each one severally and indiviimally possesses It. The paradox is due to the fact that the question is one of ultimate Reality.
All life and individuality start in the individual's opposition to the rest of the world, for by distinguishing myself from the world I, in a sense, oppose myself to it. This is the basis of selfishness and so of moral evil. But being transmuted by Love, it becomes the basis of all harmony and moral good, and so leads to Peace. And the same prin- ciples of opposition and harmony are at work in the whole creation, animate and inanimate alike. (Cf. Dante, Paj-adiso, I. 103 to end.)
^ Vide supra [Movet Deus sicut Desideratum] : True peace is restful energy, both elements of which are incomplete in the present world but complete in the Godhead.
1 78 Dionysius the Areopagite
disturbed by the unsatisfied cravings which have
mastered them.^ There is no need to tell how the
loving-kindness of Christ cometh bathed in Peace,
wherefrom we must learn to cease from strife, whether
against ourselves or against one another, or against
the angels, and instead to labour together even with
the angels for the accomplishment of God's Will, in
accordance with the Providential Purpose of Jesus
Who worketh all things in all and maketh Peace,
unutterable and foreordained from Eternity, and
reconcileth us to Himself, and, in Himself, to the
Father. Concerning these supernatural gifts enough
hath been said in the Outlines of Divinity with
confirmation drawn from the holy testimony of the
Scriptures.
6. Now, since thou hast, on a previous occasion,
sent me an epistle asking what I mean by Very Being
Itself, Very Life Itself, Very Wisdom Itself: and since
thou saidst thou couldst not understand why some-
times I call God " Life " and sometimes the " Fount
of Life": I have thought it necessary, holy man of
God, to solve for thee this question also which hath
arisen between us. In the first place, to repeat again
what hath often been said before, there is no contra-
diction between calling God " Life" or " Power" and
"Fount of Life, Peace, or Power." ^ The former
titles are derived from forms of existence, and
especially from the primary forms,^ and are applied
to Him because all existences come forth from Him ;
the latter titles are given Him because in a super-
essential manner He transcends all things, even the
^ Cf. Dante, Paradiso. "E se altia cosa vostra amor seduce Non e se non di quella alciin vestigio," etc.
2 Absolute Existence or Life, etc., is in God supcr-essentially, and timelessly emanates from Him. It is in Him as a Super-Essence and j)rojectcd from Him as an Essence.
^ i. e. The angels, who, being the highest creatures, possess Exist- ence, Life, Peace, Power, etc., in the greatest degree.
Tiik Divine Names 179
primary existences.^ " Ikit," thou wilt say, "what mean we at all by Very Beini^ and Very Life and those things to which we ascribe an Ultimate Existence derived primarily from God ? " We reply as follows : " This matter is not crooked, but straic^ht- forward, and the explanation thereof is easy. The Very Existence underlying the existence of all things is not some Divine or Angelic Being (for only That Which is Super-Essential can be the Principle, the Being and the Cause of all Existences and of Very Existence Itself)^ nor is It any Hfe-producing Deity other than the Supra-Divine Life which is the Cause of all living things and of Very Life,^ nor, in short, is It identical with any such originative and creative Essences and Substances of things as men in their rash folly call "gods" and "creators" of the world, though neither had these men themselves any true and proper knowledge of such beings nor had their fathers. In fact, such beings did not exist.* Our meaning is different: "Very Being," "Very Life," " Very Godhead " are titles which in an Originating Divine and Causal sense we apply to the One Transcendent Origin and Cause of all things, but we also apply the terms in a derivative sense to the Providential Manifestations of Power derived from the Unparticipated God, i. e. to the Infusion of Very Being, Very Life, and Very Godhead, which so trans- mutes the creatures where each, according to its nature, participates therein, that these obtain the
^ The titles "Absolute Life," etc., correspond to the Via Affirvia- iiva, and the titles " Cause of Absolute Life," etc. , 'to the Via Negativa.
