Podcast episode

December 22, 2024

Episode 198: The Pseudo-Dionysios, the Esoteric, and (Christian) Mysticism

With a wise silence do we honour the inexpressible.

Works Cited in this Episode:

SHWEPisode 13 can be found here; 14 here. Our special episode on the esoteric in Paul can be found here.

Primary:

The Pseudo-Dionysios:

• The ineffable reality is a secret: DN 684A-B.
• Mystēria in Dionysios: As liturgical ceremonies: EH 429C 27; 505B 17, Ep. 8 1097B 24; Ep. 9 1108A 1. As the eucharist, specifically: EH 445A 1-3; 533C 29; 536C 33. As the incarnation of the Logos: CH 181B 13 & 21; DN 640C 34; Ep. 3 1069B 19.
• The prime purpose of the sacraments is initiation: EH 425A.
• ‘With a wise silence do we honour the inexpressible’: DN 589B.
• We must not speak of the mystika and arrēta to hoi polloi: DN 684A-B.
• Theourgia in Pseudo-D: EH 436C 41, 440B 27, 440C 29, 441 D 46, 445BC 22 & 28; as the incarnation: EH 429C 38 ff; 432B 18 & 22; 441C 34 & 39.
• Epistle 9 on esotericism: passim, really, but see especially 1104B, from which we quote.
• Ascent into the hyperineffable: DN 592C-593A.
• They consider god’s hiddennness and struggle to break free from all the workings of their minds: DN 645A-B.
• They are raised firmly and unswervingly upward … they take flight: DN 589A. Cf. MT 1033B.
• They pass beyond the summit of every holy ascent: MT 1000C.

Eunapios and John Lydos use ‘theurgy’ in a colloquial way: Eunapios VS 480; John Lydos De mens. IV.X.2-5.

On Justinian’s condemnation of Origenism, see István Perczel. Pseudo-Dionysius and Palestinian Origenism. In Joseph Patrich, editor, The Sabaite Heritage in the Orthodox Church from the Fifth Century to the Present, pages 261-82. Peeters, Leuven, 2001.

Secondary:

E. R. Dodds. The Greeks and the Irrational. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1968, p. 259.

William James. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion Delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-1902. Longmans, Green, & Co, New York, NY, London, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, 1917.

H. Koch. Proklus als Quelle des Dionysius Areopagita in der Lehre vom Bösen. Philologus, 54:438-54, 1895.

István Perczel. The Earliest Syriac Reception of Dionysius. In Sarah Coakley and Charles M. Stang, editors, Re-Thinking Dionysius the Areopagite, pages 65-96. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, 2009 [on the historical figures lying behind Dionysian pseudonyms].

Henri-Dominique Saffrey. Nouveaux liens objectifs entre le Pseudo-Denys et Proclus. Revues scientiques et théologiques, 63:3-16, 1979.

Gregory Shaw. Neoplatonic Theurgy and Dionysius the Areopagite. Journal of Early Christian Studies, 7:573-99, 1999.

Charles M. Stang. Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite: No Longer I”. Oxford Early Christian Studies. The University Press, Oxford, 2012.

J. Stiglmayr. Der Neuplatoniker Proclus als Vorlage des sogen. Dionysius Areopagita in der Lehre vom Übel. Historisches Jahrbuch, 16:25373 and 72148, 1895.

Guy Stroumsa. Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism. Brill, Leiden, 1996.

Recommended Reading:

SHWEP Episode 198 Recommended Reading

Themes

Ascent, Augustine of Hippo, Christian Mysticism, Clement of Alexandria, Esoteric Hermeneutics, Gnosticism, Hesychasm, Hierotheos, Ineffability, Initiation, Lesemysterium, Mystery-Cult, Mysticism, Origenism, Paul of Tarsus, Plato, Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysios, Theurgy