darkness). On the other hand, the light could not directly know the darkness, because darkness cannot exist where there is light. The simile is capable of being applied to illustrate God's knowledge of the world, because the world is imperfect. It applies more fundamentally to God's knowledge of evil, and is so employed by St. Thomas Aquinas, who quotes this passage and says {Sutivna, xlv. lo) that, since evil is the lack of good, God knows evil things in the act by which lie knows good things, as we know darkness through knowing light.
152 Dionysius the Areopagite
Him) possesses certain images and semblances of His
Divine Exemplars, we mount upwards (so far as our
feet can tread that ordered path), advancing through
the Negation and Transcendence of all things and
through a conception of an Universal Cause, towards
That Which is beyond all things.^ Hence God is
known in all things and apart from all things ; and
God is known through Knowledge and through Un-
knowing, and on the one hand He is reached by
Intuition, Reason, Understanding, Apprehension,
Perception, Conjecture, Appearance, Name, etc.; and
yet, on the other hand, He cannot be grasped by
Intuition, Language, or Name, and He is not anything
in the world nor is He known in anything. He is All
Things in all things and Nothing in any," and is
known from all things unto all men, and is not known
from any unto any man. 'Tis meet that we employ
such terms concerning God, and we get from all
things (in proportion to their quality) notions of Him
Who is their Creator. And yet on the other hand,
the Divinest Knowledge of God, the which is received
through Unknowing, is obtained in that communion
which transcends the mind, when the mind, turning
away from all things and then leaving even itself
behind, is united to the Dazzling Rays, being from
them and in them, illumined by the unsearchable
depth of Wisdom.^ Nevertheless, as I said, we must
^ God, being the Manifested Absolute, exists on two planes at once : that of Undifferentiation and that of Differentiation. On this second jilane He moves out into creative activity. And thus He is both knowable and unknowable : knowable in so far as He passes outwards into such activity, unknowable in that His l^eing passes inwards into Undiffcnntiation. Thus He is known in His acts but not in His ultimate Nature.
2 He is the Sui:)cr-Esscnce of all things, wherein all things possess their true being outside of themselves [as our pcrcci)tions are outside of ourselves in the things we jierceive. ( Vide Bergson, Maticre et Mevwirc. )].
^ This is experience and not mere theory.
The Divine Names 153
draw this knowledge of Wisdom from all things ; for ^
wisdom it is (as saith the Scripture) ^ that hath made
all things and ever ordcreth them all, and is the
Cause of the indissoluble harmony and order of all
things, perpetually fitting the end of one part unto
the beginning of the second, and thus producing the
one fair agreement and concord of the whole.
4. And God is called " Word " or '' Reason " 2 by the
Holy Scriptures, not only because He is the Bestower
of Reason and Mind and Wisdom, but also because
He contains beforehand in His own Unity the causes
of all things, and because He penetrates all things,
"reaching" (as the Scripture saith) "unto the end of
all things," ^ and more especially because the Divine
Reason is more simple than all simplicity, and, in the
transcendence of Its Super-Essential Being, is inde-
pendent of all things.^ This Reason is the simple
and verily existent Truth : that pure and infallible
Omniscience round which divinely inspired Faith
revolves. It is the permanent Ground of the faith-
ful, which builds them in the Truth and builds the
Truth in them by an unwavering firmness, through
which they possess a simple knowledge of the Truth
of those things which they believe.^ For if Know-
ledge unites the knower and the objects of knowledge,
^ Prov. viii.
^ The reference is, of course, to the opening verses of St, John's Gospel. The present passage shows that by the term "God" D. means not one Differentiation of the Godhead singly (?. e. not God the Father), but all Three Differentiations together ; the undivided (though differentiated) Trinity.
^ Wisdom viii. i.
* God is called Reason: (i) because He is the Giver of reason ; (2) because reason causes unity {e.,^. it unifies our thoughts, making them coherent), and God in His creative activity causes unity and in His ultimate Godhead z's Unity.
^ The Divine Omniscience is: (i) the Object of our faith because we trust in it ; (2) the Ground of our faith because the development of our faith comes from it. Faith is a faint image of Divine Know- ledge, and is gradually perfected by being changed into knowledge.
