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Mystical Theology of Dionysius: Transcendental God-Talk. Chapter One. Section One. Part One.

Mystical Theology of Dionysius: Transcendental God-Talk. Chapter One. Section One. Part One.

Last updated on: July 9, 2018 at 4:21 pm by Henry Karlson

Mystical Theology of Dionysius: Transcendental God-Talk. Chapter One. Section One. Part One. 2018-07-09T16:21:09-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Text and Commentary[1]

CAPUT I.

What is the Divine Gloom?

SECTION I.

TRIAD supernal, both super-God and super-good, Guardian of the Theosophy of Christian men, direct us aright to the super-unknown and super-brilliant and highest summit of the mystic Oracles, where the simple and absolute and changeless mysteries of theology lie hidden within the super-luminous gloom of the silence, revealing hidden things, which in its deepest darkness shines above the most super-brilliant, and in the altogether impalpable and invisible, fills to overflowing the eyeless minds with glories of surpassing beauty. This then be my prayer; but thou, O dear Timothy, by thy persistent commerce with the mystic visions, leave behind both sensible perceptions and intellectual efforts, and all objects of sense and intelligence, and all things not being and being, and be raised aloft unknowingly to the union, as far’ as attainable, with Him Who is above every essence and knowledge. For by the resistless and absolute ecstasy in all purity, from thyself and all, thou wilt be carried on high, to the superessential ray of the Divine darkness, when thou hast cast away all, and become free from all.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight” (Prov. 3:5 RVS). When dealing with the truth of God, what we can establish through our reasoning capabilities pales in comparison to what God can reveal of himself to us. The Psalmist understood this. We must not confine what we believe of God to what the human mind can comprehend, because what we establish in our thoughts will be less than the truth. The truth, by its character, transcends the human mind; it will not be bound by what the mind can understand. Aspects of the truth can be discerned by the human mind, but, as it grasps after the truth, it will slowly find itself establishing many necessary truths which appear to contradict each other, leading to the realization of the paradoxical nature of the truth.

Human logic, a construction of the human mind, will fail to grasp God just as much as a hand trying to seize the ocean will find itself overcome by the ocean. We can touch the ocean, we can interact with our hand, but we will never hold it all in by our hand. What we do not touch, what we do not grasp, indeed, what we do not see and know of the ocean will be far greater than the little portion which touches our hand. Likewise, we can experience God, interact with God, come to know God in that engagement, but what we come to know and experience is limited, and what lies beyond it, what God is in his fullness in and of himself, will be beyond us. How we portray that difference between what we engage of God and the fullness of God as he is in himself is important; Dionysius, our author, will reveal the different paths which can be taken, how they can be taken, and the limits of each of them.

This, then, is a major foundation for apophatic theology: we must not lean on our own understanding, for if and when we do, we confine God to the limits of the human mind. God, being the creator of the human mind, transcends it; to get to the truth of God, we must rely upon God not on ourselves. We must open our hearts to him and let him reveal himself to us in the way he sees fit without any expectation by us as to what he will reveal and how he will do it.

In order to direct our paths to God, to properly prepare us for our own encounter with God, Dionysius begins with a prayer. In doing so, he recognizes that God’s revelation of himself is what makes any of this possible. God’s grace is necessary for us to fulfill our task. We cannot force an encounter with God by specific techniques, but we can make ourselves ready for such an encounter to best engage him if and when he comes to us in the mystical darkness of his enlightening grace.

As with any prayers involving words, Dionysius understood that the words he used were important, not because God needed to hear the right words from us and that would magically make him appear, but rather, because the right words help us get in the right frame of mind, overcoming many mental factors which could otherwise get in the way of our engagement with God. The words are for our benefit. They teach us how to glorify God the best by helping us see how to think about him:

TRIAD supernal, both super-God and super-good, Guardian of the Theosophy of Christian men, direct us aright to the super-unknown and super-brilliant and highest summit of the mystic Oracles, where the simple and absolute and changeless mysteries of theology lie hidden within the super-luminous gloom of the silence, revealing hidden things, which in its deepest darkness shines above the most super-brilliant, and in the altogether impalpable and invisible, fills to overflowing the eyeless minds with glories of surpassing beauty.

