^ Oeaipid, Koipijoi'ia, oixoicoiTis. These .are three elements of one process. Resembhince is the final goal, of. i John iii. 2. D. defines Deification as "a process whereby we are made like unto God {a.(po/j.oiw(Tis) and are imited unto Him {(vwais) so far as these things maybe." {£cc/. Hier. I. 4. Migne, p. 376, A.)

^ Two kinds of danger : (l) spiritual presumption; (2) tlie tempta- tions of our earthly nature. In dealing with the first D. warns us against leaving the Affirmative Path until we are ready. The Negative Path goes on where the Affirmative Path stops. St. John of the Cross and other spiritual writers insist that, though contemplation is a higher activity than meditation through images, yet not all are called to it, and that it is disastrous prematurely to abandon meditation. S. John of the Cross, in the Dark N?^ht of the Sotil, explains the signs which will show when the time has come for the transition. Note the s[)iritual s;inity of I). His Unknowing is not a blank.

•' Tas 'I'lXas . . . tS)V unefiovpaviooy Td^ewt/ ayla^ Siai{0(T/xi](Tfit.

'' A depth opens up in the hcnrt of man corres])()n(ling to the depth of the (iodhend. Deep answers unto deej). Cf i Cor. ii. 10,11.

Titr Divine Names 55

the Divine praises,^ bein^^ supcrnaturally cnlighteiicd
by tliem and conformed unto that sacred hymnody,
even so as to behold the Divine enhghtenments the
which through them are given in such wise as fits our
powers, and so as to praise the bounteous Origin of
all holy illumination in accordance with that Doctrine,
as concerning Itself, wherewith It hath instructed us
in the Holy Scriptures. Thus do we learn ^ that It is
the Cause and Origin and Being and Life of all crea-
tion.^ And It is unto them that fall away from It a
Voice that doth recall them and a Power by which
they rise ; and to them that have stumbled into a
corruption of the Divine image within them, It is a
Powder of Renewal and Reform ; and It is a sacred
Grounding to them that feel the shock of unholy
assault, and a Security to them that stand : an upward
Guidance to them that are being drawn unto It, and a
Principle of Illumination ^ to them that are being
enlightened : a Principle of Perfection to them that
are being perfected ; ^ a principle of Deity to them
that are being deified ;^ and of Simplicity to them
that are being brought unto simplicity ; '^ and of Unity

^ irphs rohs deapx^Kovs vfivovs. Either (i) "leads us to declare the Divine praises" ; or (2) "leads us to apprehend the Divine praises as sunp; by angels," etc.

^ In the whole of this pa«;sage God is spoken of as at the same time Efficient, Formal and Final Cause of the soul's activity. D. teaches that God is present in all things, but not equally in all. Cf. Intr. ,

p. 14- ^ Gen. i.

* Three stages may be traced here corresponding to Purgation, llluminaiion and Union. I have tried to indicate the transitions from one stage t ) the next by the punctuation.

* Twy reXov/x^vuv TeA,€Topxta. " Perfect " (t6A€ios) and the words connected with it were technical terms in the Greek Mysteries. Possibly there are traces of this technical use in St. Paul's Epistles {e.^. 1 Cor. ii. 6 ; Phil. iii. 15).

® r<vi/ 6eov/xfv(Dv Ocapx^a.. See Intr. , p. 39.

' The soul must turn away from the complex world of sense and have only one desire — the desire for God. Thus it becomes concentrated as it were, and so is in a simple and unified state. Cf. Matt. vi. 22. See Intr., p. 25.

56 Dionysius the Areopagite

to them that are being brought unto unity. Yea, in
a super-essential manner, above the category of
origin, It is the Origin of all origin, and the good and
bounteous Communication (so far as such may be^) of
hidden mysteries ; and, in a word, It is the life of all
things that live and the Being of all that are, the
Origin and Cause of all life and being through Its
bounty which both brings them into existence and
maintains them.

