{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.2", "endpoint": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/index.json" }, "work": { "slug": "divine-names", "name": "On Divine Names", "stream": "greco-christian", "epoch_reflected": "greco-latin", "epoch_written": "greco-latin", "form": "theological treatise", "tradition": "Christian mysticism", "author": "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite", "year_approx": 500, "note": "Thirteen *caputs* on the names predicated of God in Scripture — Good, Light, Beautiful, Love, Being, Life, Wisdom, Power, Righteous, Salvation, Perfect, One. The middle text of the Dionysian corpus, between *Mystical Theology* and the two Hierarchies. Greek title Περὶ θείων ὀνομάτων.", "books_slug": "parker--dionysius-vol-1", "books_slugs": null, "has_project_translation": false, "steiner_loci": [] }, "parents": [ { "slug": "dionysius-areopagite", "name": "Dionysius the Areopagite", "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/" } ], "translation": { "title": "The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite, Vol. I", "author": "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (late 5th–early 6th c.)", "source": "sacred-texts.com / chr/dio (mirror of James Parker & Co., London, 1897)" }, "chapters": [ { "num": 1, "slug": "04-dn-caput-i", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput I", "words": 2777, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/04-dn-caput-i/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/04-dn-caput-i.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "I. Of the divine names; the unspeakable Godhead", "blurb": "Opens with the great theme: the divine names by which the Scriptures designate God, and the priority of the *unspeakable* Godhead over every name. The Scripture-given names are the proper subject of theology; their interpretation is the work that follows." }, { "num": 2, "slug": "05-dn-caput-ii", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput II", "words": 3498, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/05-dn-caput-ii/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/05-dn-caput-ii.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "II. The Trinity; the unique substance and the unique distinctions", "blurb": "The Trinity expounded. The unique divine substance held in common; the unique distinctions (Father, Son, Holy Ghost); the great Dionysian theme of the unities and distinctions in the Godhead — names that name the *one* God and names that name the *three* hypostases." }, { "num": 3, "slug": "06-dn-caput-iii", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput III", "words": 1352, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/06-dn-caput-iii/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/06-dn-caput-iii.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "III. The power of prayer; the blessed Hierotheus", "blurb": "On the place of prayer in the work of approaching the divine names. The metaphor of pulling a chain that hangs from above — when we draw down, we do not move the chain but bring ourselves up. The testimony of the blessed Hierotheus, Dionysius's master." }, { "num": 4, "slug": "07-dn-caput-iv", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput IV", "words": 10571, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/07-dn-caput-iv/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/07-dn-caput-iv.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "IV. *Good*, Light, Beauty, Love (ἔρως)", "blurb": "The longest chapter and the most beautiful. The divine name *Good* (ἀγαθόν) — and from it Light, Beauty, Love. Includes the famous Dionysian doctrine of *eros* as a name of God; the four divine ecstasies of love. The chapter most cited by the entire Christian-Platonist tradition." }, { "num": 5, "slug": "08-dn-caput-v", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput V", "words": 2568, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/08-dn-caput-v/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/08-dn-caput-v.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "V. *Being* (τὸ ὄν)", "blurb": "The divine name *Being*. God as the principle of every existent; as the *He Who Is* of Exodus; as that without which nothing can be said to be. The relation of created beings to the unparticipated Being who gives them being." }, { "num": 6, "slug": "09-dn-caput-vi", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput VI", "words": 700, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/09-dn-caput-vi/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/09-dn-caput-vi.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "VI. *Life* (ζωή)", "blurb": "The divine name *Life*. God as life-giver, as life-itself, as the life by participation in which all living things live. The hierarchy of life: the simplest organic life, the sensitive life, the rational life, the angelic life — all participations in the one divine Life." }, { "num": 7, "slug": "10-dn-caput-vii", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput VII", "words": 1955, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/10-dn-caput-vii/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/10-dn-caput-vii.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "VII. *Wisdom* (σοφία), *Mind* (νοῦς), *Word* (λόγος), *Truth*, *Faith*", "blurb": "A cluster of names of the intellectual life: Wisdom, Mind, Word (Logos), Truth, Faith. Each examined in its proper sense; the relation of human wisdom and human faith to the divine names that ground them. The chapter on the *intellectual* attributes." }, { "num": 8, "slug": "11-dn-caput-viii", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput VIII", "words": 1942, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/11-dn-caput-viii/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/11-dn-caput-viii.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "VIII. *Power*, *Justice*, *Salvation*, *Redemption*", "blurb": "The chapter on the names that express God's *governance* of creation. *Power* (the divine omnipotence); *Justice* (the proportionate giving of each its due); *Salvation* (the rescue of what was lost); *Redemption* (the buying-back). The economic-soteriological names." }, { "num": 9, "slug": "12-dn-caput-ix", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput IX", "words": 1713, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/12-dn-caput-ix/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/12-dn-caput-ix.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "IX. *Great*, *Small*, *Same*, *Different*, *Like*, *Unlike*, *Rest*, *Motion*, *Equality*", "blurb": "A cluster of names taken from the categories of magnitude, relation, and movement: Great-Small, Same-Different, Like-Unlike, Rest-Motion, Equality. Dionysius shows how each pair is true of God in a sense that transcends the contradictions that bind them in creatures." }, { "num": 10, "slug": "13-dn-caput-x", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput X", "words": 703, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/13-dn-caput-x/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/13-dn-caput-x.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "X. *Almighty*, *Ancient of Days*, *Eternity*, *Time*", "blurb": "The temporal names. God as *Almighty* (παντοκράτωρ); as *Ancient of Days* (Daniel 7); as *Eternity* (αἰών); as *Time* (in the sense in which Scripture calls God lord of time). The relation of God to past, present, and future." }, { "num": 11, "slug": "14-dn-caput-xi", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput XI", "words": 1812, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/14-dn-caput-xi/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/14-dn-caput-xi.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "XI. *Peace* — also *He Himself*, *being-itself*, *life-itself*", "blurb": "*Peace* as a divine name — the divine *eirēnē* in which all things are held together. Also the doctrine of the *himself* names: *being-itself*, *life-itself*, *wisdom-itself* — the autoousia, autozōē, autosophia of the divine self-subsistent perfections." }, { "num": 12, "slug": "15-dn-caput-xii", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput XII", "words": 519, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/15-dn-caput-xii/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/15-dn-caput-xii.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "XII. *Holy of holies*, *King of kings*, *Lord of lords*, *God of gods*", "blurb": "The Scriptural superlative names. *Holy of holies*, *King of kings*, *Lord of lords*, *God of gods* — each expounded as naming the divine eminence over every order of being (saints, kings, lords, gods). The structure of the *of-X* superlatives." }, { "num": 13, "slug": "16-dn-caput-xiii", "title": "On Divine Names — Caput XIII", "words": 1473, "url": "/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/16-dn-caput-xiii/", "api": "/api/sources/dionysius-areopagite/divine-names/16-dn-caput-xiii.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "XIII. *Perfect* and *One*", "blurb": "The closing chapter on the name *Perfect* and the name *One*. The divine *teleion* — perfection — as that which lacks nothing; the divine *henōsis* — oneness — as the source from which every multiplicity proceeds. The work closes on these two highest names." } ] }