TRANSLATIONS OV CHRIS I'l AN LITERATURE
GENERAL Editors: W. J. SPARROW-SIMl'SON, D.I)., \V. K. LOWTHER CLARKE, li.l).
Series I
Greek Texts
Dionysius the Areopagite
D59s?
Greek Text5
«-*DIONYSlUS ..«
The Areopagite -
On the
Divine Names
And the
Mysticaltheology
By C E ROLT.
r^O
SOCIETY FOFL PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. London
The Macmillan Corapanu .IsW^i^
Lpanu
Printed in Great Britain bv
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
brunswick st., stamford st., s.e. i,
and bungay, suffolk.
Prekace
The translations of which the present volume consists are the work of a scholar who died at the age of thirty-seven. It has been felt that since the translator did not live to write a preface his work should be introduced by a few prefatory words. My excuse for accepting that office is that I probably knew the lamented writer as well as any one living. He was deprived of both his parents while very young, left almost friendless, and entrusted to my care from the age of fourteen. He had already shown promise of unusual ability. I sent him to King's College School, where in the opinion of its distinguished Head, the Rev. Dr. Bourne, he could have done anything if only he had been given the health. At Oxford he was awarded the Liddon Studentship.
Nothing can show more clearly what was thought of him
by competent judges in Oxford than the following letter
written by the Professor of Latin, A. C. Clark :
" He w^as one of the best scholars who passed through my hands at Queen's College, and I know no one who made greater progress after coming into residence. In those early days he had wonderful powers of work. I was seldom so delighted as when he earned the great dis- tinction of being ' mentioned ' for the Hertford University Scholarship in Latin. At the time everything seemed to be within his grasp. But most unfortunately his health failed shortly afterwards, and he was never able to do him- self justice. Still, of recent years he wrote a remarkable book, full of fine thought, brilliantly expressed, which was much admired by good judges. I well remember, too, his Latin sermon preached at St. Mary's not long ago. It was
VI PREFx\CE
delivered with feeling and fire, and seemed to me an admir-
able performance. I am sure that he would have gained
distinction in the Church, if he had lived.
" He seemed to me a fine and noble character, free from all mortal taint."
He was a singularly refined and religious character,
combining the acuteness of a philosophic mind with the
fervour of a mystic. He therefore possessed undoubted
qualifications for a study of Dionysius, with whose neo-
riatonic ideas and mystical tendencies he was in the
warmest sympathy.
The Introduction, containing a masterly exposition of Dionysian principles, is entirely the translator's work, and, within the limits which he set himself, may be called complete. Rolt's fervid and enthusiastic disposition led him to expound Dionysius with increasing admiration as his studies continued. He laid his original introduction aside, because to his maturer judgment it seemed insufficiently appreciative.
In its final form the Introduction is beyond all question a very able and remarkable piece of work. There are, how- ever, several instances where the writer's enthusiasm and personal opinions have led him to unguarded language, or disabled him from realizing the dangers to which the Areopagite's teaching tends. He does indeed distinctly admit that Dionysius has his dangers, and says in one place definitely that the study of him is for the few : but the bearing of the whole theory of the Supra-Personal Deity on the l^erson of Christ and the Christian doctrine of the Atonement re([uires to be more thoroughly defined than is done in the exceedingly able pages of Rolt's Introduction. It is not the business of an editor to express his own views, but yet it seems only reasonable that he should call the reader's attention to questionable expositions, or to dogmatic statements which seem erroneous. In four or five places the editor has ventured to do this : with what effect the reader must decide. The Introduction of course appears exactly as the Author left it. The few additional remarks are l^racketed as notes by themselves.
PREFACE vii
It is only right to add that the translator laboured under certain disadvantages. The original text of J)ionysius is perplexing and confused, and no modern critical edition has as yet been produced. Rolt was frequently in doubt what the Author had really written.
]iut, beside the drawback incidental to any student of Dionysius, there was the fact of the translator's solitary position at Watermillock, a village rectory among the Lakes, shut off from access to libraries, and from acquaintance with former writers on his subject. This is a defect of which the translator was well aware, and of which he patheti- cally complained. Friends endeavoured to some extent to supply him with the necessary books, but the lack of reference to the literature of the subject will not escape the reader of these pages. He was always an independent thinker rather than a person of historical investigation.
Hence it is that one branch of his subject was almost omitted ; namely, the influence of Dionysius on the history of Christian thought. This aspect is far too important to be left out. Indeed Dionysius cannot be critically valued without it. An attempt therefore has been nade to supply this omission in a separate Essay, in order to place the reader in possession of the principal facts, both concerning the Areopagite's disciples and critics.
W. J. s.-s.
Contents
Preface ........
By W. J. Sparrow-Simpson, D.D,
Introduction —
i. the author
2. his leading ideas : the nature of the
godhead in itself.
3. its relation to creation .
4. the problem of evil
5. contemplation .....
6. dionysius and modern philosophy .
7. the psychology of contemplation .
8. the scriptural basis of dionysius's
doctrines .....
9. conclusion . . . . . 10. bibliography . ...
The Divine Names
The Mystical Theology ....
THE influence OF DIONYSIUS IN RELIGIOUS history (r.Y W. J. SPARROW-SIMPSON, D.D.)
