1 D. means that the Undifferentiated Godhead is actually present in all these creative activilies. It is multiplied (as it were) in Jts energies, and yet It remains indivisible. See Intr. , p. 17.
^ 1). here touches on the fundamental difference between si)iritual anfl material things. Cf. Shelley : "True love has this different from g(jid or clay that to divide is not to take away."
^ I'lotinus uses the same illustration [Run. iv. i).
■* I), is always on iiis guard against Pantheism.
The Divine Names 73
mancnt ; but if tlic aforesaid fitness should in au^^ht
be lackinL^, then the material will not take the
impression and reproduce it distinctly, and other such
results will follow as an unsuitable material must
bring about.
6. Again, it is by a Differentiated act of God's
benevolence that the Super-Essential Word should
wholly and completely take Human Substance of
human flesh and do and suffer all those things which,
in a special and particular manner, belong to the
action of His Divine Humanity. In these acts the
Father and the Spirit have no share, except of course
that they all share in the loving generosity of the
Divine counsels and in all that transcendent Divine
working of unutterable mysteries which were per-
formed in Human Nature by Him Who as God and
as the Word of God is Immutable.^ So do we strive
to differentiate the Divine Attributes, according as
these Attributes are Undifferenced or Differentiated,^
7. Now all the grounds of these Unifications, and
Differentiations in the Divine Nature which the
Scriptures have revealed to us, we have explained in
the Outlines of Divinity, to the best of our abilities,
treating separately of each. The latter class we have
philosophically unravelled and unfolded, and so have
sought to guide the holy and unspotted mind to con-
template the shining truths of Scripture, while the
former class we have endeavoured (in accordance
with Divine Tradition) to apprehend as Mysteries in
a manner beyond the activities of our minds.^ For
^ Redemption is a work performed by the whole Trinity through the Second Person. (So, too, is Creation. Cf. p. 65, n. 2).
2 /. e. We strive to distinguish the two planes of Being in God. Cf. Athan. Creed: "Neither confounding the Persons," etc.
^ Undifference belongs to the ultimate Godhead, Differentiation to the distinction between ihe Three Persons of the Trinity. The former is the sphere of Mystical Theology, the latter is that of Dogmatic Theology. The former implies the Via Negativa the latter the Via Affii-mativa.
74 Dionysius the Areopagite
all Divine things, even those that are revealed to us,
are only known by their Communications. Their
ultimate nature, which they possess in their own
original being, is beyond Mind and beyond all Being
and Knowledge.^ For instance, if we call the Super-
Essential Mystery by the Name of " God," or " Life,"
or " Being," or " Light," or " Word," we conceive of
nothing else than the powers that stream Therefrom
to us bestowing Godhead, Being, Life or Wisdom ;2
while that Mystery Itself we strive to apprehend by
casting aside all the activities of our mind, since
we behold no Deification,^ or Life, or Being, which
exactly resembles the altogether and utterly Tran-
scendent Cause of all things. Again, that the Father
is Originating Godhead while Jesus and the Spirit
are (so to speak) Divine Off-shoots of the Paternal
Godhead, and, as it were, Blossoms and Super-Essential
Shinings Thereof we learn from Holy Scripture ; but
how these things are so we cannot say, nor yet
conceive.
8. Just so far can the powers of our minds attain
as to see that all spiritual paternity and sonship is a
gift bestowed from the all-transcendent Archetypal
Fatherhood and Sonship both upon us and also upon
the celestial Powers : whereby Godlike Minds receive
^ Even the Differentiations finally lead us up into the Unclifferenc(d Godhead Where they transcend themselves. (Cf. p. 70, n. 3 and the passage in ii. 4 about the torches.) Into that region we cannot track them. But on the other side they flow out into creative activity, and thus are, in some degree, revealed.
2 These terms may be thus classified : —
Sphere of Activity. ^aUire of Form under which Giver
•^ (jift. IS manifested.
