PURGATORY187identical with sentences. The two sen-
tences, “It is raining,” and in French,
“Il pleut,” both express the same proposi-
tion or statement.
PROVIDENCE. Synonym for God in
Christian theology since the Middle Ages.
The derivation of this word from the
Latin pro + videntia, meaning “fore-sight,”
points to understandings of God as omni-
scient, or as foreseeing or foreordaining
events. Self-identified theists customarily
believe God to be provident.
PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS THE ARE-
OPAGITE. The writer and theologian now
known as Pseudo-Dionysius or Pseudo-
Denys was probably a Syrian monk who
lived and wrote circa 500 CE. He acquired
this rather dubious title after later
medieval theologians confused him with
Dionysius the Areopagite, whose conver-
sion by St. Paul is described in Acts 17:34.
As a result, his writings gained great
authority in the tradition of church
scholarship. His extant writings include
four books (Divine Names, Mystical
Theology, Celestial Hierarchy, Ecclesiasti-
cal Hierarchy), and ten letters.
Pseudo-Dionysius espoused a sort of
Neoplatonic, mystical Christianity char-
acterized in large part by apophatic
theology, also known as the via negativa.
According to this method, one denies that
anything can positively be known about
God save that God is ineffable and
transcendent. For Pseudo-Dionysius, the
ultimate goal is unity with God, not
knowledge of God. These and other Neo-
platonic views have caused some to accuse
him of heresy, but his writings are still, for
the most part, accepted by the church.PTOLEMAIC. Similar to or having to do
with the natural philosophy of Ptolemy
(c. 90–c. 168 CE). In his Almagest,
Ptolemy developed the cosmology of ear-
lier scientists and worked up a reliable
system of sidereal navigation. The Almag-
est became the source of the dominant
geocentric model of the universe until
the time of Copernicus. Later medieval
theology adopted a Ptolemaic and
Aristotelian view of the cosmos, leading
to controversy when heliocentric models
of the universe were announced.
Philosopher of religion John Hick
(1922– ) argued that just as the Ptolemaic
system of astronomy had to abandon the
geocentric model to more closely match
the truth, so religions ought to abandon
models of belief that place one’s own
religion at the center. Instead, we should
see the Divine at the center, with religions
orbiting it as planets orbit the sun. See
also PLURALISM.PURE ACT. See ACTUS PURUS.PURGATORY. From the Latin purgato-
rium, meaning “a place of purification