. 17. I have said in solemn fashion that our greatest likeness to and union 392A with God is the goal of our hierarchy. 18. But divine scripture teaches us that we will only obtain this through the most loving observance of the august commandments and by the doing of sacred acts. "He who loves me will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him." 19. What, then, is the starting point for the sacred enactment of the most revered commandments ? It is this, to dispose our souls to hear the sacred words as receptively as possible, to be open to the divine workings of God, to clear an uplifting path toward that inheritance which awaits us in heaven, and to accept our most divine and sacred regeneration. In the realm of intellect, as our famous teacher has said, 20. it is 392B love of God which first of all moves us toward the divine; indeed the very first procession of this love toward the sacred enactment of the divine commands brings about in unspeakable fashion our divine ex____________________ 16. On this concluding warning regarding secrecy, see note 4 above. 17. For fuller treatments of baptism in Pseudo-Dionysius, see Campbell's notes and R. Roques, "Le sens du baptême selon le Pseudo-Denys," Irénikon 31 (1958): 427-49 (reprinted in Structures, pp. 180-97). On the title "illumination," see note 21 below. From here on, each chapter in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy has an identical structure: an introduction, a narrative account of the rite in question, and the interpretation or "contemplation" of that rite. This pattern parallels some exegetical documents of the early Church. In Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses, for example, an introduction (PG 44 297B to 304C) is followed by a sequential narrative (304C to 325C) and then a fuller interpretive section entitled, in fact, "contemplation" or "theoria." Still another pattern suggests itself. In each chapter, the second section simply lists the multiple features of the rite as they are apparent to initial sense perception, not unlike the Neoplatonic "procession" into plurality. The third section (contemplation) presents a meaning that ascends from sense perception to the higher realm of the mind, not unlike part of the Neoplatonic "return." See CH 1, note 4. 18. CH 3 165A If., EH 1 376A 1f. 19. Jn 14:23. 20. Namely, Hierotheus; see DN 3 681A, note 128. -200-

141 istence. And divinization is to have a divine birth. No one could understand, let alone put into practice, the truths received from God if he did not have a divine beginning. Is it not the case that at the human level we must first begin to exist and then do what is appropriate to us? The nonexistent neither moves nor even begins to exist, whereas that which has some mode of being produces or experiences only that which is natural to it. This, it seems to me, is quite clear. So, therefore, let us behold the divine symbols which have to do with the divine 392C birth and let no one who is uninitiated approach this spectacle. 21. For no one with weak eyes can safely look upon the rays of the sun and there is risk for us when we handle what is above us. The hierarchy in the days of the Law was right in rejecting Uzziah because he handled the sacred things, Korah for exceeding his proper functions, and Nadab for the profane performance of his duties. 22. 393A II The Mystery of Illumination. 1. The hierarch, who "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" 23. by taking on a likeness to God, proclaims the good news to all that God out of his own natural goodness is merciful to the inhabitants of earth, that because of his love for humanity he has deigned to come down to us and that, like a fire, he has made one with himself all those capable of being divinized. "For to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh but of God. " 24. 2. Someone fired by love of transcendent reality and longing for 393B a sacred share of it comes first to an initiate, asks to be brought to the hierarch, and promises complete obedience to whatever is laid upon him. He asks him to take charge of his training and of everything con____________________ 21. "Divine birth" is the author's consistent name for the sacrament of baptism. See EH 2 397A 6f., 404C 25, EH 3 425A 9, 432C 26, and EH 4 484C 29. The term "illumination" appears in the two subtitles (EH 2 392A 1 and 393A 1) and in the etymology provided in EH 3 425A 12. See note 43 below on the term "baptism." 22. Uzziah: 2 Chr 26:16-21 (see Ep. 8 1089B 29 and 1089C 39); Korah: Nm 16; Nadab : Lv 10:1f. The variant reading "Nadab and Abihu" is based on Lv 10:1f. and Nm 3:4, but is rejected by the critical edition forthcoming from Göttingen. The "legal hierarchy" is discussed in EH 5 501BC (note 145). 23. 1 Tm 2:4. The hierarch imitates God's generous invitation to all, as interpreted below in 397D 36-400B 24. 24. Jn 1:12f. -201nected with his future life. The other is moved by the desire for the man's salvation but when he compares the human situation with the heights confronting the enterprise, fright and uncertainty lay hold of him. But his goodwill eventually overcomes him and he agrees to do what is asked of him and he takes him to the one to whom the hierarchical title is given. 25. 3. The hierarch is delighted with the two men. It is like the case 393C 26. of the lost sheep carried on the shoulders. He gives thanks and praise. With thankful mind and prostrate body he venerates that one kindly source by whom the called are called 27. and the saved are saved. 4. Then he summons the whole sacred rank into the sacred precincts to join in celebrating this man's salvation and to offer thanks for the divine goodness. For a start he joins with all the others of the

142 assembly to sing a hymn drawn from sacred scripture. After this he kisses the sacred table and he comes toward the man standing in waiting and he asks him why he has come. 5. He, filled with love of God, replies in accordance with the in 393D 28. structions given him by his sponsor. He repudiates his ungodliness, his lack of knowledge of the truly beautiful, the absence within him 396A self of a God-possessed life. He asks [the hierarch's] sacred mediation in obtaining an encounter with God and with things divine. The hierarch tells him that if he is to approach the all-perfect and blameless God he must give himself totally. He teaches him the God-possessed life and asks him if he wishes to live in this way. When the postulant says "yes" he places his hand upon his head and marks him with the sign of the cross. He then instructs the priests to enroll the man and his sponsor. 29. 6. When they have been enrolled, he offers up a sacred prayer. All those of the assembly join him. He unties [the man's sandals] and has the deacons remove his garments. Then he puts him facing west 396B ward with his hands outstretched in a gesture of abhorrence. Three times he bids him breathe his rejection of Satan and his abjuration of ____________________ 25. This longing and humble approach through a sponsor are interpreted in 400BC 25-40. Regarding the sponsors of infant candidates for baptism, see EH 7 568BC. 26. Lk 15:5. 27. Mt 22:3. 28. Does this "instruction" suggest catechetical training before the sponsor leads the candidate to the hierarch? There seems to be no such interval between the enrollment and the baptism itself. Yet a distinct group of "catechumens" is identified elsewhere (EH 3 432BC and EH 6 532A). 29. The sign of the cross and the enrollment are interpreted in 400C 41 to 401A 3. -202him. Three times he speaks the words and the other repeats them. Then he turns him eastward with eyes raised and hands lifted to heaven and he commands him to submit to Christ and to all divinely granted sacred lore. 30. 7. This done, he calls upon him three times to make his profession of faith and when the other has done this he prays for him, blesses him, and places his hands upon him. The deacons divest him com 396C pletely and the priests bring the holy oil for unction. The hierarch begins the process of unction with a threefold sign of the cross, leaves it to the priests to cover the body of the man completely with the oil, 31. and goes himself toward that mother of all divine adoption. With sacred invocations he consecrates the water, completing this by pouring the most holy ointment three times into it, each pouring being made in the form of the sign of the cross. 32. With every pouring of the holy ointment he sings that sacred song which God inspired in the prophets. 33. He orders the man to be brought to him. One of the priests loudly calls out his name from the rolls, together with the name of his sponsor. Then the priests guide the man to the water and there he is handed over to the hierarch who, standing on a more elevated spot, 396D immerses three times the initiate whose name is called out across the water by the priests to the hierarch with each immersion. Each time the initiate is plunged into the water and emerges, the hierarch invokes the three persons of the divine blessedness. 34. The priests then bring the man back to his sponsor, to the one who had brought him for introduction, and together with him they reclothe the man and bring him

143 back once more to the hierarch. Using the most potently divine ointment he makes the sign of the cross on him and proclaims him ready to participate in the sacredly initiating Eucharist. 36. ____________________ 30. This part of the rite, especially the rejection of evil, is considered in 401ABC 434. According to EH 5 508A, it is the deacons who face the candidate west and east, etc. See also CH 13 305C 40-44. 31. On this anointing, see 401C 35 to 404A 11. A related anointing occurs in the funeral rite (EH 7 556D 46f.), as interpreted in EH 7 565A. 32. This "ointment" or "myron" is the subject of EH 4, where its use on the baptismal water is discussed (484A 18-27). 33. Namely, the "alleluia"; cf. EH 4 473A 10 and 485AB 15-18. 34. The actual process of immersion is interpreted in 404BC 12-28. This trinitarian epiclesis is identical to the invocation at the moment of tonsure in EH 6 533B 25f., and similar to the language of DN 1 592A 1 and CH 7 212C 37. 35. See 404C 29-33 and EH 6 536B 13-16 regarding the change of clothing. 36. The anointing with the myron or ointment as the completion of baptism, later called confirmation in the West, is considered in 404CD 33-40 and EH 4 484C 28-35. The 35.

-2038. All this having been duly completed, the hierarch rises once 397A more to the contemplation of primary things after having proceeded to what was secondary, and he does so in order that on no occasion and in no way can he be side-tracked by anything foreign to his task, that he may never cease to travel from one divine reality to another and that he may remain ever under the guidance of the divine spirit. 37. III Contemplation. 1. This sacrament symbolizing the sacred divine birth has nothing unfitting or profane in its perceptible images. Rather, it reflects the enigmas of a contemplative process worthy of God, and it does so by way of natural reflections suited to the human intellect. 38. Leaving 397B aside the more truly divine reason for these rites, in what way could this appear mistaken when with holy instruction it teaches the initiate a saintly mode of life, when with the physical cleansing by water it teaches him in a bodily fashion to purify himself from all evil as he lives a life that is virtuous and dedicated to God? Even if it had no other and more sacred meaning, this tradition of things performed symbolically would, in my opinion, have nothing profane about it, for what it teaches is a holy way of life and in the cleansing of the whole body by water it proposes a complete purification of an evil way of life. 397C 2. Let this be the introductory guidance for the uninitiated! 39. For it differentiates, as indeed it should, what belongs to the common crowd from the things that bind and unify a hierarchy, and it apportions to each order its due and fitting measure of uplifting. But we, who have reverently lifted our eyes up to the sources of these rites and have been sacredly initiated in them, we shall recognize the stamps of which these things are impressions and the invisible things of which they are images. I have already clearly shown in my book—The Con ____________________ invitation to the Eucharist is mentioned again in 404D 40-43 and, by contrast to the superior participation of the monks and clerics, in EH 6 536BC 20-37. 37. The hierarch's activity in general is described in terms of a downward procession and an upward return in EH 3 429AB 15-25. 38. 1 Cor 13:12? 39. An introductory lesson, perhaps also for those not yet initiated, also precedes the fuller and more exclusive contemplation of the synaxis (EH 3 428B, note 66) and the sacrament of the ointment (EH 4 473B, note 115).

144 -204ceptual and the Perceptible 40. —that sacred symbols are actually the perceptible tokens of the conceptual things. They show the way to them and lead to them, and the conceptual things are the source and the understanding underlying the perceptible manifestations of hierarchy. 3. We say, then, that the goodness of the divine blessedness, 397D while forever remaining similar to and like itself, nevertheless generously grants the beneficent rays of its own light to whoever views it with the eyes of the intelligence. But it can happen that intelligent beings, because of their free will, can fall away from the light of the 400A mind and can so desire what is evil that they close off that vision, with its natural capacity for illumination. They remove themselves from this light which is ceaselessly proferred to them and which, far from abandoning them, shines on their unseeing eyes. With typical goodness that light hastens to follow them even when they turn away from it. It can happen too that these beings push beyond the reasonable limits set to their vision and that they have the gall to imagine that they can actually gaze upon those beams which transcend their power of sight. Here, light will not go against its own nature as light. Rather, the soul, imperfectly offering itself to absolute Perfection, will not only fail to arrive at those realities foreign to it but in its evil arrogance will even be deprived of what is available to it. Still, as I have already said, the divine Light, out of generosity, never ceases to offer itself to the eyes of the mind, eyes which should seize upon it for it is always there, always divinely ready with the gift of itself. And it is on this 400B that the divine hierarch models himself when he generously pours out on everyone the shining beams of his inspired teaching, when in imitation of God he remains ever ready to give light to whoever approaches, and when he displays neither a grudge nor profane anger over previous apostasy and transgressions. In godlike and hierarchical fashion he gives to all who approach his guiding light and does so in harmonious and orderly fashion and in proportion to the disposition of each one toward the sacred. 4. But since God is the source of this sacred arrangement in accordance with which the intelligence of sacred beings acquires self____________________ 40. See EH 1 373B 21f., notes 9 and 10. Both books on the hierarchies and Letter 9 concern the way in which perceptible symbols are used in the uplifting to the conceptual or intelligible realm. The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy concentrates on liturgical movements and gestures, rather than words, objects, colors, shapes, designs, or architecture. -205awareness, anyone proceeding to examine his own nature will at the 400C start discover his own identity and he will acquire this first sacred gift as a consequence of his looking up toward the light. Having duly examined with unbiased gaze what he himself is he will avoid the dark pits of ignorance. He will not yet be sufficiently initiated into complete union with and participation in God nor will his longing for this come from within himself. Only gradually will he [the catechumen] be uplifted to a higher state and this because of the mediation of people more advanced than he. Helped on by those at a higher level, helped on as far as the very first ranks, following the sacred rules of order he will be uplifted to the summit where the Deity is.

145 An image of this harmonious and sacred order is the reverence of the postulant, his self-awareness, the path he takes, with the help of his sponsor, toward the hierarch. The divine blessedness grants a share of itself to someone uplifted thus, marks him with its light as a 400D 41. certain sign, receives him into the company of those who have earned divinization and who form a sacred assembly. The sacred symbol of these things is the sign made on the postulant by the hierarch and the enrollment made by the priests who thereby include the initiate among the saved and inscribe his name, together with that of his sponsor, in the holy register. For the one truly yearns for the life-giv 401A ing journey toward the truth, and follows his divine leader; and the other unerringly guides his follower along the ways handed down by God. 5. One cannot participate in contradictory realities at one and the same time, and whoever enters into communion with the One cannot proceed to live a divided life, especially if he hopes for a real participation in the One. He must be firmly opposed to whatever may sunder this communion. All this is sacredly suggested by the symbolic tradition which strips the postulant of his former life, deprives him of the very last attractions of this world, stands him naked and barefoot to face westward and renounce with outstretched hands all dealings 401B with the darkness of evil, and everything in his past which signifies difference, and makes him exhale, as it were, and renounce utterly whatever is opposed to conformity to God. Strengthened thus and made free he is turned to face eastward and he is told that having abandoned evil he may in perfect purity endure and look up to the divine ____________________ 41. Campbell points out the slight resemblance to the Septuagint version of Psalm 4:6. The immediate reference is to the sign of the cross (396A 8). -206Light. With these, his sacred vows of a complete inclination toward the One, the tradition receives him who has become one-like out of a love for the truth. Now I think it is quite evident to those with an understanding of hierarchies that in all sustained effort to reach the One, by the complete death and dissolution of being of what is opposite, intelligent beings are granted the immutable capacity to mold themselves com pletely on the form of the divine. It is not enough merely to withdraw 401C from all wrongdoing. Rather, one must be bravely resolute. One must fearlessly confront any disastrous backsliding. There must never be any decline in the sacred love of truth. Indeed one must ceaselessly and prayerfully be raised up as much as one can toward it and strive always to be uplifted in a sacred fashion toward the ultimate perfection of the Deity. 6. You can see that the hierarchic rites are the precise images of these realities. The godlike hierarch begins the sacred anointing but it is the priests who actually perform the sacred act of the unction and 401D who thereby summon the initiate to the sacred contests 42. which, with Christ as his trainer, he must undertake. For it is Christ who, as God, arranges the match, as sage lays down the rules, as beauty is the worthy prize for the victors, and, more divinely, as goodness is present with the athletes, defending their freedom and guaranteeing their vic 404A tory over the forces of death and destruction. And so the initiate will quite gladly hurl himself into what he knows to be divine contests and he will follow and scrupulously observe the wise rules of the game. His

146 firm hope will be to earn the fine reward of a place in the order commanded by the good lord and leader of the contest. He will follow the divine tracks established by the goodness of the first of athletes. In trials that imitate the divine he will do battle with every activity and with every being which stand in the way of his divinization. By dying to sin in baptism one could say mystically that he shares in the death of Christ himself. 43. 7. Join me in observing how appropriately the symbols convey 404B the sacred. To us death is not, as others imagine, a complete disso- ____________________ 42. On this athletic imagery, see EH 7 565A and the biblical antecedents in 1 Cor 9:24; 2 Tm 2:5; and Heb 12:1. 43. Rom 6:3f.; Col 2:12; 2 Tm 2:11. The word "baptism," indicating not the entire rite but the actual immersion, occurs only twice in the corpus, here and at EH 7 565A 6. For the verbal forms, see EH 2 396D 42, 404B 22, EH 4 484B 24 (Rom 6:3) and EH 5 512D 39f. (Acts 1.4f.). -207lution of being. 44. It is, rather, the separation of two parts which had been linked together. It brings the soul into what for us is an invisible realm where it, in the loss of the body, becomes formless. And the body is hidden in earth and undergoes a change from its corporeal shape and is withdrawn from its human appearance. Now because of this it is quite appropriate to hide the initiate completely in the water as an image of this death and this burial where form is dissolved. This symbolic lesson therefore sacredly leads the one who is baptized into the mystery that by his triple immersion and emersion he imitates, as far as the imitation of God is possible to men, the divine death of one who was three days and nights in the tomb, 45. the life giving Jesus, in whom, according to the mysterious and hidden tra dition of scripture, the ruler of this world found nothing. 46.

404C

8. Next they put bright clothes on the initiate. His courage and his likeness to God, his firm thrust toward the One, make him indifferent to all contrary things. Order descends upon disorder within him. Form takes over from formlessness. Light shines through all his life. 47. The unction with ointment gives a sweet odor to the one who has been initiated, for the perfect divine birth joins the initiates together with the Spirit of the Deity. This outpouring is not something describable for it is in the domain of mind that it does its work of sweetening and of making perfect. How to recognize this intelligently is something which I leave to those who have earned the right to com mune, in a sacred and divinely worked fashion and at the level of 404D mind, with the Spirit of God. 48. When all is done, the hierarch calls the one who has been initiated to the most sacred Eucharist and he imparts to him communion in the mysteries which will perfect him. 49. ____________________ 44. The immersion symbolizes death. These "others" may be mentioned in Wisd of Sol 2:2. The discussion continues in EH 7 553B 23f. 45. Mt 12:40, from Jn 1:17. See EH 4 484B 25 (note 133). 46. Jn 12:31, 14:30, 16:11. Dionysius may also mean that Pilate found no guilt in him (Jn 18:38, 19:4-6). 47. The new baptismal clothing is interpreted again at EH 6 536B 13-16. 48. The baptismal use of the ointment is also discussed in EH 4 484C 28-35. 49. Communion in the mysteries, i.e., in the bread and wine (see EH 3 445A 1-3, note 105) is also imparted to infants, whose baptism is discussed in EH 7 565D to 568C.

147 -208CHAPTER THREE I The rite of the synaxis. 50. 424B 424C wrong to move past it and to speak in praise of some other function of the hierarchy. For, as my celebrated teacher has declared, this is indeed the sacrament of sacraments, and, by making use of the sacred lore of scripture and of hierarchical understanding, I must discuss the divinely inspired accounts of it and, guided by the inspiration of the spirit of the Deity, I must be uplifted to the sacred contemplation of it.

Now of course since I have referred to [communion] it would be

For a start, let us reverently behold what is above all characteristic of this, though also of the other hierarchic sacraments, namely, that which is especially referred to as "Communion" and "gathering" [synaxis]. Every sacredly initiating operation draws our fragmented lives together into a one-like divinization. 51. It forges a divine unity out of the divisions within us. It grants us communion and union with the 424D One. But I submit that the perfection of the other hierarchical symbols is only achieved by way of the divine and perfecting gifts of Communion. For scarcely any of the hierarchic sacraments can be performed without the divine Eucharist as the high point of each rite, 52. divinely bringing about a spiritual gathering to the One for him who receives the sacrament, granting him as a gift from God its mys terious perfecting capacities, perfecting in fact his communion with 425A God. Each of the hierarchic sacraments is incomplete to the extent that it does not perfect our communion and "gathering" to the One, and by being thus incomplete it cannot work our full perfection. And the objective, the prime purpose of each sacrament is to impart the mysteries of the Deity to the one being initiated. Thus hierarchical ____________________ 50. Besides Campbell's notes (EH 1, note 1) see E. Boularand, "L'Eucharistie d'après le pseudo-Denys l'Aréopagite," Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique 58 (1957): 193-217, 59 (1958): 129-69; I. P. Sheldon-Williams, "The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of Pseudo-Dionysius," Downside Review 82 (1964): 293-302, 83 (1965): 20-31; and P. Scheppens, "La liturgie de Denys le Pseudo-Aréopagite," Epbemerides liturgicae 63 (1949): 357-75. 51. Yet another Dionysian word play: "to draw together" translates the verbal form of the rite's technical name, "synaxis" or "gathering." The word play reoccurs throughout this paragraph and in 429A 13. The rite can also be called the "Eucharist" (EH 2 396D 50, 404D 41, EH 3 424D 22 and EH 6 536C 32) and, as in the passage here annotated, "Communion" (see also EH 3 425A 3, EH 4 472D 7, EH 5 505B 26). 52. The synaxis climaxes the rites of baptism (EH 2 396D 48-50 and 404D 40-43), the clerical ordinations (EH 6 536C 28-37), and the monastic profession (EH 6 533B 28f. and 536B 20-28). -209lore has quite truly forged a name to signify the essential feature of what is being achieved. It is the same with regard to that sacred sacrament of the divine birth. It first introduces the light and is the source of all divine illumination. And because this is so we praise it, giving it the designation of what it achieves, that is, illumination. 53. It is true of course that all the hierarchic operations have this in common, to pass the light of God on to the initiates, but nevertheless it was this one which first gave me the gift of sight. The light coming first from this led me toward the vision of the other sacred things.

