Most Helpful Customer Reviews
86 of 88 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Real Deal On Western Mysticism, April 22, 2001
This review is from: Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality) (Paperback)
Until the publication of this book, Pseudo-Dionysius, a major influence on Meister Eckhart and John of the Cross, among others, was like a tantalizing mirage, frequently referred to but generally not seen in full. Finally, here he is. The book contains "The Divine Names", "The Mystical Theology", "The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy", "The Celestial Hierarchy", and letters. In addition, there are three (!) introductions, to tell us about Pseudo-Dionysius in later antiquity, the middle ages, and the reformation. The translations are modern, well-annotated, and clear inasmuch as this is possible. One of the introductory writers comments that many readers are surprized at how short these works are, because they may seem long due to the dense writing style. As for content, Pseudo-Dionysius attempted to wed the Neoplatonism of Plotinus and Proclus with the Bible and Christian practice. The reader will have to judge how successful this effort actually is, but it probably helps account for the survival of these works through many heresy purges. The result translated here is interesting in a historical sense and useful in a spiritual sense. The discussion of evil in "The Divine Names" is particularly fascinating, if difficult. And for those who wonder about angel theory, well, "The Celestial Hierarchy" has it all. It is very good to finally be able to read these works in their entirety.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Foundational work for much Christian spirituality, March 6, 2001
This review is from: Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality) (Paperback)
The Classics of Western Spirituality Series (Paulist Press) is an amazing undertaking, and every volume becomes the standard for primary sources for the religious thinkers covered. This certainly holds true for this complete volume of the works of Pseudo-Dionysius (anonymous writer of the fifth or sixth-century C.E.). Beautiful translations from the Greek of "The Divine Names," "The Mystical Theology," "The Celestial Hierarchy," "The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy," and all ten extant letters, three essay-introductions by Jaroslav Pelikan, Jean Leclercq, and Karlfried Froehlich, an exhaustive bibliography, and complete biblical and textual indices make this a volume that will last more than one lifetime and serve as the finest authority on Pseudo-Dionysian theology available. No understanding of twelfth and thirteenth-century theology is complete without an acquaintance with Dionysius's work--this includes Aquinas. Covering prayer, religious epistemology, and biblical interpretation, Pseudo-Dionysius always makes for enlightening reading and deeper appreciation of the often overlooked aspects of Christian theology: its mystical or "immediate" side. For the price, this book cannot be beaten. Buy it and read it, you might be suprised at what you'll learn.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dionysius the Great, January 1, 2006
This review is from: Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality) (Paperback)
"It would be a challenging project, but a fascinating one, to write the history of Western Christian spirituality in the late patristic and medieval periods primarily or even exclusively on the basis of those neglected writings that are identified in successive volumes of J. P. Migne's Patrologia Latina and Patrologia Graeca as 'spurious' or as 'dubious,' together with the purportedly authentic writings that in fact belong in the same categories." So Jaroslav Pelikan begins his introduction - it is the first of three introductions - to the complete works of Pseudo-Dionysius. That there should be three introductory essays detailing the history and reception of the Dionysian corpus simply goes to show how utterly important these writings are, despite the fact that we do not know (or perhaps we simply do not believe?) who wrote them. It is perfectly accurate to write that above any other writings of the Patristic period, these writings are the most influential mystical writings of not only the early Church, but of all Christian history.
It is currently believed that the writer who called himself Dionysius the Aeropagite (St. Paul's first convert) was a monk from Syria in the fifth or sixth century. Most of his writings have been lost (or, if one wishes to be suspicious about it, were never really written in the first place), but those that remain - The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology, The Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and ten Letters - have all been translated and copiously annotated in the present volume.
Dionysius is best known for his understanding that theological language exists to be surpassed by "a mystical silence" that is at the height of all theological contemplation: union with God. The belief that doxology is overflown by the God that our language points and reaches out to is central to Dionysius' worldview. However, there is are two essential connections that one must make here. First, because our language - which is "cataphatic" (that is, it affirms something) - is surpassed by God, apophaticism (language that denies something) is truer of God than cataphaticism. Second - and this is the more important point - God is also beyond apophaticism. Thus, cataphatically I say "God is good", apophatically I follow with "God is not good", and find myself pushed to affirm that "God is beyond goodness as I understand goodness to be". Dionysius refuses to allow us to drown in apophatic quietism and pushes us to let God "overflow" our theological language (and he uses the image of overflowing frequently).
Central to Dionysius' paradigm is the liturgy as a participation with the heavenly choirs of angels; in short, liturgy as mystical. Such liturgy is inspired by God - the theologian is the one who is given inspired visions of God - and the purpose of worship is ascent to Christ. Some have claimed that Dionysius is fundamentally deficient in his trinitarian theology, but if one understands his understanding of Jesus as the divine mediatory and the Holy Spirit as the one who inspire (as in St. Paul), then what emerges is not an underveloped theology, but a theology that sees that activity of the whole Trinity as foundational to our experience of God in worship, lifting us to see God's own face in a "dazzling darkness" - not because of absence, but because of the overflowing light of the Godhead which blinds our natural eyes just as it inspires desire within us.
These writings are theologically dense, to put it simply. Yet, they are profound. For those that are well-versed in the doctrines of the Incarnation and Trinity, they will find these writings to be a helpful next step in understanding better the functions of theological language, especially within the liturgical context.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
