Denys l’Aréopagite: Tradition et métamorphoses by Ysabel de Andia (review)

334 BOOK REVIEWS Denys l'Areopagite: Tradition et metamorphoses. By YSABEL DE ANDIA. Paris: Vrin, 2006. Pp. 352. 42.00 €(paper). ISBN 978-2-7116-1903-0. A leading continental authority on Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Ysabel de Andia has poured a life-time of learning into this book. Although each chapter has been previously published as a separate essay elsewhere over a period of sixteen years (1987-2003) it is useful to have all the articles collected and edited under one cover. De Andia is also the author of Henosis: L'union aDieu chez Denys l'Areopagite (1996) and the editor of a comprehensive collection of articles, Denys l'Areopagite et sa posterite en orient et en occident: Actes du colloque international, Paris, 21-24 septembre 1994 (1997). The book is divided into two parts. The first part takes up select themes of Pseudo-Dionysius's theology, in six chapters under the following titles: "To Suffer Divine Things," "Philosophy and Mystical Union," "Symbol and Mystery," "Beauty, Light, and Love," "Negative Theology and the Cross," and "A Note on Negative Theology." The second part of the book analyzes the transformations of these Dionysian themes in the writings of such diverse authors as Maximus the Confessor, Thomas Aquinas, Hugh of Balma, John of the Cross, and Edith Stein. Two overarching concerns run through this collection: (1) to emphasize the close correlation between theoretical and experiential dimensions of PseudoDionysius 's negative theology and (2) to show that the theologians who professed to be the commentators and exegetes of Pseudo-Dionysius's work in many cases have profoundly transformed the Areopagite's original vision. While the first point has not escaped most contemporary interpreters of the Corpus Dionysiacum, it was Vladimir Lossky who particularly stressed that PseudoDionysius 's negative theology was not only a theory of religious language, but more importantly reflected an experiential understanding of the inscrutable mystery of God. De Andia concurs with Lossky's somewhat apologetic interpretation of the Corpus Dionysiacum, especially when it comes to the criticism of those who argue that Pseudo-Dionysius's Neoplatonism is not sufficiently Christianized. In contrast to Lossky's rather tendentious judgment that the subsequent Western tradition of interpretation has simply misconstrued Pseudo-Dionysius, de Andia offers a more nuanced account of how his insights "metamorphosed" in the writings of Western theologians. The first chapter of the book takes as its central theme the line from the Divine Names in which Pseudo-Dionysius speaks of "not only learning, but suffering the divine things [ou µOVOV µa8wv a;\;\a rra8wv Ta back to the origins of the µa8dv-rra8dv pair in ancient Greek philosophy, tragic poetry, and mysteries, de Andia ably portrays a rich spectrum of connotations that the phrase would have had for Pseudo-Dionysius's contemporaries. At the risk of simplifying her findings, one could generalize that "suffering divine things" added an experiential dimension to the knowledge of God acquired through learning. Turning to the Corpus Dionysiacum, de Andia dwells at length on Pseudo-Dionysius's paradoxical pairing of the pathos of the transfigured eros BOOK REVIEWS 335 with equally strong insistence on the mind's acquisition of impassibility. She subsequently shows that some medieval theologians, such as, for example, Thomas Gallus, Hugh of Baima, and Thomas Aquinas, came to interpret Tia8wv Ta 8£1a as affectus divina, interpreting the phrase "not only learning, but suffering the divine things" as a contrast between intellectual and affective dimensions of the knowledge of God. The following chapter approaches the theme of the first chapter from a different angle. De Andia discusses the two types of knowledge of God, philosophical and mystical, taking as her point of departure the distinction that Pseudo-Dionysius makes in Epistle 9.1105D. She shows that, according to Pseudo-Dionysius, philosophical knowledge can be communicated byinstruction, whereas mystical knowledge is participatory and cannot be taught. The chapter "Negative Theology and the Cross" takes up Luther's criticism that Pseudo-Dionysius is "more Platonizing than Christianizing." Among other things, Luther maintained that the Areopagite lacks a theology of the cross. By way of a response de Andia advances a thesis that apophasis functions in the order of knowing in a manner...