Study Notes: Pseudo-Dionysius's The Mystical Theology
Overview of "Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works"
Author: Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.
Title: The Complete Works.
Translation: Colm Luibheid.
Editorial Contributions:
Foreword, Notes, and Translation Collaboration: Paul Rorem.
Preface: Rene Roques.
Introductions: Jaroslav Pelikan, Jean Leclercq, and Karlfried Froehlich.
Publisher: Paulist Press, New York Mahwah.
Cover Art: Created by Pomona Hallenbeck, an artist and educator specializing in textile designs and multimedia education materials, teaching in New York, Texas, New Mexico, and Canada.
Copyright: © 1987 by Colm Luibheid. All rights reserved. Reproduction or transmission by any means requires publisher's permission.
Library of Congress Information:
Series: The Classics of Western Spirituality.
Includes: Bibliography and Index.
Subjects: God-Knowableness, Spiritual life, Mysticism, Sacraments – Collected works.
Call Number: BR65.D6E5 1987
Dewey Decimal Classification: 230.'14
ISBNs: 0-8091-0383-4 (hardcover), 0-8091-2838-1 (paperback).
LC Control Number: 87-2502
Key Contents/Works Included:
Foreword, Preface, Abbreviations, Introductions.
I. The Odyssey of Dionysian Spirituality.
II. Influence and noninfluence of Dionysius in the Western Middle Ages.
III. Pseudo-Dionysius and the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century.
The Divine Names.
The Mystical Theology.
The Celestial Hierarchy.
The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.
The Letters.
Bibliography, Index to Biblical Allusions and Quotations, Topical/Name Index.
Introduction to "The Mystical Theology"
Significance: This short essay is considered the key to understanding the Dionysian method and the entire structure of Pseudo-Dionysius's corpus of works.
Historical Impact: It profoundly influenced later theology and mysticism, particularly in the Western tradition (Völker, Kontemplation, pp. 218-63).
Structural Interpretations of the Corpus:
J. Vanneste's Argument: Proposes a major division where The Mystical Theology and The Divine Names form one part, distinct from The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.
Alternative Argument (Foreseen in MT 3, note 17): The Mystical Theology serves a dual purpose:
It summarizes the ideas presented in The Divine Names.
It previews the interpretative method for perceptible symbols found in the Bible and liturgy, a method detailed and applied in the subsequent hierarchical treatises (The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy).
Meaning of the Title "Mystical Theology":
"Mystical": In Pseudo-Dionysius's context, the term mustikos (translating to "mystical" or "mysterious") does not primarily denote a later sense of extraordinary, private, self-transcending experience. Instead, it refers to something "mysterious," "secret," or "hidden." (References Bouyer, The Spirituality of the New Testament and the Fathers, pp. 406-16).
"Theology": In Pseudo-Dionysian vocabulary, "theology" often literally means the "Word of God," referring specifically to the scriptures (R. Roques, "Note sur la notion de THEOLOGIA selon le Pseudo-Denys l'Aréopagite," Revue d'Ascétique et de Mystique 25 (1949): 200-12). Examples include passages in CH 4 180B 20, CH 9 261C 38, EH 3 437B 22f., DN 5 824D 49, etc.
Broader Sense of "Theology": It can also signify discourse about God, encompassing various forms such as Simon Peter's confession (EH 7 564C 38), St. John's revelation (Ep. 10 1120A 2), the tradition that follows, and even the author's own theological writings (DN 2 640D 41-46).
Chapter One: What is the Divine Darkness?
An Invocation to the Trinity: The chapter opens with a prayer addressing the Trinity as being "Higher than any being, any divinity, any goodness!" It seeks guidance beyond "unknowing and light" towards the highest peak of "mystic scripture." Here, the mysteries of God's Word are described as "simple, absolute and unchangeable" existing within the "brilliant darkness of a hidden silence." This profound darkness paradoxically reveals "overwhelming light" on what is most clear and fills "sightless minds with treasures beyond all beauty." This concept highlights the apophatic (negative) approach to understanding God.
Advice to Timothy: The Path of Abandonment (Apophatic Mysticism):
To gain insight into "mysterious things," Timothy is advised to transcend all forms of knowledge and perception.
Steps for Ascent:
Leave behind: "everything perceived and understood, everything perceptible and understandable."