154 Dionysius the Areopagite
and if ignorance is always a cause of change and of
self-discrepancy in the ignorant, naught (as saith
Holy Scripture) shall separate him that believeth in
the Truth from the Foundation of true faith on which
he shall possess the permanence of immovable and
unchanging firmness. For surely knovveth he who
is united to the Truth that it is well with him, even
though the multitude reprove him as one out of his
mind. Naturally they perceive not that he is but
come out of an erring mind unto the Truth through
right faith. But he verily knows that instead of
being, as they say, distraught, he hath been relieved
from the unstable ever-changing movements which
tossed him hither and thither in the mazes of error,
and hath been set at liberty through the simple
immutable and unchanging Truth. Thus is it that
the Teachers from whom we have learnt our know-
ledge of Divine Wisdom die daily for the Truth,
bearing their natural witness in every word and deed
to the single Knowledge of the Truth which Chris-
tians possess : yea, showing that It is more simple
and divine than all other kinds of knowledge, or
rather that it is the only true, one, simple Knowledge
of God.
Chapter Vhi
Concerning '"'' Power ^'' " Righteousness J\ ''''Salvation^'' "Redemption'' J aiid also concerning "Inequality."
I. Now since the Sacred Writers speak of the
Divine Truthfulness and Supra-Sapient Wisdom
as Tower, and as Righteousnes, and call It Salvation
and Redemption, let us endeavour to unravel these
Divine Names also. Now I do not think that any
one nurtured in Holy Scripture can fail to know
Till': DIVINE NAMES 155
that the Godhead transcends and exceeds every mode
of Eower however conceived. For often Scripture
attributes the Dominion to the Godhead and thus
distinguishes It even from the Celestial Powers.^ In
what sense, then, do the Sacred Writers speak of It
also as Tower when It transcends all Power? Or in
what sense can we take the title Power when applied
to the Godhead ?
2. We answer thus : God is Power because in
His own Self He contains all power beforehand and
exceeds it, and because He is the Cause of all power
and produces all things by a power which may not be
thwarted nor circumscribed, and because He is the
Cause wherefrom Power exists whether in the whole
system of the world or in any particular part.^ Yea,
He is Infinitely Powerful not only in that all Power
comes from Him, but also because He is above all
power and is Very Power, and possesses that excess
of Power which produces in infinite ways an infinite
number of other existent powers; and because the
infinitude of powers which is continually being multi-
plied to infinity can never blunt that transcendently
infinite^ activity of His Power whence all power
comes ; and because of the unutterable, unknowable,
inconceivable greatness of PI is all-transcendent Power
which, through its excess of potency, gives strength
to that which is weak and maintains and governs
the lowest of its created copies, even as, in those
things whose power strikes our senses, very brilliant
^ The highest power our minds can conceive is that of the angels. But God has the dominion over them, and hence His power is of a yet higher kind such as we cannot conceive.
^ Since the ultimate Godhead is undifferentiated God's power is conceived of as an undifferentiated or poiaitial ^ncxgy.
^ The inexhaustible multiplication of things in this world, though it should go on for ever, is a series made up of separate units. God's inexhaustible energy is beyond this series because it is one indivisible act. The Undifferentiated transcends infinite divisibility. Cf. IX. 2.
156 Dionysius the Areopagite
illuminations can reach to eyes that are dim and as
loud sounds can enter ears dull of hearing. (Of
course that which is titterly incapable of hearing is
not an ear, and that which cannot see at all is not
an eye.^)
3. Thus this distribution of God's Infinite Power
permeates all things, and there is nothing in the
world utterly bereft of all power. Some power it must
have, be it in the form of Intuition, Reason, Percep-
tion, Life, or Being. And indeed, if one may so
express it, the very fact that power exists ^ is derived
from the Super-Essential Power.
