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.

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 be here also prescribed for us, namely, 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 the aid of this power, we are brought into contact with things unutterable and unknown, in a manner unutterable and unknown, in proportion to the superior union of our reasoning and intuitive faculties. By no means, then, is it permitted to speak, or even to think, anything concerning the superessential beyond existence and hidden Deity, beyond those things divinely revealed to us in the sacred Oracles b. For Agnosia (supra-

a Cap. 3. Mystic Theology.
b Ib. c. I. s. 3.