Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names · 39 of 39 · tr. C.E. Rolt
Chapter 4, Section 1am
Evil things are not entirety bad, but are bad only in some partial aspect.
360 περὶ τὴν ἄληστον του ἀγαθοῦ γνῶσιν.
361 Luke xii.
47 .
362 In the previous section D.
has maintained that all people ultimately desire the Good.
Hence it follows that all sin is due to ignorance; for could we all recognize that which we desire we would follow it.
This raises the question: What, then, does Scripture mean by speaking of men who sin knowingly?
To this D.
replies that wilful sin is wilful ignorance.
It is the failure to exercise the knowledge we possess: as when we know a fact which yet is not actually present to our minds.
We know (having been taught it) the desirableness of the Good, but we can shut this desirableness out from our minds and refuse to dwell upon it.
In such a case we refuse to exercise our knowledge.
363 This treatise is lost.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Evil As Privationtheology
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.
The passage explicitly defines evil as not being entirety bad but bad only in a partial aspect due to ignorance.
All passages →Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The text emphasizes that recognizing the Good leads to following it and that sin is ultimately due to ignorance rather than inherent nature.
All passages →Related passages · 4 parallels
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 85 (part 1)
“Section 10 10.
But if Matter is devoid of quality how can it be evil?
It is described as being devoid of quality in the sense only that it does not essentially possess any of the qualities which it admits and which enter into it as into a…”
Shared concept: Evil As Privation — 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. (derived)
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 80
“Section 5 5. But, it will be objected, if this seeing and frequenting of the darkness is due to the lack of good, the Soul's evil has its source in that very lack; the darkness will be merely a secondary cause- and at once the Principle of…”
Shared concept: Evil As Privation — 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. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Mysteries and Their Emissaries-a
“DID that divine knowledge which constituted the supreme possession of the pagan priestcrafts survive the destruction of their temples?
Is it yet accessible to mankind, or does it lie buried beneath the rubbish of ages, entombed within the…”
Shared concept: Gnosis Direct Knowledge — Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter IV
“Divine divination, therefore, which is conjoined with the Gods, alone truly imparts to us a divine life; since it participates of [divine] foreknowledge, and divine intellections, and renders us in reality divine. It likewise causes us to b…”
Shared concept: Gnosis Direct Knowledge — Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone. (derived)