An Absolutely Simple God?: Frameworks for Reading Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagite

The Thomist 69 (2005): 371-406 AN ABSOLUTELY SIMPLE GOD? FRAMEWORKS FOR READING PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS AREOPAGITE1 JOHN D. JONES Marquette University Milwaukee, Wisconsin ALTHOUGH LARGELY NEGLECTED in the West during recent centuries as formative for philosophy and theology, the writings attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, the Corpus Dionysiacum (CD), exercised substantial influence during the Western Christian medieval and Renaissance periods. John Scotus Eriugena, John Sarracen, Robert Grosseteste, and Marsilio Ficino produced some of the major Latin translations of the corpus. Albert the Great wrote commentaries on all the major works of Dionysius; Robert Grosseteste wrote commentaries on several of them. Aquinas wrote a commentary on the Divine Names and in addition refers directly to Dionysius in nearly 2200 texts-more references than to any other authors except Aristotle and Augustine. Dionysius's influence continued to be felt through the Renaissance period among thinkers such as Marsilio Ficino, Nicholas of Cusa, Meister Eckhart, and Dante. The writings of Dionysius have enjoyed an enduring formative status in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Dionysius's writings are central to the Byzantine tradition that runs through the Cappadocian fathers, Maximus the Confessor, John Damascene, Gregory Palamas, and into the twentieth century among thinkers such as 1 A version of this paper was read at Saint Louis University in April 2005 as part of the Philosophy Department Colloquium Series. I want to thank David Twetten, Richard Taylor, James South, David Bradshaw, and Bogdan Bucur for reading and commenting on various drafts of the paper. 371 372 JOHN D. JONES Vladimir Lossky and Christoph Yannaras. A stichera or verse for vespers for the feast day of St. Dionysius Areopagite (Oct. 3) reflects the honor still accorded these writings and their author.2 As a friend of wisdom to the point of coming to resemble God as closely as possible, 0 blessed Dionysius, you mystically explained the divine names. Initiated as you were by union with God in the mysteries that surpass all understanding, you taught them to the ends of the earth. Moreover, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when the dependence of the CD on Neoplatonic authors such as Proclus was firmly established, a number of scholars came to view the CD as fundamentally Neoplatonic in spirit: in some cases compatible with the Christian teachings it contained, while in other cases using the Christian teachings as a "front" to promulgate a Neoplatonic view of the world.3 In this paper I will sketch three frameworks for reading the texts of Dionysius: Neoplatonic, Scholastic,4 and Byzantine. Of course, each of the historical traditions associated with these frameworks is complex, diverse, and multifaceted. It would be historically nai"ve and inaccurate to reduce any of these traditions to specific thinkers such as Plato, Plotinus, Damascius Diadochus, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Palamas, Aristotle, or Aquinas. However, in the context of this paper I shall in fact focus on these 2 This is the feast day for the St. Dionysius who is believed to have been the actual disciple of Paul. But it is the anonymous author of the Corpus Dionysiacum that is celebrated in this verse. A kontakian for the same feast reads: "As a disciple of the apostle caught up to the third heaven, you spiritually entered the gate of heaven, Dionysius. You were enriched with understanding of ineffable mysteries and enlightened those who sat in the darkness of ignorance." 3 Alexander Golitzin, Et introibo ad altare dei: The Mystagogy ofDionysius Areopagita (Thessalonika, 1994), 29-37 gives a very good summary of modem interpretations of Dionysius along these lines. Of course, the view that Dionysius is more Platonist than Christian has a longhistory going back, for example, to Luther: "Dionysiusis most pernicious; he platonizes more than he Christianizes" (Martin Luther, "Babylonian Captivity of the Church" [in D. Martin Luther's Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimar: H. Bohlaus Nachfolger, 1912-), 6:562)). 4 While 'Scholastic' narrowly signifies the type ofthoughtfound among Latinthinkers such as Aquinas and Albert the Great, the Scholastic framework has a long lineage extending back at least to Augustine and Boethius and includes thinkers in the Islamic ana Jewish traditions. AN ABSOLlITELY SIMPLE GOD? 373 thinkers as representative of their traditions as I try to sharpen...