^ 01 ^eofiSeTs . . . v^a'i — i. e. human minds.
2 ayyeKoiJLiixr]roi)s. "In a manner which imitates the ann;els." Cr. Wordsworth, Prelude, xiv. io8, 102 : " Like angels stopped upon the wing by sound of harmony from heaven's remotest spheres."
' This shows that the Via Negativa is based on an experience and not on a mere speculation.
^ 0 Ti TTOTt iaTiv 7) rTjs vTV€paya66T7]Tos virepvirap^is.
^ " Union " (eVaxris). This word has more than one meaning in D., and hence occasional ambiguity. It may ^ (i) Unity {i.e. that which makes an individual thing to be one thing); (2) Mental or Sjiiritual intercourse ; (3) Physical intercourse ; (4) Sense perception. Here it — either ( I ) or (2), probably ( I ).
' aya06Tr}To<i virap^is~i. e. the ultimate Mssencc in which goodness consists.
TIIK DIVINE NAMKS 6i
throui;h llie fact of Us existence llu- world is brou^lit
into bcini; nnd maintained ; and It is that wliicli all
thinL;s desire — those which have intuitive or discur-
sive Reason seckini^ It through knowledge, the next
rank of beings through perception, and the rest
through vital movement or the property of mere
existence belonging to their statc.^ Conscious of
this, the Sacred Writers celebrate It by every Name
while yet they call It Nameless.^
6. For instance, they call It Nameless when they
say that the Supreme Godhead Itself, in one of the
mystical visions whereby It was symbolically mani-
fested, rebuked him who said : " What is thy name ? " ^
and, as though bidding him not seek by any means
of any Name to acquire a knowledge of God, made
the answer: "Why askest thou thus after My Name
seeing it is secret ? " Now is not the secret Name
precisely that which is above all names "* and nameless,
and is fixed beyond every name that is named, not
only in this world but also in that which is to come ?
On the other hand, they attribute many names to It
when, for instance, they speak of It as declaring : " I
am that I am," ^ or '' I am the Life," ^ or " the Light," '^
or " God," ^ or " the Truth," ^ and when the Inspired
Writers themselves celebrate the Universal Cause
with many titles drawn from the whole created
1 Man — Animal — Vegetable — Inorganic Matter. For the thought of this whole passage, cf. Shelley, Adonais : " That Light whose smile kindles the universe." "The property of mere existence " = QvaiuiZt] KoiX kKTiKi]v iTriT7]Sei6TriTa. ovcria = an individual existence. Its highest meaning is a "personality," its lowest a "thing." oixnuh-qs refers generally to its lowest meaning and = " possessing mere existence," i.e. "belonging to the realm of inorganic matter." See Intr., p. 4.
2 This shows that there is z positive element in D.'s Via Negaiiva. ^ Judges xiii. 18.
* l*hil. ii. 9 ; Eph. i. 21. ^ Ex. iii. 14.
* John xiv. 6. ' John viii. 12. ^ Gen. xxviii. 13. ^ John xiv. 6.
62 Dionysius the Areopagite
universe, such as " Good," ^ and " Fair," ^.and " Wise," ^ as " Beloved," ^ as " God of Gods " and " Lord of Lords "5 and "Holy of Holies/' ^ as " Eternal," ^ as "Existent"^ and as "Creator of Ages," ^ as "Giver of Life," 10 as " Wisdom," ^ as " Mind," 12 ^s '' Word,"i3 as "Knower,"^'' as "possessing beforehand all the treasures of knowledge," ^^ as " Power,"i^ as " Ruler,"^' as "King of kings," ^^ as "Ancient of Days;"!'-^ and as " Him that is the same and whose years shall not fail,"'^^ as " Salvation, "^^ as " Righteousness, "^2 as " Sanctification,"^^ as " Redemption, "^3 as " Surpassing all things in greatness," ^^ and yet as being in "the still small breeze." ^5 Moreover, they say that He dwells within our minds, and in our souls ^6 and bodies,27 and in heaven and in earth,^^ and that, while remaining Himself, He is at one and the same time within the world around it and above it (yea, above the sky and above existence) ; and they call Him a Sun,2^ a Star,^^ and a Fire,^^ and Water,-" a Wind or Spirit,^^ a Dew,^^ a Cloud,^'' an Archetypal Stone,^^ and a Rock,^' and All Creation,^^ Who yet (they declare) is no created thing.
