All Topics  
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
 
 
  Topics Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Topic Home

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as Pseudo-Denys, is the anonymous theologian and philosopher of the late 5th
5th century

The 5th century is the period from 401 to 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in Anno Domini/Common Era....
 to early 6th century
6th century

The 6th century is the period from 501 to 600 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era. This century marks the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the Dark Ages....
 whose Corpus Areopagiticum (before 532) was pseudonymously
Pseudepigraphy

Pseudepigrapha are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded; a work, simply, "whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past." For instance, no Hebrew scholars would ascribe the Book of Enoch to Enoch , a character mentioned in Generations of Adam....
 ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite
Dionysius the Areopagite

Dionysius the Areopagite was the judge of the Areopagus who, as related in the Acts of the Apostles, , was converted to Christianity by the preaching of the Paul of Tarsus....
, the Athenian convert of St. Paul
Paul of Tarsus

Saint Paul, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul or Paul of Tarsus , was a Hellenistic Judaism, who called himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles", and was, together with Saint Peter and James the Just, the most notable of early Christian missionaries....
 mentioned in . The author was historically believed to be the Areopagite because he claimed acquaintance with biblical characters. His surviving works include Divine Names, Mystical Theology., Celestial Hierarchy, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and various epistles.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite'
Start a new discussion about 'Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as Pseudo-Denys, is the anonymous theologian and philosopher of the late 5th
5th century

The 5th century is the period from 401 to 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in Anno Domini/Common Era....
 to early 6th century
6th century

The 6th century is the period from 501 to 600 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era. This century marks the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the Dark Ages....
 whose Corpus Areopagiticum (before 532) was pseudonymously
Pseudepigraphy

Pseudepigrapha are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded; a work, simply, "whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past." For instance, no Hebrew scholars would ascribe the Book of Enoch to Enoch , a character mentioned in Generations of Adam....
 ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite
Dionysius the Areopagite

Dionysius the Areopagite was the judge of the Areopagus who, as related in the Acts of the Apostles, , was converted to Christianity by the preaching of the Paul of Tarsus....
, the Athenian convert of St. Paul
Paul of Tarsus

Saint Paul, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul or Paul of Tarsus , was a Hellenistic Judaism, who called himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles", and was, together with Saint Peter and James the Just, the most notable of early Christian missionaries....
 mentioned in . The author was historically believed to be the Areopagite because he claimed acquaintance with biblical characters. His surviving works include Divine Names, Mystical Theology., Celestial Hierarchy, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and various epistles. Some other works are no longer extant, such as Theological Outlines.

Teachings

His works are mystical and show strong Neoplatonic
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
 influence. For example he uses Plotinus
Plotinus

Plotinus was a major Philosophy of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism . Much of our biographical information about him comes from Porphyry 's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads....
' well known analogy of a sculptor cutting away that which does not enhance the desired image. He shows familiarity with Proclus
Proclus

Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek philosophy Neoplatonist philosophy, one of the last major Classical philosophers ....
, which indicates he wrote no earlier than the 5th century, as well as influence from Saint Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria , was the first notable member of the Christianity of Alexandria, and one of its most distinguished teachers. He was born about the middle of the 2nd century, and died between 211 and 216....
, the Cappadocian Fathers
Cappadocian Fathers

The Cappadocian Fathers are Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, bishop of Nyssa, and a close friend, Gregory Nazianzus, Patriarch of Constantinople....
, Origen of Alexandria, and others. Although many disagree with such simple oppositions and crude characterizations, the most general view is that there is a distinct difference between Neoplatonism and Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world with an estimated 225 million members worldwide. It is considered by its adherents to be the Four Marks of the Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles nearly 2000 years ago....
 Christianity. In Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
, it is often said, all life returns to the source to be stripped of individual identity, a process called henosis
Henosis

Within the realm of Neoplatonism, the Mystery Religionsand the Hermes Trismegistus henosis is the goal of union with the Monad , Source, force or the One....
 (see Iamblichus). However, in Orthodox Christianity, theosis
Theosis

In Christianity theology, particularly in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholic Churches theology, theosis is the process of a believer in emulating the life example of Jesus Christ and of following the gospel of Christ in one's daily life; the process of seeking to become more holy....
 restores the Likeness of God in man by grace (by being united to God the Holy Trinity through participation in His divine energies). The liturgical references in his writings also date his works after the 4th century.

