Dionysius the Areopagite on the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology — trans. C. E. Rolt (1920)

^ Ps. xxiv. 7.

^ We cannot help thinking of Eternity as an Endless Time, as we think of infinite number as an endless numerical process. But this is wrong. Eternity is timeless as infinite number is superior to all numerical process. According to Plato, Time is "incomplete life" and Eternity is " complete life." Thus Eternity fulfils Time and yet contradicts it, as infinite number fulfils and contradicts the properties of finite numbers. If Time be thought of as an infinite series of finite numbers Eternity is the sum of that series and not its process. But the name may be applied loosely to the process, though this is generally to be avoided. According to St. Thomas, Eternity measures Rest, and Time measures Motion : Eternity is a totiun simul and Time is sticccs- sivinn. The difference between them is not, he says, that Time has a beginning and an end whereas Eternity has neither, though he admits that each of the particular objects existing in Time began and will end. {Suinma, Pars L Q. x. Art. iv.) But this is, he says, not essential to the nature of time : it is ox\\y per accidcns {ibid. Art. v.). Cf. Aristotle's distinction between " unlimited Time" and limited Time.

^ lie alludes to Angels and the perfected souls of men and to their celestial abode.

172 Dionysius the Areopagite

but, strictly following the venerable Scriptures, we
had better interpret the words " Eternal " and
" Temporal " in their proper senses, and regard those
things which to some extent participate in Eternity
and to some extent in Time as standing midway
between things in Being and things in Birth. ^ And
God we must celebrate as both Eternity and Time,^
as the Cause of all Time and Eternity and as the
Ancient of Days ; as before Time and above Time
and producing all the variety of times and seasons ;
and again, as existing before Eternal Ages, in that

^ St. Thomas speaks of aeviwi as standing between Eternity and Time and participating in both. Time, he says, consists in succession, Aevuvi does not but is capable of it. Eternity does not and is incapable of it {Snnivia, Pars I. Q. x. Art, v.). Thus the heavenly bodies, he says, are changeless in essence, but capable of motion from place to place ; and the angels are changeless in nature, but capable of choice and so of spiritual movement. Maximus's note on the present passage explains this to be D.'s meaning.

There is in each one of us a timeless self. It is spoken of by all the Christian Mystics as the root of our being, or as the spark, or the Synteresisy etc. Our perfection consists in this ultimate reality, which is each man's self, shining through his whole being and transforming it. Hence man is at last lifted on to the eternal plane from that of time. The movements of his spirit will then be so intense that they will attain a totuni siviiil. We get a foretaste of this when, in the experience of deep spiritual joy, the successive parts of Time so coalesce (as it were) that an hour seems like a moment. Eternity is Rest and Time is Motion. Accelerate the motion in the individual soul, through the intensification of that soul's bliss to infinity. There is now in the soul an infinite motion. But Infinite Motion is above succession, and therefore is itself a form of repose. Thus Motion has been changed into Rest, Time into Eternity. Mechanical Time, or dead Time (of which Aristotle si)eaks as mere movement or succession) is the Time measured by the clock ; developing or /ivini^ Time (which is Plato's "incomplete life") is real Time, and this is Arjuni, which partakes both of mechanical Time and of I^'.lemity. The iiest treatment of the subject is probably to be found in Bergson's theory of (-////w. (Cf. Von llxxgeVs Ete?-nal /.i/e.)

The words "eternal," " everlasting," etc., being loosely employed, may refer to three different things : (i) endless ttiechanical Time, /. c. mere endless succession ; (2) Aevitni, or developing and finally per- fected living Time ; (3) True Timeless Eternity.

2 Vide pp. 169 n. i, 170 n. i.

The Divine Names I73

He is before^ ICtcrnity and above Eternity and His
Kingdom is the Kingdom of all the Eternal Ages.
Amen.

Chapter Xi

Concerning'''' Peace'''' and what is meant by " Ve>y Being^' Itself^ " Very LiJ'e,^' "Fivj Poiuer,^^ a7id similar phrases.