425B

148 This much having been said, let us now lift up our eyes and let us look in hierarchic sequence upon the detailed sacred act and contemplation 54. of this most holy sacrament. II Mystery of the "synaxis" or Communion. The hierarch, having said a sacred prayer at the divine altar, begins the censing there and then he makes the round of the entire sacred place. 55. Returning to the divine altar, he begins the sacred singing of the psalms and the entire assembly joins him in this. Then the deacons begin the reading of the holy tablets, 56. after which the catechumens 425C leave the sacred precincts, followed by the possessed and the penitents, so that only those remain who are entitled to the vision and communion of the divine things. 57. Some of the deacons stand on guard in the sacred place to ensure that the doors are kept closed. 58. Others per- ____________________ 53. On the names for the sacrament of baptism, see EH 2, note 21. 54. This terse phrase, "the sacred act and contemplation," is an outline of the rest of the chapter; Part 2 concerns the specific acts of the rite, and Part 3 concerns the interpretation or contemplation of them. See also EH 4 472D 9-12. On the structure of each chapter, see EH 2, note 17. 55. The censing procession is interpreted (428D-429B) in terms of procession and return. See also EH 4 4761). 56. The chanting of the psalms and the readings of the scriptures are interpreted in 428B 13-16, 429C 26 to 432C 32, EH 4 477A, EH 6 532AB, and, in the case of funerals, EH 7 557B 21-26. 57. The dismissal is discussed in 428B 21-26, 432C 32-436B 20, EH 4 477B 18-24, and EH 7 557C 27 to 560A 5. These groups, constituting the lowest lay order, are themselves the subject of EH 6 532A. 58. The author gives only rare allusions to the actual architecture presupposed in his descriptions of the sacred events. In addition to the doors here associated with the dismissal, there seem to be some inner doors within the worship space (Ep. 8 1088D 49; see also 428C 27f., note 67 below, and EH 7 556C 26-32). -210form tasks appropriate to their order. The chosen deacons, along with the priests, put on the divine altar the sacred bread and the cup of blessing. 59. And all this is preceded by the singing by the entire gathering of the hymn of universal faith. 60. Then the divine hierarch says a sacred prayer and bids holy peace to all. All the others exchange the ritual kiss 61. and the mystical reading of the sacred volumes is concluded. 62. After the hierarch and the priests wash their hands in water, the hierarch sits at the center of the divine altar surrounded by certain 425D 63. of the deacons, together with the priests. The hierarch speaks in praise of the sacred works of God, sets about the performance of the most divine acts, and lifts into view the things praised through the sacredly displayed symbols. 64. Having thus revealed the kindly gifts of the works of God, he himself comes into communion with them and exhorts the others to follow him. After receiving and then distributing 428A 65. the divine Communion he concludes with the sacred thanksgiving. And while the general crowd is satisfied to look at the divine symbols he, on the other hand, is continuously uplifted by the divine Spirit toward the most holy source of the sacramental rite and he does so in blessed and conceptual contemplations, in that purity which marks his life as it conforms to God. III Contemplation. 1. And now, my fine young man, following this imagery which in orderly and sacred fashion conforms to the truth of its divine original, I must go on to offer spiritual guidance to those yet being initiated.

149 The variegated and sacred composition of the symbols is not unprofitable to them, even though it presents only their external fea____________________ 59. 1 Cor 10:16; see also 437A 1-3 and 437C 32-38. Distinctions within the diaconal rank, such as these "chosen" deacons or the "leader of the deacons" in EH 7 556C 37f., are never explained. 60. On this hymn (or creed), see 436CD 31-51 and note 88. 61. On the kiss of peace, see 437A 3-16. Those newly ordained are also kissed, according to EH 5 509BC 25-28, 509C 34, and 513B 12-25. The deceased also receive a final kiss (EH 7 556D 44-46, 560A 7-9, 565A 3-5). 62. Namely, the reading of the names inscribed on the "diptychs," as interpreted in 437BC 17-38 (see also EH 7 556C 38-40 and 557D 47 to 560A 5). 63. The ceremonial cleansing is discussed in 437D 39 to 440B 26. 64. This praise is for the whole history of God's saving acts, as paraphrased in 440B 26 to 444A 4. The elevation is interpreted in 444A 4 to 444D 44. 65. The distribution itself and the concluding thanksgiving are mentioned again in 444D 45 to 445C 34. -211tures. The sacred chanting of the scriptures and the readings teach the 428B rules of virtuous living. Above all, it teaches the need for the total purification of the self from destructive evil. The shared, peaceful, and most divine distribution of the one bread and of the one cup lays down as a norm that having been nourished by the same food their lives must be joined in full sharing of inspired food. It also sacredly reminds them of the most divine Supper, which is the original symbol of all the rites. The author himself of all these symbols very rightly excluded from that sacred feast the one not devoted to himself. 66. Thus it teaches in a pure and divine fashion that as one becomes fit to approach these divine things one is given the grace of assimilation with them and of communion with them. 2. But let us leave behind as adequate for those uninitiated re 428C garding contemplation these signs which, as I have said, are splendidly depicted on the entrances to the inner sanctuary. 67. We, however, when we think of the sacred synaxis must move in from effects to causes and in the light which Jesus will give us, we will be able to glimpse the contemplation of the conceptual things clearly reflecting a blessed original beauty. And you, O most divine and sacred sacrament : Lift up the symbolic garments of enigmas which surround you. Show yourself clearly to our gaze. Fill the eyes of our mind with a unifying and unveiled light. 3. I think we must now go inside the sacred things and reveal the 428D meaning of the first of the images. We must look attentively upon the beauty which gives it so divine a form and we must turn a reverent glance to the double movement of the hierarch when he goes first from the divine altar to the far edges of the sacred place spreading the fra 429A grance and then returns to the altar. For the blessed divinity, which transcends all being, while proceeding gradually outward because of goodness to commune with those who partake of him, never actually departs from his essential stability and immobility. Enlightening anyone conforming as much as possible to God, the Deity nevertheless maintains utterly and unshakably its inherent identity. Similarly the ____________________ 66. Judas was separated from the others during the Last Supper (Jn 13:21-30). This entire paragraph concerns the rite's introductory and superficial meaning, as also given for baptism (EH 2 397B, note 39) and for the sacrament of the ointment (EH 4 473B). 67. An inner sanctuary is mentioned in Ep. 8 1088B 27 and 1088D 49. Perhaps there actually were some visual depictions in this area, even an iconostasis, as a visual aid for the uninitiated. See Campbell, n. 123, plus DN 4 696B 25, 724B 25, and Plotinus, Enneads VI, 9, 11.

150 -212divine sacrament of the synaxis remains what it is, unique, simple, and indivisible and yet, out of love for humanity, it is pluralized in a sacred variegation of symbols. It extends itself so as to include all the hierarchical imagery. Then it draws all these varied symbols together into a unity, returns to its own inherent oneness, and confers unity on all those sacredly uplifted to it. And it is the same with the divine hier arch. He generously hands down to his inferiors that unique hier 429B archic understanding which is especially his own. He resorts to a multitude of sacred enigmas. Then, freely and untrammeled by anything beneath him, he returns to his own starting point without having any loss. In his mind he journeys toward the One. With a clear eye he looks upon the basic unity of those realities underlying the sacred rites. He makes the divine return to the primary things the goal of his procession toward secondary things, which he had undertaken out of love for humanity. 68. 4. The sacred psalmody is a part of the hierarchic mysteries and 429C 69. should certainly accompany the most hierarchic of them all. The sacred scriptural tablets have a lesson for those capable of being divinized, being rooted in the sacred and godlike upliftings of the sacraments. They teach that God himself thus gives substance and arrangement to everything which exists, including the legal hierarchy and society. 70. They lay down the divisions by lot, the distribution and the sharing that have to do with God's people. 71. They teach the lore of holy judges, of wise kings and of priests who live in God. 72. They express the powerful and unshakable point of view which enabled our forefathers to endure various and numerous misfortunes. 73. From them come wise guidelines for living, 74. the songs which gloriously depict the love of God, 75. the prophecies regarding the future, 76. the divine ____________________ 68. In this paragraph (428D to 429B) the Neoplatonic framework of a downward "procession" and an upward "return" (see CH 1, note 4) helps interpret the censing procession, God's own "movement," the entire synaxis, and the hierarch's activity in general. 69. The psalms are discussed in 429D 45 to 432B 12, and are mentioned in 432C 31, EH 4 473A 5, and EH 7 556C 37. 70. These references to Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus begin the roughly sequential allusions to Old and New Testament books. Only once in the entire corpus is a biblical book mentioned by name: Genesis in Ep. 9 1105B 22. See also the "Songs" in Ep. 9 1105B 28. 71. Nm (and Dt?). 72. Jgs; 1-2 Sm; 1-2 Kgs; 1-2 Chr; Ezr; and Neh. 73. Jb. 74. Prv, and perhaps other wisdom literature. 75. Sg. 76. Unspecified prophets. -213works of Jesus the man, 77. the god-given and god-imitating communities 78. and sacred teachings of his disciples. 79. Here is the hid den and mystical vision of that inspired man who was the most be 429D loved of the disciples, 80. and the transcendent Word of God concerning Jesus. 81. Furthermore, the divine songs praise all the words and all the works of God and laud everything divinely said and everything divinely accomplished by men of God. They are a poetic narrative of all divine things and they enable everyone who participates in a godly spirit always to receive and to pass on the sacrament of the hierarchy. 432A

151 5. When these sacred hymns, with their summaries of holy truth, have prepared our spirits to be at one with what we shall shortly celebrate, when they have attuned us to the divine harmony and have brought us into accord not only with divine realities but with our individual selves and with others in such a way that we make up one homogeneous choir of sacred men, then whatever resumé and whatever opaque outline is offered by the sacred chanting of the psalmody is expanded by the more numerous, more understandable images and 432B proclamations in the sacred readings of the holy texts. If one considers these texts with a reverent eye one will see something that both brings about unity and manifests a single empathy, of which the source is the spirit of the Deity. This is why it is right that in succession to the older tradition one proclaims to the world the New Testament. It seems to me that this sequence, coming as it does from God and prescribed as it is by hierarchical order, demonstrates how the one forecast the divine works of Jesus, while the other described how he actually achieved them. The one wrote truth by way of images, while the other described things as they happened. The truth of what was forecast by the one was confirmed by the events described by the other. The divine works are the consummation of the divine words. 82. ____________________ 77. The (synoptic?) gospels. 78. Acts. 79. Unspecified epistles. 80. The Revelation to John. 81. Perhaps the Gospel of John, although one would expect the self-styled Athenian convert to make special reference to Saint Paul. 82. Literally, "the theurgies are the consummation of the theologies," meaning that the divine acts recounted in the New Testament are the consummation of the divine predictions of the Old. On "theurgy" as God's act, see DN 1, note 11; on "theology" as God's Word, see MT 1, note 1. This entire paragraph (432B) concerns the relationship between the two testaments. -2146. Those who are stone deaf to what the sacred sacraments teach 432C also have no eye for the imagery. Shamelessly they have rejected the saving initiation which brings about the divine birth, and ruinously they have echoed the scriptural text, "I do not wish to know your ways." 83. On the other hand, the catechumens, the possessed, and the penitents should follow the instructions of the holy hierarchy and should listen to the singing of the psalms and to the reading of the divinely inspired writings. They may not join in the ensuing sacred acts and in the contemplation reserved for the perfected sight of the perfect. For there is an abundance of sacred righteousness about the hierarchy, with its conformity to God. The hierarchy gives to each as he deserves and grants an appropriate share of the divine things to all for their salvation. It deals out its sacred gifts at the right time and in harmonious and fitting measure. Thus, the catechumens hold the 432D lowest order. They have not yet been initiated and have, therefore, no participation in any of the hierarchic rites. They have not received an inspired existence in the divine birth, but are yet being incubated by the paternal scriptures. 84. They are being shaped by those life-giv ing depictions toward the first life and first light and the blessed in 433A troduction of the divine birth. It is just as when children of the flesh arrive before their proper incubation. They are unready and unshaped like still-born fetuses. They fall to earth unborn, without life, without light, and it would be silly to go by appearances and to say of them that just because they had emerged from the darkness of the mother's womb they have been brought to the light. Anyway, medical practice which knows more than any other about the human body would show that for light to work there have to be organs capable of receiving it.

152 But it is the all-wise understanding of sacred things which first acts to incubate the catechumens. It gives them the introductory food of scripture which shapes them and brings them toward life. Later, when their being has been brought to fullness and to the divine birth it acts for their salvation and, following the rules of order, it allows them to enter into communion with that which will illuminate them and which will bring them to perfection. But while their perfection is 433B ____________________ 83. Jb 21:14 (LXX). 84. Since the scripture readings lead the catechumen toward spiritual birth in baptism, the language of incubation can be applied to them (see also 433B 19, EH 4 476D 46f., EH 5 508B 18-20, and EH 6 532A 3f.). -215as yet incomplete, it withholds the perfect things from them since it wishes both to safeguard the harmony of these sacred things and to watch over the incubation and life of the catechumens, and it does so in accordance with the divine order laid down by the hierarchy. 7. The mass of possessed is itself profane, but is next in place above the catechumens who are lowest. In my view there is no equality of status between someone who has received no initiation nor taken part in the divine sacraments and someone who has taken part in some of the sacred rites but is now held fast by opposing charms or by con fusion. Such people are quite rightly forbidden to see the most sacred 433C things and to enter into communion with them. The man who is indeed divine, who has the right to commune with the divine realities, who, to the greatest possible extent, has been lifted up into conformity with God through complete and perfecting divinization, such a man if he is truly indifferent to the realities of the flesh (apart from the necessities of nature over which he will not delay) will have arrived at the highest possible measure of divinization and will be both the temple 85. and the companion of the Spirit of the Deity. Like him of whom he has become an image, not only will he never be possessed by the illusions or the terrors of the adversary but he will actually laugh at them. He will rebuff them and chase them away if they come on the scene. He will be more active than passive. Having adopted impassibility and endurance as the guiding norm of his state he will be seen, like a doctor, helping others who are possessed by these things. Hence, I believe—or, rather, I know for a fact—that the mem 433D bers of the hierarchy, being very wise in their judgment, understand that the possessed, that is, those who have turned away from a life conforming to divine example and have adopted instead the ideas and character of abominable demons, are exposed to the very worst power. In their extreme folly, so destructive to themselves, they turn away from the truly real, from immortal possessions and from everlasting bliss. They long for and work for the change and for the multiple passions characteristic of matter, for pleasures which die and corrupt, for the instability of things and for the ap 436A pearance of happiness. The deacon charged with dividing the peo- ____________________ 85. 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16. -216ple separates them first and foremost, 86. for it is wrong for them to be present at any part of the rite other than that scriptural teaching aimed at their return to better things. The sacred act, after all, is not of this world. It even keeps out the penitents who, previously, were present. It grants entry only to the sacred. In

153 its perfect purity it says: "I am invisible to and I do not commune with those prevented by an imperfection of some kind from reaching the highpoint of conformity with God." This utterly pure voice rejects everyone failing to be of one mind with those entitled to participate in the most divine things. Hence all the more reason to consider 436B the mass of the possessed, involved as they are with passion, to be profane and estranged from every vision and communion of sacred things. First to be barred from the nave and from those rites which are beyond them are those who are uninitiated and incomplete regarding the sacraments. Then come those who have abandoned a sacred way of life. After them come those who cravenly submit to opposing fears and fantasies, who, unable to be firm and unyielding, have failed to arrive at that conformity with things divine which would have truly given them enduring and lasting divinization. Following these are the people who have abandoned the opposing life but who are not yet purified of empty imaginings because they have not yet acquired as something permanent the undiluted yearning for God. Lastly, there are those who are not yet altogether one-like but who, in the words of the Law, are neither completely unblemished 87. nor completely unstained. The most sacred celebrants of the sacred things and those fond 436C of visions reverently behold the most holy of the sacraments and they sing that most universal song of praise in honor of that source who is the worker and the dispenser of good, who has established for us those saving sacraments by means of which the participants are divinized. This hymn is sometimes called a confession of praise, sometimes a symbol of adoration, sometimes—and here I think one is closer to ____________________ 86. This is not the exorcism of demons from the possessed (contra Gandillac, Oeuvres complètes, p. 272) but the removal or dismissal of the possessed from the worship service. 87. E.g., Ex 29:1; Lv 1:3, 3:1; Nm 6:14; Ps 119:1. This paragraph seems to delineate more than three subdivisions (catechumens, possessed, penitents) within the lowest lay order (those "being purified"). Slightly different enumerations of five such subcategories are found in EH 4 476D 45 to 477A 13 and EH 6 532A 1-13. -217things divine—a hierarchic thanksgiving, for this hymn is a summary of all the blessed gifts which come to us from God. To me it seems that this song is a celebration of all the work of God on our behalf. 88. It reminds us that we owe to God's goodness our being and our life, that, using the everlasting model of beauty, God has made us in his image and that he has given us a share of the divine condition and uplifting. Then it reminds us that when we had lost the divine gifts 436D because of our own folly, God took the trouble to recall us to our original condition through adventitious gifts, that he gave us a most perfect share of his nature by completely taking on our own, and that in this way he made it possible for us to enter into communion with himself and with divine reality. 8. The love of the Deity for humanity having been thus rever 437A ently celebrated, the covered divine bread is brought forward, together with the cup of blessing. The divine kiss of peace is exchanged. Then there is the proclamation, mystical and transcendent, of the holy volumes. For it is not possible to be gathered together toward the One and to partake of peaceful union with the One while divided among ourselves. 89. If, however, we are enlightened by the contemplation of and knowledge of the One we are enabled to be unified, to achieve a truly divine oneness and it will never happen that we succumb to that fragmentation of desire which is the source of corporeal and impassioned hostility between equals. This, it seems to me, is the united and undivided life prescribed for us by the kiss of peace as it

joins like to like and turns the fragmented away from the divine and unique visions.

154 437B

9. Following on the peace there is the proclamation of the sacred volumes and here the names are announced of those who have lived holy lives and whose consistent efforts earned for them the perfection of a virtuous life. In this way we are enticed and encouraged to follow their example and to adopt a mode of living which will guarantee us both greater happiness and that happiness which comes of conformity to God. For this proclamation announces them as alive, as those who have not died but, as the Word of God teaches us, who have passed ____________________ 88. This probably refers to the Creed, which was not introduced into the liturgy until the late fifth century (476 by Peter Fuller). See Campbell's note 103 for the various interpretations of this "hymn." For "theurgy" as God's work, see DN 1, note 11. 89. Another word play on "gathering" and "synaxis"; see note 51 above, 445B 20, and Mt 5:23f. -218from death to a more perfectly divine life. 90. Of course you should note that even though these names are found in blessed commemorative lists, this is not because godly reminders, unlike reminders to ourselves, have need of commemorative imagery. The intention, rather, is somehow to convey in a fitting manner that God honors and knows forever those whose perfection has been achieved through conformity 437C to him. As scripture says, "He knows those who are his" 91. and "pre 92. cious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his pious ones." (Here, what death of the pious ones means is the perfection of their piety.) Reverently take note of the following also. It is while there are placed on the divine altar the reverend symbols by which Christ is signaled and partaken that one immediately reads out the names of the saints. It is made clear in this way that they are unshakably bound to him in a sacred and transcendent union. 10. When these rites have been performed in the manner de 437D scribed, the hierarch stands before the holy symbols. He washes his hands in water, as does the august order of priests. And, as scripture 440A says, the one who has already bathed needs only to wash his head and extremities. 93. With his extremities thus purified he preserves the utter purity of his conformity to God and he will then be able to turn benevolently to secondary tasks while yet remaining free and unsullied. For being completely at one, he can immediately turn back to the One to whom he remains so bound by a pure and untarnished return that the fullness and the constancy of his conformity to God is maintained. I have already mentioned that sacred washing was a feature of the hierarchy of the Law and this is what underlies the cleansing of the hands of the hierarch and the priests. 94. Those who approach this most holy sacred act are obliged to be purified even from whatever last fan tasies there are in their souls. They must themselves virtually match 440B the purity of the rites they perform and in this way they will be illuminated by ever more divine visions, for those transcendent rays prefer to give off the fullness of their splendor more purely and more luminously in mirrors made in their image. ____________________ 90. 1 Jn 3:14; Jn 5:24. 91. 2 Tm 2:19, from Nm 16:5. 92. Ps 116:15. 93. Jn 13:10.

155 94.

Ex 30:19-21; see MT 1 1000C. The hierarchy of the Law is discussed below in EH 5 501BC. -219-

When the hierarch and the priests wash as far as their extremities or the tips of their fingers in the presence of the most holy symbols this is to show that Christ knows all our thoughts, even the most secret of them, and that it is he himself who in his pervasive gaze, in his perfectly just and complete judgments, has prescribed this washing of the extremities. In this way the hierarch is at one with divine reality, and having sung the praises of God's sacred work he sacredly performs the most divine acts and lifts the praised things into view. 11. I must now try as best I can to describe those divine workings 440C of which we are the objective. I am incapable of speaking in praise of them all or even to know them thoroughly and to lead others into their mystery. But if I invoke the inspired assistance of the hierarchy I can at least mention what the hierarchs, those men of God, praise and celebrate, following the scriptures. 95.

From the very beginning human nature has stupidly glided away from those good things bestowed on it by God. It turned to the life of the most varied desires and came at the end to the catastrophe of death. There followed the destructive rejection of what was really good, a trampling over the sacred Law laid down in paradise for man. Having evaded the yoke which gave him life, man rebelled against the blessings of God and was left to his own devices, to the temptation and the evil assaults of the devil. And in exchange for eternity he pit 440D iably opted for mortality. Born of corruption it was only right that he should leave the world as he entered it. He freely turned away from 441A the divine and uplifting life and was dragged instead as far as possible in the opposite direction and was plunged into the utter mess of passion. Wandering far from the right path, 96. ensnared by destructive and evil crowds, the human race turned away from the true God and witlessly served neither gods nor friends but its enemies who, out of their innate lack of pity, took the cruelest advantage of its weakness and dragged it down to the deplorable peril of destruction and dissolution of being. Yet the goodness of the Deity has endless love for humanity and never ceased from benignly pouring out on us its providential gifts. 97. It took upon itself in a most authentic way all the characteristics of our nature, except sin. It became one with us in our lowliness, losing noth____________________ 95. In 440C 35 to 444A 4 the author seems to be paraphrasing the account of salvation history found in his community's anaphora or eucharistic prayer. 96. Ti 3:3. 97. Ti 3:4. -220ing of its own real condition, suffering no change or loss. It allowed 441B us, as those of equal birth, to enter into communion with it and to acquire a share of its own true beauty. Thus, as our hidden tradition teaches, it made it possible for us to escape from the domain of the rebellious, and it did this not through overwhelming force, but, as scripture mysteriously tells us, by an act of judgment and also in all righteousness. 98. Beneficently it wrought a complete change in our nature. It filled our shadowed and unshaped minds with a kindly, divine light and adorned them with a loveliness

156 suitable to their divinized state. It saved our nature from almost complete wreckage and delivered the dwelling place of our soul from the most accursed passion and from destructive defilement. Finally, it showed us a supramundane uplifting and an inspired way of life in shaping ourself to it as fully as 441C lay in our power. 12. This imitation of God, how else are we to achieve it if not by endlessly reminding ourselves of God's sacred works and doing so by way of the sacred hymns and the sacred acts established by the hierarchy ? We do this, as the scriptures say, in remembrance of him. 99. This is why the hierarch, the man of God, stands before the divine altar. He praises the divine works which I have mentioned, those sacred works wrought gloriously by Jesus, exercising here his most divine providence for the salvation of the human race. This he does, as scripture tells us, for the good pleasure of the most holy Father and the holy Spirit. 100. And the hierarch sings the praises of all this ven 441D erable work and beholds with the eyes of the mind this spectacle for conceptual contemplation. He proceeds to the task of the symbolic sacred act. He does this in accordance with the rules laid down by God himself, which is the reason why, at the same time, having sung the sacred praises of the divine works, he apologizes, as befits a hierarch, for being the one to undertake a sacred task so far beyond him. Reverently he cries out: "It is you who said 'Do this in remembrance of me.' " 101. He prays, then, to be made more worthy to do this holy task in 444A imitation of God. He prays that, like Christ himself, he might perform the divine things. He prays too that he might impart wisely and that all those taking part may do so without irreverence. Then he performs ____________________ 100. Mt 3:17; Mk 1:11; Lk 3:22. 101. 1 Cor 11:24f.; Lk 22:19. 98. Is 42:1-4. 99. 1 Cor 11:24f.; Lk 22:19. -221the most divine acts and lifts into view the things praised through the sacredly clothed symbols. 102. The bread which had been covered and undivided is now uncovered and divided into many parts. Similarly, he shares the one cup with all, symbolically multiplying and distributing the One in symbolic fashion. With these things he completes the most holy sacred act. For because of his goodness and his love for humanity the simple, hidden oneness of Jesus, the most divine Word, has taken the route of incarnation for us and, without undergoing any change, has become a reality that is composite and visible. 103. He has beneficently accomplished for us a unifying communion with himself. B He has united our humility with his own supreme divinity. But we in our turn have to cling to him like the members of one body 104. and we do so by the conformity that comes with a divine life of sinlessness. We cannot yield to the death wrought by corrupting passion, or become unable to fit ourselves in with the members of the perfect, whole divine body, unable to be at one with them and live together with them in the one committed life. If our longing is for communion with him, then we must give our full attention to his divine life in the flesh. His sacred sinlessness must be our model so that we may aspire to a godlike and unblemished condition. This is how, in a way that suits us, he will grant us communion with his likeness. 13. This, then, is what the hierarch reveals in the sacred rites, C when he uncovers the veiled gifts, when he makes a multiplicity of what had originally been one, when the distributed sacrament and those receiving it are made perfectly one, when a perfect communion of all the participants is achieved. By resorting to the perceptible, to imagery, he makes clear that which gives

157 life to our minds. He offers Jesus Christ to our view. He shows how out of love for humanity Christ emerged from the hiddenness of his divinity to take on human shape, to be utterly incarnate among us while yet remaining unmixed. He shows how he came down to us from his own natural unity to our own fragmented level, yet without change. He shows how, inspired by love for us, his kindly activities called the human race to enter par- ____________________ 102. This sentence seems formulaic, as repeated in 425D 47f., and 440B 27. The most divine acts are the uncovering and pluralization (fraction) of the bread and the distribution of the one cup, as symbolic of the incarnation. 103. This entire section (444ABC) concerns the incarnation as the revelation and pluralization of what was hidden and single, as symbolized by what happens to the bread and the cup. For further passages on the incarnation, see DN 1 592AB 8-17 and Ep. 4 1072ABC, and Roques, L'Univers, pp. 305-29. 104. Eph 5:30; see also Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 12:27. -222ticipation with himself and to have a share in his own goodness, if we would make ourselves one with his divine life and imitate it as far as we can, so that we may achieve perfection and truly enter into com munion with God and with the divine things.