He appears to have belonged to the group which attempted to form a compromise position between monophysitism
Monophysitism

Monophysitism , or Monophysiticism, is the christology position that Christ has only one nature , as opposed to the Chalcedonian position which holds that Christ has two natures, one divine and one human....
 and the orthodox
Orthodoxy

The word orthodox, from Greek language orthodoxos "having the right opinion," from orthos + Doxa , is typically used to mean adhering to the accepted or traditional and established faith, especially in religion....
 teaching. His writings were first cited in 519 in a work by Severus of Antioch
Severus of Antioch

Severus, Patriarch of Antioch , born approximately 465 in Sozopolis, Pisidia in Pisidia, was by birth and education a Paganism, who was baptized in the martyrium of Leontius at Tripolis....
, Adversus apologiam Juliani, who cited the Fourth Letter. Dionysius was initially used by monophysites to back up parts of their arguments, but his writings were eventually adopted by other church theologians as well, primarily due to the work of John of Scythopolis and Maximus the Confessor
Maximus the Confessor

Maximus the Confessor was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar. In his early life, he was a civil servant, and an aide to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius....
 in producing an orthodox interpretation. The Dionysian writings and their mystical teaching were universally accepted throughout the East
The East

The phrase The East has multiple meanings:* Eastern world, a group of various cultures and countries in Asia* Eastern philosophy, referring to a specific worldview...
, amongst both Chalcedonian
Chalcedonian

Chalcedonian describes churches and theologians which accept the definition given at the Council of Chalcedon of how the divine and human relate in the person of Jesus Christ....
s and non-Chalcedonians. St. Gregory Palamas
Gregory Palamas

Saint Gregory Palamas was a monasticism of Mount Athos in Greece and later the Archbishop of Thessalonica known as a preeminent theologian of Hesychasm....
, for example, in referring to these writings, calls the author, "an unerring beholder of divine things." And in the West
The West

The West is a generic term referring to the Western world, or Western culture or civilization.The term can also mean:* Western culture or Western civilization, referring to cultures derived from European origin....
, the manuscripts grew to be very popular amongst theologians in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
 -- Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis....
 cites Pseudo-Dionysius over 1700 times. Dionysius' portrayal of the "via negativa"
Negative theology

Negative theology?also known as the Via Negativa and Apophatic theology?is a theology that attempts to describe God, the Divine Good, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God....
 was particularly influential among contemplatives and mystical theologians. Debates over the authenticity of the authorship of Dionysian corpus, however, began in the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
.

Medieval misunderstandings

During the medieval period Dionysius the Areopagite
Dionysius the Areopagite

Dionysius the Areopagite was the judge of the Areopagus who, as related in the Acts of the Apostles, , was converted to Christianity by the preaching of the Paul of Tarsus....
 and St. Denis
Denis

Saint Denis is a Christian martyrs and saint. In the third century, he was Bishop of Paris. He was martyred in approximately A.D. 250, and is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as patron of Paris, France and as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers....
 of France, though two distinct figures historically, were conflated; it was thought that after his conversion by Paul, the Areopagite had traveled to France, preached, and been martyred there. This confusion of historical detail was exacerbated by the common acceptance of Pseudo-Dionysius's writings as the authentic work of the Biblical figure. The great Abbey of Saint-Denis
Saint Denis Basilica

The Basilica of Saint Denis is the List of cemeteries of almost all the List of French monarchs since Clovis I . Saved and restored by the architect Viollet le Duc, the basilica is located in Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris....
 just north of Paris claimed to have the relic
Relic

A relic is an object or a personal item of Religion significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, shamanism, and many other religions....
s of Dionysius. Around 1121, Pierre Abélard, a Benedictine
Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy....
 monk at Saint Denis Basilica
Saint Denis Basilica

The Basilica of Saint Denis is the List of cemeteries of almost all the List of French monarchs since Clovis I . Saved and restored by the architect Viollet le Duc, the basilica is located in Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris....
, turned his attention to the story of their patron saint
Denis

