Dionysius as a Mystic

Abstract

Abstract Dionysius does not speak directly of experience, but of ‘suffering the divine things’ (pathein ta theia), about his master Hierotheus, and of union with the Deity, in the Divine Names, or of being united with God in Divine Darkness, in Mystical Theology. He develops three ways to attain mystical union—purification, enlightenment, and union. These are revealed in the Heavenly Hierarchy (I), with sacramental mystagogy, which presupposes an initiation leading to deification, in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy (II), the ascent of Sinai and entry into Divine Darkness in Mystical Theology (III). The models of ‘mysticism’ for Dionysius, as for the whole tradition, are Moses and Paul (IV): Moses who ‘rises through unknowing to union with Him who is beyond all essence and knowledge’ (MT 997 B) and Paul who is ‘possessed by divine love’ (DN IV, 712 A). The ‘divine eros’ is at the heart of their ecstatic experience, just as it is the passion by which God is ‘outside him’ (exestèkôs), while dwelling in him (monè), in that procession (proodos) of the beings he creates and who return to him in a movement of conversion (epistrophè) (EP 9, 1112 C).