CATHERINE OSBORNE
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198267669
- eISBN:
- 9780191683336
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198267669.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Religion in the Ancient World
It is nothing new to have much to say about the love of God, but there remains something very different about twentieth-century talk of the love of God that marks it out from both Eastern and Western ...
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It is nothing new to have much to say about the love of God, but there remains something very different about twentieth-century talk of the love of God that marks it out from both Eastern and Western traditional doctrines. This chapter picks out the characteristic themes that can be illustrated from Process theology and from Jürgen Moltmann (or rather one work of Moltmann, since the chapter shall focus on The Crucified God; this should not be taken to imply that what it says here would apply to his later work). By juxtaposing these with the text from Dionysius the Areopagite, this chapter hopes to clarify the differences and explores why formulations that superficially have some resemblance lead to such different results. Dionysius is particularly concerned with apophatic theology, the way of negation, and the general problem of how it is possible to speak about God. It is in this connection that he embarks upon his discussion of the Divine Names. These names include love, Eros, discussed by Dionysius.Less
It is nothing new to have much to say about the love of God, but there remains something very different about twentieth-century talk of the love of God that marks it out from both Eastern and Western traditional doctrines. This chapter picks out the characteristic themes that can be illustrated from Process theology and from Jürgen Moltmann (or rather one work of Moltmann, since the chapter shall focus on The Crucified God; this should not be taken to imply that what it says here would apply to his later work). By juxtaposing these with the text from Dionysius the Areopagite, this chapter hopes to clarify the differences and explores why formulations that superficially have some resemblance lead to such different results. Dionysius is particularly concerned with apophatic theology, the way of negation, and the general problem of how it is possible to speak about God. It is in this connection that he embarks upon his discussion of the Divine Names. These names include love, Eros, discussed by Dionysius.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226388700
- eISBN:
- 9780226388724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226388724.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Christians face a conundrum when it comes to naming God, for if God is unnamable, as theologians maintain, he can also be called by every name. His proper name is thus an open-ended, all-encompassing ...
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Christians face a conundrum when it comes to naming God, for if God is unnamable, as theologians maintain, he can also be called by every name. His proper name is thus an open-ended, all-encompassing list, a mystery the Church embraces in its rhetoric, but which many Christians have found difficult to accept. To explore this conflict, this book examines two lists of God's names: one from The Divine Names, the classic treatise by Pseudo-Dionysius, and the other from The 72 Names of the Lord, an amulet whose history binds together Kabbalah and Christianity, Jews and Slavs, Palestine, Provence, and the Balkans. This unexpected juxtaposition of a theological treatise and a magical amulet allows this book to reveal the lists' rhetorical potential to create order and to function as both tools of knowledge and of power. Despite the two different visions of order represented by each list, the book finds that their uses in Christian practice point to a complementary relationship between the existential need for God's protection and the metaphysical desire to submit to his infinite majesty—a compelling claim sure to provoke discussion among scholars in many fields.Less
Christians face a conundrum when it comes to naming God, for if God is unnamable, as theologians maintain, he can also be called by every name. His proper name is thus an open-ended, all-encompassing list, a mystery the Church embraces in its rhetoric, but which many Christians have found difficult to accept. To explore this conflict, this book examines two lists of God's names: one from The Divine Names, the classic treatise by Pseudo-Dionysius, and the other from The 72 Names of the Lord, an amulet whose history binds together Kabbalah and Christianity, Jews and Slavs, Palestine, Provence, and the Balkans. This unexpected juxtaposition of a theological treatise and a magical amulet allows this book to reveal the lists' rhetorical potential to create order and to function as both tools of knowledge and of power. Despite the two different visions of order represented by each list, the book finds that their uses in Christian practice point to a complementary relationship between the existential need for God's protection and the metaphysical desire to submit to his infinite majesty—a compelling claim sure to provoke discussion among scholars in many fields.
Tessa Rajak
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199558674
- eISBN:
- 9780191720895
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199558674.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter shows how continual re-interpretation, adaptation of, and addition to the biblical text allowed it to be a repertoire for all seasons. Late biblical texts in Greek guise, especially the ...