7. Thus, then, the Universal and Transcendent
Cause must both be nameless and also possess the
names of all things in order that It may truly be
an universal Dominion, the Centre of creation on
which all things depend, as on their Cause and
^ iMatt. xix. 17. 2 p^_ xxvii. 4. ^ Rom. xvi. 27.
■* Isa. V. I. ^ Ps. cxxxvi. 2, 3. *• Isa. vi. 3.
' Dcut. xxxiii, 27. ^ Ex. iii. 14. " Cien. i. 1-8.
^^ Gen. i. 20 ; ii. 7 ; job x. 12 ; John x. 10. ^^ Prov. viii.
^^ I Cor. ii. 16. 1'' Jolin i. I. ^* Ps. xliv. 21. ^^ Col. ii. 3.
^^ Rev. xix. I. ^' Rev. i. 5. ^^ Rev. xvii. 4. ^^ Dan. vii.
2" Ps. cii. 25. 2^ Ex. XV. 2. 2^ Jcr. xxiii. 6. ^^ i Co.-. i. 30. 2* Isa. xl. 15. 2^ I Kings xix. 12. -® John xiv. 17.
2' I Cor. vi. 19. '■^^ Isa. Ixvi. I. ^'■* Ps. Ixxxiv. ii.
^" Rev. xxii. 16. ^^ Deut. iv. 24. ^^ Ps. Ixxxiv. 6.
3^ John iv. 24 ; Acts ii. 2. ^* Ilosea xiv. 5. ^^ Kx. xiii. 21. ^® J's. cxviii. 22. ^'^ Ps. xxxi. 2, 3. "'* i Cor. xv. 28.
The Divine Names 63
Origin and Goal ; aiul thai, according to the Scrip-
tures, It may be all in all, and may be truly called
the Creator of the world, originating and perfecting
and maintaining all things ; their Defence and Dwell-
ing, and the ^Attractive Force that draws them : and
all this in one single, ceaseless, and transcendent act.^
For the Nameless Goodness is not only the cause
of cohesion or life or perfection in such wise as to
derive Its Name from this or that providential activity
alone ; nay, rather does It contain all things before-
hand within Itself, after a simple and uncircumscribcd
manner through the perfect excellence of Its one and
all-creative Providence, and thus we draw from the
whole creation Its appropriate praises and Its Names.
8. Moreover, the sacred writers proclaim not only
such titles as these (titles drawn from universal ^ or
from particular ^ providences or providential activi-
ties ^), but sometimes they have gained their images
from certain heavenly visions^ (which in the holy
precincts or elsewhere have illuminated the Initiates
or the Prophets), and, ascribing to the super-luminous
nameless Goodness titles drawn from all manner of
acts and functions, have clothed It in human (fiery
or amber) shapes^ or forms, and have spoken of Its
Eyes,'' and Ears,^ and Hair,^ and Face,^^ and Hands,^^
and Wings,^2 ^nd Feathers, ^^ and Arms,^^ and Back
Parts,^^ and Feet ; ^^ and fashioned such mystical
^ God is above Time.
2 e. g. " I am that I am," '* Good," " Fair."
3 e.g. "Sun,'' "Star," " Rock," etc.
* ctTrb TcDv . . . irpouoiwi' ^ irpouoovfxipwv. The first are the faculties of acting or being revealed in a certain way ; the second are the results or manifestations of these faculties when in action.
^ Thus the complete classification is : (i) Analogies drawn from the material world, (a) universal, {b) particular ; (2) psychic visions. ^ Ezek. i 26, 27. ' Ps. x. 5. ^ James v. 4.
^ Dan. vii. 9. ^" Ps. xxxiii. 17. ^^ Job x. 8.
^2 Ps. xci. 4. ^^ Ibid. ^* Deut. xxxiii. 27.
^^ Ex. xxxiii. 23. ^® Ex. xxiv. 10.
64 Dionysius the Areopagite
conceptions as its Crown,^ and Throne,'-^ and Cup,^
and Mixing Bovvl,"^ etc., concerning which things we
will attempt to speak when we treat of Symbolical
Divinity. At present, collecting from the Scriptures
what concerns the matter in hand, and employing as
our canon the rule we have described, and guiding
our search thereby, let us proceed to an exposition of
God's Intelligible^ Names; and as the Hierarchical
Law directs us in all study of Divinity, let us ap-
proach these godlike contemplations (for such indeed
they arc ^) with our hearts predisposed unto the vision
of God, and let us bring holy ears to the exposition
of God's holy Names, implanting holy Truths in holy
instruments according to the Divine command, and
withholding these things from the mockery and
laughter of the uninitiate, or, rather, seeking to re-
deem those wicked men (if any such there be) from
their enmity towards God. Thou, therefore, O good
Timothy, must guard these truths according to the
holy Ordinance, nor must thou utter or divulge the
heavenly mysteries unto the uninitiate.'^ And for
myself I pray God grant me worthily to declare the
beneficent and manifold Names of the Unutterable
and Nameless Godhead, and that He do not take
away the word of Truth out of my mouth.