Saint Denis is a Christian martyrs and saint. In the third century, he was Bishop of Paris. He was martyred in approximately A.D. 250, and is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as patron of Paris, France and as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers....
, and disentangled the three different Dionysiuses. The monks were offended at the apparent demotion of Saint Denis, and Abélard did not remain long at Saint Denis. The confusion over the text might stem from the text being an oral tradition
Oral tradition

Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore are messages or testimony transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants....
 (declamatio
Declamatio

Declamatio is the established rhetorical device of adopting the persona of an ancient figure to express a particular viewpoint or perspective. A typical example is Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a 5th century author who was long thought to be a character depicted in Book of Acts....
) that was only at a later date finally put to record. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a Open access online encyclopedia of philosophy maintained by Stanford University. The SEP was initially developed with U.S....
 "It must also be recognized that 'forgery' is a modern notion. Like Plotinus
Plotinus

Plotinus was a major Philosophy of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism . Much of our biographical information about him comes from Porphyry 's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads....
 and the Cappadocian Fathers
Cappadocian Fathers

The Cappadocian Fathers are Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, bishop of Nyssa, and a close friend, Gregory Nazianzus, Patriarch of Constantinople....
 before him, Dionysius does not claim to be an innovator, but rather a communicator of a tradition."

The monastery of St. Denis, which had inadvertently conflated the two Dionysiuses, had a good Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 edition of Pseudo-Dionysius's works given to them by Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald

File:Charles le Chauve denier Bourges after 848.jpgCharles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith, daughter of Welf....
, which was translated into Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 by John Scotus Eriugena
Johannes Scotus Eriugena

Johannes Scotus Eriugena , was an Ireland theologian, Neoplatonism philosopher, and poet. He is known for having translated and made commentaries upon the work of Pseudo-Dionysius....
 in the late 9th century. This translation widely popularized both Pseudo-Dionysius' teaching and his explanation of the angel
Ángel

?ngel is the third single from Belinda Peregr?n's debut album: Belinda. It was a massive hit in Mexico and an international hit for Belinda....
s.

Authorship

The authorship of the Dionysian Corpus was initially disputed; Severus and his party concluded their apostolic dating, largely because they seemed to agree with their Christology. However, this dating was disputed by Hypatius of Ephesus, who met the monophysite party during the 532 meeting with Emperor Justin; Hypatius denied their authenticity on the grounds that none of the Fathers or Councils ever cited or referred to them. Hypatius condemned them along with the Apollinarian texts, distributed during the Nestorian controversy under the names of Pope Julius and Athanasius, which the monophysites entered as evidence supporting their position.

The first defense of their authenticity is undertaken by John of Scythopolis, whose commentary, the Scholia (ca. 540), on the Dionysian Corpus constitutes the first defense of its apostolic dating, wherein he specifically argues that the work is neither Apollinarian nor a forgery, probably in response both to monophysites and Hypatius--although even he, given his unattributed citations of Plotinus in interpreting Dionysius, might have known better. Dionysius' authenticity is criticized later in the century, and defended by Theodore of Raithu; and by the 7th century, it is taken as demonstrated, affirmed by both Maximus the Confessor and the 649 Lateran Council
Lateran council

The Lateran councils were ecclesiastical councils or synods of the Catholic Church held at Rome in the Lateran Palace next to the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano....
. From that point forward, the authorship is largely not in question until the Renaissance.

The Florentine humanist Lorenzo Valla
Lorenzo Valla

Lorenzo Valla was an Italy Renaissance humanism, rhetorician, and education. His family was from Piacenza; his father, Luca della Valla, was a lawyer....
 (d. 1457), in his commentaries on the New Testament
New Testament

The New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christianity Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, did much to establish that the author of the Corpus Areopagiticum could not have been St. Paul's convert, though he was unable to identify the actual historical author. The fictitious literary persona had long been accepted on face value by all its readers, with a couple of exceptions such as Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa

Nicholas of Kues was a Roman Catholic cardinal from Germany , a Philosophy, jurist, Mathematics, and an Astronomy. He is widely considered as one of the greatest geniuses and polymaths of the 15th century....
 noted by modern historians, but whose reservations went unheard.

