Chapter 4, Section 1l

Need is there to understand that in proper truth we do but use the elements and syllables and phrases and written terms and words as an aid to our senses; inasmuch as when our soul is moved by spiritual energies unto spiritual things, our senses, together with the thing which they perceive, are all superfluous; even as the spiritual faculties are also such when the soul, becoming Godlike, 305 305 θεοειδής.. meets in the blind embraces of an incomprehensible union the Rays of the unapproachable Light. 306 306 This clause can only have been written by one for whom Unknowing was a personal experience. The previous clause shows how there is a negative element even in the Method of Affirmation. Sense-perception must first give way to spiritual intuition, just as this must finally give way to Unknowing. (Cf. St. John of the Cross’s Dark Night, on three kinds of night.) All progress is a transcendence and so, in a sense, a Via Negativa. Cf. St. Aug., Transcende mundum et sape animum, transcende animum et sape Deum. Now when the mind, through the things of sense, feels an eager stirring to mount towards spiritual contemplations, 307 307 This shows that the Via Negativa starts from something positive. It is a transcendence, not a mere negation. it values most of all those aids from its perceptions which have the plainest form, the clearest words, the things most distinctly seen, because, when the objects of sense are in confusion, then the senses themselves cannot present their message truly to the mind. But that we may not seem, in saying this, to be setting aside Holy Scripture, let those who blame the title of “Yearning” hear what the Scripture saith: “Yearn for her and she shall keep thee; exalt her and she shall promote thee; she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her.” 308 308 Prov. iv. 6, 8 . And there are many 104 other such Scriptural passages which speak of this yearning. 12. Nay, some of our writers about holy things have thought the title of “Yearning” diviner than that of “Love.” Ignatius the Divine writes: “He whom I yearn for is crucified.” 309 309 ὁ ἐμὸς Ἔρως ἐσταύρωται>. Ignatius Ep. ad Rom. § 6. But possibly St. Ignatius means: “My earthly affections are crucified.” St. Ignatius wrote just before being martyred, at the beginning of the second century. This reference would alone be sufficient to make the authenticity of the Dionysian writings improbable. [It is perhaps impossible to determine whether Ignatius meant by the words “my Love is crucified” to refer to Jesus or to himself. The latter is supported by Zahn and by Lightfoot, the former by Origen, Prologue to Commentary on Canticles. ” Nec pato quod culpari possit, si quis Deum, sicut Joannis, charitatur, ita ipse amorem nominit. Denejire memini, aliquem sanctorum dixisse Ignatium nomine de Christo: Mens autem amor crucifixus est: nec reprehendi eum per hoc dignum judico. “ Much further evidence is given in Jacobson’s Apostolic Fathers (p. 377). Jacobson himself supports it, observing that the Greek commemoration of Ignatius takes the words in this sense. Whether Dionysius followed Origen or not, his exposition is very interesting and is quite possibly the true.