The present chapter aims at offering insights into Dionysius the Areopagite’s notion of theurgy, both with respect to the metaphysical principles that connect with “θεουργία” and the particular sacramental reality that emerges from it. Pavlos argues that despite the linguistic affinities and terminological appropriations - whether Iamblichean or Proclean - Dionysius’ premises on the matter remain radically different from that of Neoplatonism, both in terms of the sacramental tradition he recapitulates and the wider Christian metaphysical contours he adheres to. Of (...) central importance in the argument is the striking fact that, throughout the Corpus Dionysiacum, “theurgy” is a term exclusively used by the author to refer to the works of Christ in His earthly historical presence, and to the whole divine providential, creative, sustaining, and divinising activity and work of God. Consequently, if for Dionysius a “theurgist” (θεουργός) could not be any human being, but only Christ Himself, the God-Man, Dionysian theurgy aims at the deification of man, which is nothing other than Christ-likeness. (shrink)

On the assumption that theistic religious commitment takes place in the face of evidential ambiguity, the question arises under what conditions it is permissible to make a doxastic venture beyond one’s evidence in favour of a religious proposition. In this paper I explore the implications for orthodox theistic commitment of adopting, in answer to that question, a modest, moral coherentist, fideism. This extended Jamesian fideism crucially requires positive ethical evaluation of both the motivation and content of religious doxastic ventures. I (...) suggest that, even though the existence of horrendous evil does not resolve evidential ambiguity in favour of atheism, there are reasonable value commitments that would preclude those who hold them from satisfying extended Jamesian fideist conditions for committing themselves to classical theism. I then begin a discussion of a possible revisionary theistic alternative (in the Christian tradition) which – one might hope – may meet those conditions. An earlier, shorter, version of this paper was delivered as a keynote address at the APA Pacific 2007 Mini-Conference on Models of God. (shrink)

The Divine Names explores the different names and metaphoric expressions used in the Bible to refer to God. Dionysius the Areopagite is known as an exponent of positive theology, in the sense that he offers an argumentative and explicit account of the nature of God, relying on the Scripture as a source of knowledge and truth, in contrast to the declared inability of apophatic or negative theology to communicate any knowledge of the divine. Indeed, the Areopagite resorts to the study (...) of biblical terms and to the coinage of hapax, neologisms often derived of known terms with added privative prefixes, in order to refer in some way to the sacred. Our research aims at showing that, for Dionysius, the purpose of pursuing the knowledge of God is not only to grasp the order of the different spheres of existence—present across the Corpus Dionysiacum—but also to connect with Him in hénosis, a living experience of permanent tension towards the Supreme. By focusing in the study of the names of God through exegesis, this paper aims at clarifying eutony, a constant tension towards God, as the central theme of the Byzantine theologian’s thought. (shrink)