Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

Agora

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

c. 480–530

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

God is beyond anything we can say or think, so we approach him best by denying every description of him.

Placement

Medieval & Scholastic · Religion, Metaphysics

An unknown author writing under the name of a disciple of Paul: fused the Neoplatonism of Proclus with Christianity and became an authority of medieval mysticism.

Key ideas

Negative theology
Celestial hierarchy
The divine names

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Influence

Influenced by 2

Plotinus

influenced by
Through Proclus’ Neoplatonism Dionysius inherited the Plotinian One beyond being and made it the unknowable God of his negative theology (Divine Names; Mystical Theology). Pseudo-Dionysius, De divinis nominibus; De mystica theologia; SEP “Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite”
Evidence: AI draft
Plotinus › 204–270
Proclus

influenced by
Dionysius joined Proclus’ Neoplatonism to Christian faith; his treatment of evil in Divine Names IV follows Proclus’ On the Existence of Evils, as Koch and Stiglmayr showed (1895). H. Koch, Philologus 54 (1895); J. Stiglmayr, Historisches Jahrbuch 16 (1895); SEP “Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite”
Evidence: AI draft
Proclus › 412–485

Influenced 6

John Scotus Eriugena

influenced
Eriugena translated the Dionysian corpus into Latin around 860–62 and built Periphyseon on its procession and return and its affirmative and negative theology. John Scottus Eriugena, Versio Dionysii; Periphyseon; SEP “John Scottus Eriugena”
Evidence: AI draft
John Scotus Eriugena › c. 815–877
Albertus Magnus

influenced
Albert commented on the whole Dionysian corpus around 1248–50, partly in Cologne with Thomas Aquinas as his student, and took up its negative theology. Albertus Magnus, Super Dionysium De divinis nominibus; Super Dionysii Mysticam theologiam; SEP “Albert the Great”
Evidence: AI draft
Albertus Magnus › c. 1200–1280
Bonaventure

influenced
Bonaventure took up Dionysius’ hierarchies and his mystical ascent into darkness beyond knowledge, quoting the Mystical Theology at the climax of the Itinerarium (1259). Bonaventure, Itinerarium mentis in Deum (1259), ch. 7; SEP “Saint Bonaventure”
Evidence: AI draft
Bonaventure › c. 1221–1274
Thomas Aquinas

influenced
Aquinas commented on Dionysius’ Divine Names and cited him often, taking up the threefold way of affirmation, negation and eminence for naming God. Thomas Aquinas, In librum Beati Dionysii De divinis nominibus expositio; Summa theologiae I q. 13; SEP “Thomas Aquinas”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Thomas Aquinas › c. 1225–1274
Meister Eckhart

influenced
Eckhart took up Dionysius’ negative theology – God beyond being and every name – and cited him for the soul’s union with the hidden God. Meister Eckhart, German sermons and Latin works; SEP “Meister Eckhart”; SEP “Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite”
Evidence: AI draft
Meister Eckhart › c. 1260–1328
Nicholas of Cusa

influenced
Cusanus took up Dionysius’ negative theology and darkness beyond knowledge for his learned ignorance and discussed him in letters to the Tegernsee monks on mystical theology (1453). Nicholas of Cusa, De docta ignorantia (1440), book I; letters to the monks of Tegernsee (1452–54); SEP “Nicholas of Cusa”
Evidence: AI draft
Nicholas of Cusa › 1401–1464

Works

c. 500The Divine Names
What may be said of God – and why every name falls short of the One beyond being.

Position

These writings joined the Neoplatonism of Proclus with Christian faith. God is beyond being and every name: with Scripture we may call him good, wise or living, but each name must also be denied, for he surpasses all we can say. Beyond affirmation and negation lies union with God in a “divine darkness” beyond knowing. Creation is ordered in hierarchies – a word apparently coined by him – through which divine light descends from nine choirs of angels to the Church and leads back to God. Translated into Latin in the ninth century, they became a leading authority for medieval theology and mysticism, from Eriugena to Meister Eckhart.

Life & context

Nothing is known of the author. He wrote under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, an Athenian converted by Paul according to the Acts of the Apostles. His dependence on the Neoplatonist Proclus shows that he wrote around 500, probably as a monk in Syria. Renaissance scholars began to doubt the writings’ apostolic origin, and in 1895 their late date was conclusively proven.