(i) Grace Godhead . "God"
(ii) Nature
(i) Material existence . . . Being . " Being""!
(2) Vegetable and animal existence . Life . "Life" }-"Word."
(3) Human existence . . . Wisdom . "Light"]
^ The doctrine of "Deification" is not a mere speculation. It embodies an experienced fact. See Intr., p. 43.
The Divtne Names 75
the states and names of Gods, and Sons of Gods, and
r\'ithers of Gods, sucli paternity and sonship beini^
j)erfected in a spiritual manner (i.e. incorporeall}',
immaterially, and invisibl)') because the Divine Spirit
setteth above all invisible Immateriality and Deifica-
tion, and the Father and the Son, supernaturally
transcend all spiritual fatherhood and sonship.^ For
there is no exact similitude between the creatures
and the Creative Originals ; ^ for the creatures possess
only such images of the Creative Originals as arc
possible to them, while the Originals Themselves
transcend and exceed the creatures by the very
nature of Their own Originality. To employ human
examples, we say that pleasant or painful conditions
produce in us feelings of pleasure or pain while yet
they possess not these feelings themselves ; and we
do not say that the fire which warms and burns is
itself burnt or warmed. Even so if any one says that
Very Life lives, or that Very Light is enh'ghtened, he
will be wrong (according to my view) unless, perchance,
he were to use these terms in a different sense from
the ordinary one to mean that the quahties of created
things pre-exist, after a superlative manner as touching
their true Being in the Creative Originals.^
9. Even the plainest article of Divinity, namely the
^ The act by which one spirit or soul imparts spiritual life to anotlier is a manifestation in time of a Mystery which is eternally perfect in the Trinity, and would be impossible were it not ultimately rooted in that Mystery. Just as all life draws its existence from the Divine x//;^ra- vilaliiy, so all spiritual paternity draws its existence from the Divine supra-paternity.
^ TO. aXria — i. e. The Persons of the Godhead.
^ So St. Augustine constantly teaches that God acts not in the manner which we call activity, but by causing the creature itself to perform the action. Thus he explains God's rest on the Seventh Day to mean not that God Himself rested but that the creation now rested in Him. Aristotle and his disciple, St, Thomas, teach that God moves all things simply through being desired by them. So (iod causes action without Himself acting (somewhat as fire causes warmth without feeling it). Cf. p. 87, n. i.
76 Dionysius the Areopagite
Incarnation and Birth of Jesus in Human Form,
cannot be expressed by any Language or known by
any Mind — not even by the first of the most exalted
angels. That He took man's substance is a mysterious
truth, the which we have received ; but we know not
how from the Virgin's seed He was formed in another
manner than is natural, nor how His dry feet
supporting the solid weight of His material body He
walked upon the unstable substance of the water, nor
understand we any of the other things which belong
to the Supernatural Nature of Jesus. Of these things
I have spoken enough elsewhere ; and our renowned
Teacher hath wonderfully ^ declared, in his Elements
of Divinity, what he hath either learnt directly from
the Sacred Writers, or else hath discovered from his
cunning research concerning Scriptural truths through
the much toil and labour which he bestowed thereon,
or else hath had revealed unto him by some diviner
inspiration wherein he received not only true spiritual
notions but also true spiritual motions^ and by the
kinship of his mind with them (if I may so express
it) was perfected to attain without any other teacher
to a mystical communion with these verities and a
belief therein.^ And to put before them in briefest
compass the many blessed speculations of his
ingenious mind thus speaketh he concerning Jesus
in his compilation of the Elements of Divinity.
lo. Erom the ELEMENTS OF DIVINITY, by S. HierotJieus.
The Universal Cause which filleth all things is the
Deity of Jesus, whereof the parts are in such wise
tempered to the whole that It is neither whole nor
part, and yet is at the same time whole and also part,
*• virepcpvus. The proper meaning of virepcpv-qs in the Dionysian writings a[)peais to be "supernatural." ^ ov /jSpou ixaOiov aWa ical iradwv to. Qua. '* TTp^s TTr)v aSiSa/cT^j/ ahrdv Koi /uLvaTiicrjv airoTcXfcrdils ivuxnv koX
TrKTTll'.
