Ancient and Modern Readers of the Corpus Dionysiacum: Pseudonymity and Paul -- Pseudonymous Writing in the Late Antique Christian East -- "I rejoice to see your order": Paul and the Dionysian Hierarchies -- "To an Unknown God": Paul and Mystical Union -- "No Longer I": The Apophatic Anthropology of Dionysius the Areopagite -- Conclusion: The Pseudonym, Revisited
Summary
This book examines the writings of an early sixth-century Christian mystical theologian who wrote under the name of a convert of the apostle Paul, Dionysius the Areopagite. This 'Pseudo'-Dionysius is famous for articulating a mystical theology in two parts: a sacramental and liturgical mysticism embedded in the context of celestial and ecclesiastical hierarchies, and an austere, contemplative regimen in which one progressively negates the divine names in hopes of soliciting unionwith the 'unknown God' or 'God beyond being.'Charles M. Stang argues that the pseudonym and the influence of Paul to
