2 Sense-perception is a direct apprehension of that which we actually touch, see, hear, taste, or smell ; Reason or Inference is an indirect apprehension of that which we do not actually touch, see, etc. Intuition is a direct apprehension of that which (by ils very nature) we do not touch, see, etc. Sense peicejition, Keason, and Intuition are refractions from the perfect Light of Divine Wisdom ; but the Divine Wisdom is beyond them because God apprehends all things, not as existent outside Himself, but as existent in Himself, under the form of a single Uni'y which is identical with His own Being.
The Godhead is a Single Desire wherein all the souls eternally exist as fused and inseparable elements. ^ See Ps. xvii. 12.
TTTR invrNE NAMES 133
Perception. We do not regard the Good as one
thing, the Existent as anotlicr, and Life or Wisdom
as ant^thcr ; nor do we liold that there are many
causes and different Godheads producing different
effects and subordinate one to another ; but we hold
that one God is the universal Source of the emana-
tions/ and tlie Possessor of all the Divine Naines we
declare ; and that the first Name expresses the per-
fect Providence of the one God, and the other names
express certain more general or more particular
modes of His Providence.^
3. Now, some one may say : " How is it, since
Existence transcends Life, and Life transcends
Wisdom, that living things are higher than things
which merely exist, and sentient things than
those which merely live, and reasoning things than
those which merely feel, and intelligences than those
which have only reason ? ^ Why do the creatures
rise in this order to the Presence of God and to a
closer relationship with Him ? You would have
expected those which participate in God's greater
gifts to be the higher, and to surpass the rest."
Now if intelligent beings were defined as having no
^ i.e. Is the Source of Goodness, existence, lie, wisdom, etc.
^ The title "Good" applies to all God's providential activity, for everything that He makes is good. And even evil is good depraved ; and exists as good in the Good (see p. 132, n. i). Or, rather, evil possesses not an existence but a non-existence in the Good. It is (according to D. ) a kind of non-existent good. Hence the title "Existent" is not quite so general as the title " Good." " Living" is a less general title still (since a stone, for instance, has no life), and "Wise " is yet less general (since a plant is not wise). Thus we get the following table of emanating activity :
(i) Good (including and transcending existent and non-existent things, viz. "good," and "evil").
(2) Existent (^jr/j-Z^w/ tilings, viz. good).
(3) Life (plants, animals, men, angels).
(4) Wisdom (men and angels).
^ Intuition is the faculty of the Intelligences or Angels, by which are meant, of course, angels and spiritual men ; Discursive Reason is that of natural men.
134 Dionysius the Areopagite
Existence or Life, the argument would be sound ;
but since the divine Intelh'gences do exist in a manner
surpassing other existences, and live in a manner sur-
passing other living things, and understand and
know in a manner beyond perception and reason,
and in a manner beyond all existent things partici-
pate in the Beautiful and Good, they have a nearer
place to the Good in that they especially participate
therein, and have from It received both more and
greater gifts, even as creatures possessed of Reason
are exalted, by the superiority of Reason, above those
which have but Perception, and these are exalted
through having Perception and others through having
Life. And the truth, I think, is that the more any-
thing participates in the One infinitely-bountiful God
the more is it brought near to Him and made diviner
than the rest.^
^ The more universal a Title is, the more truly it is applicable to God (see end of Section 2). Thus Existence is more applicable than Life, and Life than Wisdom, as involving in each case less that needs to l)e discarded. Thus Wisdom implies both a time-process and also a certain finite mode of consciousness, neither of which belong to the eternal and infinite God : Life implies a time-process though not a finite consciousness : Existence implies neither time-process nor finite consciousness. Thus we reach the highest conception of God by a process of abstraction in which we cast aside all particular elements (cf. St. Augustine on the Bomim bomini).
This is the philosophical basis of the Via Negativa. But this abstraction is not mere abstraction nor this negation mere negation. Existence in God subsumes and so includes all that is real in Life ; and Life in liim subsumes all that is real in Wisdom. Hence the creatures, as they advance in the scale of creation, draw from Him more and more particular qualities and progress by becoming more concrete and individual instead of more abstract. All the rich variety of creation exists as a simple Unity in God, and the higher a creature stands in the scale, the more does it draw fresh forces from this simple Unity and convert them into its own multiplicity. D. would have understood Evolution very well. This passage exactly fits in with I)'s. psychological doctrine of the Via Negativa. That which is reached by the spiritual act of Contemplation explains the princi|)les underlying the whole creative process, the growing diversity of the world-process and of human life. In God there is a rich Unity, and we must leave all diversity behind to reach It. Thus we shall have richness without diversity.
The Divine Names 135
4. ITavinc^ now dealt with this matter, let us con-
sider the Good as that which really Is and gives
their bcini^ to all things that exist. The Existent
God is, by the nature of His power, super-essentially
above all existence ; He is the substantial Cause and
Creator of Being, P^xistence, Substance and Nature,
the Beginning and the Measuring Principle of ages ;
the Reality underlying time and the Eternity under-
lying existences ; the time in which created things
pass,^ the Existence of those that have any kind of
existence, the Life-Process of those which in any
way pass through that process. From Him that Is
come Eternity, Essence, Being, Time, Life- Process,
and that which passes througii such Process, the
things which inhere in existent things ^ and those
which under any power whatever possess an inde-
pendent subsistence. For God is not Existent in
any ordinary sense, but in a simple and undefinable
manner embracing and anticipating all existence in
Himself. Hence He is called " King of the Ages,"
because in Him and around Him all Being is and
subsists, and He neither was, nor will be, nor hath
entered the life-process, nor is doing so, nor ever will,
or ratlier He doth not even exist, but is the Essence
of existence in things that exist ; and not only the
things that exist but also their very existence comes
from Him that Is before the ages. For He Himself is
the Eternity of the ages and subsists before the ages.
