20 - Pseudo-Dionysius, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 1, 5–7

Summary

On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy is part of a corpus of Greek works by an unknown author in the late fifth or early sixth century. The author wrote under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite, who according to Acts 17:34 converted after hearing Paul’s preaching. The corpus was highly influential in the Byzantine tradition, its ideas influencing authors from Maximus the Confessor to Gregory Palamas. Through various translators, the most famous being John Scotus Eriugena, it also informed many medieval Latin theologians. It was cited in papal documents and excerpted in collections of sententiae, and no less a thinker than Thomas Aquinas wrote a commentary on the Dionysian text On the Divine Names. In 1457, the humanist Lorenzo Valla demonstrated that the corpus could not have been written by the Athenian convert Dionysius, and his views were disseminated by Erasmus. Still, the corpus contains a classic statement of mystical theology and continues to be read widely today.