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destroyer that Dionysius is most often taken up in the 20 th and 21 st centuries. 390 Most
recently, for instance, an entire issue of the journal Modern Theology has been dedicated
to addressing what the editors call a “remarkable recent upsurge of interest” in Dionysius,
“an undeniable by-product of the post-modern ‘apophatic rage.’” The editors also
acknowledge that a renewal of interest in Dionysius is perhaps no surprise since, from the
beginning, Dionysius’ readers have both “found [his] meaning obscure, and yet his
mysterious message irresistible.” 391 This post-modern apophatic rage has been dated back
some forty years, to a lecture given by Jacques Derrida on “la différance.” The moment is
sometimes recounted as an anecdote, in which an audience member wondered whether
“[Différance]...is the God of negative theology.” 392 Whether the comment is read as an
accusation (that Derrida has inadvertently endorsed a theist position), or as a plea (to
grant one brand of theology amnesty from the attacks of secular philosophy), Derrida
took the comment seriously, and his subsequent responses circulated Dionysius’ name
outside religious studies and classics departments to which he had hitherto mostly been
confined. 393 Other scholars look back further than the 1960s, categorizing Dionysius as
390 The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy calls Dionysius “in some respects a dangerous thinker, yet at
the same time a forger of new possibilities.” Kevin Corrigan and L. Michael Harrington, Pseudo-Dionysius
the Areopagite, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-dionysius-areopagite/ (accessed June 20, 2012).
Franke likewise conceives of the apophatic as socially and politically destabilizing, the mode of expression
of discontent par excellence, returning whenever the social order begins to look shaky: “Periodically in
intellectual history, confidence in the Logos, in the ability of the word to grasp reality and disclose truth,
flags dramatically.” W. Franke, "Franz Rosenzweig and the Emergence of a Postsecular Philosophy of the
Unsayable," International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 58 (2005): 161.
391 Paul Rorem, cited in Sarah Coakley, "Introduction: Re-Thinking Dionysius the Areopagite," Modern
Theology 24, no. 4 (October 2008): 531.
392 See for instance Ian Almond, "How Not to Deconstruct a Dominican: Derrida on God and 'Hypertruth',"
Journal of the Americna Academy of Religion 68, no. 2 (June 2000): 329-344. Almond’s claim is that
Eckhart, if read properly, is exempt from Derrida’s objections. See also Mary-Jane Rubinstein, "Dionysius,
Derrida, and the Critique of 'Ontotheology'," Modern Theology 24, no. 4 (October 2008): 725-741.
393 Jacques Derrida, "How to Avoid Speaking: Denials," in Languages of the Unsayable: The Play of
Negativity in Literature and Literary Theory, trans. Ken Frieden, 3-70 (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1989). Rubinstein’s paper provides an overview of some of the work on deconstruction and negative
theology. Mary-Jane Rubinstein, "Dionysius, Derrida, and the Critique of 'Ontotheology'," Modern
Theology 24, no. 4 (October 2008): n. 18.
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