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:

On Hierotheos as Proclus, see: Ben Schomakers. An Unknown Elements of Theology? On Proclus as the Model for the Hierotheos in the Dionysian Corpus. In David D. Butorac and Danielle A. Layne, editors, Proclus and his Legacy, pages 183-98. De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, MA, 2017.

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