Transcend Duality: Move past "all that is not and all that is."
Lay aside Understanding: Approach with the intellect set aside.
Strive Upward: Aim for "union with him who is beyond all being and knowledge."
Outcome of Abandonment: By "undivided and absolute abandonment of yourself and everything, shedding all and freed from all," one will be "uplifted to the ray of the divine shadow which is above everything that is."
Exclusivity of This Wisdom: This profound teaching is not for the "uninformed" or those consumed by worldly affairs. These individuals believe reality is confined to individual beings or that God can be known through their own intellectual capacities, failing to recognize God's transcendent nature. Even more misguided are those who describe the "transcendent Cause of all things" using base, corporeal terms, equating it with "godless, multiformed shapes" of their own making.
The Paradox of Affirmation and Negation:
Affirmation: Since God is the "Cause of all beings," it is appropriate to "posit and ascribe to it all the affirmations" we make about beings.
Negation (More Appropriate): However, it is "more appropriately" to "negate all these affirmations" because God "surpasses all being."
Distinction from Aristotle: Crucially, Pseudo-Dionysius argues that "negations are [not] simply the opposites of the affirmations." Instead, the Cause "is considerably prior to this, beyond privations, beyond every denial, beyond every assertion." This directly refutes Aristotle's view in On Interpretation 17a 31-33.
The Teaching of Blessed Bartholomew: The apostle Bartholomew is cited, asserting that the "Word of God is vast and minuscule," and the "Gospel is wide-ranging and yet restricted." This signifies a deep understanding that the good cause of all is simultaneously "eloquent and taciturn, indeed wordless," existing beyond "word [or] act of understanding."
Moses as a Prototype for the Mystical Ascent:
Purification: Like the blessed Moses, one must first undergo "purification" and then separate from the unpurified.
Ascension: After purification, Moses experiences divine signs like "many-voiced trumpets" and "many lights," then proceeds with chosen priests towards the "summit of the divine ascents."
The Limit of Perception: Even at this summit, Moses "does not meet God himself, but contemplates, not him who is invisible, but rather where he dwells." The highest perceived things are merely a "rationale" that presupposes the Transcendent One, yet they reveal "his unimaginable presence."
The Plunge into Unknowing: Moses ultimately "breaks free" from all that is seen and sees, plunging into the "truly mysterious darkness of unknowing." This state is famously known as "the cloud of unknowing" (a concept explored by a 14^{th}-century anonymous English author).
Union Through Unknowing: In this darkness, one renounces all mental conceptions, becomes completely "wrapped entirely in the intangible and the invisible," and belongs utterly to God who is "beyond everything." Here, one transcends self, being "neither oneself nor someone else," achieving supreme union through "a completely unknowing inactivity of all knowledge," and thus "knows beyond the mind by knowing nothing."
Connection to Gregory of Nyssa's The Life of Moses: Many of Pseudo-Dionysius's themes regarding Moses' ascent are anticipated by Gregory of Nyssa, particularly in Part II, #152-170 of his work (*PG 44 372C-380A).
Liturgical Analogy: Moses and the Hierarch: The Sinai events are seen as a prototype for the liturgical experience of the hierarch.
Shared Purification: Like Moses, the hierarch undergoes purification, both alongside other worshipers (EH 2 397B 14-21) and through their own ceremonial purification (EH 3 440A 11-14).
Separation and Ascent: During dismissal, the hierarch and unpurified are separated (EH 3 436A 3-5), mirroring Moses standing apart. The hierarch transcends literal scriptural sounds (DN 4 708C 28) and material liturgical lights (CH 1 121D 42f.).
Contemplation: The hierarch and "chosen" assistants approach the altar to "contemplate the divine things" (EH 3 425D 44-46), similar to Moses contemplating God's dwelling. "Contemplation" is the term for liturgical interpretation in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.
Chapter Two: The Apophatic Path and the Sculptor Metaphor
The Goal of Unknowing: A fervent prayer is expressed to reach a "darkness so far above light," to achieve a state of "unseeing and unknowing" in order to perceive "that which lies beyond all vision and knowledge." This is presented as the true way "to see and to know."
Praising Through Denial (Via Negativa): The ultimate way to praise the Transcendent One is "in a transcending way, namely through the denial of all beings."