I. Now let us praise with reverent hymns of peace
the Divine Peace which is the Source of all mutual
attraction. For this Quality it is that unites all
things together and begets and produces the har-
monies and agreements of all things. And hence it
is that all things long for It, and that It draws their
manifold separate parts into the unity of the whole
and unites the battling elements of the world into
concordant fellowship. So it is that, through partici-
pation in the Divine Peace, the higher of the mutually
Attractive Powers 2 are united in themselves and to
each other and to the one Supreme Peace of the
whole world ; and so the ranks beneath them are by
them united both in themselves and to one another
and unto that one perfect Principle and Cause of
Universal Peace,^ which broods in undivided Unity
upon the world, and (as it were with bolts which
fasten the sundered parts together) giveth to all
things their laws, their limits, and their cohesion ; nor

^ Vide p. 170, 11. 2.

2 i. e. The beraphim.

^ The Divine Energy and Light streams through the medium of the higher orders to the lower. This is worked out in the Celestial Hierarchy of the same writer. We get the same thought in Dante's Paradiso, where the Pri/num Mobile, deriving its motion from an immediate contact with the Empyrean, passes them on to the next sphere and so to all the rest in turn, the movement being received and conveyed by the succeeding angelic orders presiding severally, in descending scale of dignity, over the concentric spheres. — See Cottvito, II. 6.

174 Dionysius the Areopagite

suffers them to be torn apart and dispersed into the
boundless chaos without order or foundation, so as to
lose God's Presence and depart from their own unity,
and to mingle together in a universal confusion.
Now as to that quality of the Divine Peace and
Silence, to which the holy Justus ^ gives the name
of "Dumbness" and "Immobility" (sc. so far as
concerns all emanation which our knowledge can •
grasp),^ and as to the manner in which It is still and
silent and keeps in Itself and within Itself and is
wholly and entirely one transcendent Unity in Itself,
and while entering into Itself and multiplying Itself,^
doth not leave Its own Unity, but, even in the act of \
going forth to all things, remains entirely within !
Itself through the excess of that all-transcendent ■
Unity : concerning these things 'tis neither right nor •»
possible for any creature to frame any language or
conception. Let us, then, describe that Peace (inas-
much as It transcends all things) as " Unutterable,"
yea and " Unknowable" ; and, so far as 'tis possible
for men and for ourselves who are inferior to many

^ Vide Acts i. 23 ; xviii. 7 ; or Col. iv. 11.

^ Victorinus calls God the Father Cessatio, Silentinni, or Quies, and also Mollis, as distinguished from Motio (the name he gives God the Son), the former kind of movement being the quiescent generator of the latter, since Victorinus was an older contemporary of St. Augustine (see Conf. viii. 2-5) his speculations may have been known to I). The peace of God attracts by its mysterious influence. Tin's influence is, in a sense, an emanation or outgoing activity (or it could not affect us), but it is a thing felt and not understood.

^ It multiplies Itself by entering into the creatures and seeking to be reproduced in each of them. This whole passage throws light on the problem of Personality. If our personalities are ultimately contained in the Absolute, the Absolute is not a Person but a Society of Persons. I), would reply that the Absolute is Supra- Personal, and that in It our personalities have their ultimate existence, outside of them- selves, as an undifferentiated Unity, though that ultimate plane needs also and implies the existence of the relative plane on which our personalities exist as differentiated individuals. The Holy Spirit enters into the various individuals, but still possesses One Supra-Personal Godhead, i'lolinus says the Godhead is indivisibly divided.

The Divine Names 175

good men, let us ex«iininc those cases where It is
amenable to our int^uitions and lanquac^e through
beinij^ manifested in created thinc;s.

