Introduction

Like the Cappadocians, the ps.-Dionysius claims that he is not an innovator but a communicator of the Tradition, which he presents as Christian, but which in fact comes from Christian and pagan sources. Of the former the only authorities he names are the Scriptures (including some apocryphal works), but he is clearly indebted to the Cappadocians and perhaps directly to the Alexandrians; the pagan sources are disguised either as part of the ‘unwritten tradition’ or under the name of his master ‘Hierotheos’, possibly a fiction invented to confer upon them the authority of one whom he represents as being an associate of the Apostles.

The pagan element, apart from the Platonism which he inherited from his Christian sources, shows unmistakable affinity with the later Neoplatonism of which the most famous exponent was Proclus, and the most distinctive feature the importance attached to theurgy, a special branch of praxis which, under the increasing weight of religious influence upon the schools of philosophy, tended to exclude the other branches in the same way as theology, a special branch of theôria, had already, for similar reasons, become dominant in that field.

Theurgy, like all praxis, was the utilization of sensible objects, but concerned itself not with their matter but with the inherent power which they were supposed to derive from the sympatheia which binds the whole universe together, the sensibles to the intelligibles and the intelligibles to the gods, and the control of which was therefore an automatic means of invoking divine and demonic assistance for practical ends.