Rolt writes the central term "Super-Essential" and hyphenates it 62 times in this issue; Parker, translating the same Dionysius twenty-three years earlier, writes "superessential" 21 times and hyphenates it never. Neither uses the other's form once. The hyphen is doing work: it keeps "super" legible as a preposition acting ON essence rather than dissolving into a single adjective, which is exactly the distinction the Divine Names is built to hold — that God is not a being with superlative properties but is beyond the category. Parker's joined form reads as a superlative. Rolt's does not.
On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology — trans. C. E. Rolt
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The translator’s English as printed (C. E. Rolt). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
Il —His LEADING IDEAS: THE NATURE OF THE
GODHEAD IN ITSELF
The basis of their teaching is the doctrine of the Super-Essential Godhead (ὑπερούσιος θεαρχία). We must, therefore, at the very outset fix the meaning of this term. Now the word “Essence” or “Being
” (οὐσία) means almost invariably an individual existence, 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 1 am notre: 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 Consciousness. 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 distinguish between ourselves and Him because from our lower plane of finite Being we look up and see that ultimate level beyond us.
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Il —His LEADING IDEAS: THE NATURE OF THE
GODHEAD IN ITSELF
The basis of their teaching is the doctrine of the Super-Essential Godhead (ὑπερούσιος θεαρχία). We must therefore fix the meaning of this term at the very outset. Now the word “Essence” or “Being
” (οὐσία) almost always means an individual existence, and especially a person, since that is the highest form individual existence can take in this world. In fact, like the English word “Being,” it can be used without qualification to mean an angel. Since, then, the highest connotation of the term “Essence” or “Being” is a person, it follows that “Super-Essence” means “Supra-Personality.” And so the doctrine of the Super-Essential Godhead simply means that God, in His ultimate Nature, is 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 capacity to know oneself as one individual among others. And so, 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 of it.
God, on the other hand, is Supra-Personal because He is infinite. He is not one Being among others; in His ultimate nature He dwells on a plane where there is nothing whatever besides Himself. The only kind of consciousness we may attribute to Him is what can only be described as a Universal Consciousness. He does not distinguish Himself from us, for if we were caught up to that level we would be wholly transformed into Him. And yet we distinguish between ourselves and Him, because from our lower plane of finite Being we look up and see that ultimate level beyond us.
This spelling difference was, until 2026-08-31, a hole in the archive's search. Asking for "Super-Essential" returned 44 passages from Rolt and none from Parker; asking for "Superessential" returned 10 from Parker and one from Rolt. Postgres reads a hyphenated word as two adjacent lexemes and a joined word as a third, unrelated one, so each spelling was invisible to the other. A member asking about the doctrine received half the evidence and nothing to indicate it was half. The query is now expanded across the forms; the reverse direction still needs the joined form indexed, and that is recorded as outstanding rather than claimed as done.