Greco-Christian stream·Dionysius the Areopagite·Letters·Letters — Letter VI — To Sopatros, Priest
VI. To Sopatros — refute by setting forth the truth, not by attacking error
To the priest Sopatros. On the right method of theological controversy: do not refute opponents by attacking what they say; refute by setting forth the truth so clearly that what is false collapses by contrast. Dionysian pastoral counsel for theological dispute.
Source context
- Theme
- priestly correspondence as a medium of spiritual counsel and doctrinal transmission
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Neoplatonic epistolary traditionLetters addressed to priests or philosophical associates — as in the extant correspondence of Porphyry and Iamblichus — functioned as vehicles for transmitting initiatory doctrine, establishing a structural parallel to the advisory and theurgic content characteristic of late antique priestly letters.
- Pauline epistolary theologyPaul's letters to congregational leaders (e.g., the Pastoral Epistles) establish a cross-tradition congruence in which the written letter to a named priest mediates authority, doctrinal clarification, and the governance of sacred practice across distance.
Letters — Letter VI — To Sopatros, Priest
LETTER VI. ** To Sopatros 72 --Priest.
Do not imagine this a victory, holy Sopatros, to have denounced 73 a devotion, or an opinion, which apparently is not good. For neither--even if you should have convicted it accurately--are the (teachings) of Sopatros consequently good. For it is possible, both that you and others, whilst occupied in many things that are false and apparent, should overlook the true, which is One and hidden. For neither, if anything is not red, is it therefore white, nor if something is not a horse, is it necessarily a man. But thus will you do, if you follow my advice, you will cease indeed to speak against others, but will so speak on behalf of truth, that every thing said is altogether unquestionable.
Footnotes
145:72 Acts xx. 4; Rom. xvi. 21.
145:73 Tit. iii. 9.
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