abounds in repetitions; he covers the poverty of thought with high-sounding phrases; he uses the
terminology of the Hellenic mysteries;^783 and his style is artificial, turgid, involved, and monotonous.
The unity of the Godhead and the hierarchical order of the universe are the two leading
ideas of the Areopagite. He descends from the divine unity through a succession of manifestations
to variety, and ascends back again to mystic union with God. His text, we may say, is the sentence
of St. Paul: "From God, and through God, and unto God, are all things" (Rom. 11:36).
He starts from the Neo-Platonic conception of the Godhead, as a being which transcends
all being and existence^784 and yet is the beginning and the end of all existence, as unknowable and
yet the source of all reason and knowledge, as nameless and inexpressible and yet giving names to
all things, as a simple unity and yet causing all variety. He describes God as "a unity of three
persons, who with his loving providence penetrates to all things, from super-celestial essences to
the last things of earth, as being the beginning and cause of all beings, beyond all beginning, and
enfolding all things transcendentally in his infinite embrace." If we would know God, we must go
out of ourselves and become absorbed in Him. All being proceeds from God by a sort of emanation,
and tends upward to him.
The world forms a double hierarchy, that is, as he defines it, "a holy order, and science, and
activity or energy, assimilated as far as possible to the godlike and elevated to the imitation of God
in proportion to the divine illuminations conceded to it." There are two hierarchies, one in heaven,
and one on earth, each with three triadic degrees.
The celestial or supermundane hierarchy consists of angelic beings in three orders: 1)
thrones, cherubim, and seraphim, in the immediate presence of God; 2) powers, mights, and
dominions; 3) angels (in the narrower sense), archangels, and principalities.^785 The first order is
illuminated, purified and perfected by God, the second order by the first, the third by the second.
The earthly or ecclesiastical hierarchy is a reflex of the heavenly, and a school to train us
up to the closest possible communion with God. Its orders form the lower steps of the heavenly
ladder which reaches in its summit to the throne of God. It requires sensible symbols or sacraments,
783
As for the three stages of spiritual ascent,κάθαρσις,μύησις,τελείωσις, and the verbἐποπτεύεσθαι,i.e. to be admitted
to the highest grade at mysteries, to become anἐπόπτηςorμύστης. For other rare words see the vocabulary of Dion. in Migne,
I. 1134 sqq., and II. 23 sqq.
784
το ̀ο ν ὑπερούσιον, das ueberseiende Sein.(^785) Or, in the descending order, they are:
(a) εραφίμ, χερουβίμ, θρόνοι.
(b) κυριότητες, δυνάμεις , ἐξουσίαι.
(c) ἀρχαί, ἀρχάγγελοι, ἀγγελοι.
Five of these orders are derived from St. Paul, Eph. 1:21 (ἀρχή, ἐξουσία, δύναμις, κυριότης), and Col. 1:16 (θρόνοι,
κυριότητες. ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι); the other four (σεραφίμ, χερουβίμ, ἀρχάγγελοι, ἄγγελοι) are likewise biblical designations of
angelic beings, but nowhere mentioned in this order. Thomas Aquinas, in his doctrine of angels, closely follows Dionysius,
quoting him literally, or more frequently interpreting his meaning. Dante introduced the three celestial triads into his Divina
Commedia (Paradiso, Canto XXVIII. 97 sqq.):
"These orders upward all of them are gazing,
And downward so prevail, that unto God
They all attracted are and all attract.
And Dionysius with so great desire
To contemplate these orders set himself,
He named them and distinguished them as I do."
(Longfellow’s translation .)