444D

14. Having himself partaken of and imparted the divine communion, the hierarch concludes the ceremony with a sacred thanks giving together with the entire sacred assembly. For it is right to 445A partake before imparting; reception of the mysteries always comes before their mystical distribution. 105. This is the universal order and the harmonious arrangement appropriate to the divine realities. The sacred leader first of all participates in the abundance of the holy gifts which God has commanded him to give to others and in this way he goes on to impart them to others. The same applies to the rules governing a truly divine mode of life. Whoever wrongfully dares to teach holiness to others before he has regularly practiced it himself is unholy and is a stranger to sacred norms. Just as the finest and the most luminous of beings are the first to be filled with the sun's rays and then pass on the superabundant light to others after them, so if God's inspiration and choice have not summoned one to the task of leadership, if one has not yet received perfect and lasting divinization, one must avoid the arrogance of guiding others.

445B

15. So, then, after the entire sacred rank has come together in hierarchic fashion and after they have all joined in communing with the most divine things, they end the ceremony with a sacred thanksgiving. They declare openly and praise appropriately the gifts of the divine activity. Those who do not participate in and know the divine things do not join in the thanksgiving, even though the infinite gifts of God are worthy in themselves of appropriate thanksgiving. How ever, as I have said already, those inclined to evil pay no heed to the 445C gifts of God. Their unholiness has turned them into ingrates when it comes to those unending acts of thanksgiving which are owed to the works of God. "Taste and see" says scripture. 106. After their sacred introduction to the gifts of God, the initiates will recognize the great gifts they have received. Through their reception of these gifts they will behold how sublimely splendid they are. Only when they have ____________________

158 Here the "mysteries" are the elements of bread and wine; see also EH 6 533C 29 and 536C 33. See EH 1, note 3, on "mystery." 106. Ps 34:8. 105.

-223received them will they see how lofty, how infinitely broad is their magnificence. Then they will be able to praise and give thanks for those divine gifts of the Deity as they come down from beyond the heavens. 107.

CHAPTER FOUR I The rite of the ointment, and what is perfected by it. 108. 472C 472D tiful visions of the mind which, as I have often said, sacredly and hierarchically effect our communion and gathering 109. with the One. There is, however, another rite of perfection belonging to the same order. Our teachers have named it the sacrament of ointment. After we have examined in detail the sacred imagery its parts present, we shall thus be uplifted in hierarchical contemplations through its parts to the One. 110. II Mystery of the sacrament of ointment. As happens with the synaxis, the imperfect orders have to be excluded 473A as soon as the hierarch has spread the fragrance around the whole sacred space, and all have reverently completed the singing of the psalms and the readings of the most divine scriptures. 111. Then the hierarch takes the ointment, covered by a dozen sacred folds, and places it on ____________________ 107. Infant communion is mentioned in EH 7 568C. 108. For specific studies on this sacrament of the "myron," see W. Strothmann, Das Sakrament der MyronWeibe in der Schrift De eccleriartica hierarchia des Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1977-1978; Göttinger Orientforschungen, Reihe I, Bd. 15); Jacob Thekeparampil, "Weihrauchsymbolik in den syrischen Gebeten des Mittelalters und bei Pseudo-Dionysios," in Typus, Symbol, Allegorie bei den östlichen Vätern und ihren Parallelen in Mittelalter, ed. Margot Schmidt (Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1981), pp. 131-45 (Eichstätten Beiträge, 4). 109. On the name "gathering" or "synaxis" for the Eucharist, see EH 3, note 51. 110. This sentence summarizes the structure of the chapter: Part two itemizes the parts of the rite, part three provides the uplifting contemplation. See EH 2, note 17, on the overall structure of these chapters, EH 3 425B 17-19 for a similar statement regarding the chapter on the synaxis, and CH 177C 5-8 for a parallel statement of biblical exegesis. 111. On these three items (the censing procession, the Psalms and readings, the dismissal) see EH 3, notes 55-57. In this chapter the censing procession is considered in 476D, the Psalms and readings in 477A, and the dismissal in 477B. 1. Of such a kind, then, is the most holy synaxis. Such are the beau

-224the divine altar. 112. Everyone joins in that sacred song which God inspired in the prophets. 113. A consecrating prayer is offered over the ointment and this is then used in the holy sacraments of sanctification for almost all of the hierarchy's rites of consecration. 114. III Contemplation. 1. It seems to me that this rite of consecration has an introductory, 473B uplifting lesson in the way the divine ointment is sacredly handled. 115. It is to show us that divine men cover in secret the fragrance of that sanctity within their minds. 116. For God himself has forbidden that sacred men, in some wish for glory, should vainly scatter abroad the beauty and the fragrance of their

159 virtuous striving for resemblance to the hidden God. These divine beauties are concealed. Their fragrance is something beyond any effort of the understanding and they effectively keep clear of all profanation. They reveal themselves solely to minds capable of grasping them. They shine within our souls only by way of appropriate images, images which, like themselves, have the virtue of being incorruptible. Hence virtuous conformity to God can only appear as an authentic image of its object when it rivets its attention on that conceptual and fragrant beauty. On this condition—and only on this condition—can the soul impress upon itself and reproduce within itself an imitation of loveliness. In the domain of perceptible images, the artist 117. keeps an eye 473C constantly on the original and never allows himself to be sidetracked or to have his attention divided by any other visible object. If he does this, then one may presume to say that whatever the object which he ____________________ 112. The twelve folds or wings symbolize the two six-winged seraphim, according to 20 to 481D 37. 113. This is the Areopagite's oblique way of indicating the "alleluia," as interpreted in 485AB 15-23. See also EH 2 396C 33f. 114. See 484B 16 to 485A 15. 115. Even a superficial observation of the beginning of the rite offers the neophytes an introductory lesson (473B to 476A). Then the interpretation moves past externals to the inner meaning (476B). For this same pattern in the interpretation of baptism and the synaxis, see EH 2 397B (note 39) and EH 3 428B (note 66), respectively. On the use of the term "anagogy" to mean an interpretation, see CH 15, note 179. 116. 2 Cor 2:15? 117. W. Strothmann sees in the use of "artist" (grapheus) a pun on "gnapheus," namely, an allusion to Peter the Fuller (Das Sakrament der Myron-Weihe, p. lvi; see note 108 above). -225wishes to depict he will, so to speak, produce a second one, so that one entity can be taken for the other, though in essence they are actually different. It is thus with those artists who love beauty in the mind. They make an image of it within their minds. The concentration and the persistence of their contemplation of this fragrant, secret beauty enables them to produce an exact likeness of God. And so these divine artists never cease to shape the power of their minds along the lines of a loveliness which is conceptual, transcendent, and fragrant, and if they practice the virtues called for by imitation of God it is not "to be seen by men," 118. as scripture puts it. Rather, they sacredly behold those infinitely sacred things of the Church disguised in the [rite of 473D the] ointment, as in an image. That is why they too sacredly disguise whatever is sacred and virtuously godlike in their mind, imitating and depicting God. They gaze solely on conceptual originals. Not only do they not look at dissimilar things, but they refuse to be dragged down 476A toward the sight of them. And as one would expect of such people, they yearn only for what is truly beautiful and right and not for empty appearances. They do not gaze after that glory so stupidly praised by the mob. Imitating God, as they do, they can tell the difference between real beauty and real evil. They are the truly divine images of that infinitely divine fragrance. Because this is the truly fragrant, they have no time to return to the counterfeits which beguile the mob, and it truly impresses only those souls which are true images of itself. 2. Let us continue. Having looked on the fine exterior appear 476B ance of this splendid and sacred ceremony, let us now gaze into its more divine beauty. Let us see it for what it is, stripped of its veils, shiningly available in its blessed splendor, filling us abundantly with that

160 fragrance which is apparent only to people of intelligence. The visible consecration of the ointment is not uncommunicated or unseen by those around the hierarch. Indeed this sacrament is there for them to behold because they can contemplate something which is beyond the ken of the crowd. Actually they have the sacred obligation to hide this spectacle from the common people and to separate it from them, as hierarchic law commands them. For the ray of the most holy sacred things enlightens the men of God, as kin of the Light, purely and di- ____________________ 118. Mt 23:5; cf. Mt 6:1-5. 119. See note 115 above. 119.

-226rectly; it spreads its sweet fragrance into their mental reception openly. But this fragrance does not spread in a similar way to those 476C on a lowlier plane. Furthermore, to avoid all profanation at the hands of those who do not live in conformity to God, the secret beholders of what is conceptual conceal the ointment under enigmatic folds, enigmas which are not without value for the well-disposed members of the lower orders because they lift these members up, as they deserve. 3. As I have said already, the rite of consecration in whose praise I am now speaking is part of the perfecting order and power of the hierarchs. Furthermore, since in dignity and effectiveness it is on a level with the sacred rite of the synaxis, our divine leaders have laid down virtually the same imagery to describe it, together with the same 476D 120. And so it happens that the hierarch leaves the more mystical ranks [of clergy] and the same chants. divine spot, spreads the lovely fragrance to even the least sacred areas, returns to his starting point and teaches thereby that the gifts of God are shared according to merit by all the sacred people without, however, undergoing either diminution or change and preserving all the time those abundant attributes which are characteristically theirs at the heart of the divine unchangeability. 121. Similarly, the singing and reading of the scriptures incubate the uninitiated toward life-giving sonship. They bring about a sacred re 477A turn among the impurely possessed. They deliver from the opponents' terrifying curse those who are possessed through a lack of courage, showing each one how to live as best he can in conformity with God. Endowed thus and permanently strengthened, it is these now who will bring fear to the enemy powers and who will take charge of the healing of others. It will not be enough for them simply to maintain in full purity within themselves the virtues which will be theirs as a result of their imitation of God together with the capacity to withstand the terrors coming against them. It will also be up to them to give actively of themselves. Minds turned off inferior things and disposed to holiness will draw from these [readings] the holy power of protection against all relapse into evil. They fully purify anyone needing something to be completely holy. They lead the sacred people to ____________________ 120. Concerning the equal status of the rite of the ointment with the synaxis as part of the highest power, that of perfection, see also 485A 6-14, and EH 5 504C 24f. 121. The censing procession is more fully interpreted in EH 3 428D-429B. -227the divine images with which they can enter into their vision and com

munion. They nourish the perfect, filling them and unifying their likeness to the One with blessed and conceptual sights. 122.

161 477B

4. What else? Is it not the case in this rite of consecration, in the same way as with the synaxis, that those as yet incompletely purified orders which I already described and listed are kept away? Is it not also true that this is put before the sacred only in the form of imagery, that only the truly sacred can directly behold and perform this rite and be uplifted by the hierarchy? I have said all this more than once and so I consider it unnecessary to go back over these arguments 123. instead 477C of moving on to look at the hierarch as he takes the divine ointment covered by the six pairs of folds and performs the sacred rite of consecrating it. What we have to say is this. The ointment is made up of a mixture of fragrant substances. It has within itself fragrances of rich quality. Now the participants receive these fragrances, but they do so in proportion to their capacity to have a share of this fragrance. In this way we learn that the transcendent fragrance of the divine Jesus distributes its conceptual gifts over our own intellectual powers, filling these with a divine pleasure. If there is a pleasure to be had from a sensual fragrance, if it provides great pleasure for that sense in us which distinguishes between odors, this happens on condition that 477D this sense is actually healthy and is actually capable of taking in that fragrance which comes its way. One may speak analogously about our intellectual powers. Provided no impulse toward evil comes to corrupt them, provided they keep alive the natural dynamism of our capacity for discernment, then while God works on our behalf and while we respond to his grace by a return to the divine, these powers can draw in the fragrance of the Deity and be filled with a sacred happiness and with God's nourishment. 480A So it is that the composition of the ointment is symbolic, giving a form to what is without form. It shows figuratively that Jesus is the rich source of the divine fragrances. 124. In a manner appropriate to the divinity he turns to those minds which have achieved the closest con____________________ 122. This entire paragraph concerns the impact of the scripture readings on every category of laity from the catechumens up through the monks. See EH 3, notes 56 and 87. 123. The dismissal was discussed in EH 3 428B 21-26 and 432C to 436B 30. See EH 3, note 57. 124. 'I'he ointment is a symbol for Jesus, as expounded in 484A-D. W. Strothmann speculates that this "composition" or mixture symbolizes a Monophysitic Christology (Das Sakrament der Myron-Weibe, p. lvi; see note 108 above). -228formity to God and he bestows on them an outpouring of divine fragrances to delight the intelligence, to cause a longing for God's gifts, and to feed on conceptual food. Each intellectual power is granted these fragrant outpourings in proportion to whatever part it has in the divine. 5. Obviously those beings which are above us and which are 480B our superiors in divinity receive, so to speak, a greater flood of fragrant odors since they are closer to the source. Such outpouring is more apparent and more readily received by these beings whose intellectual powers are fully attentive so that this flood spreads over them and generously, mightily, superabundantly enters into them. But with regard to lower and less receptive intelligent beings it conceals the pure sight and share of itself and grants to those attuned to it perfumes in accordance with the harmonious measure appropriate to the divinity.

162 This is why the twelve folds signify the order of seraphim. These have a preeminent place at the head of all those holy beings which transcend us. They stand in assembly around Jesus and they rightly embark upon the most blessed sight of him, and in the infinitely pure 480C receptacle of their souls they receive the fullness of his spiritual gifts and, if one may use the language of sense perception, they sing, with voices that never grow silent, the glorious hymn of the divine praises. For the sacred knowledge characteristic of transcendent beings never falters. Their yearning for God never fails. Their exalted status puts them beyond evil and forgetfulness. They cry out and are never silent because, it seems to me, they know and understand divine truth always and unchangeably, and they do so with all earnestness and thanksgiving. 6. The incorporeal characteristics of the seraphim are described 480D by holy scripture in perceptible imagery which reverently conveys their conceptual nature and I think I have described these sufficiently in my discussion of the ranks of transcendent hierarchies. 125. I think I made them sufficiently clear to the eyes of your mind. And yet since those sacredly standing around the hierarch present us now with a likeness of this supreme order let us look with unworldly eyes once more upon their most godlike splendor. ____________________ 125. The seraphim (Is 6) are discussed in CH 7 205BC and CH 13. Here and in CH 6 200D 23f, Dionysius includes the references to multiple faces and feet in Ez 1:6f, and 10: 14, and Rv 4:6-8, even though Ezekiel names only cherubim (Ez 10). -2297. Their numberless faces and many feet symbolize, I think, 481A their outstanding visual capacity when face to face with the most divine enlightenment. They symbolize an ever moving, ever active conception of the divine goodness. The six wings referred to by scripture do not, I think, indicate a sacred number, as some others believe, but have to do with the intelligent and godlike powers of that supreme order of being around God—primary, middle, and last—which are uplifting, liberating, and transcendent. Hence when the most sacred wisdom of scripture resorts in its sacred description to the imagery of the wings it locates these at the faces, in the middle, and at the feet, thereby indicating that the seraphim have wings everywhere and therefore that they have in the highest degree the power to be lifted up toward true Being. 481B 8. If they hide their faces and feet with their wings, if they fly only with their middle wings, know reverently that this most outstanding order among the transcendent beings looks with caution on whatever is higher and deeper than what its own intelligence can grasp, that it is uplifted by its middle wings to the proportionate sight of God, that it submits its own life to the divine constraints, and that it thereby allows itself in all reverence to be led to a recognition of its own limitations. 126. 9. The scriptural declaration "They cried out to one another" 127. 481C means, I think, that they ungrudgingly impart 128. to each other the conceptions resulting from their looking on God. And we should piously remember that in Hebrew the scripture gives the designation of seraphim to the holiest of beings in order to convey that these are fiery-hot and bubbling over forever because of the divine life which does not cease to bestir them. 10. If, as exegetes of the Hebrew assert, the Word of God names the most divine seraphim "those who are on fire" and "those who warm," terms indicating their essential characteristics, this is because, according to the symbol-laden imagery of the divine ointment, these beings have the stirring capacity to evoke the manifestation and the

481D

163 spread of the active perfumes.

129.

This being whose fragrance transcends all power of understanding likes to be stirred by the most fiery and purifying minds to reveal ____________________ 126. On the wings mentioned here, from Is 6:2, see also CH 15 332D. 127. Is 6:3. 128. Wisd of Sol 7:13? Cf. CH 13 301C 41. 129. On the etymology of "seraphim," see CH 7 205BC. -230itself, and it joyfully distributes its most divine inspiration to those calling upon it in an especially transcendent fashion. Hence the most sacred order of heavenly beings is not unaware of the fact that the 484A most divine Jesus came down among us to make us holy. It understands well that he in his divine and unspeakable goodness became one of us. It sees him sanctified in human form by the Father, by himself, and by the Spirit, and it knows that what he is from the beginning as an active divinity remains essentially unchanged. Hence the tradition of the sacred symbols covers the divine ointment with the seraphim even during the sanctification, and it does so to show and to demonstrate that Christ remains forever unchanged even when fully and truly made one of us. 130. And, what is even more divine, the divine ointment is used for the consecration of every sacred thing, thereby clearly showing that, as scripture proclaims, he who consecrates the consecrated remains forever the same 131. amid all the workings of his divine goodness. For this 484B reason the most divine consecration with the ointment completes the perfecting gift and grace of the divine birth. Similarly, in my view, one may explain that rite at the purifying baptistery when the hierarch pours the ointment in drops to form a cross. 132. He thereby shows to those able to contemplate it that Jesus in a most glorious and divine descent willingly died on the cross for the sake of our divine birth, that he generously snatches from the old swallowing pit of ruinous death anyone who, as scripture mysteriously expresses it, has been baptized "into his death," 133. and renews them in an inspired and eternal existence. 11. Furthermore, in being initiated in that sacred sacrament of 484C 134. the divine birth, the perfecting anointing of the ointment gives us a visitation of the divine Spirit. What this symbolic imagery signifies, I think, is that he who in human form received the sanctification of the divine Spirit for us, while at the same time remaining unchanged in respect of his own divinity, arranges now for the gift to us of the divine Spirit. ____________________ 130. On the symbolic identification of Christ and the ointment throughout this section (484A-D), see note 124 above. 131. Heb 2:11; Jn 17:19; Heb 13:8. See also 485A 2f. (note 137). 132. This use of the ointment was mentioned in EH 2 396C 29-35. 133. Rom 6:3; Jn 1:17; Mt 12:40 (see EH 2 404B 24, note 45). 134. This perfecting or completing (confirming) of baptism is treated in EH 2 396D 48-50 and 404CD 3340. -23112. Note this too. The rubrics for the most holy sacraments lay down that the divine altar must be consecrated with sacred outpourings of the ointment. 135. The meaning of all this is to be found beyond

164 heaven and beyond being in that source, that essence, that perfecting 484D power which makes for the workings of all holiness in us. For it is on Jesus himself, our most divine altar, that there is achieved the divine consecration of intelligent beings. In him, as scripture says, "we have access" 136. to consecration and are mystically offered as a holocaust. So let us behold with transcending eye that divine altar where sanctifying 485A consecrations are performed, itself being consecrated by the most divine ointment. For it is the most holy Jesus who consecrates himself for us. 137. It is he who grants us the fullness of his own consecration and who arranges to offer generously to us, as children of God, whatever is consecrated on him. In my opinion the divine leaders of our own hierarchy received from God an understanding of hierarchic symbolism and they gave this solemn liturgical rite of the ointment the title of TELETES [perfecter] because of what it perfects. 138. It is, so to say, the perfecting rite of God which praises in a double sense its divine work of perfection. God, first of all, having become man, was consecrated for us and, secondly, this divine act is the source of all perfection and of all consecration. With regard to the sacred song which God inspired in the prophets, those who know Hebrew translate it as follows: "Praised be 485B 139. God" or "Praise the Lord." Now every sacred apparition and every sacred work of God can be represented in the hierarchy's array of symbols, and it is appropriate to recall here that hymn revealed by God himself to the prophets, for it teaches us in clear and holy fashion that the generous gifts of the divinity deserve to receive sacred praises. ____________________ 135. The consecration of the altar is mentioned again in EH 5 505C 32 but is never fully presented. 136. Rom 5:2; Eph 2:18, 3:1. 137. Anointing the altar (Ex 29:36) is here interpreted as Jesus (the ointment) consecrating himself (the altar, Heb 13:10), according to Jn 17:19. 138. This is the Greek term translated as "sacrament" throughout the corpus. There are only "three holy sacraments" (EH 5 516A 8f.): baptism (EH 2 397 A 8), the synaxis (EH 3 424C 6), and the "sacrament of the ointment" (EH 4 472D 8, 473A 1, 485A 9, EH 5 504C 24). Straining to claim parallels for the three hierarchies, Dionysius also called "sacraments" the heavenly hierarchy's conception of God (EH 5 501A 8f.) and the legal hierarchy's uplifting to worship in spirit (EH 5 501C 30). 139. The author avoids the actual word "alleluia"; see EH 2 396C 33f. and EH 4 473A 10. -232CHAPTER FIVE I Concerning the clerical orders, powers, activities, and consecrations. 140. 500C 500D ment. And having discussed these sacred acts it would be opportune to describe the clerical orders and elections, 141. their powers, activities, and consecrations, the three orders formed by them, and all this so as to show the arrangement of our own hierarchy and to demonstrate how this hierarchy in its purity has rejected and abandoned everything of disorder, of disharmony, and of confusion. Rather, it has manifested the order, the harmony and the distinction proportionate to the sacred orders within it. Regarding the threefold division of every hierarchy I think I have 501A already said enough about those hierarchies in my previous discussion. There I explained that in our sacred tradition every hierarchy is divided in three. There are the most reverend sacraments. There are those, inspired by God, who understand and purvey them. And there are those who are sacredly initiated by these. 142. 1. Such then is the most divine rite of the consecration of the oint