^ Rev. xiv. 14. ^ Ezek. i. 26, 27.
3 I's. Ixxv. 8. ^ Frov. ix. 5.
^ rwv vorjTcov Oewvu/xiuu — i. 6. tlic Names belonging to God wlum revealed in the relative sphere ; not those which belong to the ultimate Godhead as sueh. In fact, tlie Godhead, as such, is Nameless. See Intr., p. 7.
" Kvpicus (lirelu — i. e. actually godlike because man is deitied by them
' See A/j'sL 7 /wo/. I. 2 ; and cf. Matt. vii. 6.
The Divine Names 65
Chapter Ii
Cc/iicrnini^ the Undijjfcrcncinij^ and the l)iJJ'cri'iiti<itioii /n
Dh'inify, and the Nature of Divine Lhtijication and
Differentiation }
I. 'TiS the wliolc l^ciiif^ of the Supernal Godhead
(saith the Scripture) tliat the Absolute Goodness hath
defined and revealed.^ For in what other sense may we
take the words of Holy Writ when it tells us how the
Godhead spake concerning Itself, and said: "Why
asketh thou me concerning the good ? None is good
save one, that is, God." ^ Now this matter we have
discussed elsewhere, and have shown that all the
Names proper to God are always applied in Scripture
not partially but to the whole, entire, full, complete
Godhead, and that they all refer indivisibly, absolutely,
unreservedly, and wholly to all the wholeness of the
whole and entire Godhead. Indeed (as we made
mention in the Outlines of Divinity), if any one deny
that such utterance refers to the whole Godhead, he
blasphemeth and profanely dares to divide the Abso-
lute and Supreme Unity. We must, then, take them
as referring unto the entire Godhead. For not only
did the goodly Word Himself say: " I am Good,"^ but
^ irepi T]UQ}iJ.4v7]s Kot ZiaK^Kpiu.4vris OeoXoyias ko: ris t] Oeia epuais Kul ^laKpiffis.
- The point of this section is that God's Nature is not a sum total of separate Attributes. Therefore when we say that the Scriptural titles of God are only symbols and that the ultimate Godhead transcends them, we do not mean that they express only a part of His Nature (for His Nature has no parts), but that they dimly suggest His whole Nature. Hence, too, we cannot say that some of God's titles belong only to one separate Person of the Trinity and others only to the other Persons severally — e. g. The Trinity, and not the Father alone, is the Creator of the world. "The one world was made by the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Ghost" (St. Aug., Co?n. on St. John, Tr. XX. 9).
^ The title "Good" is applied to the whole Godhead. And if that title, then others too. Cf. Matt. xix. 17.
■* John X. II
66 Dionysius the Areopagite
also one of the inspired prophets speaks of the Spirit
as Good.^ So, too, of the words " I Am that I Am."^
If, instead of applying these to the whole Godhead,
they wrest them to include only one part Thereof,
how will they explain such passages as : " Thus saith
He that is and was and is to come, the Almighty,"^
or: "Thou art the same,"^ or "The Spirit of Truth
that is, and that proceedeth from the Father"?^
And if they deny that the whole Godhead is Life,
how can that Sacred Word be true Which declared :
" As the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth
them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will,"^
and also, " It is the Spirit that quickeneth"?"^ And
as to the Dominion over the whole world belonging
to the whole Godhead, it is impossible, methinks, to
say (as far as concerns the Paternal and the Filial
Godhead) how often in the Scriptures the Name of
" Lord " is repeated as belonging both to the Father
and to the Son : moreover the Spirit, too, is Lord.^
And the Names "Fair" and "VVise" are given to
the whole Godhead ; and all the Names that belong
to the whole Godhead {e.g. " Deifying Virtue " and
" Cause ") Scripture introduces into all its praises of
the Supreme Godhead comprehensively, as when it
saith that "all things are from God,"^ and more in
detail, as when it saith that " through Him are and to
Him are all things created," ^^ that "all things subsist
in Him," ^^ and that " Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit
and they shall be created."^^ And, to sum it all in brief,