Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names

Chapter V, "Concerning 'Existence' and also concerning 'Exemplars,'" opens by turning to the Name of "Being" applied to Him that truly Is. The text states its purpose is not to reveal the Super-Essential Being in its own nature, which is unutterable and beyond the Unity, but to celebrate the Emanation of the Divine Essence into the universe. The Name "Good" extends to things that are and are not, and beyond both; "Existent" extends to existent things and beyond; "Life" to living things and beyond; "Wisdom" to Intuition, Reason, and Sense-Perception and beyond. The discourse considers Names revealing God's Providence, holding that one God is the universal Source of emanations and Possessor of all Divine Names, the first Name expressing perfect Providence. The text raises a question: since Existence transcends Life and Life transcends Wisdom, why do living things rank higher than existent things, and intelligences higher than reasoning things. The reply: the divine Intelligences exist, live, and understand surpassingly, thus participating more in the Good and standing nearer to It; the more anything participates in the One God, the diviner it becomes. The Good is then treated as that which gives being to all things. God is called the Cause of Being, the Beginning and Measure of ages, "King of the Ages," the Pre-Existent from whom all Eternity and Time derive. Being is antecedent to all other gifts; God receives His Name "He which Is" from this primary gift. The text uses images of the number One containing all numbers and the circle's radii united at the centre. From the Universal Cause come angelic Beings, souls, and all attributes. God is all things as their Cause yet No Thing. The sun analogy illustrates one cause producing many effects. The Exemplars pre-exist in God as Unity. Clement's application of "Exemplar" to visible types is noted as imprecise. The chapter closes affirming negative terms describe the Deity.

The text states that the irreligious attitude in science, philosophy, and life is being attacked, and asserts that all things, including personalities, must be sought in God rather than in themselves. It names this failure as the defect of nineteenth-century Natural Science, of earlier Gnosticism, and of present-day Occultism. Citing Scripture, it holds that knowledge suited to human faculties leads up to the Universal Cause, to whom all things are attributed in one All-Transcendent Unity; the sound-shared-by-ears image is given. Section 10 describes the Pre-existent as Beginning and End, Cause and Final Purpose, bounding all things yet boundless, giving each thing distinctness while containing infinite possibilities, present everywhere, at rest and in motion, transcending Time and Eternity. Notes follow: on Very Eternity, aeternitas, aevum, and Bergson's durée; on the Negative Path and Unknowing versus the Affirmative Path; on spiritual Communion and the Human Soul of Christ distinguishing Himself from the Father; on the Unitive State and the Divine Darkness where Self and Not-Self vanish. Further notes treat the Good extending to good and bad things; sense-perception, Reason, and Intuition as refractions of Divine Wisdom; the table of emanating activity (Good, Existent, Life, Wisdom); the Via Negativa and abstraction; Eternity as totum simul; the number One; and citations to St. Augustine, Plotinus, Julian of Norwich, Dante, and Blake. The final note discusses Clement, generic forms, and Exemplars, maintaining that generic forms are properly Exemplars only as existent in God.