Ranks Are Not Bypassed, Rituals Are Not Negated: The Dionysian Corpus on Return

Abstract

Modern readings of the Dionysian corpus often subordinate its hierarchical treatises to its theological treatises. Two unfortunate consequences follow: one, the thetic positions and aphairetic removals of the Divine Names and Mystical Theology bypass or transcend the hierarchical ranks and hierurgical rituals of the Celestial Hierarchy and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Second, the return to God occurs through apophatic abstraction rather than sacramental performance. This article interprets the Dionysian corpus differently, offering four arguments why Dionysian negative theology is not the means by which ranks and rituals are negated or abandoned but rather a means by which they are affirmed and accomplished.

Techniques and Rules of Ineffability in the Dionysian Corpus

“…So we may say briefly, he was not human (ou) de\ a) / nqrwpoj), not as non human (mh\ a) / nqrwpoj), but as from humans being beyond humans and as hyper human having truly become human, and, as for the rest, not having done the things of God as God, nor the things of humans as human, but administering for us a new theandric activity as God having become human (EP 4, 1072BC). 13 Two phrases are here of crucial significance. The first, to negate the things of privation, states that apophatic negation must be sharply differentiated from privative negation (sterēsis, or less commonly elleipsis).…”

“…37. For my argument that the hymns of the Mystical Theology probably served a theurgical role in the liturgy, see my forthcoming paper [13]. And for more on hymns as theurgic devices, see [27].…”