^ The Godhead causes : (i) the particular existent thing, (2) the ultimate fact of Existence, i. e. Absolute Existence. The Exemplars are in the Godhead and not in the emanating Absolute Existence.
^ See last note.
■* Perhaps under the pretence of attacking Paganism D. is really aiming his shafts against Manicheism or some Gnostic heresy current in his day.
i8o DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE
qualities and names : " Existent," '' Living," " Divinely
Possessed," etc.^ Hence the Good God is called the
Fount, first, of the Very Primaries : then, of those
creatures which share completely therein ; thenj of
those which share partially therein.^ But it needs
not to say more concerning this matter, since some of
our Divine Teachers have already treated thereof.
They give the title " Fount of Very Goodness and
Deity" to Him that exceeds both Goodness and
Deity; and they give the name of ''Very Goodness
and Deity " to the Gift which, coming forth from
God, bestows both Goodness and Deity upon the
creatures ; and they give the name of "Very Beauty "
to the outpouring of Very Beauty ; and in the same
manner they speak of "complete Beauty" and
" partial Beauty," and of things completely beautiful
and things beautiful in part.^ And they deal in the
same way with all other qualities which are, or can be,
similarly employed to signify Providential Manifesta-
tions and Virtues derived from the Transcendent
God through that abundant outpouring, where such
qualities proceed and overflow from Him. So is
the Creator of all things literally beyond them all,
and His Super-Essential and Supernatural Being
altogether transcends the creatures, whatever their
essence and nature.
^ (i) God possesses and ts Absolute Being, Absolute Life, etc.
(2) lie pours forth Absolute Being that the creatures may share it
and so ( xist and be ennobled.
2 Migne's text here is corrupt, I have emended it.
(i) Tlie First 'J hings = Absolute Existence, etc.
(2) Those that share completely therein = the angels and perfected
human souls.
(3) Those that share partially therein = the lower orders of creation
which possess ( xistence without life, or life without con- sciousness, or consciousness without spirituality (steles, plants, animals). ^ The beauty of a human being is more comjilete than that of a
horse, and spiritual beauty is more complete than mere physical
beauty.
THE DIVINE NAMES ifii
Chapter Xii
Co)icc?-tunq ''Holy of /lolies" " AV//;'- of ki?is^s^'' "Lord of lords:' " God of oods:'
1. Forasmuch as the things which needed to be
said concerning this matter have been brought, I
think, to a proper ending, we must praise God
(whose Names are infinite) as " Holy of holies" and
*' King of kings," reigning through Eternity and unto
the end of Eternity and beyond it, and as " Lord of
lords " and '• God of gods." And we must begin
by saying what we understand by " Very Holiness,"
what by " Royalty," "Dominion," and "Deity," and
what the Scripture means by the reduplication of the
titles.
2. Now Holiness is that which we conceive as a
freedom from all defilement and a complete and
utterly untainted purity. And Royalty is the power
to assign all limit, order, law, and rank. And
Dominion is not only the superiority to inferiors, but
is also the entirely complete and universal possession
of fair and good things and is a true and steadfast
firmness ; wherefore the name is derived from a word
meaning " validity " and words meaning severally
"that which possesseth validity" and "which cxer-
ciseth " it.^ And Deity is the Providence which con-
templates all things and which, in perfect Goodness,
^ D. holds that God's dominion is an absolute quality in Himself apart from all reference to the creation. The Greek word, as he truly says, supports his view.
The Latin Dominus, on the other hand, implies the notion of governing, and so has a necessary reference to the creation. Hence St. Augustine says that God could not actually be spoken of as "Lord" before the world or the angels were made. Eckhart says that before the creation God was not God, " Er war was Er war." D. holds that the title "God" is relative to us. I5ut then he holds — ■ and here explains — that the roots of this relationship exist tiniekssly in the undifferentiated Godhead.
goes round about all things and holds them to-
gether and fills them with Itself and transcends all
things that enjoy the blessings of Its providential
care.