William Grocyn
William Grocyn

William Grocyn was an English scholar, a friend of Erasmus.He was born at Colerne, Wiltshire. Intended by his parents for the church, he was sent to Winchester College, and in 1465 was elected to a scholarship at New College, Oxford....
 pursued Valla's lines of text criticism, and Valla's critical viewpoint of the authorship of the highly influential Corpus was accepted and publicized by Erasmus from 1504 onward, for which he was criticized by Catholic theologians. In the Leipzig disputation with Martin Luther
Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a Germans monk, theology, university professor, priest, father of Protestantism, and Protestant Reformers whose ideas started the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western culture....
, 1519, Johann Eck
Johann Eck

Dr. Johann Maier von Eck was a 16th century theology and defender of Catholicism during the Protestant Reformation. It was Eck who argued that the beliefs of Martin Luther and Jan Hus were similar....
 used the Corpus, specifically the Angelic Hierarchy, as argument for the apostolic origin of papal supremacy, pressing the Platonist analogy, "as above, so below".

During the 19th century modernist Catholics
Modernism (Roman Catholicism)

Modernism in the Roman Catholic Church is a theological viewpoint that usually includes a specific type of Rationalism approach to the Bible, secularism and modern philosophy systems; it is regarded as heresy by the Catholic Church....
 too came generally to accept that this self-identified disciple of St. Paul must have lived after the time of Proclus
Proclus

Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek philosophy Neoplatonist philosophy, one of the last major Classical philosophers ....
, whose works he paraphrased in transforming Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
 into Christian terms—which is the philosophical approach that had interested the Christian Neoplatonist Valla in the first place.

Dionysius identity is still heavily under dispute. The compilers of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy find pseudo-Dionysius to be most probably "a pupil of Proclus, perhaps of Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
n origin, who knew enough of Platonism and the Christian tradition to transform them both. Since Proclus died in 485, and since the first clear citation of Dionysius' works is by Severus of Antioch
Severus of Antioch

Severus, Patriarch of Antioch , born approximately 465 in Sozopolis, Pisidia in Pisidia, was by birth and education a Paganism, who was baptized in the martyrium of Leontius at Tripolis....
 between 518 and 528, then we can place Dionysius' authorship between 485 and 518-28." Ronald Hathaway provides a table listing most of the major identifications of Dionysius: e.g., Ammonius Saccas
Ammonius Saccas

Ammonius Saccas was a Greek philosopher from Alexandria who was often referred to as one of the founders of Neoplatonism. He is mainly known as the teacher of Plotinus, whom he taught for eleven years from 232 to 243....
, Dionysius the Great, Peter the Fuller
Peter the Fuller

Peter Fullo was Patriarch of Antioch and Miaphysite.Peter received his surname from his former trade as a fuller of cloth. Louis-S?bastien Le Nain de Tillemont considers that Peter was originally a member of the convent of the Akoimetoi, which he places in Bithynia on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, at Gomon, "The Great Monastery" and...
, Dionysius the Scholastic, Severus of Antioch
Severus of Antioch

Severus, Patriarch of Antioch , born approximately 465 in Sozopolis, Pisidia in Pisidia, was by birth and education a Paganism, who was baptized in the martyrium of Leontius at Tripolis....
, Sergius of Reshaina
Sergius of Reshaina

Sergius of Reshaina was an Assyrians physician and priest during the 6th century. He is best known for translating medical works from Greek language to Syriac, which were eventually translated to Arabic....
, unnamed Christian followers of everyone from Origen of Alexandria to Basil of Caesarea
Basil of Caesarea

Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great, was the bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor . He was an influential 4th century Christian theologian and monastic....
, Eutyches
Eutyches

Eutyches was a presbyter and archimandrite at Constantinople. He first came to notice in 431 at the council of Ephesus, for his vehement opposition to the teachings of Nestorius; his condemnation of Nestorianism as heresy precipitated his being denounced as a heretic himself....
 to Proclus
Proclus

Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek philosophy Neoplatonist philosophy, one of the last major Classical philosophers ....
. Georgian
Georgia (country)

Georgia is a transcontinental country in the Caucasus region, located at the dividing line between Europe and Asia. It is bordered by the Russia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Armenia to the south, and Turkey to the southwest....
 academician Shalva Nutsubidze
Shalva Nutsubidze

Shalva Nutsubidze was a Georgia philosopher, translator and public benefactor, one of founders of the Tbilisi State University , founder of Alethology, one of founders of the scientific school in the field of history of Georgian philosophy, Academician of the Georgian Academy of Sciences , Meritorious Scientific Worker of Georgia , Doctor...
 and Belgian
Demographics of Belgium

