Members-only podcast episode

Fake Apostles and Real Christianity: Exploring the ‘Pseudo-’ in the Pseudo-Dionysios

In this special episode we explore the long, long discussion – starting in the early sixth century, and still a going debate today – over who wrote the corpus dionysiacum. Theories are discussed, esoteric lineages dissected, and, right at the end, I solve the mystery in an exclusive SHWEP exposé.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Our special episode on the various possible Origens, Ammonii, etc. can be found here.

Primary:

The anathemas from the 5th Ecumenical Council survive in Vienna Nationalbibliothek MS historicus græcus 7, fols. 84v.-86r. Edited by J. Straub in ACO 4.1 (Berlin, 1971), pp. 248-49.

The scholion on how the Platonists stole everything from the Christians: provisional text with translation at Henri-Dominique Saffrey. Recherches sur le néoplatonisme après Plotin. Number 14 in Histoire des doctrines de l’Antiquité classique. Vrin, Paris, 1990., p. 240.

Evagrios of Pontos: Epistula fidei (Pseudo-Basil, Epistula 8.7.35-37 Courtonne).

Hypatius’ attacks on the authenticity of the Corpus Dionysiacum: Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum 4/2: 173, 12–18. Cited P. Rorem and J. Lamoreaux. John of Scythopolis and the Dionysian Corpus: Annotating the Areopagite. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998, p. 18.

On John of Skythopolis’ scholia: see Beate Regina Suchla. Die sogenannten Maximus-Scholien des Corpus Dionysiacum Areopagiticum. Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, (3):31–66, 1980; Idem. Die Überlieferung des Prologs des Johannes von Skythopolis zum griechischen Corpus Dionysiacum Aeropagiticum: ein weiterer Beitrag zur Überlieferungsgeschichte des CD. Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, 4:177–88, 1984. His attribution of an esoteric, oral teaching from Paul to Dionysios: SchCH 64.10.

George Pachymeres on Proclus’ plagiarism of Dionysios: Georgius Pachymeres, Paraphrasis in opera S. Dionysii Areopagitae, Proemium (PG 3- II6A): ‘It must be understood that certain philosophers outside [the Church], especially Proclus, often used the general theorems (theōrēmata) of the blessed Dionysius.’

Secondary:

Orthodox Christianity Then and Now argues for the first-century authenticity of the Areopagite e.g. here and here.

Ronald F. Hathaway. Hierarchy and the Definition of Order in the Letters of Pseudo-Dionysius:  A Study in the Form and Meaning of the Pseudo-Dionysian Writings. Martinus Nijhoff, Den Haag, 1969; we quote p. 27; list to be found pp. 31–5. Later we quote pp. 25-6 on the reasons Damascius is a likely candidate.

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

Tuomo Lankila. The corpus areopagiticum as a crypto-pagan project. Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture, 5:14-40, 2011; we quote pp. 15 and 31.

C.M. Mazzucchi. Damascio, autore del Corpus Dionysiacum, e el dialogo Peri politikês epistêmês. Aevum, 80:299-334, 2006; we cite pp. 738-47.

István Perczel. Le pseudo-Denys, lecteur d’Origène. In W. Bienert, editor, Origeniana Septima, pages 673-710. Peeters, Louvain, 1999a.

Idem. Une théologie de lumière: Denys l’Aréopagite et Évagre le Pontique. Revue des études augustiniennes, pages 79-120, 1999b.

Idem. 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.

Ilaria L. E. Ramelli. Origen, Evagrius, and Dionysius. In Mark Edwards, Dimitrios Pallis, and Georgios Steiris, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite, pages 94-108. The University Press, Oxford, 2022.

Charles M. Stang. Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite: “No Longer I”. Oxford Early Christian Studies. The University Press, Oxford, 2012; we cite p. 14.

Beate Regina Suchla, editor. Corpus Dionysiacum IV/1: Ioannis Scythopolitani prologus et scholia in Dionysii Areopagitae librum De divinis nominibus cum additamentis interpretum aliorum, volume 62 of Patristische Texte und Studien. de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, MA, 2011 [this edition summarises Suchla’s earlier work sifting through the prologue(s) and scholia which travel in the Dionysian corpus].

J. Stiglmayr. Der Neuplatoniker Proclus als Vorlage des sogen. Dionysius Areopagita in der Lehre vom Übel. Historisches Jahrbuch, 16:253-73 and 17:72-148, 1895.