The Divine Names

Abstract

Abstract The Divine Names is the longest Dionysian treatise, and the most complex in both content and structure. On the surface, it seems straightforward on both counts. It contains the author’s interpretations of the biblical names ascribed to God, such as good, light, beautiful, and so on. As to structure, chapters 1 through 3 present the introduction to his interpretive methodology and chapters 4 through the interpretations themselves. But on closer examination complexities abound. Whence this interest and the examples of the names for God? Why are these names chosen, and why are they presented in this order, and what doctrine of God prevails? What understanding of good and evil accompanies the divine name “good”? In general, what light does this treatise shed on the author’s profound and complicated combination of the Christian tradition, with its biblical names for God, and Neoplatonism, with its own interest in the divine names? Finally, what is the relationship of this work to the rest of the corpus? These questions, and others related to specific topics and passages, have challenged readers, starting with the lengthy expositions in the Scholia, for centuries. The best introduction to such complexities is the sequential presentation of the treatise according to its own order of chapters and topics, in the commentary form used so far. This will be followed by a discussion of the influence of this book and of its teachings upon medieval Latin theology.’ Divine Names. Chapter 1, Dionysius the Elder to Timothy the Fellow-Elder: What the goal of this discourse is, and the tradition regarding the divine names” (585A, 49). The same situation, and the very same wording, was encountered in the two treatises already discussed, along with the technical reasons for considering this statement to be an editorial addition.