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PART II • VALENTIN WEIGEL AND DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE 146
CHAPTER 3 • DIONYSIUS, WHOEVER HE WAS: DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE A central concern for readers of Dionysius is what he has to say about the role of the earthly church, specifically whether some members ought to have more power than others when it comes to administering salvation—that is, whether the church ought to be organized hierarchically. Dionysius’ work deals extensively with the idea of hierarchy (two of his works are entitled Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and Celestial Hierarchy) and, as we will see in this chapter (and in more detail in Chapter 4) he makes some statements that seem strongly to favour the idea that access to salvation is only via ordained clerics, and that the church is organized in a rigid hierarchy within which absolute obedience is necessary. Indeed, as the first part of this chapter shows, many people read Dionysius as a proponent of hierarchy, from the Middle Ages onward, using his authority to protect ecclesiastical authority, to limit the power of the laity, and to make membership in a hierarchical church the condition of salvation. On the other hand, Dionysius’ work is dialectical, and many of these statements in favour of hierarchy are relativized by his strong statements about God’s unity, which is absolute, and which therefore requires that hierarchies exist in a dynamic process of unfolding and enfolding. 386 The tension between 386 Scholars who have a more nuanced reading of Dionysius when it comes to hierarchy includ Eric D. Perl, Theophany: The Neoplatonic Philosophy of Dionysius the Areopagite (Albany: State University of New 147
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MYSTICISM & CONFESSIONAL CONFLICT I
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ABSTRACT This dissertation investig
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INTRODUCTION • ES IST DIR NICHT B
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mostly undisturbed by his Lutheran
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yet have signalled his assent with
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in a context where action is expect
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Protestant Mysticism: Not a Contrad
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interest, 31 and praised the Theolo
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one can observe the texture of the
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discourse and reasoned debate, or t
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with fragments of Eckhart and Taule
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Dionysius and Eckhart (for differen
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movement, but also profound shifts
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schools, as well as universities wh
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allowed them to cooperate effective
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made clear, would result in dismiss
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and in these external dealings, the
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same laws of physics, but while the
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Tertullian’s De Fuga in Persecuti
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as a martyr. Moreover, Holy Scriptu
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Alternatively, the so-called four-f
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tzeyger und unterrichter ist ynn di
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fellow Lutherans in studying books
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provoked into action unnecessarily,
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masses for the dead (for instance)
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traditional proof texts about the o
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positive understandings of indiffer
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insofar as their imperfection is ra
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Of these forms of indifference, I f
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to Dionysius’ authority. Two grou
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PART I • VALENTIN WEIGEL AND MEIS
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investigating his early modern read
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was a devilish heretic to others (
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his neglect of Eckhart. 158 For ins
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“unheilvolle Kompliziertheit”).
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and Jerome (wearing what looks like
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title page, as mentioned above, des
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of a respectable though not fanatic
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himself, but rather cultivated part
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church that Luther, Melanchthon and
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kan”), and specifically the role
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soul become convinced that nothing
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that salvation can be attained thro
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more importantly, a theology that a
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Mit Recht der Meister genannt: Mode
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These role-reversal dialogues were
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As this chapter has shown, Eckhart
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philosophers from Hegel and Schopen
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CHAPTER 2 • GELASSENE GELASSENHEI
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Page 103 and 104: Eckhart agree that spiritual povert
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Page 117 and 118: context is that he picks up on Eckh
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Page 121 and 122: further proof for Weigel’s theory
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Page 129 and 130: ungewisser”) and finds that his f
Page 131 and 132: die Blinden an ein ander gehetzett,
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Page 135 and 136: Gelassenheit for the Bible, which i
Page 137 and 138: that the kind of Gelassenheit Weige
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Page 143 and 144: Weigel gives the passage an unexpec
Page 145 and 146: Murren”)—and they do this “in
Page 147 and 148: and all the more so since he saw li
Page 149: the strength of the intellectual re
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Page 155 and 156: destroyer that Dionysius is most of
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Page 159 and 160: points out, with a purification, a
Page 161 and 162: served as cornerstones in defences
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Page 167 and 168: Outside the universities, Dionysius
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Page 171 and 172: other leaders of the Protestant Ref
Page 173 and 174: valorization of hierarchy per se in
Page 175 and 176: as well as the with the arguments u
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Page 179 and 180: The primary piece in the compilatio
Page 181 and 182: It is hardly surprising that Cochla
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Page 185 and 186: for a hierarchical church, seizing
Page 187 and 188: the ancient teaching”) that “be
Page 189 and 190: Dionysiacum. For Lefèvre d’Étap
Page 191 and 192: Aristotle would have been glad to h
Page 193 and 194: enlightens all great thinkers in ev
Page 195 and 196: offered Dionysius to the Gelehrtenr
Page 197 and 198: nine distinct editions of Dionysius
Page 199 and 200: editions of Greek and Latin classic
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(Turin), and is a reprint of Lefèv
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presses in Spain (his first publica
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growing body of evidence suggesting
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Weigel concludes that, precisely be
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apart, he suggested that true Chris
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and so did not dwell on the fact th
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Names, as the title suggests, is ba
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animals, through plants and non-liv
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of being.” 580 As we will see lat
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(“God is a rock”) or even a neg
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This is admittedly a nonsensical as
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compositions, most likely dating to
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Dionysius to show that, just as God
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efer to Greek and Hebrew, the bibli
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argues that there cannot be more th
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dicitur una.” 616 The stress that
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Weigel suggests will allow the soul
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saving sacraments by means of which
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Melanchthon’s Defence of the Augs
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alternative—namely prayer. 643 We
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Dionysius writes that the summit of
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leibet er illimitatus.” 658 Weige
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work, Weigel had written explicitly
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Luther did not ever use the exact p
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as opposed to an office-holder, an
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writing. By calling his Layman der
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Others are loyal to mere men (the P
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zuerzeigen einen rechtschaffen vnd
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and ceremonial ones at that. 694 Th
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himself returning gloriously from H
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all being. In relinquishing any cre
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improve appearances but, because it
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than resolve it, because the proble
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parcels God, who by rights is supre
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Appendix • The Works of Valentin
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Abad, J. M. (1999). Th
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Chenu O.P., M.-D. (1968). In M.-D.
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Eckhart, M. (1993). Werke I (Vol. 1
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Israel, A. (1888). M. Valentin Weig
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MacCulloch, D. (2010). Christianity
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Payne, R. J. (Ed.). (1981). Meister
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Schindling, A., & Ziegler, W. (1990
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Verkamp, B. J. (1975). The Limits u
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