On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology — trans. C. E. Rolt
The translator’s English as printed (C. E. Rolt). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
Of this transcendent experience St. Bernard bluntly says: “To experience this state is to be deified,” and “Deification” is a technical term in the Mystical Theology of both the Eastern and the Western Church. Though the word θέωσις was perhaps a Mystery term, yet it occurs, for instance, in the writings of St. Macarius, and there is therefore nothing strange or novel in the fact that Dionysius uses it. But he carefully distinguishes between this and cognate words; and his fantastic and uncouth diction is (here as so often) due to a straining after rigid accuracy. The Super-Essence he calls the Originating Godhead, or rather, perhaps, the Origin of Godhead (Θεαρχία), just as he calls it also “the Origin of Existence” (οὐσιαρχία). From this Origin there issues eternally, in the Universal stream of Emanation, that which he calls Deity or Very Deity (Oedtys or αὐκοθεῦτης). This Deity, like Being, Life, etc., is an effluence radiating from the Super-Essential Godhead, and is a distant View of It as the dim visibility of a landscape is the landscape seen from afar, or as the effluent heat belongs to a fire. Purified souls, being raised up to the heights of contemplation, participate in this Effluence and so are deified (θεοῦνται) and become in a derivative sense, divine (θεωδεῖς, θεῖοι), or may even be called Gods (θεοί), just as by participating in the Effluence or Emanation of Being all created things become in a derivative sense existent (οὐσιωδῆ, ὄντα). The Super-Essential Godhead (θεαρχία) is beyond Deity as It is beyond Existence; but the names “Deity” (Oedtns) or “Existent” (ὦν) may be symbolically or inadequately applied to It, as a fire may be termed “warm” from its results though its actual temperature is of an intenser kind than this would imply. And the name of “Godhead,” which belongs to It more properly, is given It (says Dionysius) merely because it is the Source of our deification. Thus instead of arguing from God’s Divinity to man’s potential divinity, Dionysius argues from the acquisition of actual divinity by certain men to God’s Supra-Divinity. This is only another way of saying that God is but the highest Appearance or Manifestation of the Absolute. And this (as was seen above) is only another way of stating the orthodox and obvious doctrine that all our notions of Ultimate Reality are inadequate.
Of this transcendent experience St. Bernard says bluntly: “To experience this state is to be deified”; and “Deification” is a technical term in the Mystical Theology of both the Eastern and the Western Church. Though the word θέωσις was perhaps a Mystery term, it occurs, for instance, in the writings of St. Macarius, and so there is nothing strange or novel in the fact that Dionysius uses it. But he carefully distinguishes between this and cognate words; and his fantastic and uncouth diction is (here, as so often) due to a straining after rigid accuracy.
The Super-Essence he calls the Originating Godhead, or rather, perhaps, the Origin of Godhead (Θεαρχία), just as he also calls it “the Origin of Existence” (οὐσιαρχία). From this Origin there issues eternally, in the Universal stream of Emanation, what he calls Deity or Very Deity (Oedtys or αὐκοθεῦτης). This Deity, like Being, Life, etc., is an effluence radiating from the Super-Essential Godhead, and is a distant View of It, as the dim visibility of a landscape is the landscape seen from afar, or as the effluent heat belongs to a fire. Purified souls, raised up to the heights of contemplation, participate in this Effluence and so are deified (θεοῦνται) and become, in a derivative sense, divine (θεωδεῖς, θεῖοι), or may even be called Gods (θεοί); just as, by participating in the Effluence or Emanation of Being, all created things become existent in a derivative sense (οὐσιωδῆ, ὄντα).
The Super-Essential Godhead (θεαρχία) is beyond Deity as It is beyond Existence; but the names “Deity” (Oedtns) or “Existent” (ὦν) may be applied to It symbolically or inadequately, as a fire may be called “warm” from its results, though its actual temperature is of a more intense kind than this would imply. And the name of “Godhead,” which belongs to It more properly, is given to It (says Dionysius) merely because it is the Source of our deification. Thus, instead of arguing from God’s Divinity to man’s potential divinity, Dionysius argues from the acquisition of actual divinity by certain men to God’s Supra-Divinity. This is only another way of saying that God is but the highest Appearance or Manifestation of the Absolute. And this (as was seen above) is only another way of stating the orthodox and obvious doctrine that all our notions of Ultimate Reality are inadequate.