Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

“ Many learned Hindus affirm that it is needless for them to become Christian, because they have a more exalted conception of the Supreme God than Christians themselves. I submit that the “Divine Names” will be instrumental in bringing India to the Christian Faith, in the best and only effectual way—by communities and not by individuals—through the most learned and devout, and not through the most ignorant.
Dionysius was first converted, and then, through him, those who naturally and properly followed his lead.
Lucius Flavius Dexter Dexter was a friend of Jerome. ”

“ The Greek language is moulded in a marvellous manner to express the newly revealed Christian Faith in its most exalted form, in a style which Daillé confesses to be always of the same “colour;” and Pearson, “always like itself.” Jahn has followed Dionysius step by step in order to trace the connection between the language of Plato and Dionysius, for the purpose of exploding the puerile supposition that such complex writings as these could have been evolved from the elementary treatises of Proclus and Plotinus. ”

“ He describes the miracles of Jesus as being, as it were, the new and God-incarnate energy of God become Man. The newly-coined words indicate an original thinker moulding the Greek language to a newly acquired faith. There are two words, “Agnosia” and “Divine Gloom,” which illustrate a principle running through these writings,—that the negative of abstraction denotes the superlative positive. “Divine Gloom” is the darkness from excessive light; “Agnosia” is neither ignorance nor knowledge intensified: but a supra-knowledge of Him, Who is above all things known. ”

“ It does not pretend to describe the unrevealed God, Who is beyond expression and conception, and can only be known through that union with God, “by which we know, even as we are known.” Holy Scripture is the sole authority, beyond which we must neither think nor speak of Almighty God. The Treatise, being written by one of the most learned Greeks, the phraseology is, naturally, that of Plato and Aristotle ; but Plato and Aristotle are not authorities here. ”

“ God is good, wise, powerful, the Being, until we come to Symbolic Theology, which denotes Him under material forms and conditions: Theology prefers the negative because Almighty God is more appropriately presented by distinction than by comparison. ”

“ It is “the most Divine knowledge of Almighty God, within the union beyond mind, when the mind, having stood apart from all existing things, and then, having dismissed itself, has been united to the superluminous rays—thence and there, being illuminated by the unsearchable wisdom.” In the Mystic Theology, Dionysius exhorts Timothy thus,—“But, thou, O dear Timothy, leave behind both sensible perception, and intellectual efforts, and all objects of sense and intelligence ”

“ Dionysius describes the darkness at the time of the Crucifixion, as it appeared in Egypt, and is recorded by Phlegon. We do not explain and interpret the facts recorded in the Gospel, by denying them, or by treating the same testimony outside the Gospel as superstitious. ”

“ Among the earliest Bishops of Toledo, Dexter describes a remarkable man,—Marcellus,—surnamed Eugenius, on account of his noble birth. Bivarius says he was of the house and family of Caesar, being uncle to the Emperor Hadrian. Marcellus was consecrated Bishop by Dionysius the Areopagite at Aries, and sent to Toledo. Respecting him, Dexter records that Dionysius dedicated the books of the Divine Names to him, u.c. 851, A.D. 98. Dexter further records that Dionysius surnamed Marcellus, Timothy, on account of his excellent disposition. ”