Dionysius’ Christianity: Towards Understanding the Preconditions of the post-Reformation Debate

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to ask why whereas in antiquity some thought of Dionysius as a heretic, no one considered him hardly a Christian at all – but that view has been quite prominent in recent times. The explanation is the attitude towards ‘authentic’ Christianity developed by the Protestants, who singled out Dionysius as more or less pagan – though in doing so neglecting the fact that his attitude to Greek philosophy is more or less the same as the whole patristic tradition.