Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names · 9 of 16 · tr. C.E. Rolt
Chapter 2, Section 1i
The Godhead is not a Whole because it is indivisible, nor a Part because there is nothing, on the ultimate plane, outside It.
Yet It is a Whole because It includes the true existence of all things, and is Partitive because It contains the principle of separate Individuality whereby Christ possesses a Human Soul distinct from all other human souls, and whereby, too, we possess distinct and separate souls.
This Deity is perfect in those Beings that are imperfect as a Fount of Perfection; 213 213 God is in us even before we are in Him.
Cf.
Luke xvii.
21 .
Cf.
St.
Aug., “Thou wast within; I was without.” Also cf.
c.
i.
3; c.
iii.
i: “For the Trinity,” etc.
See Intr., p.
6 on the use of the word ” outside.” It is Perfectionless 214 214 Perfection implies an objector purpose achieved.
Hence it implies a distinction between self and not self.
The Godhead is beyond such a distinction.
Compared with imperfection, It is perfect; compared with perfection, It is perfectionless (ἀτελής), or, rather, beyond Perfection (ὑπερτελής) and before it (προτέλειος), just as compared with impersonal things It is personal, and compared with personality It is non-personal, or, rather, supra-personal.
in those that are perfect as transcending and anticipating their Perfection; It is the Form producing Form in the formless, as a Fount of every form; and it is Formless in the Forms, as being beyond all form; It is the Being that pervades all beings at once though not affected by them; 215 215 Cf.
p.
75, n.
3.
and It is Super-Essential, as transcending every being; It sets all bounds of Authority and Order, and yet It has Its seal beyond all Authority and Order.
216 216 Cf.
St.
Paul on the Law and the Spirit.
The Law is deposited, as it were, by the Spirit; and yet the Law cramps the Spirit, and the Spirit must break loose from this bondage.
It is the Measure of the Universe; 217 217 i.
e.
It gives the universe its bounds and distinctions.
and it is Eternity, and above Eternity and before Eternity.
218 218 Eternity, in the sense of ” Very Eternity” (αὐτοαιών), is an Emanation of the Godhead—a distinct view of Its transcendent state (cf.
Intr., p.
i7).
It is the Divine Rest taken in the abstract, as Very Life is perhaps the Divine Motion taken in the abstract.
The Godhead includes both rest and Motion by transcending them.
It is an 78 Abundance in those Beings that lack, and a Super-Abundance in those that abound; unutterable, ineffable; beyond Mind, beyond Life, beyond Being; It supernaturally possesses the supernatural and super-essentially possesses the super-essential.
219 219 Behind Nature are certain higher supernatural possibilities (which are manifested, e.
g., in the Miracles of Christ and His Disciples), and beyond our personalities there is a mystery which is greater than our finite selves, and yet, in a sense, is our true selves.
The Godhead possesses in Itself the supernatural possibilities of Nature and the supra-personal possibilities of our personalities.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The Godhead is explicitly described as 'the Being that pervades all beings at once though not affected by them,' 'includes the true existence of all things,' and 'God is in us even before we are in Him'—divine presence within all of creation is a central theme.
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 Godhead is described as 'Fount of Perfection' and 'Fount of every form,' with Eternity described as 'an Emanation of the Godhead,' establishing a hierarchical outflow from the transcendent source to successive levels of being.
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.
Imperfection is described as lacking perfection, implying a lack of the divine state rather than positive evil.
The doctrine that reality has two registers — an Absolute truth as the divine or ultimate mind knows it, and a Relative truth as finite human reason perceives and must act on — with both held as legitimate on their own plane rather than the second being simply an error to correct. Distinct from apophatic_theology (a claim about how the divine may be described, by negation) and unity_of_being (a claim that being is ultimately one) in being a claim about two coexisting registers of truth-claim itself.
The Godhead is described as 'perfect' compared with imperfection but 'perfectionless' compared with perfection, and 'personal' compared with impersonal things but 'non-personal' compared with personality—holding two registers of description as simultaneously valid on their own planes.