165 2. Now the most holy hierarchy among the beings of heaven possesses the native sacramental power of a most completely immaterial conception of God and of things divine. It is their lot to be as like God and as imitative of God as is possible. These first beings around God lead others and with their light guide them toward this sacred perfec tion. To the sacred orders farther down the scale they generously be 501B stow, in proportion to their capacity, the knowledge of the workings of God, knowledge forever made available as a gift to themselves by that divinity which is absolute perfection and which is the source of wisdom for the divinely intelligent beings. The ranks coming in succession to these premier beings are sacredly lifted up by their me- ____________________ 140. This chapter on the clerical consecrations or ordinations (literally, "perfections") contains several crucial discussions of the entire hierarchy: 501A, 501D-504C; see also EH 6 536D. 141. Here and at 509A 4f. the text is emended to read "elections," following EH 6 529D 3f. and the general discussion in 512B 16 to 513A I concerning the choosing or electing of clerics. 142. The author discussed the concept of a hierarchy in CH 3 and EH I 373C, but not in terms of sacraments, initiators, and initiated. Other summary statements of this triad occur in 501D 46-50, 516A 8-11, and EH 6 536D. -233diation to enlightenment in the sacred workings of the divinity. They form the orders of initiates and they are named as such. 143. In succession to this heavenly and transcendent hierarchy the divinity extends its most sacred gifts into our domain and, in the words of scripture, it deals with us as though we were "babes." 144. It bestowed on us the hierarchy of the Law. It veiled truth with obscure imagery. It employed the palest copies of originals. It resorted to dense enigmas and to symbolism whose meaning is discerned with the maximum difficulty. To avoid harm it granted only as much light as 501C suited the weak eyes looking up to it. In this hierarchy of the Law the "sacrament" consisted of an uplifting to worship in spirit. The guides were those whom Moses, himself the foremost initiator and leader among the hierarchs of the Law, had initiated into the holy tabernacle. It was Moses who, for the edification of others, depicted in this holy tabernacle the institutions of the hierarchy of law. He described all the sacred actions of the law as images of what was revealed to him on Mount Sinai. And the initiates are those whom these symbols of the Law lift up, as they are able, to a more perfect initiation. 145. Now, the Word of God asserts that our hierarchy represents a more perfect initiation in that it is a fulfillment and completion of that hierarchy. It is both celestial and of the Law for it occupies a place 501D half way between two opposites. With the one it shares the contemplations of understanding; with the other it has in common the use of varied symbolism derived from the realm of perception, symbolism by means of which there is a sacred uplifting to the divine. 146. Like ____________________ 143. The parallel with the angels seems forced since their hierarchy has no sacraments at all, but rather three triads of heavenly beings (CH 6 200D to 201A). Yet the relationships between the superior and inferior celestial beings do parallel the relationships between clergy and laity (CH 10 272D 11 to 273A 5). 144. 1 Cor 3:1, 13:11; Ps 28:1?; Gal 4:3? 145. Here, too, the proposed parallel with the "legal hierarchy" is unconvincing because of the latter's lack of sacraments. The "hierarchy of the law" is also mentioned in EH 2 392C 33f., EH 3 440A 10, and Ep. 8 1089C 35. For Moses on Mount Sinai, see Ex 25:40 and 26:30, discussed in MT 1.

166 146.

More persuasive than the strained parallels of all three hierarchies is the idea of "our" hierarchy as a mean between extremes, sharing perceptible symbols with the lower hierarchy of the law and the power of contemplative understanding with the higher hierarchy of heaven. lamblichus, the Neoplatonist whose interest in triads and mean terms was formative for his successors, including Proclus, also specified a liturgical mean between the extremes of the crowd mired in material forms and the select few whose cult was purely immaterial. See de Nlysteriis V, 18, 225.5-8, and P. Rorem, "lamblichus and the Anagogical Method in Pseudo-Dionysian Liturgical Theology," Studia Patristica 18, ed. Elizabeth A. Livingstone (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1982): 453-60. -234-

every hierarchy it has a threefold division, namely the most holy operations of the sacraments, the godlike dispensers of the sacred things, and those guided by them, according to capacity, toward the sacred. As I have already remarked in relation both to the hierarchy of the Law and to that hierarchy which is more divine than ours, each of the three divisions of our own hierarchy is triply divided into first, mid dle, and last in power. This has been effected so as to achieve a pro portion appropriate to sacred objectives and so as to bring all the elements together in order into a cohesive and harmonious communion.

504A

3. The first godlike power of the most holy work of the sacraments is the sacred purification of the uninitiated. Its middle power is to illuminate and to initiate those whom it has purified. Its final power, embracing all that went before, is to bring about in the initiates a more perfect understanding of that to which they have been initiated. 147. The rank of the sacred ministers is divided in the following man 504B ner. Their first power consists in purifying the uninitiated by way of the sacraments. Their middle power is to bring illumination to those whom they have purified. Finally, they have the most marvelous power of all, one which embraces all who commune in God's light, the power to perfect these by way of the perfected understanding they have of the contemplated enlightenments. 148. With regard to the initiates, their first power is that of being purified. Their middle power is, after purification, the illumination which makes it possible for them to contemplate certain sacred things. Finally they have the power, more divine than the others, of being enlightened in the perfect understanding of the sacred illuminations which they have been permitted to contemplate. 149. Something has already been said about the triple power connected with the holy work of the sacraments. From scripture it has been shown that the sacred divine birth is a purification and an illu minating enlightenment, that the sacraments of the synaxis and of the 504C myron-ointment provide a perfecting knowledge and understanding ____________________ 147. These three powers—purification, illumination, and perfection—are applied to the celestial beings in CH 3 165C to 168B, CH 7 208BCD, and EH 6 537ABC. 148. The application of the trio of powers to the triad of clerical orders occurs in 504A 5 to 509A 3. 149. The three powers are further applied to the lay orders in EH 6 532A 1 to 533A 10. -235of the divine workings and that it is through this that there is effected both the unifying uplifting toward the divinity and the most blessed communion with it. 150. However, what must now be shown is the

167 manner in which the clerical rank is made up of three harmonious orders—the one which purifies, the one which illuminates, and the one which brings about perfection. 4. It is the all-holy ordinance of the divinity that secondary things should be lifted up to the most divine ray through the media 504D tion of the primary things. 151. Do we not see this in the domain of the perceptible where beings of an elementary kind first meet with their kin and proceed then to go through these in bringing their activity to bear on other beings? Therefore the founding source of all invisible and visible order quite properly arranges for the rays of divine activity to be granted first to the more godlike beings, since theirs are the more discerning minds, minds with the native ability to receive and to pass on light, and it is through their mediation that this source transmits enlightenment and reveals itself to inferior beings in proportion to capacity. It is therefore the task of the first ranks of those beholding God to reveal fittingly and without jealousy to those of second rank the sacred sights which they behold. To initiate others into the hierarchy 505A is the task of those who have with perfect understanding learned the divine secret of all that has to do with their hierarchy and to whom the power of sacramental initiation has been granted. It is the function of those who are full and understanding partners in clerical consecration to pass on, as appropriate, all that is sacred. 5. The divine order of hierarchs is therefore the first of those who behold God. It is the first and also the last, for in it the whole arrangement of the human hierarchy is fulfilled and completed. And 505B just as we observe that every hierarchy ends in Jesus, so each individual hierarchy reaches its term in its own inspired hierarch. 152. The power of the order of hierarchs spreads throughout the entire sacred ____________________ 150. The three sacraments are not related to the three powers in a simple one-to-one correspondence. Both the synaxis and the sacrament of the ointment are perfecting (EH 3 424C 11 to 425A 8, EH 4 484B 16 to 485A 15), yet this third power also includes the first two (504A 7f., 508C 38-40). Baptism, on the other hand, is here called purifying and illuminating; yet its concluding anointing with the ointment gives it a perfecting power as well (EH 2 404C 33-36, EH 4 484C 28-31). Thus all three powers are present in all three sacraments. 151. This "ordinance" is also stated in CH 4 181A 1-4 and CH 10 273A 1-5 (cf. EH 1 376D 46). 152. See EH 1 372CD 42-49. -236company and it works the special mysteries of its own hierarchy through all the sacred orders. But it is to this order especially, rather than to the other orders, that divine law has bestowed the more divine workings of the sacred ministry. Their rites are images of the power of the divinity, by which the hierarchs perfect the holiest of symbols and all the sacred ranks. Even if the priests can preside over some of the revered symbols, a priest could not perform the sacred divine birth without the divine ointment, nor could he perform the mystery of Holy Communion without having first placed on the altar the symbols 505C of that Communion. Furthermore, he would not even be a priest if the hierarch had not called him to this at his consecration. For it is the ordinance of God that only the sacramental powers of the God-possessed hierarchs can accomplish the sanctification of the clerical orders, the consecration of the ointment, and the rite of consecrating the holy altar. 153.

168 6. The order of hierarchs, then, is that which fully possesses the power of consecration. In particular, it completes every hierarchic rite 505D of consecration. It revealingly teaches others to understand, explaining their sacred things, proportionate characteristics, and their holy powers. The light-bearing order of priests guides the initiates to the divine visions of the sacraments. It does so by the authority of the inspired hierarchs in fellowship with whom it exercises the functions of its own ministry. It makes known the works of God by way of the sacred symbols and it prepares the postulants to contemplate and participate in the holy sacraments. But it sends on to the hierarch those longing for a full understanding of the divine rites which are being 508A contemplated. The order of deacons purifies and discerns those who do not carry God's likeness within themselves and it does so before they come to the sacred rites performed by the priests. It purifies all who approach by drawing them away from all dalliance with what is evil. It makes them receptive to the ritual vision and communion. That is ____________________ 153. This passage reveals that even though The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy generally describes these rites as entirely the province of the hierarch, the author does allow for the possibility that a priest might preside alone at a baptism or the Eucharist. Yet baptism, the Eucharist or synaxis, and the priesthood itself all depend, respectively, on the hierarch's apparently exclusive authority to consecrate the ointment (myron) used in baptism, the altar necessary for the Eucharist, and the priests themselves in their ordination. See EH 4 484B to 485A. The tonsure ceremony that "perfects" the lay order of monks is not part of the hierarch's power of perfection, but rather, inconsistently, in the priest's domain (EH 6 533AB). -237why during the rite of divine birth it is the deacons who take away the postulant's old clothes. It is they who untie [his sandals]. It is they who turn him west for the abjuration and then to the east, since theirs is the order and theirs the power of purification. It is they who call on him to cast aside the garments of his old life. It is they who show him the darkness in which he has lived hitherto. It is they who teach him to leave the shadows and to turn toward the light. 154. So, then, the order of deacons has the task of purification and it 508B uplifts those who have been purified to the clear sacred acts of the priests. It makes clean the imperfect and incubates them by means of the cleansing enlightenments and teachings of scripture. Furthermore, it keeps the priests from contact with the profane. The hierarchical ordinance gives them charge of the sanctuary doors, thereby demonstrating that postulants must submit to total purification before they can be allowed to come into the presence of the sacred. 155. Thus it entrusts their approach to the sacred visions and their communion to the purifying powers, and through these it receives them unblemished. 7. I have now shown that the order of hierarchs has the task of 508C consecration and of perfection, that the illuminative order of priests brings light and that the task of the deacons is to purify and to discern the imperfect. But it is obvious that the order of hierarchs is not solely preoccupied with perfection. It also brings illumination and purification. Similarly, the order of priests has the understanding both to illuminate and to purify. For although inferiors may not boldly and sacrilegiously trespass on the functions of their superiors, the more divine powers have, in addition to their own, the sacred understanding of the inferior ranks as part of their own perfection. Since the differences of

169 clerical function represent symbolically the divine activities and since they bestow enlightenment corresponding to the unconfused and pure order of these activities, their sacred activities and holy orders have been arranged hierarchically in the threefold di 508D vision of first, middle, and last so as to present, as I have said already, an image of the ordered and harmonious nature of the divine activities. ____________________ 154. For the deacons' "purifying" role in baptism, see EH 2 396A 10 to 396C 27. See also CH 13 305C 4044. 155. For the deacons' role in reading the scriptures and guarding the doors during the synaxis, see EH 3 425BC 27-34. Then some "chosen" deacons, with the priests, place the bread and cup upon the altar (EH 3 425C 35). The dismissal of the catechumens at a funeral is administered by the "first" of the deacons (EH 7 556C 37f.). -238The divinity first purifies those minds which it reaches and then illuminates them. Following on their illumination it perfects them in a perfect conformity to God. This being so, it is clear that the hier archy, as an image of the divine, is divided into distinctive orders and 509A powers in order to reveal that the activities of the divinity are preeminent for the utter holiness and purity, permanence and distinctiveness of their orders. 156. And since I have thus explained as well as I could the clerical orders, their elections, powers, and activities let us now behold as best we can how they are consecrated. II The mystery of clerical consecrations. At his consecration the hierarch kneels on both knees in front of the altar. On his head he carries God's revealed word, together with the 509B hand of the hierarch who is consecrating him. This latter performs the rite of consecration with most sacred invocations. The priest also kneels on both knees before the divine altar. The hierarch places his right hand on his head and in this way he sanctifies him with the consecrating invocations. The deacon kneels on one knee before the divine altar. The hierarch places his right hand on his head and with invocations suitable to the deaconal functions he consecrates him. The hierarch makes the sign of the cross on everyone whom he consecrates and for each of them makes the announcement and he gives each of them the kiss of consecration. All the clergy present at the ceremony 509C take turns after the hierarch in kissing the one who has been consecrated in one of the above clerical orders. III Contemplation. 1. Common to the clerical consecration of hierarchs, of priests, and of deacons are the presentation at the altar, the genuflection, 157. the ____________________ 156. God's three powers of purification, illumination, and perfection are also imitated by the celestial beings (CH 3 165BC 27-39, EH 6 536D 38 to 537C 35). 157. In this paragraph the author outlines only what he intends to interpret. The ordaining invocations he passes by in silence, as he does in EH 6 533B 16f. and EH 7 565C 30-34. The presentation at the altar and the genuflection are interpreted in 509D 41-48 and 516A 5-7. The monk does not kneel at all during his tonsure ceremony (EH 6 533B 14f. and 533C 31-37). -239-

170 158.

159.

160.

imposition of hands by the hierarch, the sign of the cross, the announcement, the concluding kiss. 161. The special and distinctive rites for the hierarch are the imposition of the sacred scriptures on his head, which is something not done for the subordinate ranks. 162. Then there is the kneeling on both knees by the priests, something which does not happen during the consecration of deacons, who kneel on only one knee, as I have already said. 163.

509D

2. The presentation and the genuflection at the divine altar teach all those receiving clerical consecration to devote their whole lives to the God who is the source of every consecration. They teach them to offer him minds holy and pure, attuned to his and as worthy as possible of this utterly holy and sacred altar of divinity, this altar which consecrates in holy fashion those minds conforming to God. 3. The imposition of hands by the hierarch demonstrates that 512A those being consecrated receive their attributes and powers, together with their freedom from opposing powers, from the covering who is the source of every consecration. They are like sacred children cared for by their father. The rite also teaches them to do all their clerical work as if they were acting on the orders of God and have him as guide in all their activities. 4. The sign of the cross indicates the renunciation of all the desires of the flesh. It points to a life given over to the imitation of God and unswervingly directed toward the divine life of the incarnate Jesus, who was divinely sinless and yet lowered himself to the cross and to death and who, with the sign of the cross, that image of his own 512B sinlessness, marks all those imitating him. ____________________ 158. The laying on of the ordaining hierarch's right hand (509B 16 and 21) is discussed in 512A 1-8. 159. The sign of the cross (interpreted in 512AB 9-15) is also made on the candidates for baptism (EH 2 396A 8, 396C 27f. with the holy oil and 396D 48f. with the ointment) and on those who become monks (EH 6 533B 24, 536A 3-5). 160. The announcement of the candidate's name is interpreted at length as symbolic of his election (512B 16 to 513A 11). 161. The kiss is considered in 513B 12-25. The eucharistic kiss of peace is mentioned in EH 3 425C 41f. and interpreted in 437A 3-16. The new monk receives a clerical kiss according to EH 6 533B 27f. and 536B 16-19. The rites of ordination do not end with the kiss, but continue with the Eucharist (EH 6 536C 28-37). A final kiss is given the deceased in EH 7 556D 44-46, 560A 7-9, and 565A 3f. 162. Considered in 513C 26 to 516A 1 and 516BC 20-27. 163. The distinction between kneeling on one or two knees is interpreted in 516AB 120; see note 157 above. The monks stand during their rite of tonsure (EH 6 533AB 13-17, 533C). -2405. The sacred announcement by the hierarch concerning the rites of consecration and those being consecrated denotes the mystery that the performer of consecration in his love of God is the exponent of the choice of the divinity, that it is not by virtue of any personal worth that he summons those about to be consecrated but rather that it is God himself who inspires him in every hierarchic sanctification. Thus Moses, the consecrator in the hierarchy of the Law, did not con fer a clerical consecration on Aaron who was his brother, whom he 512C knew to be a friend of God and worthy of the priesthood, until God himself commanded him to do so, thereby permitting him to bestow, in the name of God who is the source of all consecration, the fullness of

171 a clerical consecration. And yet our own first and divine consecrator—for Jesus in his endless love for us took on this task—"did not exalt himself," 165. as scripture declares. Rather, the consecrator was the one "who said to him: ... 'Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.' " 166. Furthermore, when he bestowed sacred consecration on his own disciples, even though as God he was the source of every consecration, still in hierarchic fashion he referred this act of consecration to his most holy Father and to the Divine Spirit. As scripture shows, he told his disciples "not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father which 'you heard from me, 512D 167. ... you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' " Similarly, when the chief of the disciples gathered around him his peers the ten hierarchs so as to consecrate a twelfth disciple, he wisely left the choice to the divinity, saying "Show whom you have chosen." 168. He wel comed as a hierarch in the assembly of the twelve the one designated 513A by divine choice. And what of the divine choice which fell on Matthias? There are many explanations of this which I find unsatisfactory and so I will set down here what I myself think of it. It seems to me that what scripture means by "choice" of the divinity is a certain gift revealing to the assembly of hierarchs the one selected by God, since it is not by his own personal activity that a divine hierarch should work sacerdotal consecration. Rather, it is under God's impulse that he should perform these sacred rites in a way that is hierarchic and heavenly. ____________________ 164. Ex 28:1-4, 29:4-9. 165. Heb 5:5a; cf. Jn 17:1. 166. Heb 5:6 from Ps 110:4; cf. Gn 14:18-20 and Heb 7:17. 167. Acts 1:4f. 168. Acts 1:24. 164.

-2416. The kiss at the conclusion of the clerical consecration also has 513B a sacred meaning. For not only do all those belonging to the clerical orders give the kiss to the initiate but so too does the consecrating hierarch. When a mind has been made sacred by the type of its clerical activity, by its call from God, by the sanctification conferred upon it, when it comes to the rite of clerical consecration, it deserves the love of its peers and of all those who belong to the most sacred orders. It has been lifted up to a beauty which brings it into full conformity with God. It has a love of like minds and enjoys their sacred love in return. So, then, this holy rite of the kiss between fellow clerics is fully appropriate. It denotes the sacred communion formed by like minds and the joyous shared love which ensures for the whole hierarchy the beauty of its conformity to God. 513C 7. These, as I have said, are the rites common to every clerical consecration. But only the hierarch carries on his head—in a holy manner—the sacred scriptures. Since the perfecting power and understanding of all the clergy were given to the hierarchs, men of God, by that divine goodness which is the source of every consecration, it is only proper that there should be placed on the heads of the hierarchs the scriptures which God himself handed down and which reveal to us all that we can know of God, all his works and words and manifestations, every sacred word and work, everything, in short, which the divinity has so generously wished to pass on to the human hierarchy, every sacred thing done and said by God. The hierarch who lives in conformity with God and who has a full and complete share of the hierarch's power is not simply content to enjoy the true and divinely enlightening understanding that comes from all the words 513D and acts of the hierarchic rites. He also hands them on to others in accordance with their place in the hierarchy. Because he is gifted with the most divine knowledge and with the greatest power for uplifting he performs the most holy consecrations within the hierarchy. Kneel 516A

172 ing on both knees is distinctive of the priests, as compared to the rank of deacons who kneel on one knee and are consecrated in this hierarchical position. 8. This kneeling reveals the humility of the one who approaches as it sacredly sets him under God. Now, as often said before, it is through the three holy sacraments and powers that the three ranks of holy initiators preside over the three orders of those being initiated and work out their saving approach under the divine yokes. It is there fore right that the order of deacons, whose function is solely to purify,

516B

-242should perform the single [-knee] approach of those purified and place itself below the divine altar where minds cleansed of every stain are made holy in a way which is beyond this world. But the priests bend both knees since their function is not confined to the purification of those who approach. Uplifting them by means of the clear rites which they perform, after they have cleansed them of all stains, the priests perfect them in order that they may hold as a firm possession the ability to enter into contemplation. As for the hierarch, having knelt on both knees he receives on his head the scriptures handed down by God. Those whom the deacons have purified and the priests have illuminated, the hierarch leads on to an understanding of the sacred things they have beheld, and he does this in accordance with hier archic law and in proportion to their capacity. Thus he perfects the 516C initiates so that their sanctification may be as complete as is possible for them. CHAPTER SIX I Concerning the orders of those being initiated. 169. 1. These, therefore, are the clerical orders, then elections, their pow 529D ers, their activities, their consecrations. Something must now be said of the three orders of initiates who are subordinate to them. 170. I say that the orders of those being purified are made up of all 532A those numbers who are dismissed from the sacred acts and rites of consecration, as I have already mentioned. 171. There are, first of all, those to whom the deacons are still giving instruction and formation in the scriptures, which incubate them toward real life. 172. Then there are ____________________ 169. This chapter eventually interprets the rite of monastic profession and tonsure. See R. Roques, "Éléments pour une théologie de l'état monastique selon Denys l'Aréopagite," Théologie de la vie monastique: études sur la tradition patristique—Théologie 49 (1961): 283314, reprinted in Structures, pp. 198-225. But it also discusses the other lay orders (532ABC), summarizes the entire human hierarchy (536D), and continues a discussion begun in The Celestial Hierarchy on how the concept of purification could apply to heavenly beings (537ABC). 170. The three categories of those initiated (or, in the case of the catechumens, those yet being initiated) were summarized in terms of the triad of purification, illumination-contemplation, and perfection in EH 5 504B 15-20. 171. For the passages interpreting the liturgical dismissal, which here serves to define this entire cluster of lay categories, see EH 3, note 57. 172. The lowest order is that of the catechumens (EH 3 432D 39), still being "incubated" by the scriptures (EH 3, note 84). The name "catechumens" appears only in EH 3 -243those who are continuing to be taught the good words of scripture in such a way that they will be returned to the sacred manner of living from which they fell away. 173. There are the weak who are still fearful of

