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.
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.