^ Elernity is a totum siniul. It may thus be symbojized by a point revolving round a centre at infinite speed. Time would be symbolized by a point revolving round a centre at a finite speed. Thus eternity is time made perfect. Time is thus subsumed in elernity as the incomplete in the complete. Hence time, like existence, life, etc., exists in God as transcended. Hence the temporal-process is a manifestation of Him. This might lead to Pantheism, but I), is saved from such a result by his hold on the complementary truth of Transcendence. All the properties, etc., of each thing exist outside that thing os an element in the Transcendent Being of God.
^ i. e. The qualities of things.
I -.6 Dionysius the Areopagite
5. Let us, then, repeat that all things and all ages
derive their existence from the Pre-Existent. All
Eternity and Time are from Him, and He who is
Pre-Existent is the Beginning and the Cause of all
Eternity and Time and of anything that hath any
kind of being. All things participate in Him, nor
doth He depart from anything that exists ; He is
before all things, and all things have their main-
tenance in Him ; and, in short, if anything exists
under any form whatever, 'tis in the Pre-Existent
that it exists and is perceived and preserves its being.
Antecedent^ to all Its other participated gifts is that
of Being. Very Being is above Very Life, Very Wis-
dom, Very Divine Similarity and all the other universal
Qualities, wherein all creatures that participate must
participate first of all in Being Itself; or rather, all
those mere Universals wherein the creatures parti-
cipate do themselves participate in very Being Itself.
And there is no existent thing whose essence and
eternal nature is not very Being.^ Hence God receives
His Name from the most primary of His gifts when,
as is meet. He is called in a special manner above all
things, " He which Is." For, possessing in a trans-
cendent manner Pre-Existence and Pre-Eminence,
He caused beforehand all Existence (I mean Very
I^eing) and in that Very Being caused all the par-
ticular modes of existence. P'or all the principles
of existent things derive from their participation in
Being the fact that they are existent and that they
are principles and that the former quality precedes
the latter. And if it like thee to say that Very Life
is the Universal Principle of living things as such,
and Very Similarity of similar things as such, and
Very Unity of unified things as such, and Very
^ sc. Logically not temporally.
'■^ Cf. St. Augustine, "Ilomini bono toUe honiincni, ct Deum invenis." Cf. Section 8.
The Divine Names 137
Order of orderly thinj^s as such, and if it like thee to i;ivc the name of Universals to the Principles of all other thincj^s which (by participating^ in this quality or in that or in both or in mail}-) aifc this, that, both or many thou wilt find that the first Quality in which they participate is Existence, and that their existence is the basis, (i) of their permanence, and (2) of their being the principles of this or that ; and also that only through their participation in Existence do they exist and enable things to participate in them. And if these Universals exist by participating in Existence, far more is this true of the things which participate in them.
6. Thus the first gift which the Absolute and
Transcendent Goodness bestows is that of mere
Existence, and so It derives its first title from the
chiefest of the participations in Its Being. From It
and in It are very Being and the Principles of the
world, and the world which springs from them and
all things that in any way continue in existence.
This attribute belongs to It in an incomprehensible
and concentrated oneness. For all number pre-
exists indivisibly in the number One, and this number
contains all things in itself under the form of unity.
All number exists as unity in number One, and only
when it goes forth from this number is it differenced
and multiplied. 1 All the radii of a circle are con-
centrated into a single unity in the centre, and this
point contains all the straight lines brought together
within itself and unified to one another, and to the
one starting-point from which they began. Even so
are they a perfect unity in the centre itself, and,
departing a little therefrom they are differenced a
little, and departing further are differenced further,
and, in fact, the nearer they are to the centre, so
^ The number One, being infinilely divisible, contains the potenti- ality of all numbers.
138 Dionysius the Areopagite
much the more are they united to it and to one
another, and the more they are separated from it the
more they are separated from one another.^
7. Moreover, in the Universal Nature of the world
all the individual Laws of Nature are united in one
Unity without confusion ; and in the soul the
individual faculties which govern different parts of
the body are united in one. And hence it is not
strange that, when we mount from obscure images to
the Universal Cause, we should with supernatural
eyes behold all things (even those things which are
mutually contrary) existing as a single Unity in the
Universal Cause. For It is the beginning of all
things, whence are derived Very Being, and all things
that have any being, all Beginning and End, all Life,
Immortality, Wisdom, Order, Harmony, Power,
Preservation, Grounding, Distribution, Intelligence,
Reason, Perception, Quality, Rest, Motion, Unity,
Fusion, Attraction, Cohesion, Differentiation, Defini-
tion, and all other Attributes which, by their mere
existence, qualify all existent things.
8. And from the same Universal Cause come those
godlike and angelical Beings, which possess Intelli-
gence and are apprehended by Intelligence ; and
from It come our souls and the natural laws of the
whole universe, and all the qualities which we speak
of as existing in other objects or as existing merely
in our thoughts. Yea, from It come the all-holy and
most reverent Powers, which possess a real existence ^
and are grounded, as it were, in the fore-court of the
Super-Essential Trinity, possessing from It and in It
their existence and the godlike nature thereof; and,
after them, those which are inferior to them, possessing
their inferior existence from the same Source ; and