173 the onslaughts of the adversary and whom the power of scripture is still in the process of strengthening. 174. Next there are those who are still being led on the road from sin to sanctity. And then there are those who although attracted to blessed habits and to firmness have not yet acquired a holy constancy in these. Such are the orders of those being purified by the incubating and purifying power of the dea cons. Because of the sacred powers of the deacons they are being pu 532B rified in such a way that they can embark upon the illumined contemplation of and communion with the most lustrous sacramental rites. 2. The intermediate order is made up of those who enter upon 175. the contemplation of certain sacred things and who, because they have been well purified, commune therein to the extent that is possible for them. This group has been given over to the priests for illumination. I believe it to be evident that having been cleansed of every unseemly stain and with minds solidly formed in holiness the members of this group are led to reach the stage of being able to engage regularly in contemplation. They commune so far as they can with the divine sym bols, and this contemplation and communion fill them with an en 532C tirely blessed joy. To the extent of their abilities and because of their powers of uplifting, they rise up to the divine love of what they understand. This, I say, is the order of the sacred people. It has undergone complete purification and is therefore fit for the sacred vision of and communion with the most illustrious sacraments, as far as permitted. 176. 3. But of all the initiates the most exalted order is the sacred rank of the monks which has been purified of all stain and possesses full power and complete holiness in its own activities. To the extent that 532D ____________________ (425C 30, 432C 28, 432D 39, 433B 19f.) and EH 7 (556C 38, 557C 29). The fullest discussion of this group is in EH 3 432D 39 to 433B 20. 173. Namely, "those in repentance" (EH 3 425C 31, 432C 29, and 436A 8f.; see also EH 3 436B 21f.). The text is here emended to read "be returned," following the example of EH 3 436A 6f. 174. The "possessed" are thoroughly discussed in EH 3 433B 21 to 436B 30. Note that these groups are all defined by the scripture readings' effects on them before their dismissal (cf. EH 4 476D 45 to 477B 17). 175. In two places the lowest order in the lay triad is itself a triad of "the catechumens, the possessed, and those in repentance" (EH 3 425C 30f. and 432C 28f.). Yet elsewhere, as 176. The middle lay order is the "sacred people" (536C 28, 536D 44, EH 7 556C 30, and Ep. 8 1089A 9). They experience illumination and contemplation, although not as fully as the clerics or the monks (536C 25-29, cf. Ep. 8 1096A 8). -244is permissible, it has entered upon sacred contemplative activity and has achieved intellectual contemplation and communion. This order is entrusted to the perfecting power of those men of God, the hierarchs, whose enlightening activities and hierarchical traditions have introduced it, according to capacity, to the holy operations of the sacred sacraments it has beheld. Thanks to their sacred understanding it has been uplifted into the most complete perfection proportionate to this order. This is why our blessed leaders considered such men to be worthy of several sacred designations; some gave them the name of

174 "therapeutae," or servants, and sometimes "monks," because of the 533A purity of their duty and service to God and because their lives, far from being scattered, are monopolized by their unifying and sacred recollection which excludes all distraction and enables them to achieve a singular mode of life conforming to God and open to the perfection of God's love. Hence the sacred ordinance has bestowed a perfecting grace on them and has deemed them worthy of a sanctifying invocation which is not the business of the hierarch (he only confers clerical ordination) but of the devout priests who sacredly perform this secondary rite of the hierarchy. 177. II Mystery of the consecration of a monk. 178. The priest stands before the divine altar and chants the invocation for a monk. The person being initiated stands behind the priest and does 533B ____________________ in the current passage, two more subdivisions seem added (EH 3 436B 26-30, and 477A 10-13). 177. The monks are discussed here and in Ep. 8, esp. 1088C 30-32 and 1088D 48 to 1089A 2. The name "monk" appears only in this chapter and in EH 7 556C 30. The name "therapeutae" is mentioned here, but is actually used only in the titles to Ep. 1 (1065A 2), Ep. 2 (1068A 2), Ep. 4 (1072A 2), and Ep. 8 (1084A 2), and in the body of Ep. 8 (1088C 32 and 43, 1088D 49, 1089A 9), including the word-play on "servant" in 1093C 37-40. In terms of the triad of powers, the monks are associated with perfection; they are thus entrusted to the "perfecting power" of the hierarchs (532D 40f.). Yet it is not the hierarch who presides at the ceremony by which they become monks, but rather a priest. See EH 5, note 153. 178. Only in this subtitle is the rite of tonsure called a "consecration." The apparent intention is to parallel the title and subtitle of this chapter with those of the chapter on the clerical "consecrations" or ordinations (EH 5 500C 2f. and 509A 8). Like the unusual use of the term "mystery" in the subtitles for six rites of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy (see EH 1, note 3), such uniformity is neither found in nor suggested by the body of the text, where this ritual receives no formal name. -245not kneel on either one or both knees. The divinely granted scriptures are not put on his head. He simply stands while the priest chants the secret invocation over him. 179. When this is finished the priest approaches the initiate. First he asks him if he will not only renounce but even refuse to phantasize anything which could be a distraction to his way of life. He reminds him of the rules governing a fully perfect life and openly asserts that he must surpass the median way of life. 180. After the initiate has devoutly promised to do all this the priest makes the sign of the cross on him. 181. He cuts his hair and invokes the three persons of the divine blessedness. 182. He takes away all his clothes and gives him others. 183. Then, together with all the other sacred men present at the ceremony he gives him the kiss [of peace] 184. and confers on him the right to commune in the divine mysteries. 185. III Contemplation. 1. The fact of not kneeling, the fact that the divinely bestowed scrip 533C tures are not placed on the head, the fact of standing while the priest speaks the invocation, all this would show that the order of monks does not have the task of leading others, but that it takes its stand in its own solitary and sacred status, that it follows the clerical orders, and as an attendant it is obediently uplifted by them to the divine understanding of the sacred things of their order. ____________________ 179. This is in contrast to the clerics, who kneel on one or two knees and who, in the case of the hierarchs, have the scriptures placed on their heads (EH 5 509BC, 513C 26 to 516C 27). The monk simply stands, as interpreted in 533C. No liturgical invocations or other texts (except the "alleluia" in EH 4 485AB 15-23, note 139) are ever divulged or interpreted (EH 7 565C 30-34). 180. The renunciation is interpreted in 533D 38 to 536A 2. The "median way of life" that the monk

175 surpasses is that of the "middle" order of lay people (533D 41-45; see also EH 5 504B 17f., EH 6 532B 20f.). 181. The sign of the cross is discussed in 536A 3-5 and elsewhere in the corpus as it appears in the other rites (see EH 5, note 159). 182. The actual tonsure is pursued in 536A 5-10. This trinitarian invocation also occurs at baptism (EH 2 396D 43f.); see also DN 1 592A 1 and CH 7 212C 37. 183. Not the robes themselves as objects but the act of exchanging clothing is interpreted in 536B 11-16, where the similarity to baptism is noted (EH 2 396D 46f., 404C 2933). 184. The kiss is interpreted in 536B 16-19. Its other liturgical appearances are noted in EH 5, note 161. 185. The service actually continues with the invitation to the Eucharist (536BC 2037). -2462. The renunciation of all activities and of all phantasies which 533D could lead to a distracted living indicates that most completely wise monastic life in which flourishes the understanding of those unifying commandments. I have said already that among initiates they are not the middle order, but rather the most exalted of all. This is why that which is entirely open to those of the middle order is often forbidden to monks, because theirs is a single-minded type of life and they have the duty to be at one only with the One, to be united with the sacred unity, to imitate so far as they may the life of the clerics to whom they 536A are much more akin than are the other ranks of initiates. 3. The sign of the cross proclaims, as I have already said, the death of all fleshly desire. The tonsure is a sign of a pure and unencumbered life, a life adorned by no unworthy appearances forged by the mind but rising freely thanks to beauties which are not manmade but which lift the soul in unity and monastic state up to conformity with God. 4. The removal of the clothing of old and the putting on of some 536B thing else indicate the switch from the sacred life of the middle order to one of greater perfection. For the rite of divine birth includes the changing of the clothes to signify the uplifting of a purified life toward the higher reaches of contemplation and of illumination. 186. The kiss bestowed by the priest and by the others upon the initiate is a token of that sacred state of communion where all those conforming to God are united by the joyous bonds of shared and loving wellwishing. 5. When all these rites are over the priest invites the initiate to share in the divine communion. What this shows, in sacred fashion, 536C is that the initiate, if he truly attains the monastic and unified state, will not only contemplate the sacred rites revealed to him and share with the middle order a communion with the sacred symbols, but also because of blessedly coming to know the rites in which he participates he will be admitted to divine communion in a manner quite different to what is available to the sacred people. It is for the same reason that following on their own ceremony of consecration and as the crowning point of the rite of their ordination the clerical orders are invited to share the holy Eucharist by the hierarch who consecrated them. 187. ____________________ 186. See note 183 above. 187. EH 5 does not mention this invitation of the newly ordained to Communion (509A 8 to 509C 28). -247-

176 This is not simply because the reception of the divine mysteries is the high point of all hierarchic participation but also because all the sacred orders, as they are uplifted and are more or less made godlike, have a proportionate share in the divine gift of this communion. 536D We must now sum up. 188. The holy sacraments bring about pu rification, illumination, and perfection. The deacons form the order which purifies. The priests constitute the order which gives illumination. And the hierarchs, living in conformity with God, make up the order which perfects. As for those who are being purified, so long as they are still at this stage of purification they do not partake of the sacred vision or communion. The sacred people is the contemplative order. The order of those made perfect is that of the monks who live a single-minded life. Thus, our own hierarchy is blessedly and harmoniously divided into orders in accordance with divine revelation and therefore deploys the same sequence as the hierarchies of heaven. It carefully preserves in its own human way the characteristics which enable it to be like God and conform to him.

537A

6. You will say that among the heavenly hierarchies one does not find any sort of orders being purified, for it would not be right or true to say that there is some heavenly rank which is impure. For me, to say that the angels are not totally pure and that they do not possess the plenitude of transcendent purity would be to have lost all sense of the sacred. An angel captured by evil would find himself immediately displaced from the harmony of heaven and from the pure company of the divinely intelligent beings. He would tumble in among the un lighted ranks of the apostate.

537B

And yet one may assert that in the heavenly hierarchy there is something which corresponds with the purification of inferior beings, namely, the enlightenment which blessedly reveals what was hitherto unknown to them. It brings them to a more perfect understanding of divine knowledge. In a sense, it purifies them from their ignorance of truths previously not understood. 189. And, through the mediation of primary and more divine beings, it lifts them up to the highest and the most lustrous of the divine splendors. ____________________ 188. What follows is not a summary of the current chapter, but rather of the entire correlation of the triadic human hierarchy to the three powers. As such, the statement oversimplifies ; see EH 5, notes 150 and 153, and R. Roques, L'Univers Dionysien, pp. 171-99. 189. The application of the concept of purification to the realm of knowledge in the case of the celestial beings has been discussed in CH 7 208B and 209CD 33-41. -248And one may also distinguish within the heavenly hierarchy between those made totally illuminated, totally perfect, and those orders which supply purification, illumination, and perfection. The highest and most divine beings have the task, in proportion to the heavenly hierarchy, of purifying from all ignorance those heavenly ranks infe 537C rior to them, of bestowing upon them the fullness of divine enlightenments, and, finally, of perfecting them in the most luminous understanding of divine conceptions. For I have already stated, as discussed in the scriptures, that the ranks of heaven do not possess the exact same enlightened understanding of the

177 sights of God. It is God himself who directly enlightens the primary ranks, through whose mediation he grants indirect enlightenment to the subordinate ranks, in proportion to capacity, and he does so by spreading among them the shining splendors of the divine beam. CHAPTER SEVEN I The rite for the dead. 190. 1. After this discussion I think we should now talk about our sacred 552D rite for the dead. And these are not the same for the holy and the un holy, whose deaths are different as their lives were different. Those 553A who have lived sacred lives have clung to the true promises of the divinity whose truth has been there for all to see in the resurrection. Such people are filled with a holy joy. Moved by a strong and true hope they travel to the frontier of death, to the conclusion, as it were, of their sacred contest. They know that theirs will be an utter resurrection and that it will come amid complete and unending life and salvation. Sacred souls which in this life can tumble into sin will acquire in their rebirth an unshakable conformity to God. And the purified bodies yoked to and traveling with these sacred souls, appearing in the same list and struggle, will also be rewarded for the sweat poured out in the service of God, and they themselves will enjoy the reward of the resurrection and the same unshakably divine life as that bestowed upon souls. United with the sacred souls whose companions they 553B ____________________ 190. This chapter on the funeral rites stands outside the triadic format of three sacraments (Chapters 2 through 4), three clerical orders (Chapter 5), and three lay orders (Chapter 6). B. Brons has challenged the authenticity of the chapter, through 565C (Sekundäre Textparteien, pp. 4-12). An appendix on infant baptism and communion (565D to 568C) precedes the work's final words to "Timothy" (568D to 569A). -249were in this life they have somehow become "members of Christ." 191. They will enjoy immortality and blessedness in an indestructible conformity with God. That is why the saints sleep with a joyous and unshakable hope at the hour when their sacred combat ends. 2. Among the unholy there are some who ridiculously believe that our bodies experience a dissolution of being. 192. Others think that the link of body and soul is broken forever since, as they imagine, it would be inappropriate for souls to be trammeled with a body in the midst of the godlike life and blessedness. Such people, because of their 553C inadequate acquaintance with divine understanding, overlook the fact that Christ has already provided the example of a human life conforming perfectly to God. And there are others who would assign other bodies to the souls, thereby, in my opinion, holding an unfair view of the bodies which have shared in the struggles of divine souls. They wrongly deny them the sacred rewards which they have earned at the end of the divine race. And others, again, slipping in some way into materialist notions, have imagined that the holy calm of perfect beatitude, promised to the saints, is on a level with worldly happiness, and they impiously claim that those who have become equal to the angels enjoy the nourishment typical of mutable life. 193. No sacred men will ever fall into such error, for they know that 553D their whole being will be granted the peace which will make them Christlike. When they come close to the end of their earthly lives they have a clear view of the road to immortality. They praise the gifts of the divinity. Filled with divine pleasure they are no longer afraid of falling into sin for they know well that they have—and will always have—the fair reward which they have earned. As for those filled with stain and sin and who have received some sacred initiation—an intro duction which they stupidly rejected so that they could give them 556A

178 selves over to destructive desires—these, at the end of their earthly lives, do not think the divine law of scripture is quite so contemptible. They look now with a quite different regard on the deadly pleasures to which they had become so passionately attached and on the sacred way of life which they so foolishly abandoned and which they now ____________________ 191. 1 Cor 6:15; cf. Eph 5:30; Rom 12:5. The fate of the body is discussed again in 565B. 192. Wisd of Sol 2:2-5. See EH 2 404B 13-15. The several mistaken viewpoints refuted in this paragraph have been variously identified; see Campbell's notes 331-34. 193. Lk 20:36; Mt 22:30; Mk 12:25. -250respect. Pitifully and uncertainly they leave this life, and because of their culpable lives there is no sacred hope to guide them. 3. Nothing like this happens when sacred men have to die. At 556B the end of his struggles the just man is filled with a sacred joy and it is with great happiness that he travels the road of sacred rebirth. His peers, his neighbors with God, those living like him, bless him because he has come prayerfully and triumphantly to his goal. They sing songs of thanksgiving to him who brought about this victory and they beg him to grant them also the grace of such peace. Then they take the body of the deceased and as if to assure him of his sacred crown they carry him to the hierarch who joyfully receives him and who, in accordance with the sacred rubrics, performs the blessed rites established to do honor to those who have died in holiness. II Mystery regarding those who died sacredly. The divine hierarch assembles the sacred gathering. If the deceased 556C belonged to one of the clerical orders, then he is placed at the foot of the divine altar. Then the high priest begins with prayer and thanksgiving to God. If the deceased was one of the holy monks or of the sacred people the hierarch puts him in front of the sanctuary at the holy entrance reserved for the clergy. 194. And then he recites the prayer of thanksgiving to God. 195. The deacons then read out the true scriptural promises concerning our sacred resurrection and sing the psalms which also bear upon the same theme. 196. The leader of the deacons then dismisses the catechumens. 197. He reads out the names of the saints who are already dead and judges the one most recently deceased 556D to be worthy of commemoration along with them. 198. He calls upon everyone to pray for final beatitude in Christ. The divine hierarch ____________________ 194. The placement of the body, whether at the altar for the clergy or at the (iconostasis) door for the laity, is interpreted in 556D 51 to 557A 15. The author's references to church architecture are minimal; see EH 3, notes 58 and 67. 195. This prayer is described in 557AB 15-20. 196. The Psalms and readings are mentioned again in 557B 21-26. For other discussions of the scripture readings, see EH 3, note 56. 197. This unique dismissal of the catechumens alone is interpreted in 557C 27 to 560A 5. On the dismissal in the synaxis, see EH 3, note 57. Only in this passage is a leader or "first deacon" identified, although some are called the "chosen deacons" in EH 3 425C 35. 198. This reading of the diptychs is considered in 557D 47 to 560A 5; see EH 3, note 62. -251then approaches and offers a most sacred prayer for the dead, 199. at the conclusion of which he kisses the deceased, as do all those with him. 200. After everyone has given the kiss the hierarch pours the oil on the deceased, 201. prays for all, and lays the body in an honored place along with the bodies of others of his order. 202.

179 III Contemplation. 1. If the profane were to see or listen to these rites of ours I think they would laugh heartily and pity us for our misguidedness. Now we 557A should not be surprised by this, for as scripture says, "if they do not have faith they will not understand." 203. We, on the other hand, have beheld the meaning of these sacred rites since Jesus has given us the light. So let us affirm that it is not without reason that the hierarch brings in and lays down the deceased in that place reserved for those of his own order. What he is indicating in a sacred manner is that in the regeneration the fate of each one will correspond with the life he led here. The one who lived a life of sacred conformity to God—to the extent that a man may do this—will be in a state of divine blessedness throughout the time to come. If while living a sacred life a man fell below the high point of conformity to God he will have a sacred reward proportionate to his merits. It is in thanksgiving for this divine justice that the hierarch offers up the sacred prayer, singing the praises 557B of the divinity which rescues us all from unjust and tyrannical power and leads us instead to his own most just judgments. 2. The songs and readings of the divine promises tell of that most blessed inheritance which those who are most divinely perfected will enjoy forever. The blessed example of the deceased is affirmed and the living are urged toward the same perfection. 3. Note also that in this ceremony not all those belonging to the 557C orders of the purified are sent away as usual and that only the cate- ____________________ 199. This prayer is partially divulged in 560AB 6-14 and is interpreted in 560BC 1528. An apologetic interpretation of the idea of a prayer for the dead is presented in 560C 29 to 564D 47. 200. The kiss is mentioned again in 560A 7-9 and 565A 1-3. For other liturgical greetings with a kiss, see EH 3, note 61, and EH 5, note 161. 201. The final anointing with oil and its relationship to baptism is noted in 565A 314. 202. The placement of the body in burial is interpreted in 565B. 203. Is 7:9 (LXX). -252chumens are excluded from the sacred precincts. These latter have not yet been initiated into any of the sacraments and it would be quite wrong if they beheld any one of the sacred rites, even if only in small measure, since they have not experienced the first gift of light in the divine birth and they therefore have not yet received the power to contemplate the sacred rites. The rest of the orders of those who are being purified have already been initiated into the sacred tradition. 204. True, they continue to be foolishly drawn to sin instead of being uplifted toward a higher perfection, and that is why they are rightly dismissed from the divine visions and communion manifested by the sacred symbols. (If they were to participate unworthily in these blessed ceremonies they would be the first victims of their own folly and would decrease their respect for divine realities and for themselves.) But it is 557D still quite right for them to be admitted to this rite for it clearly teaches our fearlessness concerning death, the rewards promised to the saints by the truths of scripture, and the unending sorrows promised to the unholy. It would therefore be quite useful for them to be present at the deacon's proclamation that he who meets a sacred end is surely 560A enrolled forever in the company of the saints. They may quickly long for a similar fate and they may learn from the deacon's understanding that those who are perfected in Christ are indeed truly blessed.