Dionysius begins by invokes the Trinity (Τριὰς, Triad), referencing the Trinity the one who is higher than any being (supernal), “super-God” and “super-good”, that is higher and greater than any created conception of goodness, divinity and being. Here, he establishes his methodology. There is some positive assertion which we make of God, such as being good, but then we are to negate it, not by making God out to be less than that what is asserted but being beyond it, indeed, its source who cannot be compared to that quality or characteristic because it is far less than what God is in himself. Dionysius therefore refers to God in a transcendent sense, saying he is “super” to whatever positive characteristic which we think rightfully belong to God. What Dionysius shows us is how we can and are able to use both kataphatic (positive) and apophatic (negative) theology at the same time. The two should be able to work together instead of being seen as rivals which necessarily conflict with each other. Kataphatic theology does present the truth of God, but we must recognize its limits; apophatic theology helps establish the limits of kataphatic theology but it has its own dangers which requires the acceptance of kataphatic theology in order to realize the point is the absolute truth and not mere denial which can be easily turned into a radical nihilism which rejects the absolute truth. We use words to point to the truth of God, and so words are invaluable, but we must be willing to transcend them and let them pass if we want to receive the truth which they meant to reveal.

The teaching of the Trinity reveals much about the limits of human concepts and the logic which works out those conceptions. God transcends our notions of substance, numeration and division. The Trinity does not reveal numerical divisions within God, but rather, something entirely different, something which transcends the created order and how we see number reflected in it. Trying to comprehend the Trinity as saying there is something numerically distinct within God instead of accepting this transcendental truth of God will lead us to place the Godhead within the created order, following the limitations which normally affect created beings. Thus, Marsilio Ficino explained, “The divine Trinity is not some number located in the genus of quantity, nor even in the genus of substance; nor is it reckoned in the order of essence.”[2] As long as we try to think of the Trinity of persons as numerically distinct beings, we are not responding to the Trinity as it is in itself.

Human reason can coordinate analogous representations to help make sense out of what has been revealed, but we must not confuse our words and explanation for the Trinity as being anything more than a reflection of the higher truth which transcends us. It is true, because it has been revealed as the truth, but our understanding and comprehension of that revelation is less than the truth as it is in God himself. If we try to hold on to our understanding, we will create an imaginary form for God which we will look to and follow instead of God himself. God, it can be said, is veiled by our thoughts; part of our task is to find the way to remove those veils so that we can then stand in his presence and encounter him in the glory of his being without any barrier between him and us.

Having invoked the Trinity, revealing already a transcendental truth of God which cannot properly be explained by human reason and yet invoked by words, Dionysius continues, indicating that this transcendent God, through divine wisdom, theosophy, protects Christians from themselves. God is the one who grants revelation which purifies them. It is not mere knowledge, but divine-wisdom, holy wisdom, which Christians are to seek; knowledge is what is able to be contained by the human mind, but divine wisdom transcends us, for it comes from God. It is what protect and keeps our knowledge pure. God is hidden beyond us, and so is said to be unknown, because we do not know him as he is, and yet God reveals himself in the brightest of light, in the light of his glory, in the blinding light which reveals as himself to us at the same time as it hides him from us. The mystical oracles, the Scriptures, establish the foundation by which we are to stand; if we follow them to where they point, we shall be able to reach their peak. Then we shall find ourselves at a place to be taken in by God himself. In him, in the blinding light of his glory, the truths of God are to be found.

God is beyond all that we can comprehend; to be in his presence is to be enlightened by him, but that light is the radiance of God, so bright that we cannot attune ourselves to it and so we find ourselves in an illuminated darkness, surrounded by the glorious light of truth, the unchangeable beautiful light of truth. It attracts us, lifts us up, and so makes us more aware of God and yet always aware that beyond all that we have encountered is the even-greater, even brighter radiance of God which transcends and lies beyond all that we have received. We find ourselves lifted up to the summit of our being, surrounded by the light of God. It is so great, so bright, it overwhelms, but once we find ourselves adjusted to that light, we find ourselves growing in being in communion with it. Then we discover an even brighter light; that what we encountered pales in comparison with what lies before us’ this new engagement with the light of God lifts us up further, to find ourselves once again repeating what we have experienced before. Again and again, we will find ourselves surrounded by the bright glory of God, adjust to it, only to be lifted up to a new height, a new brighter glory, always going in further and further in the light, finding more and more of the glory of God and yet always remaining at a point infinitely less than the comprehension of the light itself. The light of glory will always be transcendent to us, greater, and brighter than what we have attained, revealing that what we have will always be far less than what is hidden to us. What we have in store for us in our engagement with God is a radiant-darkness which will lead us from glory to glory, from beauty to beauty, from good to good, so that God in his glory will always be that which is greater than anything we can ever imagine.