. 4. From this Source come the Godlike Powers of
\ the Angelic Orders ; from this Source they immutably
possess their being and all the ceaseless and immortal
motions of their spiritual life ; and their very stability
and unfailing desire for the Good they have received
from that infinitely good Power which Itself infuses
into them this power and this existence, and makes
them ceaselessly to desire existence, and gives them
the very power to desire that ceaseless power which
they possess.
5. The effects of this Inexhaustible Power enter
into men and animals and plants and the entire
Nature of the Universe, and fill all the unified
organizations with a force attracting them to mutual
harmony and concord, and drawing separate in-
dividuals into being, according to the natural laws
and qualities of each, without confusion or merging
of their properties. And the laws by which this
Universe is ordered It preserves to fulfil their proper
functions, and keeps the immortal lives of the in-
dividual angels inviolate ; and the luminous stars of
^ This is meant to meet the objection that if God's power is infinite tliere should be no decay or death. Things, says I)., are sometimes incapable of responding, as a blind eye cannot respond to the light.
^ i. e. Power in the aljstract.
The Divine Names 157
heaven It keeps in all their ranis unchanged, and chives
unto I^^ternity the power to be; and the temporal
orbits It differentiates when they bei^in their circuits
and brings together again when tliey return once
more ; and It makes the power of fire unquenchable,
and the liquid nature of water It makes perpetual ;
and gives the atmosphere its fluidity, and founds the
earth upon the Void and keeps its pregnant travail
without ceasing. And It preserves the mutual
harmony of the interpenetrating elements distinct
and yet inseparable, and knits together the bond
uniting soul and body, and stirs the powers by which
the plants have nourishment and growth, and governs
the faculties whereby each kind of creature maintains
its being and makes firm the indissoluble permanence
of the world, and bestows Deification ^ itself by giving
a faculty for it unto those that are deified. And, in
short, there is nothing in the world which is without
the Almighty Power of God to support and to sur-
round it. For that which hath no power at all hath
no existence, no individuality, and no place whatever
in the world.
6. But Elymas ^ the sorcerer raises this objection :
"If God is Omnipotent" (quoth he) "what meaneth
your Sacred Writer by saying that there are some
things He cannot do ? " And so he blames Paul the
Divine for saying that God cannot deny Himself.^
Now, having stated his objection, I greatly fear that
I shall be laughed at for my folly, in going about to
pull down tottering houses built upon the sand by
idle children, and in striving to aim my arrow at an
inaccessible tar:;et when I endeavour to deal with this
^ See Intr., p. 43.
^ The name is introduced to support the fiction of authorship, and an objection, current no doubt in the writer's day (as in every age), is put into the mouth of one who belonged to the same time as St. Paul's Athenian convert.
^ 2 Tim. ii. 13.
158 Dionysius the Areopagite
question of Divinity.^ But thus I answer him ; The
denial of the true Self is a declension from Truth. And
Truth hath Being ; and therefore a declension from
the Truth is a declension from Being. Now whereas
Truth hath Being and denial of Truth is a declension
from Being, God cannot fall from Being. We might say
that He is not lacking in Being, that He cajinot lack
Power, that He knows not how to lack Knowledge.
The wise Elymas, forsooth, did not perceive this ; and
so is like an unskilled athlete, who (as often happens),
thinking his adversary to be weak, through judging
by his own estimation, misses him each time and
manfully strikes at his shadow, and bravely beating
the air with vain blows, fancies he hath gotten him a
victory and boasts of his prowess through ignorance
of the other's power.^ But we striving to shoot our
guard home to our teacher's mark celebrate the
Supra-Potent God as Omnipotent, as Blessed and the
only Potentate, as ruling by His might over Eternity,
as indwelling every part of the universe, or rather
as transcending and anticipating all things in His
Super-Essential Power, as the One Who hath bestowed
upon all things their capacity to exist, and their exist-
ence through the rich outpouring of His transcendent
and abundant Power.
7. Again, God is called " Righteousness " because
He gives to all things what is right, defining Pro-
portion, Beauty, Order, Arrangement, and all Dis-
positions of Place and Rank for each, in accordance
with that place which is most truly right ; and
because He causeth each to possess its independent
activity. For the Divine Righteousness ordains all
things, and sets their bounds and keeps all things