ON THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY

CHAPTER I.

Dionysius the Priest to Timothy, his fellow-priest.

Every divine illumination, which according to the Father's goodness flows out in various ways to those things governed by providence, remains simple; and not only this, but it also unites those who are illuminated. original: simplicem... unificare. This reflects the author's Neoplatonic view that while God’s light reaches many different people and things, the light itself remains one (simple) and its purpose is to pull us back from our many distractions into a single union with God.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER

1. It teaches that all spiritual light and grace is derived from God the Father to us, and joins us with God.
2. Having called upon Christ, he proposes to interpret the celestial Hierarchies from the Scriptures: which, although they admit a manifold figurative sense, always have a simple literal sense. In medieval theology, "literal sense" refers to the direct meaning intended by the author, while the "figurative" or "spiritual" sense finds deeper symbolic meanings behind the words.
3. It shows that celestial and spiritual things, for the sake of our understanding, are described in Scripture by material figures; it suggests a method and reason for how our mind can rise from those physical descriptions to celestial contemplations.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights: original: Patre luminum. This is a direct quote from the New Testament, James 1:17. moreover, every outpouring of illumination moved by the Father, overflowing bountifully into us, once again, like a unifying power, [leads us back upwards...]