180 4. Coming forward then the divine hierarch offers sacred prayer over the deceased, and following on this prayer, he kisses him, as do all the others in turn. The prayer is to the divine goodness, asking pardon for the deceased for all the sins caused by human frailty, beg ging that he be established "in the light ... in the land of the liv 560B ing," 205. "in the bosom of Abraham," 206. Isaac, and Jacob, "where pain and grief and lamentation shall flee away." 207. 5. These, I think, are clearly the most blessed rewards of the saints. For what could compare with immortality free of all pain and filled with light? (And these indeed have to be expressed in words as suitable as possible for our frailty. For these promises exceed all understanding and the words naming them fall far short of the truth they ____________________ 204. The lay orders that are normally dismissed with the catechumens (namely, the possessed and the penitent; see EH 3, note 57) are discussed in EH 6 532A. 205. Pss 56:13, 116:9. 206. Lk 16:22; cf. Mt 8:11 and Lk 13:28. 207. Is 35:10, 51:11. The prayer here partially divulged, unlike any other liturgical prayer in the corpus (see 565C), is clearly related to that of the Apostolic Constitutions VIII.41.3 (Funk, p. 550, lines 15-17). -253contain. For one must accept the truth of what scripture says: "Eye has not seen and ear has not heard and it has not come to the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him." 208. ) The bosom of the blessed patriarchs and of all the other saints signifies, I believe, this divine inheritance and this perfect beatitude where all those who 560C have lived in conformity with God are welcomed into the ever-renewed perfection of unaging blessedness. 6. While agreeing with what I am saying you might nevertheless declare yourself unable to understand why it is that the hierarch beseeches the divine goodness to pardon the sins of the deceased and to grant him the same order and the same lot as those who have lived in conformity with God. If under the workings of divine justice each one receives a return for whatever good or bad he did in this life and if it is the case that the deceased has terminated his lifetime activity, then by what prayer could the hierarch win for the dead person such a change of condition that it would be different from what he had 560D earned during his life here? Now I know well that each one will receive what he deserves, for scripture says that the Lord has shut the 561A door on him 209. and "each one will receive good or evil, according to 210. what he has done in the body." And scriptural truth has passed on to us the fact that the prayers of the just are of use only to those who are worthy of them, and only in this life, not after death. 211. Did Saul profit in any way from Samuel? 212. Were the Hebrew people helped at all by the prayers of the prophet? 213. And just as it would be silly for a man whose eyes have been torn out to pretend that he shares in the light which the sun bestows only on those with unharmed eyes, so too would it be foolish to cling to the impossible and empty hope of gaining the intercession of the saints when one has driven aside their naturally sacred activities by one's refusal to accept the gifts of God and by contempt for the most lustrous of God's good commandments. Nevertheless, following scripture, I say that the prayers of the 561B

181 saints in this life are extremely valuable for the one who has a longing for the sacred gifts, who has made a holy preparation to receive them, and who, knowing his own weakness, has sought out some holy man ____________________ 208. 1 Cor 2:9 from Is 64:4. 209. Lk 13:25. 210. 2 Cor 5:10. 211. Jas 5:16. 212. 1 Sm 15:35-16:1. 213. Jer 7:16, 11:14. -254to beg him to be his helper and to join him in his prayers. Such help can only be of the greatest possible assistance to him, since it will gain for him the most divine gifts which he desires. The divine goodness will accept him because of his well-shaped disposition, because of the respect he shows for the saints, because of the praiseworthy eagerness with which he begs for those longed-for gifts, and because of the life he lives in harmony with this and in conformity to God. For one of the divine judgments has laid down that the gifts of God should be duly given to those worthy to receive them, through the mediation of those who are worthy to impart them. Someone could perhaps show a lack of respect for this divine arrangement and, out of wretched self 561C regard, could imagine himself capable of disdaining the mediation of the saints and of entering into direct relationship with the divinity. Now if one presents to God unworthy and unholy demands, without at the same time having an overwhelming wish for the gifts of God, then one loses the fruit of even a poor prayer. So, then, regarding this prayer under discussion which the hierarch offers for the deceased, it is to be explained in accordance with what has been handed down to us by those godlike men, our leaders. 7. As scripture says, the divine hierarch makes known the judgment of God, for he is "the angel of the allpowerful Lord God." 214. From what God has told him in scripture he knows that to those who 561D have lived in a most pious fashion there is given a bright, divine life under the most just guidelines, for in his kindly love for man the divinity closes his eyes to the faults coming from their human weakness. "No one," says scripture, "is free of filth." 215. The hierarch knows well what the true scriptures have promised and he prays that they be fulfilled and that those who have lived holy lives may receive their blessed reward. In this fashion he models himself on the divine good ness by seeking, as though on his own behalf, the gifts meant for oth 564A ers. He knows that the promises of God will surely be realized and in this way he teaches all those present that the gifts for which he duly pleads will be granted to all those who live a perfect life in God. The hierarch, insofar as he interprets the justice of God, would take care to seek nothing which conflicted at all with God's wishes and with what he has promised to grant. Therefore, he does not offer this prayer for those who have died in a state of unholiness. To do so ____________________ 214. Mal 2:7 (LXX). An "angel" is a messenger; see CH 12 292C 7. 215. Jb 14:4 (LXX). -255would be to depart from his function as interpreter. In this case he would be acting on his own initiative within the hierarchy and not under the guidance of the One who is the source of every rite. Besides, his

182 unrighteous prayer would be rejected and God would answer in the just words of scripture: "You ask and do not receive because you 564B ask wrongly." 216. Thus the hierarch, being a man of God, asks only for what is suitable to the divine promises, for what pleases God, and for what God will freely give. He thereby demonstrates to God the lover of good that his own conduct is always modeled on the Good and he thereby shows those present what kind of gifts the saints will receive. Similarly, insofar as he makes known the judgments of God he has also the powers of excommunication. Not indeed that the all-wise divinity gives in to his every unthinking impulse, if I may so speak with all reverence. But the hierarch obeys the Spirit which is the source of every rite and which speaks by way of his words. He excommunicates those unworthy people whom God has already judged. It says: "Receive the holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 217. And to the one enlightened by the sacred revelation of the all-holy Father it is said in scripture, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in 564C heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 218. Thus [Peter] himself and all the hierarchs like him have had the judgment of the Father revealed to them, and, being themselves men who provide revelation and explanation, they have the task of admitting the friends of God and of keeping away the ungodly. That sacred acknowledgement of God came to him, as scripture shows, not on his own, not from a flesh-and-blood revelation, but as something from the understanding and under the influence of the God who initiated him into what he knew. 219. Similarly, God's hierarchs must use their powers of excommunication, as well as all their other hierarchic powers, to the extent that they are moved by the divinity which is the source of every rite. And everyone else must obey the hierarchs when they 564D act as such, for they are inspired by God himself. "He who rejects you," it says, "rejects me." 220. ____________________ 216. Jas 4:3. 217. Jn 20:22f. 218. Mt 16:19. 219. Mt 16:17. 220. Lk 10:16. Everything from 560C 29 to 564D 47, including all the scriptural citations documented in notes 209-19, is an excursus on the very notion of interceding for the -2568. But let us now move on to what comes after the prayer under discussion above. When it is done, the hierarch, together with all the 565A others who are in attendance, gives the kiss of peace to the deceased, for someone who has completed a holy life is pleasing to and respected by all those living in conformity with God. After the kiss the hierarch pours the holy oil over the deceased. Now remember that the first participation in this sacred symbol, the oil of anointing, was given to the initiate during the sacred divine birth, before the actual baptism and after he has exchanged his old clothes for the new. Now, by contrast, it is at the end of all things that the holy oil is spread over the deceased. The sacred anointing with oil once called the initiate to sacred combat; now the pouring on of the oil reveals that in this sacred combat the deceased fought his way to victory. 221. 9. Following on these rites the hierarch lays the body in an hon 565B ored place alongside the bodies of other saints of the same order. If the deceased lived, body and soul, a life pleasing to God, his body will deserve to have a share of the honors bestowed on the soul which was its companion in the sacred struggle. That is why divine justice links the body with the soul when final

183 judgment is rendered to the soul, for the body also took part in the same journey along the road of holiness or impiety. Hence the blessed ordinances grant divine communion to both the one and the other. They do so for the soul by way of pure contemplation, together with the understanding of the sacred rites. And they do so for the body by way of the imagery of the most divine ointment and through the most sacred symbol of the divine communion. Thus the entire person is made holy, the work of his sal vation is all-embracing, and the full rites make known the totality of 565C the resurrection that is to come. 10. As for the consecrating invocations, it would be improper to set down in writing what they signify, nor could one publicly reveal their hidden sense and the power of God which is at work in them. Sacred tradition teaches us that one has to be introduced to them through processes of initiation which are not public. 222. You must be ____________________ dead. The author interprets the prayer in question (see above, note 199) as a proclamation of God's justice rather than an intercession. 221. See EH 2 396C 26-29 and 401C 35 to 404A 11, where the baptismal anointing with oil and its athletic imagery are interpreted. 222. Since the "consecrating invocations" are the prayers at ordination (EH 5 509B) and tonsure (EH 6 533B), this paragraph may be an excursus not directly related to the current chapter. The only prayers even indirectly divulged are the anaphora (EH 3 440C -257perfected in a more holy and uplifting mode of life by love for God and by sacred activities. And he who is the enlightening source of every rite will uplift you to the supreme understanding of them. 11. You might say, however, that what could really earn the rid 565D icule of the impious is the fact that infants, despite their inability to understand the divine things, are nevertheless admitted to that sacrament of sacred divine-birth and to the sacred symbols of the divine communion. 223. In effect, the hierarch may be seen to teach divine things to those incapable of understanding them, to pass on the sacred traditions to those unable to grasp them. And a further cause for 568A laughter is the practice whereby others speak the ritual renunciations and the sacred promises on behalf of the infants. Yours is the understanding of a hierarch and you must not be angry with those who are mistaken. Rather, you must take care to guide them to the light by lovingly refuting their objections and by making clear to them, as sacred law commands, that our knowledge is far from being commensurate with the divine mysteries, many of which remain beyond our grasp and with a meaning outside our power to understand. They are known only to the orders which are superior to our human condition and they have a status quite in keeping with their divine nature. Many elude even the highest beings and are known fully only by that all-wise divinity which is the source of all wisdom. But let me set down what our blessed teachers, in their knowledge of the earliest tradition, have passed down to us. What they say is this, and it is true. Children raised up in accordance with holy pre 568B cepts will acquire the habits of holiness. They will avoid all the errors and all the temptations of an unholy life. Understanding the truth of this, our divine leaders decided it was a good thing to admit children,

184 though on condition that the parents of the child would entrust him to some good teacher who is himself initiated in the divine things and who could provide religious teaching as the child's spiritual father and as the sponsor of salvation. 224. Anyone thus committed to raise the child up along the way of a holy life is asked by the hierarch to agree ____________________ 35 to 444A 4, note 95) and the prayer for the dead (see above, note 199). Even the word "alleluia" is never actually used (EH 4 485AB 15-23, note 139). 223. Only in this excursus, i.e., not in the chapters on baptism (EH 2) or the synaxis (EH 3), does the author testify to infant baptism or infant communion. 224. Sponsors for adult candidates are discussed in EH 2 393B, 393D 40f., and 400C 37 to 401A 3. -258to the ritual renunciations and to speak the words of promise. Those who scoff at this are quite wrong in thinking that the one is initiated into the divine mysteries instead of the other, for he does not say "I 568C am making the renunciations and the promises for the child," but "the child himself is assigned and enrolled." In effect what is said is this: "I promise that when this child can understand sacred truth I shall educate him and shall raise him up by my teaching in such a way that he will renounce all the temptations of the devil, that he will bind himself to the sacred promises and will bring them to fruit." So I do not think there is anything ridiculous if the child is brought up with a godly upbringing, provided of course that there is a sacred leader and sponsor to form holy habits in him and to guard him against the temptations of the devil. When the hierarch admits the child to a share in the sacred symbols it is so that he may derive nourishment from this, so that he may spend his entire life in the unceasing contemplation of the divine things, may progress in his communion with them, may therefore acquire a holy and enduring way of life, and may be brought up in sanctity by the guidance of a holy sponsor who himself lives in conformity with God. My son, these are the fine and unifying sights presented by our 568D hierarchy. Doubtless more perceptive minds would not be confined to what I have seen. They would contemplate sights more outstanding and also more in conformity with God. And I believe that more stunning and more divine beauties will enlighten you too as you employ my remarks as steps up to a more sublime ray. Dear friend, be gen 569A erous with me. Bring before my eyes that more perfect and more evident enlightenment which will be yours as you learn of a beauty more lovely and closer to the One. For I feel sure that my words will rekindle the sparks of God's fire which sleep in you. 225. ____________________ 225. The end of the treatise echoes the literary humility concluding The Divine Names (DN 13 981C 23 to 984A 12) and The Celestial Hierarchy (CH 15 340B). -259The Letters 1. ____________________ 1. The Pseudo-Dionysian letters are translated, annotated, and discussed in R. Hathaway, Hierarchy. Hathaway is especially concerned for the sociopolitical argument in Letter 8 and its Neoplatonic antecedents. He also notes that the presumed recipients of the letters form an ascending hierarchical sequence (monk, deacon, priest, hierarch), except for the disruption of Letter 8, which is addressed to a monk. Yet since this monk, "Demophilus," is himself charged with disrupting proper hierarchical order, the very sequence of the letters seems designed to reinforce the argument (Hathaway, Hierarchy,

185 pp. 64f.). LETTER ONE To the monk Gaius. 2. Darkness disappears in the light, the more so as there is more light. Knowledge makes unknowing disappear, the more so as there is more knowledge.

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However, think of this not in terms of deprivation but rather in terms of transcendence and then you will be able to say something truer than all truth, namely, that the unknowing regarding God escapes anyone possessing physical light and knowledge of beings: His transcendent darkness remains hidden from all light and concealed from all knowledge. Someone beholding God and understanding what he saw has not actually seen God 3. himself but rather something of his which has being and which is knowable, For he himself solidly transcends mind and being. He is completely unknown and nonexistent. He exists beyond being and he is known beyond the mind. And this quite positively complete unknowing is knowledge of him who is above everything that is known.

1065B LETTER TWO To the same monk Gaius. How could it be that he who surpasses everything also transcends the 1068A source of divinity, transcends the source of all goodness? This is possible if by divinity and goodness you mean the substance of that gift which makes [us] good and divine and if you mean the inimitable im itation of him who is beyond divinity and beyond goodness, by means 1069A of which we are made divine and made good. Now if this is the source of becoming divine and good of all those made divine and good, then he who transcends every source, including the divinity and goodness spoken of here, surpasses the source of divinity and of goodness. To the extent that he remains inimitable and ungraspable he transcends all imitation and all grasping, as well as all who are imitated or participate. ____________________ 2. The first four letters are addressed to the monk "Gaius", also the name of St. Paul's associate(s) in Rom 16:23; 1 Cor 1:14; Acts 19:29, 20:14. More importantly, 3 John is addressed to a Gaius and contains in v. 11 the theme echoed in this first letter, "not seeing God." 3. Besides 3 Jn 11, see also Jn 1:18 and the discussions in CH 2 140D 43, CH 4 180C 31, and Ep. 5 1073A 3. -263LETTER THREE To the same Gaius. 1069B What comes into view, contrary to hope, from previous obscurity, is described as "sudden." 4. As for the love of Christ for humanity, the Word of God, I believe, uses this term to hint that the transcendent has put aside its own hiddenness and has revealed itself to us by becoming a human being. But he is hidden even after this revelation, or, if I may speak in a more divine fashion, is hidden even amid the revelation. For this mystery of Jesus remains hidden and can be drawn out by no word or mind. What is to be said of it remains unsayable; what is to be understood of it remains unknowable. LETTER FOUR To the same monk Gaius. You ask how it could be that Jesus, who transcends all, is placed in

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186 the same order in being with all men. He is not called a man here in the context of being the cause of man but rather as being himself quite truly a man in all essential respects. But we do not confine our definition of Jesus to the human domain. For he is not simply a man, nor would he be transcendent if he were only a man. Out of his very great love for humanity, he became quite truly a human, both superhuman 1072B and among humans; and, though himself beyond being, he took upon himself the being of humans. Yet he is not less overflowing with transcendence. He is the ever-transcendent, and superabundantly so. He takes on being, and is himself a being beyond being. Superior himself to the human condition he does the work of a man. A proof of this is that a virgin supernaturally bore him 5. and that flowing water, bearing the weight of his corporeal, earthly feet, did not yield, but, rather, held him up with supernatural power. 6. There is so much else and who could list it all? As one considers it all in a divine manner, one will recognize in a transcending way that every affirmation regarding Jesus' love for humanity has the force of a negation pointing toward ____________________ 4. Mal 3:1 Is it coincidental that the author's third letter opens with the topic of the third hypothesis of Plato's Parmenides, i.e., the "sudden"? See Hathaway, Hierarchy, p. 80. 5. Mt 1:18-25; Lk 1:27-31; cf. DN 2 648A. 6. Mt 14:25-33; Mk 6:45-52; Jn 6:16-21. -264transcendence. 7. For, if I may put the matter briefly, he was neither human nor nonhuman; although humanly born he was far superior to 1072C man, and being above men he yet truly did become man. Furthermore, it was not by virtue of being God that he did divine things, not by virtue of being a man that he did what was human, but rather, by the fact of being God-made-man he accomplished something new in our midst—the activity of the God-man. 8. LETTER FIVE To Dorotheus, the deacon. The divine darkness is that "unapproachable light" 9. where God is said 1073A to live. And if it is invisible because of a superabundant clarity, if it cannot be approached because of the outpouring of its transcendent gift of light, yet it is here that is found everyone worthy to know God and to look upon him. And such a one, precisely because he neither sees him nor knows him, truly arrives at that which is beyond all seeing and all knowledge. Knowing exactly this, that he is beyond everything perceived and conceived, he cries out with the prophet, "Knowledge of you is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it." 10. It is in this sense that one says of the divine Paul that he knew God, for he knew that God is beyond every act of mind and every way of knowing. He says too that "inscrutable are his ways and un 1073B searchable his judgments," 11. that "his gifts are inexpressible," 12. and 1076A ____________________ 10. Ps 139:6. The "prophet" is actually the psalmist, as in DN 2 637A 5 and, less definitively, in the references to the "alleluia" in EH 2 396C 33f., EH 4 473A 9f., and 485AB 15-21. 11. Rom 11:33. 12. 2 Cor 9:15. 7. Jesus' "philanthropy," or love for humanity, is defined in terms of the incarnation, both in this letter (1072 AB 9-11) and throughout the corpus (see the set of references in CH 4, note 56). 8. The single, "theandric activity" of Jesus advocated here by Dionysius was similar enough to the single (divine) nature of Jesus after the incarnation to stir up some initial controversy. But the orthodox

187 (Chalcedonian) view of two natures and two wills prevailed, largely through the efforts of Maximus the Confessor, and claimed the Areopagite as its own apostolic witness. See R. Roques, L'Univers, p. 311, and H. D. Saffrey's connection between the first commentator on this text and contemporary Neoplatonism, "Un lien objectif entre le Pseudo-Denys et Proclus," Studia Patristica 9 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1966): 98105. (Texte und Untersuchungen 94.) 9. 1 Tm 6:16; cf. Ex 20:21 and MT 1 1000C 33f. -265that "his peace passes all understanding," 13. for he found him who is beyond all things and he knew, in a way surpassing any conception, that the cause of all surpasses all. LETTER SIX To the priest Sosipater. 14. Do not count it a triumph, reverend Sosipater, that you are denounc 1077A ing a cult or a point of view which does not seem to be good. And do not imagine that, having thoroughly refuted it, all is therefore well with Sosipater. For it could happen that the one hidden truth could escape both you and others in the midst of falsehoods and appearances. What is not red does not have to be white. What is not a horse is not necessarily a human. This is what you will do if you trust me. You will cease from the denunciation of others and you will speak about truth in such a man ner that everything you say will be irrefutable. LETTER SEVEN To Polycarp, a hierarch. 15.

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1. As far as I am concerned I have never spoken out against Greeks or any others. In my view, good men are satisfied to know and to proclaim as well as they can the truth itself as it really is. As soon as anything has been manifested for what it assuredly is by the norm of truth and has been spotlessly established, anything else, anything even with 1077C the semblance of truth, will be refuted as alien to and unlike reality, as specious rather than authentic. It is therefore superfluous for someone expounding the truth to enter into dispute with this one or that one, for each says that his own bit of money is the real thing when in fact what he has may be a counterfeit copy of some part of the truth. And if you refute this one, then another one and, again, someone else will eagerly argue about it. ____________________ 13. Phil 4:7. 14. The name Sosipater appears in Rom 16:21. B. Brons has disputed the originality of this letter and those which follow (Sekundäre Textparteien, pp. 21-42). 15. The name "Polycarp" may have been intended to suggest the apostolic age of Polycarp of Smyrna. -266Once an argument has been properly established because of its 1080A own truth, once it stands firm and unrefuted against the counter-arguments of all others, then everything which is not completely in harmony with this will automatically be overthrown by the direct unshakable presence of truth. This, I believe, is a sound principle and therefore I have never wished to embark on controversies with Greeks or with any others. It is enough for me first to know about the truth and then to speak appropriately of what I know. 16. And may God grant me this!

188 2. But you say that the sophist Apollophanes reviles me, that he is calling me a parricide, that he charges me with making unholy use of things Greek to attack the Greeks. It would be more correct to say 1080B to him in reply that it is the Greeks who make unholy use of godly things to attack God. They try to banish divine reverence by means of the very wisdom which God has given them. I am not talking here of the beliefs of the hoi polloi who in their materialistic and impassioned way cling to the stories of the poets and who "serve the creature rather than the creator." 17. No, I am talking of Apollophanes himself who makes unholy use of godly things to attack God. This knowledge of beings, which he rightly calls philosophy and which the divine Paul described as the "wisdom of God," 18. should have led true philosophers to be uplifted to him who is the Cause not only of all beings but also of the very knowledge which one can have of these beings. However I do not now wish to run against my own beliefs by refuting the opinions of others or indeed of Apollophanes. Being a wise man he ought to have known that nothing in the order and move ment of heaven could vary without being moved by the same cause 1080C which created it and which upholds it. For, as the sacred word says, this cause "creates everything and rearranges everything." 19. Why, then, does he not worship the One whom we recognize in all this, the real God of all? Why does he not marvel at him because of that power which is the cause of everything and which is beyond all description? Because of this, the sun and the moon, following the most amazing ____________________ 16. That negation itself does not yield truth continues the discussion of Letter 6. The author's avowed distaste for controversy (as in Ti 3:9) would have been consistent with the irenic intentions of Emperor Zeno's Henoticon (A. D. 482) during the post-Chalcedon controversies. For the pertinent literature, see G. O'Daly, "Dionysius Areopagita," Theologische Reälenzyclopedie 8:773. 17. Rom 1:25. 18. 1 Cor 1:21-24, 2:7. 19. Am 5:8 (LXX). -267capacity to cease movement, came to a complete halt and everything stood for one whole day under the one sign so that—and this is still more astonishing—the higher spheres which take in the others completed their full revolution without having the lower spheres follow them in their circular movement. 20. Another marvel was that day which lasted almost three times longer than usual so that either for 1080D about twenty hours the whole world was forcefully dragged along in the opposite direction and only returned to its path by doubling back in the most astounding way, or else it was the sun which, while on course, interrupted its five stages of movement for ten hours and then, in another span of ten hours, turned back along its full path. 21. This was the portent which amazed the Babylonians so that they yielded without a struggle to Hezekiah, whom they looked upon as a superman 1081A and equal to God. I am saying nothing now about the miracles in Egypt 22. nor of the signs from God elsewhere. But I only mention the well-known heavenly signs which were celebrated by everyone throughout the whole world. True, Apollophanes refuses completely to accept that they happened. Nevertheless these are things which were recorded in the sacred books of the Persians and even today the Magi celebrate the memorial of the triple Mithras. 23. Still, let us grant that out of ignorance or inexperience he refuses to accept this. Then ask

189 him: "What have you to say about the solar eclipse which occurred when the Savior was put on the cross?" At that time the two of us were in Heliopolis and we both witnessed the extraordinary phenomenon of the moon hiding the sun at a time that was out of season for their coming to gether, and from the ninth hour until evening it was supernaturally 1081B positioned in the middle of the sun. 24. And remember something else too, which he knows. We saw the moon begin to hide the sun from the east, travel across to the other side of the sun, and return on its ____________________ 20. Jos 10:12-14; Sir 46:4. 21. 2 Kgs 20:8-12; Is 38:8, 39:1. If the earth, or the sun, went "backward" for ten hours and then resumed its normal movement, the day would be extended by twenty hours. This would triple a ten-hour (?) day. 22. Namely, the plagues, e.g., Ex 10:21-29. 23. On this reference to Mithras, one of antiquity's most famous deities, see C. Pera, "Denys le Mystique et la Theomachia," Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 2 5 (1936): 51. 24. Did the author read the Alexandrinus variant of Lk 23:44f. to mean that the sky became darker from the sixth to the ninth hour and then the eclipse was in full force from the ninth hour to the evening? See also Mt 27:45 and Mk 15:33. -268path so that the hiding and the restoration of the light did not take place in the same direction but rather in diametrically opposite directions. Those were the amazing things which happened at that time, possible only to Christ the cause of all, "who does great and marvelous things without number." 25. 3. Tell him this, if you may, and as for you, Apollophanes, re 1081C fute it if you can. I was with you then. I was with you as we looked at everything, scrutinized everything, were amazed by everything. Let us not forget that Apollophanes was moved somehow to prophecy, saying, as he interpreted these happenings: "My dear Dionysius, these portend changes in the doings of God." Let this much be what we discuss in a letter. You are well able to fill out anything that is missing. And you can turn this man back to God, for he is wise in many things and perhaps he will not think it beneath his dignity meekly 26. to learn the truth of our religion, truth which far exceeds all wisdom. LETTER EIGHT To the monk Demophilus. 27. Concerning one's proper work, and kindness. 1084A 1084B 28. the fact that the sacred man, Moses, earned a sight of God because of his great meekness. And if they say that occasionally he lost that sight of God it was because he had first of all lost his own meekness. They show that whenever he had the audacity to act against the plans 1085A 29. of God, the Lord became angry with him. But whenever they relate how the justice of God deemed him to be worthy of favor they first of all described the way in which he imitated the goodness of God. "He was very meek," they say, and that is why they call him the ser- ____________________ 25. Jb 5:9, 9:10, 34:24 (LXX). 26. This theme of meekness is continued in the next letter. See note 16 above for another example of continuity in the subject matter of the letters. See also Hathaway, Hierarchy, pp. 61-83, for a fuller, somewhat different argument for continuity. 27. Regarding this letter, and the relationship between its contents and its addressee, see note 1 to Letter 1 1. Noble Demophilus, the histories of the Hebrews bear witness to

190 above, and Hathaway, Hierarchy, pp. 85-104. On the subject of monks, see EH 6 532C 35 to 536C 37, and note 169 to that chapter. 28. Nm 12:3, 8. 29. Ex 4:14, 24-26? -269vant of God and they affirm that, more than any other prophet, he was worthy to attain a vision of God. 30. But when certain impudent characters turned against him and against Aaron for the high-priesthood and for leadership he put aside all considerations of personal pride and political power and he left to the judgment of God the matter of leadership of the people. And when these men rose up against him, castigated and threatened him because of what had happened previously, and when they were already at the point of doing violence to him, this meek man called on the Good for salvation and with great mildness he defended himself against blame for all the earlier misfortunes of his people. 31. He knew well that 1085B whoever lives in the company of the good God must be as like him as possible and that he must know in himself his own deeds of love for the good. Why was David, the father of God, loved by God? Because he was good, even to his enemies. "I have found a man after my own heart." 32. So said the lover of good, who transcends good. Indeed, there was handed down that good ordinance to provide even for the yoked animals of one's enemy. 33. Job was justified because he remained aloof from all wrongdoing. 34. Joseph took no revenge on the brothers who had betrayed him. 35. Abel humbly and unsuspiciously followed the brother who was to kill him. 36. The word of God calls "good" all these men who neither planned nor did evil things, whose goodness stood up against the evil of others, men who lived in conformity with God. They did good to those wronging them and extended to them their own abundant goodness so as to bring them gently around to behaving like them.

