01 — Foundations
The ground on which the whole question of “Dionysius the Areopagite” stands: the first-century man named in Acts 17:34 — the Athenian member of the Areopagus council converted by the Apostle Paul, and remembered by the early Church as the first bishop of Athens — and the writings that, four centuries later, entered the Church under his name. These files fix the historical figure and the early tradition about him, and then draw the distinction, decisive for everything that follows, between that man and the Corpus Areopagiticum.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (the Corpus Areopagiticum)
The name “Dionysius the Areopagite” carries two referents that the tradition long held as one and that scholarship has since prised apart. The first is a real and shadowy first-century convert, named once in the New Testament and a few times in the early historians. The second is the unknown author of a body of mystical theology written around the year 500, who adopted the convert’s persona and so attached his writings, and their enormous authority, to an apostolic name. This section establishes the first referent — what little can honestly be said of the Areopagite of Acts, and the early tradition that made him bishop of Athens and martyr — and then names the distinction itself, so that the reader carries it through every later section.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Areopagite of Acts | The historical Dionysius: his conversion at the Areopagus (Acts 17:34); the early tradition naming him first bishop of Athens (Dionysius of Corinth in Eusebius); his place in the record and the limits of what can be known; cross-link to the Apostle Paul. |
| The Name and the Corpus | The distinction at the heart of the subject: the first-century man versus the c. 500 writings later attributed to him; how the pseudonym works, why the author chose it, and the convention of Pseudo-Dionysius. |
See Also
- The Treatises and Letters — the writings that travel under the Areopagite’s name
- The Pseudo-Dionysius Problem — the evidence that the Corpus is a work of c. 500
- The Apostle Paul — whose Areopagus sermon converted Dionysius
- The Church Fathers — the patristic tradition into which the Corpus was received
References
- The Acts of the Apostles 17:16–34. (The Areopagus sermon and the conversion of Dionysius.)
- Eusebius of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History 3.4.10; 4.23.3. Trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1.
- Rorem, Paul. Pseudo-Dionysius: A Commentary on the Texts and an Introduction to Their Influence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
- Louth, Andrew. Denys the Areopagite. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1989.