Gordon Clark: Dionysius the Pseudo-Aeropagite (Encyclopedia of Christianity)

1972. In Encyclopedia of Christianity. Philip E. Hughes, ed. Marshallton, Delaware: National Foundation for Christian Education. Dionysius the Pseudo-Aeropagite

DIONYSIUS THE PSEUDO-AEROPAGITE, a mystic of the late 5th century who used the name of Paul's convert of Acts 17:34 (Dionysius the Areopagite). The approximate date is determined by the fact that in the works of this pseudo-Dionysius, Mystical Theology and Divine Names, he paraphrases material from the Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus (A. D. 410-485) and shows a knowledge of the Henotikon of Emperor Zeno (A. D. 482). Neoplatonism mainly held two theses, that God is unknowable and evil is not a reality. The Henotikon was an edit attempting to unify diverging Christian factions.

Two quotations will give a sample of his mysticism:

Mystic Theology 1:1: "Triad supernal, both super-God and super-good, Guardian of the theosophy of Christian men, direct us aright to the super-unknown and super-brilliant and highest summit of the mystic oracles, where the simple and absolute and changeless mysteries of theology lie hidden within the super-luminous gloom of the silence, revealing hidden things, which in its deepest darkness shines above the most super-brilliant, and in the altogether impalpable and invisible fills to overflowing the eyeless minds with glories of surpassing beauty."

Divine Name 2:10: "Deity of our Lord Jesus, the cause and completing of all, which preserves the parts concordant with the whole, and is neither part nor whole, as embracing in itself everything both whole and part, and being above and before, perfect indeed in the imperfect as source of perfection, but imperfect in the perfect as super-perfect and pre-perfect, form producing form in things without form as the source of form, formless in the forms as above form, essence penetrating without stain the essences throughout, and super-essential, exalted above every essence, setting bounds to all principalities and orders, and established in every principality and order."

Because of the ignorance of the Dark Ages and the decadent state of Christianity, these books were accepted as genuine writings of the original Dionysius. Since he was assumed to echo the thought of the Apostle Paul, a considerable amount of Neoplatonic paganism was thus introduced into the thought of the church. In the later Middle Ages John Scotus Eriugena (810-877) reinforced the Neoplatonic influence by translating the pseudo-Dionysius into Latin and commenting on it. Even Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) was deceived, wrote a commentary, and adopted some Neoplatonic ideas along with his general Aristotelianism.

See MYSTICISM; NEGATIVE THEOLOGY

Gordon H. Clark