The Sculptor Metaphor: This method is likened to sculptors carving a statue. They don't add material but "remove every obstacle to the pure view of the hidden image." By simply "clearing aside" (Greek: aphairesis, meaning "denial"), they reveal the inherent, hidden beauty. This illustrates that by negating what God is not, His true nature is indirectly revealed, not by direct description.
Distinction Between Denials and Assertions:
Order of Assertions (Descending): Affirmative theology begins with the "first things," moving "down through intermediate terms until [it] reached the last things."
Order of Denials (Ascending): Negative theology (or apophatic theology) "climb[s] from the last things up to the most primary" by denying all things. This ascent aims to "unhiddenly know that unknowing which itself is hidden from all those possessed of knowing amid all beings," and "to see above being that darkness concealed from all the light among beings."
Chapter Three: Affirmative and Negative Theologies Explained
Recap of Affirmative Theologies (The Descending Path):
Theological Representations (lost or fictitious treatise): This work praised core affirmative theological concepts:
The divine and good nature as both "one and then triune."
Predication of Fatherhood and Sonship.
The meaning of the theology of the Spirit.
How these "core lights of goodness" originated from the "incorporeal and indivisible good," remaining inseparable from their co-eternal foundation. This is metaphorically described with "symbolism of lights and sprouting plants."
The incarnation of Jesus, who is "above individual being," becoming a "being with a true human nature."
The Divine Names: Discussed conceptual names for God, explaining how God is described as "good, existent, life, wisdom, power," and similar attributes. These five specific biblical names are the initial focus of chapters 4 through 8 of The Divine Names.
Symbolic Theology (lost or fictitious treatise): This treatise dealt with the most numerous and diverse affirmations, focusing on analogies of God derived from perceptible things. It included discussions of:
Divine images, forms, figures, instruments.
Places where God lives, ornaments God wears.
Anthropomorphic descriptions of God's emotions (anger, grief, rage) and states (drunk, hungover, oaths, curses, sleeping, waking).
These are all "images shaped by the workings of the symbolic representations of God."
Relationship Between Affirmative Works and Language: The Theological Representations and The Divine Names are "inevitably briefer" than The Symbolic Theology due to the nature of their referents. The more abstract and exalted the concept (unity, divine names), the fewer specific words apply. As one descends into more perceptible and anthropomorphic language, the number of possible affirmations multiplies.
The Nature of Negative Theology (The Ascending Path) and Language Limitations:
Speechlessness: As the argument "take[s] flight upward" into the "darkness which is beyond intellect," language becomes increasingly confined, leading to a state of being "not simply running short of words but actually speechless and unknowing."
Inverse Journey: While earlier books followed a downward path (from exalted to humble, increasing ideas), the current argument in The Mystical Theology rises "from what is below up to the transcendent." As it climbs, "language falters," eventually becoming completely silent in union with "him who is indescribable."
Why Inverse Starting Points for Affirmations and Denials?
Assertions: When asserting what is "beyond every assertion," one begins with what is "most akin to it" (e.g., God is life, goodness), as this provides a foundational affirmation.
Denials: When denying that which is "beyond every denial," one starts by negating qualities "which differ most from the goal." It is deemed "closer to reality to say that God is life and goodness rather than that he is air or stone." Similarly, "it is more accurate to deny that drunkenness and rage can be attributed to him than to deny that we can apply to him the terms of speech and thought." This illustrates that denials proceed by removing the least congruous attributes first, gradually moving to negate even seemingly appropriate ones.
The Sequence of Treatises and Theological Paths (P. Rorem):
Affirmative theology begins with loftier comparisons and descends to less appropriate ones.
Theological Representations: From God's oneness down to the multiplicity of the Trinity and incarnation.
The Divine Names: Affirms numerous designations from mental concepts.
The Symbolic Theology: Descends into the more pluralized realm of sense perception and symbols.
Negative theology follows an ascending order of decreasing incongruity in attributes to be negated.
The Mystical Theology, Chapter 4: Denies perceptible attributes, previewing The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.
The Celestial Hierarchy, Chapter 2: Continues theme by interpreting and transcending the most incongruous perceptible symbols (angels, God).
The anagogical (uplifting) interpretation method in the hierarchical treatises integrates negative theology, transcending both spatial/material angelic depictions and temporal/sequential liturgical images.