3. These titles, then, must be given in an absolute
sense to the All-Transcendent Cause, and we must
add that It is a Transcendent Holiness and Dominion,
that It is a Supreme Royalty and an altogether
Simple Deity. ^ For out of It there hath, in one
single act, come forth collectively and been distributed
throughout the world all the unmixed Perfection of
all untainted Purity ; all that Law and Order of the
world, which expels all disharmony, inequality and
disproportion, and breaks forth into a smiling aspect
of ordered Consistency ^ and Rightness, bringing into
their proper place all things which are held worthy
to participate in It ; all the perfect Possession of all
fair qualities ; and all that good Providence which
contemplates and maintains in being the objects of
Its own activity, bounteously bestowing Itself for the
Deification of those creatures which are converted
unto It.
4. And since the Creator of all things is brim-full
with them all in one transcendent excess thereof, He
is called " Holy of Holies," etc., by virtue of His
overflowing Causality and excess of Transcendence.^
Which meaneth that just as things that have no
substantial Being* arc transcended by things that
have such Being, together with Sanctity, Divinity,
Dominion, or Royalty ; and just as the things that
^ "Transcendent," "Supreme," "Simple," all express the same fact — that, being Super-Essential, it is aljove the multiplicity of the creatures.
2 Cf. Shelley, Adoiinis: "That Light whose smile kindles the universe."
" " Holiness" especinlly contains the notion of Transcendence.
* i. e. The material tliint;s (cf. Mysi. Thcol. I.). This is the ordinary meaning of the phrase in 1).
The Divine Names 183
participate in these Qualities are transcended by the
Very Qualities themselves — even so all thini^s that
have Bcin^ are surpassed by Him that is beyond
them all, and all the Participants and all the Very
Qualities are surpassed by the Unparticipated ^
Creator. And Holy Ones and Kings and Lords and
Gods, in the language of Scripture, are the higher
Ranks in each Kind ^ through which the secondary
Ranks receiving of their gifts from God, show forth
the abundance of that Unity thus distributed among
them in their own manifold qualities — which various
qualities the First Ranks in their providential, godlike
activity draw together into the Unity of their own
being.^
^ Material things are surpassed by angels and perfected human souls, and these by the Divine Cirace which they all share ; and this, together with the whole creation on which it is bestowed, is surpassed by God from Whom it emanates. For while this emanation can be commu- nicated the Godhead cannot. (Cf. Via Negativa. See esp. Myst. TheoL I.).
* i. c. The higher ranks whether among angels or among human souls. (Cf. "I have said, ' Ye are gods,' " "hath made us kings and prie<5ts," etc. )
^ The highest ranks {i. c. the Seraphim and the Contemplative Saints) have a direct version of God, Whom they behold by an act of complete sj.iritual contemplation.
Others, learning from them, behold God truly but le-s directly — by knowing rather than by Unknowing, by discursive Meditation rather than by intuitive Contemplation — or are called to serve Him chiefly in practical works. Contemplation is a complete activity of the concen- trated spirit, unifying it within itself and uniting it to all kindred spirits (for true Mysticism is the same in every age and place). Meditation and practical works are partial activities which imply a succession of different images in the same mind and a shifting variety of different mental tyjies and interests in the same Community.
i84 DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE
Chapter Xiii
Concerning ''''Perfect and " O;/^."
I. So much for these titles. Now let us, if thou art
willing, proceed to the most important Title of all.
For the Divine Science attributes all qualities to the
Creator of all things and attributes them all together,
and speaks of Him as One.^ Now such a Being is
Perfect : not only in the sense that It is Absolute
Perfection and possesseth in Itself and from Itself
distinctive Uniformity of Its existence,^ and that It
is wholly perfect in Its whole Essence, but also in
the sense that, in Its transcendence It is beyond
Perfection ; and tliat, while giving definite form or
limit to all that is indefinite. It is yet in Its simple
Unity raised above all limitation, and is not contained
or comprehended by anything, but penetrates to all
things at once and beyond them in Its unfailing
bounties and never-ending activities.^ Moreover, the