of St. Paul in Athens. Modern scholarship has concluded that the works were not written
in the 1st century but rather ca. 500, probably by a Syrian monk well versed in Christian
and Neoplatonic thought. The author sought “apostolic” credentials by writing under a
pseudonym.
The Pseudo-Dionysian writings comprise four treatises in Greek (Celestial Hierarchy,
Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Divine Names, Mystical Theology) and ten letters, with internal
references to other works that were probably never written. The author conceives of a
mystical quest with three basic stages: purgation, illumination, and union. The material
world is seen as both a barrier to and a “ladder” for ascent toward the divine. On the one
hand, all concepts and images must be purged from the mind in order to arrive at a state
of darkness and “unknowing” in which God, who is beyond all concepts and images, will
be experienced in the “dazzling darkness” of divine presence. On the other hand, the
world is conceived as a series of partial symbols of the divine. These two “theologies,”
one negative or “apophatic” and the other positive (symbolic) or “cataphatic,” exerted a
powerful effect upon western Latin theology and spirituality from the 12th century
forward. Pseudo-Dionysius also conceived of a hierarchy of spiritual beings linking
material and spiritual worlds and the divine. Nine “ranks” of angels were arranged in
three “orders” of three ranks each in a descent from God to seraphs through the hierarchy
to ordinary angels. The earthly ecclesiastical hierarchy echoed this threefold division in
the orders of bishops, priests, and deacons. The sacraments, being a material mediation of
divine presence, effected a participation in the divine under the ministry of the
ecclesiastical hierarchy. Especially influential in the work of Pseudo-Dionysius was the
notion that evil qua evil was nonexistent; evil was merely a lack of goodness that can
only be described in negative terms.
In the medieval period, “Dionysius the Areopagite” (Fr. “Denis”) came to be
identified with other persons. He was taken to be a missionary to Gaul who was martyred
outside of Paris and whose remains became the major relic at the royal abbey of Saint-
Denis. In 827, the Byzantine emperor Michael the Stammerer sent a manuscript of
Pseudo-Dionysius’s works to Louis the Pious. The abbot of Saint-Denis, Hilduin,
produced a rough translation. Later, Johannes Scottus Eriugena translated the works
again and wrote a commentary on the Celestial Hierarchy that was destined to be
influential but had little effect in Eriugena’s own day. In the 12th century, Hugh and
Richard of Saint-Victor brought Pseudo-Dionysian thought into the mainstream of
mystical and theological writing. In the 13th century, new translations appeared. The
influence of Pseudo-Dionysius was felt in the analysis of the attributes of God, the ideas
of symbolism that informed art and writing about art, sacramental theology, and
mysticism. Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas wrote commentaries on Pseudo-
Dionysian works, and Bonaventure made extensive use of Pseudo-Dionysian ideas in his
mystical writings. In the 14th century, Jean Gerson and Nicholas of Cusa were much
influenced by Pseudo-Dionysius, especially Cusa’s ideas of the “coincidence of
opposites.”
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: ALBERT THE GREAT; AQUINAS, THOMAS; BONAVENTURE;
DENIS; ERIUGENA, JOHANNES SCOTTUS; GERSON, JEAN; HILDUIN OF
SAINT-DENIS; HUGH OF SAINT-VICTOR; MYSTICISM; PHILOSOPHY;
RICHARD OF SAINT-VICTOR; SAINT-DENIS; THEOLOGY]
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Opera omnia. PG 3.
The Encyclopedia 1447