Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names · 6 of 12 · tr. C.E. Rolt
Chapter 5, Section 1f
And the highest measure of existence He bestows upon the more exalted Beings, which the Scripture calls eternal; 380 380 2 Cor.
iv.
18 but also the mere existence of the world as a whole is perpetual; and its very existence comes from the Pre-existent.
He is not an Attribute of Being, but Being is an Attribute of Him; He is not contained in Being, but Being is contained in Him; He doth not possess Being, but Being possesses Him; He is the Eternity, the Beginning, and the Measure of Existence, being anterior to Essence and essential Existence and Eternity, because He is the Creative Beginning, Middle, and End of all things.
And hence the truly Pre-existent receives from the Holy Scripture manifold attributions drawn from every kind of existence; and states of being and processes (whether past, present, or future) are properly attributed to Him; for all these attributions, if their divine meaning be perceived, signify that He hath a Super-Essential Existence fulfilling all our categories, and is the Cause producing every mode of existence.
For He is not This without being That; nor doth He possess this mode of being without that.
On the contrary He is all things as being the Cause of them all, and as holding together and anticipating in Himself all the beginnings and all the fulfilments of all things; and He is above them all in that He, anterior to their existence, super-essentially 140 transcends them all.
Hence all attributes may be affirmed at once of Him, and yet He is No Thing.
381 381 Cf.
Theol.
Germ.
passim.
Hence the soul possessing God is in a state of “having nothing and yet possessing all things.” Cf.
Dante, cio che per l’universa si squaderna, etc.
He possesses all shape and form, and yet is formless and shapeless, containing beforehand incomprehensibly and transcendently the beginning, middle, and end of all thins, and shedding upon them a pure radiance of that one and undifferenced causality whence all their fairness comes.
382 382 Cf.
Section 5.
For if our sun, while still remaining one luminary and shedding one unbroken light, acts on the essences and qualities of the things which we perceive, many and various though they be, renewing, nourishing, guarding, and perfecting them; differencing them, unifying them, warming them and making them fruitful, causing them to grow, to change, to take root and to burst forth; quickening them and giving them life, so that each one possesses in its own way a share in the same single sun—if the single sun contains beforehand in itself under the form of an unity the causes of all the things that participate in it; much more doth this truth hold good with the Cause which produced the sun and all things; and all the Exemplars 383 383 i.
e.
The Platonic ideas of things—their ultimate essences.
But see below.
of existent things must pre-exist in It under the form of one Super-Essential Unity.
384 384 Cf.
Blake.
“Jerusalem,” ad fin.
For It produces Essences only by an outgoing from Essence.
And we give the name of “Exemplars” to those laces which, preexistent in God 385 385 i.
e.
If It produces the essences of things, It must first contain Essence.
D.
here uses the term “God” because he is thinking of the Absolute in Its emanating activity (wherein the Differentiations of the Trinity appear).
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The passage states that God is 'all things as being the Cause of them all' and 'holding together and anticipating in Himself all the beginnings and all the fulfilments of all things,' affirming the divine's presence within all of creation while also transcending it.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
The passage repeatedly asserts that God is not contained in Being but contains Being, is 'No Thing' yet all things, 'formless and shapeless' yet possessing all form—emphasizing God's undivided, non-composite nature.
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 passage discusses the Pre-existent receiving attributes from Scripture and the Creative Beginning, Middle, and End of all things.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The phrase 'It produces Essences only by an outgoing from Essence' describes a directional process of descent from the unconditioned source into differentiated existence, complemented by the idea that all things pre-exist in the source.
The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion.
The passage systematically dissolves binary oppositions: Being/Not-Being, form/formless, having/possessing-nothing, this/that—presenting God as beyond all such distinctions while encompassing them.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage asserts that all things pre-exist in God 'under the form of one Super-Essential Unity' and that God is 'the Cause of them all,' holding together all beginnings and fulfilments, pointing to ultimate oneness of being.