Pagk
Index
Dionysius the Areopagite
Introduction
I. — The Author and His Influence in the Later Church
The writings here translated are among the extant
works of a theologian who professes to be St. l^aul's
Athenian convert Dionysius, and points his claim
with a background of historical setting. But the
claim collapses beneath a considerable weight of
anachronisms, by far the chief of which is the later
neo-Platonism in almost every paragraph. In fact,
these writings appear to reflect, and even to quote,
the doctrines of the Pagan philosopher Proclus, who
began lecturing at Athens in A.D. 430. Moreover, it
is probable that the Hierotheus, who figures so largely
in them, is the Syrian mystic Stephen bar Sudaili :
a later contemporary of the same thinker. The
Dionysian writings may therefore be placed near
the very end of the fifth century.
The true name of their author is entirely unknown.
He was probably a monk, possibly a bishop, certainly
an ecclesiastic of some sort. His home is believed
to have been Syria, where speculative theology was
daring and untrammelled, and his works are the chief
among the very few surviving specimens of an im-
portant school. The pious fraud by which he fathered
them upon the Areopagite need not be branded with
the harsh name of " forgery," for such a practice was
2 Dionysius the Areopagite
in his day permitted and even considered laudable.
Nor does it rob them of their value, any more than
certain parts of the prophecies ascribed to Isaiah are
worthless because they are by another hand. If the
Dionysian writings were historical documents the
matter would be otherwise, just as the Gospel Nar-
rative would lose nearly all its value if it were a later
fabrication. But they are not historical documents.
Their scope is with the workings of man's mind and
spirit in a region that does not change, and their
findings are equally valid or invalid whatever be their
date. And yet even historically they have an interest
which does not depend on their authorship. For, in
any case, they spring from a certain reputable school
within the Christian Church, and they were accepted
by the Church at large. And thus their bold path
of contemplation and philosophy is at least permis-
sible to Christians. This path is not for all men, but
some are impelled to seek it; and if it is denied
them within the Christian pale, they will go and
look for it elsewhere. Nietzsche is but one of those
who have thus disastrously wandered afar in search
of that which is actually to be found within the fold.
Had he but studied the Dionysian writings he might
have remained a Christian. At the present time
these works have an added interest in the fact that,
since neo-Platonism has strong affinities with the
ancient philosophies of India, and may even owe
something directly to that source through the sojourn
of Plotinus in the Punjab, such writings as these
may help the Church to meet with discriminating
sympathy certain Indian teachings which arc now
becoming too familiar in the West to be altogether
ignored. The bearings of this matter on the mis-
sionary problem are obvious.
The first mention of "Dionysius" (to give him by courtesy the name he takes u[)on himself) is in the
Influence on Later Church 3
year 533, when, at a council held in Constantinople,
Scvcrus, Patriarch of Antioch, appealed to these
writings in support of Monophysite teaching. In
spite of this unpromising beginning they soon ac-
quired a great reputation ; indeed, they presumably
possessed some authority already when this first
recorded appeal to them was made. They were
widely read in the Eastern Church, being elucidated
by the Commentary of St. Maximus in the seventh
century and the Paraphrase of the learned Greek
scholar. Pachymeres, in the thirteenth or fourteenth.
Through Erigena's Latin translation in the ninth
century they penetrated to the Western Church, and
were so eagerly welcomed in this country that (in
the words of the old chronicler), " The Mystical
Divinity ran across England like deer." They are
often quoted with reverence by St. Thomas Aquinas,
and were, indeed, the chief of the literary forces
moulding the mystical theology of Christendom.
Ruysbroeck slaked his thirst at their deep well, and
so they provided a far greater than their author with
stimulus and an articulate philosophy. Were this
their only service they would have the highest claims
on our gratitude.
But they have an intrinsic value of their own in
spite of their obvious defects. And if their influence
has too often led to certain spiritual excesses, yet
this influence would not have been felt at all had
they not met a deep spiritual want. It arose not
merely on account of their reputed authorship but
also because the hungering heart of man found here
some hidden manna. This manna, garnished though
it be in all these writings with strange and often
untranslatable terms from the Pagan Mysteries and
from later neo-Platonism, is yet in itself a plain and
nourishing spiritual meat. Let us now try to discover
its quality from the two treatises before us.
II. — His Leading Ideas: The Nature of the Godhead in Itself
The basis of their teaching is the doctrine oi the
Super-Essential Godhead {vtieqovoioq OeaQxta). We
must, therefore, at the very outset fix the meaning
of this term. Now the word " Essence " or " Being "
(ovoLo) means almost invariably an individual exist-
ence, more especially a person, since such is the
highest type that individual existence can in this
world assume. And, in fact, like the English word
" Being," it may without qualification be used to
mean an angel. Since, then, the highest connotation
of the term ''Essence" or "Being" is a person, it
follows that by " Super-Essence " is intended " Supra-
Personality." And hence the doctrine of the Super-
Essential Godhead simply means that God is, in His
ultimate Nature, Supra-Personal.
Now an individual person is one who distinguishes
himself from the rest of the world. I am a person
because I can say : " I am I and I am not you."
Personality thus consists in the faculty of knowing
oneself to be one individual among others. And
thus, by its very nature. Personality is (on one side
of its being, at least) a finite thing. The very essence
of my personal state lies in the fact that I am not
the whole universe but a member thereof.
God, on the other hand, is Supra-Personal because
He is infinite. He is not one Being among others,
but in His ultimate nature dwells on a plane where
there is nothing whatever beside Himself The only
kind of consciousness we may attribute to Him is
what can but be described as an Universal Con-
sciousness. He does not distinguish Himself from
us ; for were we caught up on to that level we should
be wholly transformed into Him. And yet we dis-