Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite PDF
Preview Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite
OXFORD EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES General Editors Gillian Clark Andrew Louth This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] THE OXFORD EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES series includes scholarly volumes on the thought and history of the early Christian centuries. Covering a wide range of Greek, Latin, and Oriental sources, the books are of interest to theologians, ancient historians, andspecialistsintheclassicalandJewishworlds. Titlesintheseriesinclude: TheChristocentricCosmologyofStMaximustheConfessor TorsteinTheodorTollefsen(2008) Augustine’sTextofJohn PatristicCitationsandLatinGospelManuscripts H.A.G.Houghton(2008) HilaryofPoitiersontheTrinity FromDeFidetoDeTrinitate CarlL.Beckwith(2008) TheEasterComputusandthe OriginsoftheChristianEra AldenA.Mosshammer(2008) TheLettersofJerome Asceticism,BiblicalExegesis,andthe ConstructionofChristianAuthorityinLateAntiquity AndrewCain(2009) BasilofCaesarea,GregoryofNyssa,andthe TransformationofDivineSimplicity AndrewRadde-Gallwitz(2009) TheAsceticismofIsaacofNineveh PatrikHagman(2010) PalladiusofHelenopolis TheOrigenistAdvocate DemetriosS.Katos(2011) OrigenandScripture TheContoursoftheExegeticalLife PeterMartens(2012) ActivityandParticipationinLateAntiqueandEarlyChristianThought TorsteinTheodorTollefsen(2012) IrenaeusofLyonsandtheTheologyoftheHolySpirit AnthonyBriggman(2012) This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] Apophasis and Pseudonymity in Dionysius the Areopagite “ ” No Longer I CHARLES M. STANG 1 This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] 3 GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #CharlesM.Stang2012 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2012 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011942644 TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby MPGBooksGroup,BodminandKing’sLynn ISBN 978–0–19–964042–3 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] Acknowledgments It was well over ten years ago that I was first introduced to Pseudo- Dionysius in a course at the University of Chicago on negative theology, taught by David Tracy and Jean-Luc Marion. I remember that we were asked to buy several books for that course, but that we really only read and reread the Corpus Dionysiacum for the entire quarter.Whattenweeksthosewere—theysetthecourseforthenext ten years of my life, and may do so for another ten. I returned to Dionysius when I returned to Harvard, this time for the ThD at HarvardDivinitySchool.IoweagreatdealbothtoNicholasConstas, who in my first semester convened a reading group to wrestle with the peculiar Greek prose of the Divine Names, and to the other two participants in that reading group, Mary Anderson and John Manoussakis. Above all others, however, I must thank my advisor, Sarah Coak- ley,whohadsufficientconfidenceinmeandinthisprojecttoletme pursueitwhereveritled.Theothermembersofmycommitteewere equallysupportiveandindispensable:AmyHollywood,KevinMadi- gan, and Paul Rorem. Amy Hollywood deserves special thanks— would that everyone had as close, critical, and generous a reader as Ihavehadinher.AsdoesPaulRorem,whoovertheyearshasgiven generously of his time, expertise, and encouragement. Two other professors here at Harvard also deserve acknowledgement: John Duffy, with whom I had the privilege to read Dionysius in Greek, and Luis Girón Negrón, for whom I wrote my very first paper on Dionysius(andAechylus’Eumenides). SinceIjoinedthefacultyofHarvardDivinitySchoolin2008,Ihave had the opportunity to teach Dionysius in a number of courses, includingtwoseminarsdevotedentirelytotheCorpusDionysiacum. Iwishtothankmystudentsinthesecoursesforpushingmetorefine andrevisemyreadingsoftheCD.Iamespeciallygratefultomythree researchassistants, whohave beeninvaluable to me atpoints in this process:Elizabeth(Liza)Anderson,ZacharyGuiliano,andJ.Gregory Given—Greg deserving special commendation for overseeing my shift from the Luibheid/Rorem to the Parker translation of the CD. Iamalsogratefulbothtotheeditorsofthisseries,GillianClarkand This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] vi Acknowledgments Andrew Louth, and to the external reviewer for their collective, constructive criticism, which has made this book much better than itotherwisewouldbe. Alongtheway,anumberofother,dearfriendsandcolleagueshave readordiscussedpartsorthewholeofthismanuscript,andIwishto thanksomeofthemhere:RyanCoyne,BenDunning,BrettGrainger, SarahHammerschlag,TamsinJones,MarkJordan,andRachelSmith. Butmymostheartfeltthanksarereservedformywife,Sarabinh,who also happens to be my best friend and my very best editor and conversation partner. Her love and support, buttressed by that of our two daughters Vivian and Saskia, have made this—and all things—possibleandworthwhile. This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] Table of Contents Introduction 1 1. AncientandModernReadersoftheCorpusDionysiacum: PseudonymityandPaul 11 2. PseudonymousWritingintheLateAntiqueChristianEast 41 3. “Irejoicetoseeyourorder”:PaulandtheDionysian Hierarchies 81 4. “ToanUnknownGod”:PaulandMysticalUnion 117 5. “NoLongerI”:TheApophaticAnthropologyof DionysiustheAreopagite 153 Conclusion:ThePseudonym,Revisited 197 Bibliography 207 IndexLocorum 229 GeneralIndex 231 This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. 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For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] Introduction In early sixth-century Syria there began to circulate a collection of writings allegedly authored by Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athe- nianjudgewho,accordingtoActs17,convertedtoChristianityafter hearingPaul’sspeechtothecourtoftheAreopagus.Attheclimaxof thelongestofthefourtreatises,theDivineNames,theauthorsaysof theapostle:“PaultheGreat,whenpossessedbytheDivineLove,and participating in its ecstatic power, says with inspired lips, ‘It is no longerIwholive,butChristlivesinme.’Asatruelover,andbeside himself,ashesays,toAlmightyGod,andnotlivingthelifeofhimself, butthelifeoftheBeloved,asalifeexcessivelyesteemed.”1Forancient readers, for whom these were the authentic words of a first-century Christian convert, Dionysius the Areopagite reveals his teacher Paul to be the exemplary lover of God, whose fervent erōs carries him outside himself in ecstasy, and therefore renders him split, doubled, and so open to the indwelling of Christ, as the apostle himself confesses in Gal 2:20. For modern readers, who know that these are 1 DN4.13712A;CDI159.4–8.Unlessotherwisenoted,allcitationsinEnglishare from John Parker’s translation, The Complete Works of Dionysius the Areopagite. Ihave chosen Parker’s translation because it followsthe Greek much more closely thanthemorerecent,andnowstandard,EnglishtranslationbyColmLuibheidand PaulRorem.ButIhavereservedtherighttomakeslightchangesinParker’stransla- tions,mostlyhavingtodowiththepeculiaritiesofhislatenineteenth-centuryprose andvocabularychoices.AllcitationsinGreekarefromthestandardcriticaledition: BeateReginaSuchla,CorpusDionysiacumI[Dedivinisnominibus];GünterHeiland Adolf Martin Ritter, Corpus Dionysiacum II [De coelesti hierarchia, de ecclesiastica hierarchia,demysticatheologia,epistulae].Inwhatfollows,IrefertotheentireCorpus DionysiacumastheCDanditspartswiththefollowedabbreviations:DN=Divine Names, CH = Celestial Hierarchy, EH = Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, MT = Mystical Theology,andEp.=Letters. This is an open access version of the publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected]
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