2. Now, the first thin<T to say is this : that God is
the Fount of Very Peace and of all Peace, both in
i^eneral and in particular, and that He joins all thini^s
to<j[ether in an unity without confusion whereby they
arc inseparably united without any interval between
them, and at the same time stand unmixed each in .
its own form, not losing their purity through being
mingled with their opposites nor in any way blunting
the edge of their clear and distinct individuality. Let
us, then, consider that one and simple nature of the^
Peaceful Unity which unites all things to Itself to
themselves and to each other, and preserves all things,
distinct and yet interpenetrating in an universal ,
cohesion without confusion. Thus it is that the
Divine Intelligences derive that Unity whereby they
are united to the activities and the objects of their
intuition ; ^ and rise up still further to a contact,
beyond knowledge, with truths which transcend the
mind. Thus it is that souls, unifying their manifold]
reasoning powers and concentrating them in one pure/
spiritual act, advance by their own ordered path
through an immaterial and indivisible act of spiritual
intuition. Thus it is that the one and indissoluble
connection of all things exists by reason of its Divine
harmony, and is fitted together with perfect concord,
agreement and congruity, being drawn into one with-
out confusion and inseparably held together. For
the entirety of that perfect Peace penetrates to all
things through the simple, unalloyed presence of Its
minifying power, uniting all things and binding the
extremities together through the intermediate parts,

^ Contemplation, Act of Contemplation, and Object Contemplated are all united together, and so imply a fundaniental Unity which exists ultimately in God.

176 Dionysius the Areopagite

all things being thus conjoined by one homogenous
attraction. And It bestows even upon the utmost
limits of the universe the enjoyment of Its Presence,
and makes all things akin to one another by the
unities, the identities, the communions and the mutual
attractions which It gives them ; for the Divine
Peace remains indivisible and shows forth all Its
power in a single act, and permeates the whole world
without departing from Its own Identity. For It
goes forth to all things and gives to all things of Itself
(according to their kinds), and overflows with the
abundance of Its peaceful fecundity, and yet through
the transcendence of Its unification It remains wholly
and entirely in a state of Absolute Self-Unity.^

3. "But," some one perchance will say, "in what
sense do all things desire peace ? Many things rejoice
in opposition and difference and distinction, and
would never choose willingly to be at rest." Now if
the opposition and difference here intended is the
individuality of each thing, and the fact that naught
(while it remains itself) wishes to lose this quality,
then neither can we deny this statement ; but, how-
ever, we shall show that this itself is due to a desire
for Peace. For all things love to have peace and
unity in themselves and to remain without moving or
falling from their own existence or properties. And
the perfect Peace guards each several individuality
unalloyed by Its providential gift of peace, keeping
all things without internal or mutual discord or
confusion, and establishing all things, in the power of
unswerving stability, so as to possess their own peace
and rest.^

1 Cf. p. 174, n- 3-

2 D.'s paradox is the paradox of sanity. We must hold at the same time two apparent contradictions. On one side all things are, in a sense, merged, in the other side they are not. Their Super- Essence is identical and is one and the same Supcr-Essciue for all. Yet

The ])1vink Names 177

4. And if all things which move be found desiring
not to be at rest but always to perform their proper
movements, this also is a desire for that Divine Peace
of the Universe which keeps all things in their proper
places so that they fall not, and preserves the indi-
vidual and the motive life of all moving things from
removal or declension. And this it doth by reason
that the things which move perform their proper
functions through being in a constant state of inward
peace. 1

5. But if, in affirming that Peace is not desired by
all, the objector is thinking of the opposition caused
by a falling away from Peace, in the first place there
is nothing in the world which hath utterly fallen away
from all Unity ; for that which is utterly unstable,
boundless, baseless, and indefinite hath neither Peing
nor any inherence in the things that have Being.
And if he says that hatred towards Peace and the
blessings of Peace is shown by them that rejoice in
strife and anger and in conditions of variations and
instability, I answer that these also are governed by
dim shadows of the desire for Peace ; for, being
oppressed by the various movements of their passions,
they desire (without understanding) to set these at
rest, and suppose that the surfeit of fleeting pleasures
will give them Peace because they feel themselves