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But let us lift our eyes to the heights. Let us not be satisfied to praise the gentleness of sacred men or the generosity of those angels, the friends of humans, who pity the nations and plead to God on their behalf, who punish the destructive and evil-doing hordes, who lament ____________________ 30. Nm 12:3, 7, 8. The biblical mention of Moses as a "servant" anticipates the use of that word as a name for the monks; see note 69 below. 31. Nm 16:1-11. 32. Acts 13:22, from Ps 89:20 and 1 Sm 13:14. David was good to his enemy Saul in 1 Sm 24. 33. Ex 23:4-5. 34. Jb 42:10. 35. Gn 45:5-15. 36. Gn 4:8. -270for the wicked, who rejoice over those summoned back to goodness, 37. or whatever other things the word of God has taught us about all the good works of the angels. Instead, let us quietly receive the beneficent

191 rays of the truly good, the transcendently good Christ and let us be led by their light toward his divinely good deeds. After all is it not characteristic of his unspeakable, incomprehensible goodness that he 1085D 38. fashions the existence of things, that he draws everything into being, that he wishes everything to be always akin to him and to have fellowship with him according to its fitness? Does he not come lovingly to those who have turned away from him? Does he not contend with them and beg them not to spurn his love? Does he not support his 1088A accusers and plead on their behalf? 39. He even promises to be concerned for them and when they are far away from him they have only to make a backward turn and there he is, hastening to meet them. He receives them with completely open arms and greets them with the kiss of peace. He does not recriminate over what has happened. Now that they have returned, he pours his kindly love over them. He prepares a feast and summons his good friends so that the house may be full of rejoicers. 40. This sort of behavior is a just reproach to Demophilus, as it is to all those who stand against the good, and it tells him of the good and helps him to become better himself. It says this to him: Surely the good [God] has rejoiced over the salvation of those who were lost and over the resurrection of those who were dead. 41. Indeed he takes on his own shoulders the one who barely turned back from going astray and he invites the good angels to share his joy. 42. He is "kind to the un grateful," 43. "makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good," 44. and he 1088B goes so far as to "lay down his own life" 45. for those who run away from him. ____________________ 37. The angels rejoice in Luke 15:10. On other functions of angels, see The Celestial Hierarchy and Zec 1:8-12; Dn 10:14; Rv 7:3; 2 Pt 2:11. 38. See also DN 1 592A 3f. This expression echoes The Apostolic Constitutions VIII. 12.6. (Funk 496.22). Cf. Jn 1:3; Rom 4:17. 39. Lk 23:34. See also Lk 13:34-35 and Mt 23:37-39. 40. Lk 15:20-25. 41. Lk 15:23f. 42. Lk 15:5, 10. See below, 1096D. 43. Lk 6:35. 44. Mt 5:45. 45. Jn 10:11. -271Now, by contrast, your letter clearly shows that when a man whom you regard as an impious sinner threw himself at the feet of the priest, you took it upon yourself to reject him, although I do not know how you were even present. He pleaded. He said he had come solely to find healing for his evil ways. But you, you did not sigh. No. You roundly denounced the good priest who had taken pity on this penitent and who had "justified the ungodly." 46. "Be gone," you said to the priest. Then, with the others, you wrongly thrust your way into the inner sanctuary. You laid hands on the Holy of Holies and you write me that, providentially, you thereby saved the sacred things just when they were about to be harmed and that you are preserving them from 1088C all defilement. Now hear what I have to say to you. It is not permitted that a priest should be corrected by the deacons, who are your superiors, nor by the monks, who are at the same level as yourself, and this is so even if it would seem that he had in some way misused divine things and even if it could be shown that he had violated some other regulation. Even if disorder and confusion should undermine the most divine ordinances and regulations, that still gives no right, even on God's behalf, to overturn the order which God himself has established. God is not divided against himself. Otherwise, how could his kingdom stand? 47. And if, as scripture affirms, "all judgment belongs to God,"

192 48.

if, furthermore, the priests come next after the hierarchs as messengers and interpreters of the divine judgments, 49. it is their business to teach you divine things as far as possible and at the right time, through the means of the deacons, who judged you worthy to become a monk. Do not the sacred symbols shout this? Not every participant is 1088D simply removed from the Holy of Holies. No. First to approach it is the rank of sacred initiators. Then come the priests and then the deacons. The monks have their rightful place at the doors of the inner sanctuary. That is where they receive their initiation and that is where they remain, not like sentries but in order that each one be in his proper order and that they continue to be aware of being closer to the ordinary people than to the priestly ones. The holy source of all order 1089A in sacred things has blessedly allowed them to have a share of the divine things but, quite clearly, he has given the task of handing them ____________________ 46. Rom 4:4. 47. Mt 12:25. 48. Dt 1:17. 49. Mal 2:7. The "messengers" are, literally, the angels. -272out to those closer to such things. The position of these latter at the divine altar symbolizes the rank they hold. They see and hear clearly the divine things which are manifested to them. Generously they then come out to those outside the divine veils. To the obedient monks, to the sacred people, to the orders being purified, they make known, according to merit, those divine things which were safe from all contamination until the Holy of Holies was compelled to endure your arrogant invasion. 50. You say that you are preserving and watching over the sacred things. Yet, in fact, you know nothing, have heard nothing, and possess nothing of the things which are the prerogative of the priests. You are ignorant of the very truth of scripture, you who abuse it daily to the misfortune of those who hear you.

1089B

A man who took it upon himself without the imperial permission to exercise the functions of a governor would be rightly punished. Or suppose that, when a presiding officer passed sentence of acquittal or condemnation on some defendant, one of the assistants at the tribunal had the audacity to question him (not to mention vilify). Would he not appear to be openly preempting the authority of the other man? This, my man, is the sort of arrogance which you have shown to a good and meek man and to the hierarchic rules which he obeys. This, then, is what must be said whenever someone acts out of place, even when he seems to be doing something right, for no one may get out of line in this way. Surely, there was nothing unseemly in the fact that Uzziah burned incense in honor of God, that Saul offered sacrifice, that the troublesome demons truly proclaimed the di 1089C vinity of Jesus. 51. And yet the word of God bars anyone who has taken over a task that is not for him. It teaches that everyone must remain within the order of his ministry, 52. that only the chief priest has the right to enter the Holy of Holies, and this only once a year and in the state of hierarchical purity which Law demands. 53. The priests cover the holy things, and the Levites "do not touch the holy things, lest they die." 54. That is why the Lord was angered by the boldness of Uz____________________ 50. As a supplement to The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Chapter 3, this paragraph provides a helpful sketch

193 of the relative positions of priests, deacons, monks, and other laypeople during Communion. See EH 3 428C 27f., note 67. 51. Uzziah: 2 Chr 26:16-21 (see EH 2 392C 35); Saul: 1 Sm 13:12-15; demons: Mk 3:11. 52. Nm 7:5. 53. Lv 16:34; Ex 30:10; Heb 9:7. 54. Nm 4:15. -273ziah and why he inflicted leprosy on Miriam who had tried to dominate the law-giver. 55. Demons attacked the sons of Sceva. 56. Scripture says, "I did not send them, yet they ran. I did not speak to them and yet they prophesied." 57. Also: "When an impious man offers a lamb it is as if he had killed a dog." 58. To sum up. The perfect justice of God rejects those who break the Law. If they claim, "In your name we did many mighty works," 1089D the reply is "I do not know you. Go away from me, you who have worked evil." 59. Hence, it is not permitted, according to the words of scripture, to perform what may even be a work of justice, except wor thily. 60. Everyone must look to himself and, without thinking of more 1092A 61. exalted or more profound tasks, he must think only about what has been assigned to his place. 2. But, you may say, what about impious priests or those convicted of some other unseemliness? Must they not be corrected? Could it be that "those who boast in the Law dishonor God by breaking the Law?" 62. How then could the priests be the interpreters of God? How could they announce the divine virtues to the people when they do not themselves know their power? Living in darkness, how could they bring light to others? How can they pass on the divine Spirit if they have not been convinced in truth and in their way of life that there is a Holy Spirit? 63.

1092B

I will answer these questions of yours. For Demophilus is no enemy and I will not allow Satan to claim you. Each rank around God conforms more to him than the one farther away. Those closest to the true Light are more capable of receiving light and of passing it on. Do not imagine that the proximity here is physical. Rather, what I mean by nearness is the greatest possible capacity to receive God. If then the rank of priests is that most able to pass on illumination, he who does not bestow illumination is thereby excluded from the priestly order and from the power reserved to the priesthood. For he is unilluminated. A man thus deprived is, in my ____________________ 55. Uzziah: 2 Chr 26:16-21; Miriam: Nm 12:10. 56. Acts 19:11-17. 57. Jer 23:21. 58. Is 66:3 (LXX). 59. Mt 7:22f. 60. Cf. 1092C 35 below (note 65) and Dt 16:20 (LXX). 61. 1 Tm 4:16; Sir 3:22. 62. Rom 2:23. 63. Acts 19:2.

194 -274view, insolent if he muscles in on priestly functions, when, without fear or shame, he unworthily pursues the divine things. He thinks God knows nothing of what he knows is going on within him. He 1092C imagines he can deceive the One whom he falsely calls "Father." He dares to be like Christ and to utter over the divine symbols not anything that I would call prayers but, rather, unholy blasphemies. This is no priest. He is an enemy, deceitful, self-deluded, a wolf in sheep's clothing 64. ready to attack the people of God. 3. But no law grants Demophilus the right to correct such things. The Word of God commands us "to pursue just things justly," 65. and justice is pursued when each wishes to give every one his due. And this must always be pursued justly by all, not beyond their worth and order. The angels themselves rightly get their due, but, Demophilus, it is no business of ours to define it for them. Their task is to act as intermediaries, handing on to us whatever God has decided, just as superior angels have handed these on to them.

1092D

To put the matter simply. Through the mediation of the primary beings, those of secondary rank receive whatever has been assigned to 1093A them by that Providence which is harmonious and thoroughly just. Those ordered by God to take charge of others are duly empowered to distribute what is due to those after themselves who are their subordinates. So, then, let Demophilus give due place within himself to reason, to anger, and to desire. Let him do no harm to the due order within himself. May reason prevail over the inferior things by virtue of its priority. For if in some public place we were to see a master, an old man, or a father harmed, attacked, and beaten up by a servant, a younger man, or a son we would think ourselves to be lacking due respect if we did not hasten to the assistance of those of superior rank, regardless of whatever prior wrong these might have done. Therefore, how could we avoid being ashamed as we witness reason harmed by anger and desire, when we see it driven from the authority given to it by God so that in an unholy and unjust manner trouble, discord, and 1093B disorder are stirred up in us? That is why our blessed and God-given lawmaker proclaimed that anyone who has not put his own house in order is unfit to hold authority in the Church of God. 66. For the one who commands himself will command another. The one who com- ____________________ 64. Mt 7:15. 65. Dt 16:20 (LXX). 66. 1 Tm 3:5; Ti 1. -275mands another will command a household. The commander of a household will command a city, and the commander of a city will command a nation. In short, as scripture says, he who is faithful in a little is faithful also in much and he who is unfaithful in a little will be unfaithful in much. 67. 4. So then give the appropriate place to desire, to anger, and to 1093C reason. Accept the place assigned to you by the divine deacons. Let them accept what the priests have assigned to them. Let the priests accept what the hierarchs have assigned to them. Let the hierarchs bow to

195 the apostles and to the successors of the apostles. And should one of these last [the hierarchs] fail in his duty then let him be set right by his peers. 68. In this way no order will be disturbed and each person will remain in his own order and in his own ministry. This, then, is what I have to tell you about what you should know and do. As for your inhumanity toward this man whom you declare to be impious and sinful, I do not know how I am going to bewail the ruin of someone dear to me. Whose servant do you think I set you up to be? 69. If it is not as servant of the Good [God] then you must be a stranger to me and to my own service, and in that case it is time for you to look for another God and for other priests, among whom you 1093D will not be perfected. Instead, you will become a wild beast, the harsh minister of an inhumanity agreeable to yourself. Have we ourselves been so perfected to complete holiness that we do not need that love for humanity which God has shown to us? As scripture says, do we not sin like impious men in a double sin 70. first by not knowing how we offend and, secondly, by justifying ourselves on our own account and by thinking we see what in fact we do not see? "Heaven was appalled at this," 71. and I was shocked at it myself and could hardly believe it. If I had not come upon that letter—and 1096A how I wish I had not—it would have needed many witnesses to convince me about what you have done. I would never have believed that Demophilus could have so little awareness of God's goodness and of his love for humanity, that he could forget how much he himself ____________________ 67. Lk 16:10. 68. Even in this rare admission that a hierarch may need correction, there is no higher office than that of the hierarchs, who here seem to have some collegial authority over each other. 69. The author plays on the term "therapeutes," meaning servant or monk. See EH 6 532D 46 to 533A 5. Does he also mean to imply that he officiated at Demophilus's tonsure? 70. Jer 2:13. 71. Jer 2:12 (LXX). -276needed a merciful savior, that he could take it upon himself to reject the priests who are made worthy, out of goodness, and out of a sense of their own frailty, to bear "the errors of the people." 72. The divine sacred-initiator followed a different way. Being separated from sinners, as scripture testifies, 73. he made the merciful shepherding of his sheep the proof of love for himself. 74. He denounces as "wicked" the servant who refused to pardon the debt of his fellow servant and who did not share in even the smallest way, the immense kindness that was bestowed on himself; that he should suffer the fate which he dealt out 1096B 75. is plainly shown to be right. And this is something about which Demophilus and I must be careful. Jesus asked the Father to pardon those who treated him impiously, even in his suffering, 76. and he rebuked his own disciples because they pitilessly sought the punishment of the impious Samaritans who had gone against him. 77. In your bold letter you say over and over again that you were looking for God's vengeance and not your own. But tell me, is it by wrongdoing that one avenges the good? 5. Let there be none of this: "We do not have a high priest who

1096C

196 is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses." Rather, he is "blameless" and "merciful. " "He will not quarrel nor will he cry out." 81. He is "gentle" 82. and "he is the expiation for our sins." 83. So, then, we will not put up with these onslaughts of yours, however zealous they may be and however often you cite the examples of Phineas 84. and of Elijah. 85. When these were quoted by the disciples who were lacking in gentleness and a good spirit, Jesus was not persuaded. 86. And indeed this is the way in which our most divine master "with ____________________ 72. Heb 9:7. 73. Heb 7:26. 74. Jn 21:15-17. 75. Mt 18:32-33. 76. Lk 23:34. 77. Lk 9:52-55. 78. Heb 4:15. 79. Heb 7:26. 80. Heb 2:17. 81. Is 42:2; Mt 12:19. 82. Mt 11:29, 21:5, from Zec 9:9; 2 Cor 10:1. The same term is translated as "meek" above; see notes 28 and 30. 83. 1 Jn 2:2. 84. Nm 25:6-12. 85. 1 Kgs 18:36-40; 2 Kgs 1:9-12 is echoed in Lk 9:54, explicitly so in the Alexandrinus text. 86. Lk 9:51-55. 78.

79.

80.

-277gentleness teaches opponents" 87. of the teaching of God. Those who do not know must be taught, not punished. We do not hit the blind. We lead them by the hand. You, however, beat back that man who was beginning to raise his eyes toward the light. Full of goodwill he came toward you and you—how woeful this is!—you dared to drive him away. By contrast, 1096D Christ in his goodness goes to look for the one who is lost in the mountains. He calls after him when he is running away and as soon as he comes upon him he takes him on his shoulders. 88. I say to you let us not contrive wickedness toward each other. Let 1097A us not drive the sword into each other. Those who practice evil against others, or, on the contrary, who do what is right, whether they fully achieve what they wish, they produce in themselves evil or goodness, and they will be filled with divine virtue or animal passion. They will be attendants and companions in the paths of the good angels and will enjoy perfect peace on high, as here below, and they will be free of all evils and will receive their eternal lot of full blessedness. And, best of all, they will be with God forever. Or else they will continue to be at war with God and with themselves and they will be the victims of cruel demons here and after they die. We must therefore be eager to be near the good God, to be always with the Lord. 89. We must never deserve to be ranked by justice among 1097B those wicked ones. Indeed this is what I fear most of all and I pray to be without a share of any evil. And I will tell you, if you wish, of a divine vision which a certain holy man had once. Do not laugh! What I am going to tell you is true.

197 6. I was in Crete once and I enjoyed the hospitality of Carpos, a holy man. If there was ever a man with a mind so purified as to be receptive to the sight of God it was he. He never began the holy sac 90.

raments of the mysteries without having a propitious vision first ap 1097C pear to him in the preliminary sacred prayers. He described how he had been grieved once by the infidelities of someone. The reason for this sadness was that this man had turned someone toward godlessness ____________________ 87. 2 Tm 2:25; cf. 1 Cor 4:21. 88. Mt 18:12; Lk 15:5. 89. Cf. 1 Thes 4:17, as quoted in DN 1 592C 30. 90. A Carpus is mentioned in 2 Tm 4:13, but Saint Paul also mentions that Cretans were not known for truthfulness (Ti 1:12). As in the cases of Hierotheus (DN2 648AB 1020, DN 3 681C 41 to 684A 3) and Moses (MT 1 1000CD 34-43), this illustration links an extraordinary spiritual experience to a liturgical context. For the patristic and Platonic forerunners of this story, see Hathaway, Hierarchy, pp. 92-98. -278and away from the Church, and had done so amidst the joyful days marking his baptism. Carpos was supposed to pray generously for both of them and he called upon the saving help of God to return one of the men and to overcome the other man with goodness. 91. For the rest of his life there could be no faltering in the exhortation directed to them to return to the knowledge of God. Everything doubtful or obscure would have to be clarified for them until genuine justice would compel them to have the good sense to give up their stupid audacity. But instead of all this he somehow felt within himself something he had not experienced previously (I do not know how), a great hostility and bitterness. In this bad frame of mind he went to bed and to sleep, for it was evening. In the middle of the night, at the hour when 1097D he usually woke to sing the praises of God, he got up. He had little rest from a series of brief, interrupted, and disturbed bouts of sleep. He stood for prayer, but in no seemly manner. He was angry. He said that it was not just for impious men, men who had turned from the straight paths of the Lord, to be allowed to live. Having said this he 1100A prayed God to hurl his pitiless thunderbolt and to finish at once the lives of those two. As he described it, himself, the place where he was seemed to be shaken completely and then split into two halves in the middle from the roof down. A shining flame appeared coming down to him from heaven, for the place now seemed to be in open air. The sky itself seemed to be unfolding and in the vault of heaven Jesus appeared amid an endless throng of angels in human form. Carpos looked up and was amazed by what he saw. As he told me himself, he glanced down and the ground seemed to open into a yawning, shadowy chasm. The two men whom he had cursed were at the edge. They were trembling and pitiful; bit by bit they were starting to fall 1100B in because of their slippery perch. From the bottom of the pit came serpents which wound themselves around the feet of the two men. They began to flay them as they pulled and dragged them. They tore and lashed at them with their teeth and their tails and in fact did everything to make them tumble into the pit. In among the serpents there were men. They grabbed the two unfortunates, shoving them, pushing them, beating them until they were on the point of collapse, unwillingly and yet willingly as they were gradually ravaged by evil and at the same time persuaded by its charms. ____________________ 91. Rom 12:21? -279-

198 Carpos told me that from where he saw it below the spectacle delighted him. He forgot the sight to be seen above in the sky. He was impatient, hostile because the evil pair had not yet fallen in. He tried 1100C repeatedly to help the serpents in their efforts but was powerless, and became angry and he cursed. Finally he looked up and saw again the same spectacle as earlier. But this time Jesus had risen from his heavenly throne. Moved by compassion he came down to the unfaithful two. He reached a rescuing hand out to them. The angels helped him. He held on to the two men, one on either side of him. Then Jesus said to Carpos: So your hand is raised up and I now am the one you must hit. Here I am, ready once again to suffer for the salvation of man and I would very gladly endure it if in this way I could keep men from sin. Look to yourself. Maybe you should be living with the serpents in the pit rather than with God and with the good angels who are the friends of man.

1100D

These things, which I heard myself, I believe to be true. LETTER NINE To Titus the hierarch. 92. Asking by letter, what is the house of wisdom, what is the mixing bowl, and what are its foods and drinks. 1. My dear Titus, I do not know if the sacred Timothy, at the time

1104A 1104B

he departed, was unaware of the theological symbols of which I have been offering interpretations. Certainly in my own Symbolic Theology 93. I explained to him in detail all those scriptural passages concerning ____________________ 92. This letter is discussed in Hathaway, Hierarchy, pp. 104-25. Besides Saint Paul's letter to "Titus," this name appears in 2 Cor 2:13, 7:6, 7:13f., 8:6, 8:16, 8:23; Gal 2:1-3; 2 Tm 4:10. 93. The lost or fictitious Symbolical Theology was ostensibly concerned with those biblical symbols for God that depend on sense perception, such as the symbols discussed in this letter. The title is also mentioned at the end of this letter (1113BC 21-30), and in DN 1 597AB 5-20, DN 13 984 11, MT 3 1033AB 13-25, and CH 15 336A 2-9. See DN 1, note 89. -280God which to the man in the street appear quite extraordinary. Among uninstructed souls the fathers of unspeakable wisdom give an impression of outstanding absurdity when, with secret and daring riddles, they make known that truth which is divine, mysterious, and, so far as the profane are concerned, inaccessible. That is why so many continue to be unbelieving in the presence of the explanations of the divine mysteries, for we contemplate them solely by way of the perceptible symbols attached to them. What is necessary is to uncover them, to see them in their naked purity. By contemplating them in this manner we can revere that "source of life" 94. flowing into itself. We see it remaining within itself, 1104C a unique and simple power, source of its own movement and activity, which is never failing and which is the knowledge of all knowledge by virtue of its own perpetual self-contemplation.

