The Pseudo-Dionysius (dates unknown)
The Return and Union with God are the Goal of Every True Disciple
No one knows who the author of the manuscripts signed "Dionysius" really was. Some scholars think he was a Syrian monk, others admit not having a clue. I personally am holding out for Boethius, who was a Roman consul trained in the Greek philosophers and had personal contact with Proclus, and known to have been influenced by him. Boethius was imprisoned , tortured, and executed by Theodoric, King of Ital, in 524ad. While accused of treason, it is thought he was executed for having defended the Trinity against Theodoric, who was an Arian and thought Christ a created being. Theodoric feared feared his orthodox subjects would side with Byzantium against him.
At present there is no sure evidence of a connection to Boethius, but he was a great lover of both Plato and Aristotle and wished, like Plotinus, to reconcile the two. While in prison he wrote, The Consolation of Philosophy, considered the most influential book of the Middle Ages.
The writings of the Pseudo-Dionysius are written as though he was someone intimately familiar with all the characters of the New Testament, and while many use the fact that it was not uncommon to write in such a manner, it's hard to imagine at least some intent to fool the reader to see them as having authority. Pagan religion had come under attack by Athanasius, Justin Martyr, and others, so following openly the systems of Plotinus was not really an option. The Pseudo-Dionysius (or "false" Dionysius) thus reached back before the time of Plotinus to a disciple of Paul mentioned in Acts 17:34, which avoided any connection with Plotinus and to a certain extent suggested that Plotinus himself may have gotten many of his ideas from this disciple and paganized them, rather than the other way round.
Like Plotinus, his ideas were extremely mystical, and he saw the material universe just and extension of the spiritual realm, and while accepting "hierarchies" of angels and other aspects of this world which are suspiciously like Plotinus' levels of emanation, the manuscripts are completely "Christianized" in language and without knowing Plotinus one would never suspect their source. As mentioned in the introduction page to Plotinus, the Pseudo-Dionysius took his version of Plotinian ideas from Proclus, who died just a few years before the manuscripts were "found."
The center-piece of Dionysian manuscripts is the idea of the Return, in which the disciple makes a "journey upward" similar to Jacob's ladder where angels were seen making the journey up and down to earth from the presence of God. By using an icon, which is filled with the spiritual essence of the individual(s) represented, one establishes the first stage of the Return, beginning in the material realm in the same manner as Plotinus. Through meditating on the symbolism and meaning of the icon one can be lifted to the realm of feelings, having their soul stirred by the experience, which would lift the disciple to the realm of Intellect, the highest of this realm according to Plotinus. The Pseudo-Dionysius, however, suggests that the human intellect is not capable of reaching the realm of God through intellect alone—only love can bridge the gap between God and man. The Cloud of Unkowing was a work written in Middle English by a Carthusian monk in the latter half of the 14th century, detailing the journey upward and the bridge of love to an otherwise unknowable God.
The writings of the Pseudo-Dionysius resulted in a systematic approach to icons, their reverence, and indwelling of spiritual essence capable of performing miracles. Union with God, known as "henosis," was possible for one who was skilled at meditating, and was the ultimate goal of meditation. All of this is based on the ideas of Plotinus, which were a fusion of Hindu and Eastern mysticism, but they held sway for almost 1000 years in the Roman Catholic church, and are still prevalent in the Greek Orthodox church today.
The philosophies of men are quite dangerous if they are used to aid in the interpretation of Scripture, and we will see that this has happened over and over throughout the history of the Church.