The Mystical Theology, Chapter 5: Denies conceptual attributes, abandoning speech and thought, including negations themselves, in the ultimate ascent.
Chapter Four: The Ineffability of the Perceptible Cause
The Supreme Cause is Beyond Perceptible Attributes: The chapter asserts that the "Cause of all is above all." It negates all perceptible qualities from the divine:
It is not inexistent, lifeless, speechless, mindless.
It is not a material body; therefore, it has "neither shape nor form, quality, quantity, or weight."
It is not located in any place.
It can "neither be seen nor be touched."
It is "neither perceived nor is it perceptible."
It suffers "neither disorder nor disturbance" and is "overwhelmed by no earthly passion."
It is not powerless or subject to sense perception disturbances.
It endures no "deprivation of light."
It passes through no "change, decay, division, loss, no ebb and flow, nothing of which the senses may be aware."
Conclusion: None of these perceptible qualities can be identified with or attributed to the Supreme Cause.
Chapter Five: The Ineffability of the Conceptual Cause
Climbing Higher: The Cause is Beyond Conceptual Attributes: Continuing the apophatic ascent, this chapter denies all conceptual qualities of the divine:
It is not soul or mind.
It does not possess imagination, conviction, speech, or understanding.
It is not speech per se, nor understanding per se.
It "cannot be spoken of and it cannot be grasped by understanding."
It is not number or order, greatness or smallness, equality or inequality, similarity or dissimilarity.
It is not immovable, moving, or at rest.
It holds "no power, it is not power, nor is it light."
It does "not live nor is it life."
It is not a substance, nor is it eternity or time.
It "cannot be grasped by the understanding since it is neither knowledge nor truth."
It is not kingship or wisdom.
It is "neither one nor oneness, divinity nor goodness."
It is not a spirit in the human sense of the term.
It is not sonship or fatherhood.
It is "nothing known to us or to any other being."
It "falls neither within the predicate of nonbeing nor of being."
Radical Unknowability: Existing beings "do not know it as it actually is and it does not know them as they are." There is "no speaking of it, nor name nor knowledge of it." It is "none of these" (darkness, light, error, truth).
Beyond Assertion and Denial: The ultimate conclusion is that the Supreme Cause is "beyond assertion and denial." Assertions and denials are made only of aspects "next to it," but never of the Cause itself. This is because it is both "beyond every assertion, being the perfect and unique cause of all things," and (by its simple, absolute nature, free of limitation) it is "also beyond every denial." This reaffirms that even negations ultimately cannot fully capture or define the transcendent God.
Pseudo-Dionysius emphasizes the radical unknowability of God, particularly through his apophatic (negative) theology. In The Mystical Theology, Chapter One, the Trinity is addressed as being "Higher than any being, any divinity, any goodness!" and its mysteries exist within the "brilliant darkness of a hidden silence." This highlights that God is beyond human comprehension and conventional light of understanding. The text advises Timothy to transcend all forms of knowledge and perception to gain insight into "mysterious things," stating: "Leave behind everything perceived and understood, everything perceptible and understandable, all that is not and all that is." The ultimate goal is "union with him who is beyond all being and knowledge," which is achieved by being "uplifted to the ray of the divine shadow which is above everything that is."
Chapter One further clarifies that this wisdom is not for those who believe "reality is confined to individual beings or that God can be known through their own intellectual capacities, failing to recognize God's transcendent nature." Moses' ascent serves as a prototype, where he ultimately "breaks free" from all that is seen and sees, plunging into the "truly mysterious darkness of unknowing." In this state, one achieves supreme union through "a completely unknowing inactivity of all knowledge," and thus "knows beyond the mind by knowing nothing."
In Chapter Five, the apophatic ascent reaches its peak in denying all conceptual attributes of the divine, concluding that God "cannot be spoken of and it cannot be grasped by understanding." The text explicitly states, "It is nothing known to us or to any other being," and "falls neither within the predicate of nonbeing nor of being." The radical unknowability is underscored by the assertion that existing beings "do not know it as it actually is and it does not know them as they are." Finally, Pseudo-Dionysius concludes that the Supreme Cause is "beyond assertion and denial," meaning even negations cannot fully capture or define God, as such statements are made only of things "next to it," but never of the Cause itself.