This article is about the demographics features of the population of Belgium, including population density, Ethnic group, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
 professor Ernest Honigmann were authors of a theory identifying pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite with Peter the Iberian
Peter the Iberian

Peter the Iberian, or Peter of Iberia, is a Georgian Orthodox saint, who was a prominent figure in early Christianity.Some of his accomplishments are the foundination the first Georgian monastery in Bethlehem and being the bishop of Gaza near Mayuma....
. A more recent identification is with Damascius
Damascius

Damascius , known as "the last of the Neoplatonism," was the last scholarch of the School of Athens. He was one of the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Sassanid empire court, before being allowed back into the Byzantine empire....
, the last scholarch of the School of Athens.

See also

  • Maximus the Confessor
    Maximus the Confessor

    Maximus the Confessor was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar. In his early life, he was a civil servant, and an aide to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius....
  • Johannes Scotus Eriugena
    Johannes Scotus Eriugena

    Johannes Scotus Eriugena , was an Ireland theologian, Neoplatonism philosopher, and poet. He is known for having translated and made commentaries upon the work of Pseudo-Dionysius....
  • Christian Meditation
    Christian meditation

    Christian meditation is meditation in a Christian context. The word meditation has come to have two different meanings: continued, intent, focused thought; and a state of quiet, intentionally unfocused, "contentless" awareness....
  • Dionysius the Areopagite
    Dionysius the Areopagite

    Dionysius the Areopagite was the judge of the Areopagus who, as related in the Acts of the Apostles, , was converted to Christianity by the preaching of the Paul of Tarsus....
  • Neoplatonism
    Neoplatonism

    Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
  • St. Dionysus Institute in Paris
    St. Dionysus Institute in Paris

    St. Denys Theological Institute, is an Eastern Orthodox Church theology institute in Paris, France....
  • The Vision of God
    Theoria

    Theoria is Greek for contemplation or 'the perception of beauty regarded as a moral faculty' . From within Eastern Orthodox theology it is the 'vision' and or the 'seeing' of God, as the experience of God, achieved by the pure of heart who are no longer subject to the afflictions of the passions....


Secondary sources


  • Griffith, R., "Neo-Platonism and Christianity: Pseudo-Dionysius and Damascius", in: Studia patristica XXIX. Papers presented at the Twelfth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 1995, ed. by E. A. Livingstone, Leuven: Peeters, 1997, 238-243.
  • Frend, W. H. C.. The Rise of the Monophysite Movement. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1972
  • Hathaway, Ronald F.. Hierarchy and the definition of order in the letters of Pseudo-Dionysius. A study in the form and meaning of the Pseudo-Dionysian writings. The Hague, Nijhoff, 1969
  • Perl, Eric D., Theophany. The Neoplatonic Philosophy of Dionysius the Areopagite. (Albany: SUNY Press, 2007). ISBN 978-0-7914-7111-1.
  • Rorem, Paul. Pseudo-Dionysius : a commentary on the texts and an introduction to their influence. New York : Oxford University Press, 1993
  • Rorem, Paul and John C. Lamoreaux "John of Scythopolis on Apollinarian Christology and the Pseudo-Areopagite's True Identity." Church History, Vol. 62, No. 4, (Dec., 1993), pp. 469-482


External links

  • (2004) accessed September 1, 2006
  • (1920) on pseudo-Dionysius's works (available in pdf, html
    HTML

    HTML, an Acronym and initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for Web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document?by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on?and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded '...
    , and plain text formats) accessed September 1, 2006
  • Logos 1-2007.
  • May 14, 2008, Zenit.org


Works available online

  • accessed September 1, 2006
  • (Theologica Mystica) accessed September 1, 2006
  • (Corpus Areopagiticum) of pseudo-Dionysius including The Divine Names, Mystical Theology, Celestial Hierarchy, Ecclesiatial Hierarchy, and Letters (available in pdf, HTML, and text formats) accessed September 1, 2006
  • 14th century Greek manuscript found at Constantinople
    Constantinople

    Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
    , page images at from Oxford University's Magdalen College
    Magdalen College, Oxford

    Magdalen College redirects here, see also Magdalene College, CambridgeMagdalen College is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England....