4. These mysteries we learn from the Divine
Scriptures, and thou wilt find that in well-nigh all the
utterances of the Sacred Writers the Divine Names
refer in a Symbolical Revelation ^ to Its beneficent
Emanations.^ Wherefore, in almost all consideration
of Divine things we see the Supreme Godhead cele-
brated with holy praises as One and an Unity,
through the simplicity and unity of Its supernatural
indivisibility, from whence (as from an unifying
power) we attain to unity, and through the supernal
conjunction of our diverse and separate qualities are
knit together each into a Godlike Oneness, and all
together into a mutual Godly union.^ And It is
called the Trinity because Its supernatural fecundity
is revealed in a Threefold Personality,^ wherefrom
all Fatherhood in heaven and on earth exists and
draws Its name. And It is called the Universal
Cause ^ since all things came into being through Its

^ i. e. So far as we are capable of receiving this communication.

^ eiCCfiaVTOpiKiOS Kol VflUrfTLICWS.

^ i. e, God's differentiated activities. Since the ultimate Godhead is ineffable, Scripture can only hint at Its Nature by speaking of Its manifestations in the relative sphere. See Intr., p. 8.

■* God is ineffable and transcends unity, see Intr,, p. 5. But, since Ilis presence in man produces an unity in each individual (and in human society), .Scripture calls Ilim "One."

'"' The ineriable (iodliead transcends our conception of the Trinity. But we call Him a Trinity because we experience His trinal working — as our ultimate Home, as an Individual rcrsonality Who was once Incarnate, and as a I'ower within our hearts. See Intr., \). 7.

^ God is not a I'irst Cause, for a cause is one event in a temporal

The Divine Names 57

l)()unt\-, w lience all bcinf^ sprincj.s ; and It is called
Wise and Vd'w liecausc all thini^s which keep their
own nature luicorriipted are full of all Divine
liarmony and holy Beauty;^ and especially It is
called Benevolent- because, in one of Its Persons, It
verily and wholly shared in our human lot, calling
unto Itself and upliftinc^ the low estate of man,
wherefrom, in an ineffable manner, the simple Beino-
of Jesus assumed a compound state,^ and the Eternal
hath taken a temporal existence, and He who super-
naturally transcends all the order of all the natural
world was born in our Human Nature without any
change or confusion of His ultimate properties. And
in all the other Divine enlightenments which the
occult Tradition of our inspired teachers hath, by
mystic Interpretation, accordant with the Scriptures,
bestowed u[)on us, we also have been initiated : appre-
hending these things in the present life (according to
our powers), through the sacred veils of that loving
kindness which in the Scriptures and the Hierarchical
Traditions,"* enwrappeth spiritual truths in terms
drawn from the world of sense, and super-essential
truths in terms drawn from Being, clothing with
shapes and forms things w'hich are shapeless and
formless, and by a variety of separable symbols,

series, and God is beyond Time and beyond the whole creation. Yet in so far as He acts on the relative plane He may, by virtue of this manifestation of Himself in the creation, be spoken of as a Cause.

^ Heauty is a sacrament and only truly itself when it points to some- thing beyond itself. That is why " Art for Art's sake " degrades art. Beauty reveals God, but God is more than Beauty. Hence Beauty has its true being ^///j'/c/i' itself in Him. Cf. Intr., p. 31.

^ Love is the most perfect manifestation of God, Vet God is in a sense beyond even love as we know it. For love, as we know it, implies the distinction between "me" and "thee," and God is ultimately beyond such distinction. See Intr., p. 35.

^ 6 clttKuvs 'Iriaovs avvfreOr]. Cf Alyst. Theol. HI., " Super Essential Jesus."

* lepapXiKwv napaboaeoou, i. c. Ecclesiastical TradiJun.

