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TRANSCENDING TRANSCENDENCE
contribute to such an illumination of the reader’s mind. On a larger scale, this
Neo-Platonic ascent and return to the Cause of Causes is due to the operation
of universal providence, which leaves no unsupervised area in the entire
range of existence.
Hence, Being as such is a field whose function it is to display and
demonstrate the goodness of its First Cause. Being is therefore essentially
revelation for the Areopagite. Even the first emanation, the order of angels,
has as its particular mission to reveal the hidden divine essence, the supra¬
intelligible nucleus of God, in order to give word of the otherwise completely
tacit and transcendent centre. In this particular sense, they shed light on and
illuminate the Good, by which they are, in turn, intellectually illuminated.
Revelation and providence, thus intertwined, alike point to divine bounty as
the cause of Being.
3. GOD AS THE BEAUTIFUL
From Chapter 7 of Part 4, Denys goes on to explain that God conceived as the
Good is also beautiful. At this point, our author openly introduces the Platonic
theory of participation (metoché), and cites word for word the most detailed
description Plato ever gave of the concept of idea, from the Symposium.”
The Biblical God is hereby defined as the Platonic idea of the Beautiful, to
kalon. This Beautiful is, then, essentially an aspect or variation of the Neo¬
Platonic One in that it is characterized as a principle of unification—it is
simple, so it simplifies and unifies; it exerts an attractive force, whereby it
draws together and, again, unifies, especially as a final cause that is an object
3 De divinis nominibus 4, 7: ...xahov 52 ws TayKaAov &pa Kal bnépKadov Kai det Sv KaTa TA ADTA
Kal WOAUTWG KAaAOV Kal ODTE yLYyVönEVvov OUTE dTOAADLEVOV obtTE avEavdLEVOV ObTE PBivov,
OdÖE Tf) HÉV kaAóv, Ti 5é aioypov ODÖE TOTE EV, TOTE ÖE& OD, ODÖE TLPÖG HEV TO KaAOY, TIPOG
dé 10 aioxpov odte Evda uev, Evda dE oO wg TIol uEV ÖvV KaAOy, Ttol 5é OD KaOv, GAN wg adro
Ka0’ Eavtö ne’ Eavtod povoeidés dei Sv KAAOV Kai Wo TavTd<s Kahod Ti rıyalav KaAAoviv
UTEPOXIKGs Ev EavT@ npoéxov. (Beate R. Suchla [ed.], Corpus Dionysiacum I. Pseudo-Dionysius
Areopagita: De divinis nominibus, Berlin-New York, W. de Gruyter, 1990, 151 = PG 3, 701
D 2-704 A 4.) Cf. Symposium 210 E 6-211 B 2: ...np@tov pév dei dv kai OÜTE YIYVÓHEVOV OÜTE
amoAAbpEvov, odtE adEavopEevov odTE PBivov, EnEtta Ob TH HEV KaOv, TH & aicxpov, oddé Tote
pv, tote dé ob, odd HpÓG HÉV TO Kahov, TIPOG dé TO aioxpov, ObS' EvOa Lev Kadov, EvOa őz
aisxpov, we tiol pév dv Kahov, Tol dé aioxpov: [...] GAN adTd Ka’ adTd LEO’ abtod Lovoedéc
dei dv, Ta Se GAA Tavta KAAd Exeivov LETexovTa...—Cryptic references to the Symposium
are not unique in early Christianity as, for instance, St Gregory of Nyssa also describes this
Platonic desire for the transcendent Beautiful in the De vita Moysis: Aoxet 5é HOL TÖ TOLOÜTO
nadeiv Epwrırfi tıvı SLadEceı Mpdc TO PvoEL KahOv THC Wuxi{¢ StateOeions, fv del 1] &Anig and
Tod ÖPBEVToG KaAoD TTPÖG TO ÜTEPKEINEVOV ENEONAOATO, Sid TOD MavTOTE KaTAAALBavoLEVOD,
NPÖG TO KEKPLHNEVOV alei tiv Ertidvniav ékkaiovoa- ÖBev 6 OPOSPOG Epaotng Toü KaAAoug TO
dei paivopevov D EiKÖVAa TOD noBouuévou ÊEXOUEVOS, adToÙ TOÙ XAPAKTPOS TOÙ APXETUNOV
éupopnôñvat nobeï. (PG 44, 401 D 4-12)
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