God is to be said to be hidden in the bright-darkness, not because God hides himself from us, but the reverse, because God reveals himself and does not hold back that revelation. Thus, St. Albert the Great explained:

God is called “more resplendent” in himself, but hidden with regard to us, because things which are naturally the most manifest are related to our understanding as a bat’s eye is related to sunlight. Or we can say that God is hidden in himself in the exaltedness of his nature, but more than resplendent inasmuch as he gives himself to us.[3]

The light of God is not invisible because it is dim but because it is so bright.[4] It is dark because of the blinding effect of the light of God upon us, not because God hides or dims his own light. When we emerge from the darkness into the light, the light will always be so bright, we need to adjust to be able to perceive what is revealed in it. We go from light to light, each light which appears as a darkness before we adjust and then find ourselves taken further into the glory of God’s transcendent splendor.

As the brightness indicates the transcendence of God, so we learn even more how the best expression of God is found not in words but silence. Just as the darkness is subjective, indicating not the absence of light but its greatness, so our silence must always be used to indicate the transcendence of God and not a nihilistic rejection of his greatness. We affirm God in speech only then to silence ourselves; we first use words to affirm the glory of God and then engage silence to affirm his transcendence. Thus, we can and will use words, especially as we begin to pray to him; we pray God takes us to the summit of what is revealed in words before we reach up and transcend them, lest we wallow in the shallow-pits of nihilism. This, then, is the point which Robert Grosseteste wanted his readers to understand:

And so the author addressing himself to the theology which in the strict and principal and maximal sense is called mystical, first calls upon the most holy Trinity to direct him to the point where in his mind he shall have transcended all things and attained the highest peak, where, in the darkness of the unknowing of all things, the more-than-beautiful lights of the divine ray are, and are received, without symbols and images. [5]

The movement toward God requires us to purify ourselves in our thoughts and deeds. Our actions can turn us away from God, just as our mind can put a veil between us and God. We are to try to remove every barrier, every thought and deed, which would keep us away from God if we want to encounter him in his glory. We are to make our mind like unto a mirror which takes and reflects that glory; just as if there are any stains, or scratches, or other distortions on a mirror, the image which is reflected by the mirror will be likewise distorted, so will our experience with God be distorted so long as we have any obscuration between him and us. We will see and encounter God in a distorted way, confusing that distorted image of the truth as the truth. The beauty of God will be distorted; indeed, it could appear monstrous to us, scaring us away, which is why we must work with God for such purification so that we can truly encounter him in his supra-radiant beauty. Our prayer puts ourselves at his disposition; we know we cannot do it alone, likewise, we know he wants us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, taking what God offers to us and use it to purify ourselves lest we stay far from him and his glory. Thus, having begun with a prayer, we now are able to go onward, trusting in God’s grace to help us grow in wisdom and knowledge, so that with it we can truly attain the end of which all theology seeks to serve: our loving union with God.

[Image=Dionysius Converting the Pagans by Antoine Caron [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons]

[1] The translation being used is the 1897 text by Rev. John Parker from The Works of Dionysius the Areopigate. Trans. James Parker (London: James Parker and Co,, 1897), 130-137. Each section will begin with the actual text rendered in italics and will be referenced within the context of the ensuing commentary.

[2] Marsilio Ficino, Mystical Theology in Marsilio Ficino: On Dionysius the Areopagite. Volume I: Mystical Theology and The Divine Names, Part I. trans. And ed. Michael J. B. Allen (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015), 9.

[3] St. Albert the Great, “Commentary on Dionysius’ Mystical Theology” in Albert & Thomas, Selected Writings. Trans. Simon Tugwell, OP (New York: Paulist Press, 1988), 143-4.

[4] See Ficino, Mystical Theology, 10.

[5] Robert Grosseteste, “De Mystica Theologia” in Mystical Theology: The Glosses of Thomas Gallus and the Commentary of Robert Grosseteste on De Mystica Theologia. Trans. and ed. By James McEvoy (Parish: Peeters, 2003), 67.

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