Pseudo Dionysius: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality (Paperback))

"Indeed the inscrutable One is out of the reach of every rational process. Nor can any words come up to the inexpressible Good, this One, this Source of all unity, this supra-existent Being. Mind beyond mind, word beyond speech, it is gathered up by no discourse, by no intuition, by no name". Pseudo-Dionysius (5th or 6th century). This book collects the four works plus letters of the 5th or 6th century person who choose to write under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite, the 1st century disciple of St Paul in Athens. These four works are "The Divine Names", "The Mystical Theology", "The Celestial Hierarchy" and 'The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy" and are completed with an extensive index to biblical Allusions and Quotations as wel as a general index. There are few figures in the history of Western Spirituality who are more enigmatic than the fifth or sixth-century writer known as the Pseudo-Dionysius. The real identity of the person who chose to write under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite is unknown. Even the exact dates of his writings have never been determined. Moreover the texts themselves, though relatively short, are at points seemingly impenetrable and have mystified readers over the centuries. Yet the influence of this shadowy figure on a broad range of mystical writers from the early middle ages on is readily discernible. His formulation of a method of negative theology that stresses the impotence of humans' attempt to penetrate the "cloud of unknowing" is famous as is his meditation on the divine names. Despite his influence, relatively few attempts have been made to translate the entire corpus of his writing into English. Here in one volume are collected all of the Pseudo-Dionysius' works. Each has been translated from the Migne edition, with reference to the forthcoming Gottingen critical edition of A.M. Ritter, G. Heil, and B. Suchla. -- from back cover Dionysius the Elder to Timothy the Fellow-Elder: What the goal of this discourse is, and the tradition regarding the divine names.