Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names · 2 of 12 · tr. C.E. Rolt
Chapter 5, Section 1b
367 367 Sense-perception is a direct apprehension of that which we actually touch, see, hear, taste, or smell; Reason or Inference is an indirect apprehension of that which we do not actually touch, see, etc.
Intuition is a direct apprehension of that which (by its very nature) we do not touch, see, etc.
Sense perception, Reason, and Intuition are refractions from the perfect Light of Divine Wisdom; but the Divine Wisdom is beyond them because God apprehends all things, not as existent outside Himself, but as existent in Himself, under the form of a single Unity which is identical with His own Being.
The Godhead is a Single Desire wherein alt the souls eternally exist as fused and inseparable elements.
2.
These Names which reveal the Providence of God our Discourse would now consider.
For we make no promise to express the Absolute Super-Essential Goodness and Being and Life and Wisdom of the Absolute Super-Essential Godhead which (as saith the Scripture) hath Its foundation in a secret place 368 368 See Ps.
xvii.
22 .
beyond all Goodness, Godhead, Being, Wisdom, and Life; but we are considering the benignant Providence which is revealed to us and are celebrating It as Transcendent Goodness and Cause of all good things, and as Existent as Life and as Wisdom, and as productive Cause of.
Existence and of Life and the Giver of Wisdom, in those creatures which partake of Existence, Life, Intelligence, and 133 Perception.
We do not regard the Good as one thing, the Existent as another, and Life or Wisdom as another; nor do we hold that there are many causes and different Godheads producing different effects and subordinate one to another; but we hold that one God is the universal Source of the emanations, 369 369 i.
e.
Is the Source of Goodness, existence, life, wisdom, etc.
and the Possessor of all the Divine Names we declare; and that the first Name expresses the perfect Providence of the one God, and the other names express certain more general or more particular modes of His Providence.
370 370 The title “Good” applies to all God’s providential activity, for everything that He makes is good.
And even evil is good depraved; and exists as good in the Good (see p.
132, n.
i ).
Or, rather, evil possesses not an existence but a non-existence in the Good.
It is (according to D.) a kind of non-existent good.
Hence the title “Existent” is not quite so general as the title “Good.” “Living” is a less general title still (since a stone, for instance, has no life), and “Wise” is yet less general (since a plant is not wise).
Thus we get the following table of emanating activity: (1) Good (including and transcending existent and non-existent things, viz.
“good,” and “evil”).
(2) Existent ( existent things, viz.
good).
(3) Life (plants, animals, men, angels).
(4) Wisdom (men and angels).
3.
Now, some one may say: “How is it, since Existence transcends Life, and Life transcends Wisdom, that living things are higher than things which merely exist, and sentient things than those which merely live, and reasoning things than those which merely feel, and intelligences than those which have only reason?
371 371 Intuition is the faculty of the Intelligences or Angels, by which are meant, of course, angels and spiritual men; Discursive Reason is that of natural men.
Why do the creatures rise in this order to the Presence of God and to a closer relationship with Him?
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The passage centrally discusses the benignant Providence revealed to us and its nature as Transcendent Goodness and Cause of all good things.
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 text outlines a structured table of emanating activity from Good to Life to Wisdom.
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 defines evil as a kind of non-existent good or a lack of existence in the Good.