DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE,

ON DIVINE NAMES.

CAPUT I.

TO MY FELLOW PRESBYTER, TIMOTHY,

DIONYSIUS THE PRESBYTER.

What is the purpose of the discourse, and what the tradition concerning Divine Names.

SECTION I.

ᵃ Cap. 3. Mystic Theology.

ᵇ Ib. c. I. s. 3.

Now then, O Blessed One, after the Theological Outlines ᵃ, I will pass to the interpretation of the Divine Names, as best I can. But let the rule of the Oracles Referring to the Sacred Scriptures/Divine Revelation. be here also prescribed for us: that we shall establish the truth of the things spoken concerning God, not in the persuasive words of man’s wisdom, but in a demonstration of the Spirit-moved power of the Theologians, by aid of which we are brought into contact with things unutterable and unknown, in a manner unutterable and unknown, in proportion to the superior union of the reasoning and intuitive faculty and operation within us. By no means then is it permitted to speak, or even to think, anything concerning the superessential superessential (transcending the category of essence or being) and hidden Deity, beyond those things divinely revealed to us in the sacred Oracles ᵇ. For Agnosia Agnosia: "unknowing" or mystical ignorance. (supra-