Pseudo-Dionysius as Polemicist
Pseudo-Dionysius as Polemicist

Author: Rosemary A. Arthur

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-12-05

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 1351907999

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The anonymous theologian known as Pseudo-Dionysius, who was responsible for arranging the angelic hierarchy into nine orders, had a significant influence on mediaeval European mysticism. This book places him in his religious and political context in sixth century Syria, and uncovers the hidden agenda which lies behind his writings. New evidence is presented to establish the dating of the corpus more accurately than has been done before. Rather than analysing the minutiae of Dionysius' thought, Rosemary Arthur focuses on his sources for, and treatment of, the Angelic Hierarchy and the Dazzling Darkness, with a view to ascertaining his motive for writing, his relationship with his opponents and his need to hide his identity.

Re-thinking Dionysius the Areopagite
Re-thinking Dionysius the Areopagite

Author: Sarah Coakley

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-08-24

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1444356453

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Dionysius the Areopagite, the early sixth-century Christian writer, bridged Christianity and neo-Platonist philosophy. Bringing together a team of international scholars, this volume surveys how Dionysius’s thought and work has been interpreted, in both East and West, up to the present day. One of the first volumes in English to survey the reception history of Dionysian thought, both East and West Provides a clear account of both modern and post-modern debates about Dionysius’s standing as philosopher and Christian theologian Examines the contrasts between Dionysius’s own pre-modern concerns and those of the post-modern philosophical tradition Highlights the great variety of historic readings of Dionysius, and also considers new theories and interpretations Analyzes the main points of hermeneutical contrast between East and West

Negating Negation
Negating Negation

Author: Timothy D Knepper

Publisher: James Clarke & Company

Published: 2014-09-25

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 0227902653

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'Negating Negation' critically examines key concepts in the corpus of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite: divine names and perceptible symbols; removal and negation; hierarchy and hierurgy; ineffability and incomprehensibility. In each case it argues that the Dionysian corpus does not negate all things of an absolutely ineffable God; rather, it negates few things of a God that is effable in important ways. Dionysian divine names are not inadequate metaphors or impotent attributes but transcendent divine causes. Divine names are not therefore flatly negated of God but removed as ordinary properties to be revealed as divine causes. It is concluded that since the Dionysian corpus does not abandon all things to apophasis, it cannot be called to testify on behalf of (post)modern projects in religious pluralism and anti-ontotheology. Quite the contrary, the Dionysian corpus gives reason for suspicion of such projects, especially when they relativize or metaphorize religious belief and practice in the name of absolute ineffability.

Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite
Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite

Author: Charles M. Stang

Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand

Published: 2012-02-09

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 0199640424

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This book examines the writings of an early sixth-century Christian mystical theologian who wrote under the name of a convert of the apostle Paul, Dionysius the Areopagite, and argues that the pseudonym and the corresponding influence of Paul are the crucial lens through which to read this influential corpus.

God, Hierarchy, and Power
God, Hierarchy, and Power

Author: Ashley M. Purpura

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2017-11-07

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 0823278387

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In the current age where democratic and egalitarian ideals have preeminence, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, among other hierarchically organized religious traditions, faces the challenging questions: “Why is hierarchy maintained as the model of organizing the church, and what are the theological justifications for its persistence?” These questions are especially significant for historically and contemporarily understanding how Orthodox Christians negotiate their spiritual ideals with the challenges of their social and ecclesiastical realities. To critically address these questions, this book offers four case studies of historically disparate Byzantine theologians from the sixth to the fourteenth-centuries—Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, Niketas Stethatos, and Nicholas Cabasilas—who significantly reflect on the relationship between spiritual authority, power, and hierarchy in theoretical, liturgical, and practical contexts. Although Dionysius the Areopagite has been the subject of much scholarly interest in recent years, the applied theological legacy of his development of “hierarchy” in the Christian East has not before been explored. Relying on a common Dionysian heritage, these Byzantine authors are brought into a common dialogue to reveal a tradition of constructing authentic ecclesiastical hierarchy as foremost that which communicates divinity.

Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy
Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy

Author: Filip Ivanović

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2011-09-22

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1443834319

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Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy aims to explore the thought of one of the most controversial characters of Christian history, Dionysius the Areopagite, and put it in a correct context, between pagan (namely Neoplatonic) philosophy on the one side, and Christian theology, on the other. In significant part, the book examines Dionysius’ Neoplatonic sources, but it also offers insights into the original points of his philosophy and theology, thus showing how he managed to achieve a masterful integration of pagan thought and newly revealed faith. The chapters of the book, taken together, try to offer a broad insight into the Areopagite’s thought, through examining not just his intellectual background and milieu, but also some of the crucial features of his work, such as notions of hierarchy, deification, apophatic and cataphatic theologies, icon, and others. This work is of a multidisciplinary character, since Dionysius’ thought has been studied from different points of view, so the contributions range from philosophy and theology to history and art history. Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy is intended for both specialists and non-specialists. Apart from being a collection of specific studies, it can also serve as an introduction to the Areopagite’s thought, and will be useful to all those interested in late antique and early Christian philosophy and theology, patristics, and cultural studies in general.

Angels in Early Medieval England
Angels in Early Medieval England

Author: Richard Sowerby

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0198785372

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In the modern world, angels can often seem to be no more than a symbol, but in the Middle Ages men and women thought differently. Some offered prayers intended to secure the angelic assistance for the living and the dead; others erected stone monuments carved with images of winged figures; and still others made angels the subject of poetic endeavour and theological scholarship. This wealth of material has never been fully explored, and was once dismissed as the detritus of a superstitious age. Angels in Medieval England offers a different perspective, by using angels as a prism through which to study the changing religious culture of an unfamiliar age. Focusing on one corner of medieval Europe which produced an abundance of material relating to angels, Richard Sowerby investigates the way that ancient beliefs about angels were preserved and adapted in England during the Anglo-Saxon period. Between the sixth century and the eleventh, the convictions of Anglo-Saxon men and women about the world of the spirits underwent a gradual transformation. This book is the first to explore that transformation, and to show the ways in which the Anglo-Saxons tried to reconcile their religious inheritance with their own perspectives about the world, human nature, and God.

Pseudo-Dionysius and the Metaphysics of Aquinas
Pseudo-Dionysius and the Metaphysics of Aquinas

Author: O'Rourke

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-10-18

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9004451773

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In Aquinas' encounter with Pseudo-Dionysius can be discovered an integral philosophy of reality — a comprehensive vision of existence, depicting the universe in its procession from and return to the Absolute, according to each grade of reality, including man, its place in the hierarchy of being. The point of divergence is the primacy attributed, in turn, by the authors to the Good or to Being as a universal principle. Against this background the present work investigates the influence of Dionysius with respect to the central themes of Aquinas' metaphysics: knowledge of the Absolute, and its nature as transcendent; Being as primary and universal perfection; the diffusion of creation; the hierarchy of creatures and return of all to God as the final end. This is one of the few studies to date which considers in a comprehensive way the relation between these remarkable thinkers. By concrete example and continual reference it illustrates both the pervasive influence of Pseudo-Dionysius and the profound originality of Aquinas.

The Dionysian Mystical Theology
The Dionysian Mystical Theology

Author: Paul Rorem

Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 145149582X

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This book introduces the Pseudo-Dionysian mystical theology, with glimpses at key stages in its interpretation and critical reception through the centuries. Part one reproduces and provides commentary on the elusive Areopagites own miniature essay, The Mystical Theology, impenetrable without judicious reference to the rest of the Dionysian corpus. Stages in the reception and critique of this Greek corpus and theme are sketched in part two, from the sixth-century through the twelfth and to the critical reaction and opposition by Martin Luther in the Reformation.

The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite
The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite

Author: Mark Edwards

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022-02-25

Total Pages: 728

ISBN-13: 0192538799

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This Handbook contains forty essays by an international team of experts on the antecedents, the content, and the reception of the Dionysian corpus, a body of writings falsely ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, a convert of St Paul, but actually written about 500 AD. The first section contains discussions of the genesis of the corpus, its Christian antecedents, and its Neoplatonic influences. In the second section, studies on the Syriac reception, the relation of the Syriac to the original Greek, and the editing of the Greek by John of Scythopolis are followed by contributions on the use of the corpus in such Byzantine authors as Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite, Niketas Stethatos, Gregory Palamas, and Gemistus Pletho. In the third section attention turns to the Western tradition, represented first by the translators John Scotus Eriugena, John Sarracenus, and Robert Grosseteste and then by such readers as the Victorines, the early Franciscans, Albert the Great, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Dante, the English mystics, Nicholas of Cusa, and Marsilio Ficino. The contributors to the final section survey the effect on Western readers of Lorenzo Valla's proof of the inauthenticity of the corpus and the subsequent exposure of its dependence on Proclus by Koch and Stiglmayr. The authors studied in this section include Erasmus, Luther and his followers, Vladimir Lossky, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Jacques Derrida, as well as modern thinkers of the Greek Church. Essays on Dionysius as a mystic and a political theologian conclude the volume.