Who Was Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite?

Way of the Fathers

Whenever you see “Pseudo-“ in front of a name like this, it means we don’t really know who the person was. This Church father wrote under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, a convert of St. Paul mentioned in the book of Acts. But the documents attributed to him were written hundreds of years later. Nevertheless, this unknown pseudonymous author was hugely influential for some of the most important fathers and doctors of the Church. The medieval scholastics and mystics found these writings especially inspiring.

Links

To listen to Mike Aquilina’s episode on other anonymous Church fathers: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-6-whats-in-name-anonymous-texts-from-early-church/

To go deeper into the case of Dionysius the Areopagite, with some more cautions about this author’s theology and its use throughout history, see the New Advent article: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05013a.htm

To read Pseudo-Dionysius’ treatise, The Divine Names: https://ccel.org/ccel/rolt/dionysius/dionysius.iv.ii.html

To read Pseudo-Dionysius’ treatise, The Mystical Theology: https://ccel.org/ccel/rolt/dionysius/dionysius.v.html

For more general information on the historical context of the early Church, see the book: Reading the Church Fathers: A History of the Early Church and the Development of Doctrine: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/reading-the-church-fathers/

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