199 Now I thought it necessary to explicate as well as I could to him and to others the great variety of sacred symbols used by scripture to reveal God, for if one looks at them from the outside they seem filled with incredible and contrived fantasy. Some examples. Regarding the transcendent generation of God, scripture speaks of God's womb begetting God in a corporeal way. 95. It speaks of the Word coming like a breath of air from a human heart. 96. It depicts the Spirit as breathed out from a mouth. 97. It talks of the divine bosom embracing the Son 1105A of God and it presents this to us in a bodily way. 98. For physical imagery it resorts to trees, 99. leaves, 100. flowers, 101. roots, 102. bubbling fountains of water, 103. radiant sources of shining light, 104. together with all those other revealing depictions in the transcendent Word of God. In the domain of the mind, in the area of God's providence, whether it be with respect to his gifts, his appearances, his powers, his attributes, ____________________ 100. Is 27:6. 101. Is 27:6; Sg 2:1 and Is 11:1. 102. Is 53:2. 103. A Septuagint variant of Prv 18:4 used in Jn 7:38 (CH 2 144D 42). See also Jn 4:14; Rv 7:17. 104. See Heb 1:3, and CH2 144D 40. 94. Jer 17:13 (LXX); cf. Jer 2:13; Ps 36:9. 95. Ps 2:7 and perhaps Ps 110:3 (LXX). See CH 2 144D and Koch, Pseudo-Dionysius, p. 245. 96. Ps 45:1. 97. Ps 33:6. 98. Jn 1:18. 99. Hos 14:8, Rv 2:7 from Gn 2:9; Jn 15:1. -281his allotments, his abodes, his processions, his distinctions, or his unions, these are all variously represented in the forms of men, 105. of wild or domestic animals, 106. of plants, 107. and of stones. 108. God is clothed in feminine adornments 109. or in the armor of barbarians. 110. He is given the attributes of an artisan, be he potter 111. or refiner. 112. He is 1105B put on horses, 113. on chariots, 114. on thrones. 115. Well-laid feasts are put on for him. 116. He is represented as drinking, as inebriated, as sleeping, as someone hung-over. 117. And what about his anger, 118. his grief, 119. his various oaths? 120. His changes of mind, 121. his curses, 122. his rages, 123. the various and equivocal sophistries he employs in order to evade his promises? 124. What about the war of the giants, described in Genesis, during which, it is said, God was afraid of those powerful men and tricked them, even though they were building their tower not to harm anyone but for their own salvation? 125. What about the council held in heaven for the purpose of cheating and deceiving Ahab? 126. And in the Songs there are those passionate longings fit only for prostitutes. 127. There are too those other sacred pictures boldly used to represent God, so that what is hidden may be brought out into the open and 1105C multiplied, what is unique and undivided may be divided up, and ____________________ 105. See DN 1 597AB 12-19 for the specific anthropomorphisms. 106. See CH 2 144D 46 to 145 A 4. 107. See above, 1105A, notes 99-102. 108. See DN1 596C 30 and CH 2 144D 45. 109. Rv 1:13? 110. A sword is mentioned in Dt 32:40f.; Pss 35:2f., 45:3-5; Rv 1:16. 111. Is 29:16, 45:9; Jer 18:5f. as cited in Rom 9:21. 112. Zec 11:13 (LXX); Mal 3:2f.; Wisd of Sol 3:6.

200 113.

Hb 3:8. Ps 68:17; see CH 15 337C for the angels' chariots. 115. Ps 45:6f. (cited in Heb 1:8); Ps 103:19; Ez 1:26; Is 6:1; Dn 7:9; Rv 4:2. 116. Although this term for feasts is not in the Bible, banquets are mentioned in Lk 12:37 (see note 147 below), 15:22-32, 22:30, and elsewhere. 117. Sg 5:1; Pss 44:23, 78:65. 118. Ex 4:14, 15:7, 32:10-12. A verbal form, "become angry," appears in Nm 11:10, 12:9; Pss 85:5, 102:10; Rv 14:10, 16:19. 119. Perhaps Gn 6:6, Is 57:17, Mi 6:3; Jesus grieved in Mt 23:37 and Jn 10:35. 120. Gn 22:16, 26:3; Ps 105:9; Lk 1:73; Acts 2:30; Heb 6:17. 121. 1 Sm 15:35; 1 Chr 21:15; Ps 106:45; Hos 11:8 (versus Ps 110:4 as cited in Heb 7:21). 122. Dt 29:20f., 27. See also Gn 5:29 and 12:3. Christ is called a curse in Gal 3:13. 123. This term is not in the Bible, but is related to "anger," as in note 118 above. 124. The author may mean Gn 12:1-3, 22:17-18, and 27:29. 125. Gn 6:4 (LXX) and 11:1-9. 126. 1 Kgs 22:20-23. 127. Sg 1:1 and throughout. 114.

-282multiple shapes and forms be given to what has neither shape nor form. All this is to enable the one capable of seeing the beauty hidden within these images to find that they are truly mysterious, appropriate to God, and filled with a great theological light. 128. But let us not suppose that the outward face of these contrived symbols exists for its own sake. Rather, it is the protective garb of the understanding of what is ineffable and invisible to the common multitude. This is so in order that the most sacred things are not easily handled by the profane but are revealed instead to the real lovers of holiness. Only these latter know how to pack away the workings of childish imagination regarding the sacred symbols. They alone have the simplicity of mind and the receptive, contemplative power to cross over to the simple, marvelous, transcendent truth of the symbols. But there is a further point to understand. Theological tradition 1105D has a dual aspect, the ineffable and mysterious on the one hand, the open and more evident on the other. The one resorts to symbolism and involves initiation. The other is philosophic and employs the method of demonstration. 129. (Further, the inexpressible is bound up with what can be articulated.) The one uses persuasion and imposes the truthfulness of what is asserted. The other acts and, by means of a mystery which cannot be taught, it puts souls firmly in the presence of God. This is why the sacred initiators of our tradition, together with those of the tradition of the Law, resorted freely to symbolism appropriate to God, regarding the sacraments of the most holy mys 1108A 130. Jesus himself teries. Indeed we see the blessed angels using riddles to introduce the divine mysteries. speaks of God by means of parables, and passes on to us the mystery of his divine activity by using the symbolism of a table. It was right not only that the Holy of Holies should be kept free from the contamination of the mob, but also that human life which is undivided but also divided should receive in an appropriate way the enlightenment of divine knowledge. 131. And so ____________________ 128. This battery of examples was introduced and concluded by contrasting their external absurdity (1104C 28f.) with their internal light (1105C 33-36). 129. It is the symbolic side of the dual scriptural tradition that interests our author in this letter. But see L. Couloubaritsis, "Le sens de la notion 'Demonstration' chez le PseudoDenys," Byzantinische Zeitschrift 75, no. 2 (1982): 317-35. Thomas Aquinas used this text several times; see Paul Rorem, "An Influence of Peter Lombard on the Biblical Hermeneutics of Thomas Aquinas," Rivista di storia e letteratura

201 religiosa 16 (1980): 429-34. Zec 3:4. 131. The double rationale for biblical and liturgical symbols, namely, secrecy and ac130.

-283the impassive element of the soul is attuned to the simple and interior visions of those images which have the shape of the divine. On the other hand the passionate element of the soul, as befits its nature, honors and rises up toward the most divine of realities by way of the carefully combined elements of the representations. 132. These symbolic veils are akin [to that part of the soul], as seen by the example of those 1108B who, having been taught the things of God in a way which is clear and unveiled, go on then to picture in themselves some image guiding them to a conception of the theological teaching which they have listened to. 2. As Paul said and as true reason has said, the ordered arrangement of the whole visible realm makes known the invisible things of God. 133. By the same token, scripture writers in their consideration of a theme look at it sometimes in a social and legal perspective and sometimes purely and without any mixture with anything else. They look at it sometimes at the human and intermediate level, sometimes in a transcendent mode and in the context of perfection. Sometimes they rely on the laws governing visible things, sometimes on rules which govern invisible things, and all this depending on what suits the sacred 1108C writings, minds, and souls. Whether one looks at the question in its entirety or in individual detail theirs is not a discourse totally in the bare historical domain but one which has to do with life-giving perfection. We have therefore to run counter to mass prejudice and we must make the holy journey to the heart of the sacred symbols. And we must certainly not disdain them, for they are the descendants and bear the mark of the divine stamps. They are the manifest images of unspeakable and marvelous sights. It is not only the transcendent lights and the conceptual things—or, putting the matter more simply, the divine things— which are depicted in the various symbolic forms, as when, for instance, one describes the transcendent God as "fire" 134. or when one describes the meaning of God's conceptual scriptures as ____________________ commodation, is more fully stated in EH 1 377A 1-5. See also CH 2 140AB 7-18, 145A 8-10, and above 1105C 36-45. 132. On late Neoplatonic views of the soul, see Carlos Steel, The Changing Self (Brussels, 1978). 133. Rom 1:20. 134. Dt 4:24, 9:3; Is 33:14; Heb 12:29. See also Ex 3:2, 13:21, 24:17. The image of fire is also discussed in CH 2 144D 41f., and CH 15 329ABC 9-38. -284"afire." 135. It also is the case that the angelic ranks, conforming to God, intelligible and intelligent beings, are represented in diverse modes, with a great collage of forms and, among other ways, by way of figures of fire. 136. This same image of fire takes on different meanings, de 1108D pending on whether it refers to the God who transcends all conceptions, to the providential activities or reasons of God, or indeed to the angels themselves. In one instance one thinks under the heading of

202 "cause," in another under the heading of "subsistence," in a third instance under the heading of "participation," and in other instances under other headings according as their contemplation and wise arrangement determines. For of course one cannot use sacred symbols haphazardly. They have to be explicated in whatever way that is ap 1109A propriate to the causes, subsistences, powers, orders, and dignities of which they are the revealing signs. 137.

However, I must not allow this letter to go on too long. Let us consider the question which you put to me. What I am saying is this. All nourishment gives completion to the one being nourished. It makes up for whatever there is in him of incompletion and insufficiency. It supplies a remedy for his weakness and watches over his life, making it blossom and revive. It gives his life pleasure. In short, it does away with pain and with imperfection, giving him joy and completion. 3. So then, scripture quite rightly sings the praise of that kindly 1109B wisdom, and indeed it is nowhere near enough to call it wise. For it prepares a mysterious mixing bowl, and, having first made ready some solid food, it pours a sacred drink into it and then, generously, with a great cry, it beckons to all who have need of it. 138. The divine Wisdom therefore makes ready two kinds of nourishment, the one solid and stable, the other liquid and flowing. It makes ready in a bowl the bounties of Providence. This bowl, being round and uncovered, has to be a symbol of the Providence which has neither a beginning nor an end, which is open to all and encompasses all. ____________________ 135. 2 Sm 22:31; Pss 18:30, 119:40; Prv 30:5. All four citations are apparent only in the Septuagint text. 136. CH 15 328C 39 to 329A 8. 137. This letter's lengthy introduction concerning biblical interpretation should be read with CH 2. It concludes here with language reminiscent of Proclus (Koch, Pseudo-Dionysius, pp. 244f.). 138. Prv 9:1-5; see below, 1113B 24f., and Ps 75:8. -285Proceeding outward to everything, it yet remains in itself and continues to be its unaltered self. It maintains its full and unfailing being, like the bowl which continues to be stable and secure. It is said too that wisdom built itself a home and got ready there 1109C the solid food and drink, as well as the bowl. This is said so that anyone giving a sacred meaning to the divine things would clearly discover that the universal cause of being and of well-being is also the perfect Providence which proceeds in stages upon everything. Thus Providence occurs everywhere. It contains everything and, at the same time, it is something in something, but in a transcending way; in no way is it nothing in nothing. For it quite surpasses everything, being and standing and remaining forever in the sameness of its self, experiencing nothing whatever of change, never going out of its self, never leaving its own base and its own unaltered abode and place where in its goodness it engages in the fullness of its perfect Provi dence. It is there that it proceeds step by step down to everything 1109D without ever ceasing to remain within itself. Always at rest and on the move it is never at rest or on the move, which is to say that, naturally and supernaturally, it can engage in its providential activities in the midst of abiding, and it can engage in its abiding in the midst of its providential activities. 139. 4. What is meant by this solid food and this liquid nourishment?

203 The generous Wisdom is praised by saying that it makes a providential 1112A gift of both at the same time. I believe that by solid food is depicted a perfection and sameness of an intellectual and stable order, by virtue of which and during the exercise of a knowledge which is stable, powerful, unique, and indivisible, the divine things are shared with the intelligent workings of sense perception. It is in this way that Paul, himself a recipient of wisdom, imparted truly solid food. 140. As for liquid nourishment, this is the abundant outflowing which reaches out eagerly to all beings and which is a guide through all that is varied, multiple, and divided and which generously leads those it feeds to a simple, stable knowledge of God. This is why the divine and conceptual scriptures are compared to dew, to water, 141. to milk, 142. ____________________ 139. For more on Providence and its relationship to the Neoplatonic framework of "abiding, procession, and return" (CH 1, note 4), see DN 4, note 160. 140. Heb 5:12-14; see also 1 Cor 3:2 and DN 3 681C 30. 141. Moses' words are called "dew" in Dt 32:2; see DN 1 596C 30. For "water of life," etc., see CH 2 144D 42 and DN 1 596C 30. 142. 1 Cor 3:2; 1 Pt 2:2; Heb 5:12-13; Sg 4:11. -286to wine, 143. and to honey, 144. for they have the power like water to pro duce life, like milk to give growth, like wine to revive, like honey both to purify and to preserve.

1112B

Such indeed are the gifts bestowed by the Wisdom of God on those drawing near with generous hearts. This is how Wisdom grants and pours over them the abundant flow of its unfailing delights. And truly they are delights! Which is why Wisdom is praised as life-giving, as child-rearing, as the One who renews and makes perfect. 5. Taking holy delight according to this same sacred explication, one says of God, the cause of all good, that he is "inebriated," 145. and this is to convey that superabundance of delights unfathomable to the mind. Better still, it is to convey the quite total and indescribable lim 1112C itlessness of God's well-being. In our terminology, inebriation has the pejorative meaning of an immoderate fullness, being out of one's mind and wits. 146. It has a better meaning when applied to God, and this inebriation must be understood as nothing other than the measureless superabundance of good things which are in him as Cause. As for being out of one's mind and wits, which follows drunkenness, in God's case it must be taken to mean that incomprehensible superabundance of God by virtue of which his capacity to understand transcends any understanding or any state of being understood. He is beyond being itself. Quite simply, as "drunk" God stands outside of all good things, being the superfullness of all these things. He surpasses all that is measureless and his abode is above and beyond all that exists. It is in the same way that we will understand the feasts of the 1112D saints in the kingdom of God. For the King himself will come, it says, and "have them sit at table and will serve them." 147. What this indicates is a certain common and harmonious sharing by the saints in the good things of God, an "assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven and the spirits of the just men made perfect" 148. and filled up by everything good. We must think of the leading to the table as the 1113A rest from numerous labors, as a life without toil, as a commerce with ____________________

204 143.

See the original discussion of the double food in Prv 9:1-5. Wine, a cup, and a wine press are associated with God's wrath in Rv 14:10, 16:19, 19:15. 144. Rv 1:9-10; Pss 19:10, 119: 103. 145. Sg 5:1; see note 117 above. 146. This sentence provides the literal meaning of the Greek term "ecstasy," which is discussed in DN 13 981B 16-20, note 266. 147. Lk 12:37. See also note 116, above. 148. Heb 12:23. -287God in light and in the land of the living, as a fullness of sacred joy, as the unstinted supply of everything blessed and good by means of which one is replete with happiness. It is Jesus himself who gladdens them and leads them to the table, who serves them, who grants them everlasting rest, who bestows and pours out on them the fullness in beauty. 6. I know well that you are going to ask me to explicate what it means to say that God sleeps or that he wakes up. 149. The sleep of God refers to the divine transcendence and to the inability of the objects of his providential care to communicate directly with him. His wakefulness refers to the care he takes to provide for the education and the salvation of those who need him. After I have shown this to you, you will then be able to move on to other theological symbols. And I do not think that I need to go on and on, and thereby giving the impression that I have something new to say. I believe I have answered your request well and if I finish my letter now it is because I have discussed these things elsewhere. I am sending you the full text of my Symbolic Theology, 150. where you will find explanations for the house of wisdom, the seven pillars, and the solid food, as divided into sacrificial offerings and bread. 151. All that has to do with the mixing of wine and the hangover of God after his inebriation, together with the other symbolism which I have been discussing just now, are more fully worked out in that book. I believe it to be a good investigation of all these symbols, and one which is in harmony with the sacred tradition and the truth of scripture. LETTER TEN 1117A To John the theologian, apostle and evangelist, an exile on the island of Patmos. 152.

1113B

1113C

Beloved and blessed soul—and this is something which I, more than many, can say—I salute you. Truly the beloved disciple, beloved of him who is really to be yearned for, sought after and very greatly loved, greetings to you! ____________________ 149. Pss 44:23, 78:65; Sg 5:2. 150. See above, note 93. 151. Prv 9:1-5. 152. This letter, also disputed by Brons as a secondary addition to the corpus (see above Ep. 6, note 14), attempts to confirm the author's apostolic authority. See Rv 1:9.

205 -288Is it any cause for wonder if Christ speaks the truth, if unjust men drive the disciples out of the cities? 153. Surely the truth is that these men draw down on themselves the punishment they deserve. In their guilt do they not bar themselves and cut themselves off from the holy men? The visible is truly the plain image of the invisible, and in the 1117B times to come it is not God who will rightly separate himself from the wicked but, rather, it is the wicked who will separate themselves completely from God. Indeed we see some already united here and now with God, for they are the lovers of truth and have abandoned the passion for material goods. They are completely free from all evils and are stirred by a divine longing for all good things. They love peace and holiness. In this life they look forward to the coming life. Free of all passion they live like angels among men. They praise the divine name ceaselessly. They practice goodness and every other virtue. As for yourself, I would not be so foolish as to imagine that you suffer in any way and I firmly believe that you perceive the sufferings of your body only to the extent that you discern them. As for those 1117C who deal unjustly with you and who wrongly imagine that they have banished the sun of the gospel, I have good reason to criticize them but, above all, I pray for them in the hope that they will abandon the evil which they are inflicting upon themselves, that they will return to goodness, and that they will call you in order to be able to share in your light. So far as I am concerned no one can take away the ever shining ray of John and at present I am remembering and renewing 1120A the truth of your theological teaching. But—and I say this, however bold it may seem—I will soon join you. I am completely worthy of being believed when I teach and speak the things made known about you by God, namely, that you will be released from your prison on Patmos, that you will return to the land of Asia where you will continue to act in imitation of God and will hand on your legacy to those who come after you. ____________________ 153. Mt 23:34. -289Bibliography Surely the largest printed bibliography of Pseudo-Dionysian studies is that by Placid Spearritt, A Philosophical Enquiry into Dionysian Mysticism (Bösingen: Rotex-Druckdienst, 1975), pp. 173-282. More accessible and more discriminating is the selection by R. Roques, L'Univers Dionysien (Paris: Aubier, 1954), pp. 7-28. Other standard resources are the two bibliographies by Kevin F. Doherty, "Toward a Bibliography of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, 1900-1955," The Modern Schoolman 33 (May 1956): 257-68, and "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite: 1955-1960," The Modern Schoolman 40 (November 1962): 55-59. Jean-Michel Hornus has written two excellent critical surveys of the literature: "Les recherches récentes sur le pseudo-Denys l'Aréopagite," Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 35 (1955): 404-48 and "Les recherches dionysiennes de 1955 à 1960," Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 41 (1961): 22-81. See also the more recent bibliography by William J. Carroll, "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite—A Bibliography: 1960-1980," The Patristic and Byzantine Review 1 (1982):225-234.

206 1 Texts and Translations of Pseudo-Dionysius The Greek text of the corpus is edited by B. Corderius in J. P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca III (Paris, 1857). The critical edition and German translation by A. M. Ritter, G. Heil, and B. Suchla is forthcoming from Göttingen (Die Patristische Kommission der Westdeutschen Akademieen der Wissenschaften). Campbell, Thomas L. The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Washington, D. C.: University Press of America, 1981. Gandillac, Maurice de. Oeuvres Complètes du Pseudo-Denys L'Aréopagite. Paris: Aubier Éditions, 1943. Hathaway, Ronald F. Hierarchy and the Definition of Order in the Letters of Pseudo-Dionysius. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1969. Pp. 130-160. Jones, John D. The Divine Names and Mystical Theology. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1980. Rolt, C. E. The Divine Names and The Mystical Theology. London: SPCK, 1920. Roques, R.; Heil, G.; and Gandillac, M. de. La Hiérarchie Céleste. Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1958. (Sources Chrétiennes 58.) -2912 Other texts Iamblichus. De Mysteriis (Les Mystères d'Egypte). E. des Places, ed. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1966. Proclus. The Elements of Theology. E. R. Dodds, ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1963. 3 Studies Throughout the notes, the following works were cited by author and short title. Authors noted only once or twice in the notes can be located by using the appropriate index. Brons, Bernard. Gott und die Seienden. Untersuchungen zum Verhältnis von neuplatonischer Metaphysik und christlichen Tradition bei Dionysius Areopagita. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1976. (Forschungen zur Kirchenund Dogmengeschichte, 28.) Brons, B. Sekundäre Textparteien im Corpus Pseudo-Dionysiacum? Literarkritische Beobachtungen zu ausgewählten Textstellen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1975. Gersh, Stephen. From lamblichus to Eriugena: An Investigation of the Prehistory and Evolution of the Pseudo-Dionysian Tradition. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978. Hathaway, Ronald F. Hierarchy and the Definition of Order in the Letters of Pseudo-Dionysius. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1969.

207 Koch, Hugo. Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita in seinen Beziehungen zum Neoplatonismus und Mysterienwesen. Mainz: Franz Kirchheim, 1900. Lilla, Salvatore. "Osservazioni sul testo del De Divinis Nominibus dello Ps. Dionigi l'Areopagita," Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia. Serie III, Vol. X, 1. (Pisa, 1980). Pp. 125-202. Roques, René. L'Univers Dionysien, Structure hiérarchique du monde selon pseudoDenys. Paris: Aubier, 1954. . Structures théologiques de la Gnose à Richard de Saint Victor. Essais et analyses critiques. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1962. (Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Etudes. Section des sciences religieuses, volume 72.) Rorem, Paul. Biblical and Liturgical Symbols within the Pseudo-Dionysian Synthe- sis. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1984. Saffrey, H. D. "Nouveaux liens objectifs entre le Pseudo-Denys et Proclus," Revues scientifiques philosophiques et théologiques 63 (1979): 3-16. "New Objective Links between the Pseudo-Dionysius and Proclus," Neoplatonism and Christian Thought. Dominic J. O'Meara, ed. Albany, N. Y.: State University of New York Press, 1982. Pp. 64-74. (Studies in Neoplatonism: Ancient and Modern, III.) -292Scazzoso, Piero. Ricerche sulla struttura del linguaggio dello Pseudo-Dionigi Areopagita. Milan: Società Editrice Vita e Pensiero, 1967. Vanneste, Jan. Le Mystère de Dieu. Essai sur la structure rationnelle de la doctrine mystique du pseudoDenys l'Aréopagite. Brussels: Desclée de Brouwer, 1959. Völker, Walther. Kontemplation und Ekstase bei Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1958. -293-