Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names · 1 of 3 · tr. C.E. Rolt
Chapter 12, Section 1a
181 CHAPTER XII Concerning ” Holy of holies ,” ” King of kings ,” ” Lord of lords ,” ” God of gods .” 1.
Forasmuch as the things which needed to be said concerning this matter have been brought, I think, to a proper ending, we must praise God (whose Names are infinite) as “Holy of holies” and “King of kings,” reigning through Eternity and unto the end of Eternity and beyond it, and as “Lord of lords” and “God of gods.” And we must begin by saying what we understand by “Very Holiness,” what by “Royalty,” “Dominion,” and “Deity,” and what the Scripture means by the reduplication of the titles.
2.
Now Holiness is that which we conceive as a freedom from all defilement and a complete and utterly untainted purity.
And Royalty is the power to assign all limit, order, law, and rank.
And Dominion is not only the superiority to inferiors, but is also the entirely complete and universal possession of fair and good things and is a true and steadfast firmness; wherefore the name is derived from a word meaning “validity” and words meaning severally “that which possesseth validity” and “which exerciseth” it.
486 486 D.
holds that God’s dominion is an absolute quality in Himself apart from all reference to the creation.
The Greek word, as he truly says, supports his view.
The Latin Dominus , on the other hand, implies the notion of governing, and so has a necessary reference to the creation.
Hence St.
Augustine says that God could not actually be spoken of as “Lord” before the world or the angels were made.
Eckhart says that before the creation God was not God, ” Er war was Er war.
“ D.
holds that the title “God” is relative to us.
But then he holds—and here explains—that the roots of this relationship exist timelessly in the undifferentiated Godhead.
And Deity is the Providence which contemplates all things and which, in perfect Goodness, 182 goes round about all things and holds them together and fills them with Itself and transcends all things that enjoy the blessings of Its providential care.
3.
These titles, then, must be given in an absolute sense to the All-Transcendent Cause, and we must add that It is a Transcendent Holiness and Dominion, that It is a Supreme Royalty and an altogether Simple Deity.
487 487 “Transcendent,” “Supreme,” “Simple,” all express the same fact—that, being Super-Essential, it is above the multiplicity of the creatures.
For out of It there hath, in one single act, come forth collectively and been distributed throughout the world all the unmixed Perfection of all untainted Purity; all that Law and Order of the world, which expels all disharmony, inequality and disproportion, and breaks forth into a smiling aspect of ordered Consistency 488 488 Cf.
Shelley, Adonais: “That Light whose smile kindles the universe.” and Rightness, bringing into their proper place all things which are held worthy to participate in It; all the perfect Possession of all fair qualities; and all that good Providence which contemplates and maintains in being the objects of Its own activity, bounteously bestowing Itself for the Deification of those creatures which are converted unto It.
4..
And since the Creator of all things is brim-full with them all in one transcendent excess thereof.
He is called “Holy of Holies,” etc., by virtue of His overflowing Causality and excess of Transcendence.
489 489 “Holiness” especially contains the notion of Transcendence.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The passage emphasizes that God's nature transcends all positive categories and concepts, describing Him as 'infinite' and beyond the limitations of finite language.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The text describes God as 'All-Transcendent' and 'above the multiplicity of the creatures', indicating a radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The text explicitly defines Deity as 'Providence which contemplates all things' and maintains them in being through active care.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage describes the Creator's power to assign 'limit, order, law, and rank' and distribute Perfection throughout the world.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
Holiness is defined as freedom from defilement and untainted purity, implying evil is a lack of this state.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The text explicitly states that God 'fills them with Itself' and that creatures are converted unto Him for Deification.