The Divine Names 77
containing; in Us all-cmbracint; unity butli part and
whole, and bcint; transcendent and antecedent to
both.^ This Deity is perfect in those Beings that
are imperfect as a Fount of Perfection ; - It is Perfec-
tionless ^ in those that are perfect as transcencHng
and anticipating^ their Perfection ; It is the Form
producing P^orm in the formless, as a Fount of every
form ; and it is P'^ormless in the Forms, as being
beyond all form ; It is the Being that pervades all
beings at once though not affected by them ;^ and It
is Super-Essential, as transcending every being ; It
sets all bounds of Authority and Order, and yet It
has Its seal beyond all Authority and Order.^ It is
the Measure of the Universe ; ® and it is Eternity,
and above Eternity and before Eternity.'^ It is an
^ Being beyond Unity the Godhead is, of course, beyond the categories of whole and part. The Godhead is not a Whole because It is indivisible, nor a Part because there is nothing, on the ultimate plane, outside It. Yet It is a Whole because It includes the true existence of all things, and is Partitive because It contains the prin- ciple of separate Individuality whereby Christ possesses a Human Soul distinct from all other human souls, and whereby, too, we possess distinct and separate souls.
2 God is in us even before we are in Him. Cf. Luke xvii. 21. Cf. St. Aug., "Thou wast within ; I was without." Also cf. c. i. 3 ; c. iii. i : " For the Trinity," etc. See Intr. , p. 6 on the use of the word "outside."
^ Perfection implies an object or purpose achieved. Plence it implies a distinction between self and not self. The Godhead is beyond such a distinction. Compared with imperfection, It is perfect ; compared with perfection, It is perfectionless (ciTeATjs), or, rather, beyond Perfection {vTrepreKris) and before it (TrporeA-etos), just as compared with impersonal things It is personal, and compared with personality It is non-personal, or, rather, supra-personal.
* Cf. p. 75. n- 3-
^ Cf. St. Paul on the Law and the Spirit. The Law is deposited, as it were, by the Spirit ; and yet the Law cramps the Spirit, and the Spirit must break loose from this bondage.
* i. e. It gives the universe its bounds and distinctions.
' Eternity, in the sense of " Very Eternity" [avToaiuv), is an Emana- tion of the Godhead — a distinct view of Its transcendent state (cf. Intr., p. 17). It is the Divine Rest taken in the abstract, as Very Life is
78 Dionysius the Areopagite
Abundance in those Beings that lack, and a Super-
Abundance in those that abound ; unutterable,
ineffable ; beyond Mind, beyond Life, beyond Being ;
It supernaturally possesses the supernatural and
super-essentially possesses the super-essential.^ And
since that Supra-Divine Being hath in loving kindness
come down from thence unto the Natural Estate, and
verily took substance and assumed the name of Man
(we must speak with reverence of those things which
we utter beyond human thought and language), even
in this act He possesses His Supernatural and Super-
Essential Existence — not only in that He hath
without change or confusion of Attributes shared
in our human lot while remaining unaffected by that
unutterable Self-Emptying as regards the fullness of
His Godhead, but also because (most wonderful of all
wonders !) He passed in His Supernatural and Super-
Essential state through conditions of Nature and
Being, and receiving from us all things that are ours,
exalted them far above us/'^
II. So much for these matters. Now let us
proceed to the object of our discussion and endeavour
to explain the Common and Undifferenced Names
belonging to God's Differentiated Being.^ And, that
the subject of our investigation may be clearly de-
fined beforehand, we give the name of Divine Differen-
pcrliaps the Divine Molion taken in the abstract. The Godhead in- cludes both Rest and Molion l)y transcending tliem.