5§ DlONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

fashioning manifold attributes of the imageless and
supernatural Simplicity. But hereafter, when we are
corruptible and immortal and attain the blessed lot of
being like unto Christ, then (as the Scripture saith),
we shall be for ever with the Lord,^ fulfilled with His
visible Theophany in holy contemplations, the which
shall shine about us with radiant beams of glory
(even as once of old it shone around the Disciples at
the Divine Transfiguration) ; and so shall we, with our
mind made passionless and spiritual, participate in a
spiritual illumination from Him, and in an union
transcending our mental faculties, and there, amidst
the blinding blissful impulsions of His dazzling rays,
we shall, in a diviner manner than at present, be like
unto the heavenly Intelligences.^ For, as the in-
fallible Scripture saith, we shall be equal to the angels
and shall be the Sons of God, being Sons of the
Resurrection.^ But at present we employ (so far as
in us liesj, appropriate symbols for things Divine ;
and then from these we press on upwards according
to our powers to behold in simple unity the Truth per-
ceived by spiritual contemplations, and leaving behind
us all human notions of godlike things, we still the
activities of our minds, and reach (so far as this may
be) into the Super-Essential Ray,"* wherein all kinds
of knowledge so have their pre-existent limits (in a
transcendently inexpressible manner), that we cannot
conceive nor utter It, nor in any wise contemplate
the same, seeing that It surpasseth all things, and
wholly exceeds our knowledge, and super-essentially
contains beforehand (all conjoined within Itself) the
bounds of all natural sciences and forces (while yet

* I Thess. iv. i6.

^ 4v OcioTfpa fj.iiJ.i](T€i TcDv virfpovpavlaiv voup — /. e. the angels. ^ i.ukc XX. 36.

" Meditation leads on to ('ontcinplation ; and the higher kind ol Contemplation is performed by the Wia Ne^ativa.

The Divine Names 59

Its force is not circumscribed by an)'), and so jios- scsscs, beyond the celestial Intelli^^ences,^ Its firnil)' fixed abode. For if all the branclies of knowledi^e belong; to thini^s that have beini;', and if their limits have reference to the existing world, then that which is beyond all Being must also be transcendent above all knowledge.-

5. But if It is greater than all Reason and all
knowledge, and hath Its firm abode altogether be-
yond Mind and Being, and circumscribes, compacts,
embraces and anticipates all things^ while Itself is
altogether beyond the grasp of them all, and cannot
be reached by any perception, imagination, conjec-
ture, name, discourse, apprehension, or understanding,
how then is our Discourse concerning the Divine
Names to be accomplished, since we see that the
Super-Essential Godhead is unutterable and name-
less? Now, as we said when setting forth our Out-
lines of Divinity, the One, the Unknowable, the
Super-Essential, the Absolute Good (I mean the
Trinal Unity of Persons possessing the same Deity
and Goodness), 'tis impossible to describe or to con-
ceive in Its ultimate Nature ; nay, even the angelical
communions of the heavenly Powers Therewith which
we describe as either Impulsions or Derivations *
from the Unknowable and blinding Goodness are
themselves beyond utterance and knowledge, and
belong to none but those angels who, in a manner
beyond angelic knowledge, have been counted worthy

^ i. e. The Angels. I have throughout translated vir^povpdpios "celestial" instead of "super-celestial." Presumably the meaning is ' beyond the material sky," or " celestial in a iranscciidoit sense."

2 The whole of this passage shows that there is a positive element in Unknowing.

^ -navrSiv . . . Trpo\r]TrTLKr] — i.e. contains them eternally before their creation.

* &s efre iin$o\a.s etre TrapaSoyas XPV (pdvai—i. e. according as we describe the act from above or below. God sends the impulse, the ngels receive it.

6o DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

thereof. And godlike Minds, ^ angelically ^ entering
(according to their powers) unto such states of union
and being deified and united, through the ceasing of
their natural activities, unto the Light Which sur-
passeth Deity, can find no more fitting method to
celebrate its praises than to deny It every manner
of Attribute.^ For by a true and supernatural illu-
mination from their blessed union Therewith, they
learn that It is the Cause of all things and yet Itself
is nothing, because It super-essentially transcends
them all. Thus, as for the Super-Essence of the
Supreme Godhead (if we would define the Tran-
scendence of its Transcendent Goodness"^) it is not
lawful to any lover of that Truth which is above all
truth to celelDrate It as Reason or Power or Mind or
Life or Being, but rather as most utterly surpassing
all condition, movement, life, imagination, conjecture,
name, discourse, thought, conception, being, rest,
dwelling, union,*^ limit, infinity, everything that exists.
And yet since, as the Subsistence^ of goodness, It,
by the very fact of Its existence, is the Cause of all
\ things, in celebrating the bountiful Providence of the
Supreme Godhead we must draw upon the whole
creation. For It is both the central Force of all
things, and also their final Purpose, and is Itself
before them all, and they all subsist in It ; and