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This chapter shows how continual re-interpretation, adaptation of, and addition to the biblical text allowed it to be a repertoire for all seasons. Late biblical texts in Greek guise, especially the book of Daniel, and newer parabiblical texts, like the story of Bel and the great snake (also a Daniel story), or the Epistle of Jeremiah or the Wisdom of Solomon, expressed a response to external political authority. They could be markedly subversive. Twists and subtle modifications intensified themes that were already prominent in places in the Hebrew Bible. Only occasionally can a Hebrew original different from the Masoretic (standard) text be suspected as lying behind the changes. The denunciation of ‘idol’ and ‘idol worship’ had new force and point when linked with the vanity of rulers in a period in which manifestations of the imperial cult impinged on everyone. Representations of tyrannical rage united motifs taken from Greek political philosophy with those of oriental wisdom literature. They stood in sharp contrast to the justified wrath of the God of Israel.Less
This chapter shows how continual re-interpretation, adaptation of, and addition to the biblical text allowed it to be a repertoire for all seasons. Late biblical texts in Greek guise, especially the book of Daniel, and newer parabiblical texts, like the story of Bel and the great snake (also a Daniel story), or the Epistle of Jeremiah or the Wisdom of Solomon, expressed a response to external political authority. They could be markedly subversive. Twists and subtle modifications intensified themes that were already prominent in places in the Hebrew Bible. Only occasionally can a Hebrew original different from the Masoretic (standard) text be suspected as lying behind the changes. The denunciation of ‘idol’ and ‘idol worship’ had new force and point when linked with the vanity of rulers in a period in which manifestations of the imperial cult impinged on everyone. Representations of tyrannical rage united motifs taken from Greek political philosophy with those of oriental wisdom literature. They stood in sharp contrast to the justified wrath of the God of Israel.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226388700
- eISBN:
- 9780226388724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226388724.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
There are only a few books in Christian culture that rival—in scope or impact—the fabulous career of the Greek works in theology attributed to St. Dionysius the Areopagite. These works, which have ...
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There are only a few books in Christian culture that rival—in scope or impact—the fabulous career of the Greek works in theology attributed to St. Dionysius the Areopagite. These works, which have survived as a unified corpus, encompass four treatises, The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and The Celestial Hierarchy, as well as ten Epistles. Each of them holds a unique position of authority in the Christian canon, and the corpus as a whole has shaped Christian spirituality as few texts, outside the biblical canon, ever have. This chapter focuses on the names of God, and its particular interest turns on The Divine Names, which stands out in the Christian tradition as the most authoritative theological discourse on the naming of God.Less
There are only a few books in Christian culture that rival—in scope or impact—the fabulous career of the Greek works in theology attributed to St. Dionysius the Areopagite. These works, which have survived as a unified corpus, encompass four treatises, The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and The Celestial Hierarchy, as well as ten Epistles. Each of them holds a unique position of authority in the Christian canon, and the corpus as a whole has shaped Christian spirituality as few texts, outside the biblical canon, ever have. This chapter focuses on the names of God, and its particular interest turns on The Divine Names, which stands out in the Christian tradition as the most authoritative theological discourse on the naming of God.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226388700
- eISBN:
- 9780226388724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226388724.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
There is one crucial difference between The Divine Names of Dionysius the Areopagite and almost all previous Christian discourses on the naming of God: it is not a polemic work. In accordance with ...
More
There is one crucial difference between The Divine Names of Dionysius the Areopagite and almost all previous Christian discourses on the naming of God: it is not a polemic work. In accordance with the Areopagite's general disapproval of polemical engagement in theology, he does not establish his onomatological position by refuting or endorsing preexisting views. Instead, he approaches his subject directly and negotiates his legitimacy by “speaking appropriately of what he knows” not in preestablished contexts of conflict and controversy, but within the frame of an autonomous, comprehensive, and largely original theological system. The fact that the treatise is designed as part of a corpus of systematic theology is not just a formal matter of context or structure; it defines a specular as well as a speculative position.Less
There is one crucial difference between The Divine Names of Dionysius the Areopagite and almost all previous Christian discourses on the naming of God: it is not a polemic work. In accordance with the Areopagite's general disapproval of polemical engagement in theology, he does not establish his onomatological position by refuting or endorsing preexisting views. Instead, he approaches his subject directly and negotiates his legitimacy by “speaking appropriately of what he knows” not in preestablished contexts of conflict and controversy, but within the frame of an autonomous, comprehensive, and largely original theological system. The fact that the treatise is designed as part of a corpus of systematic theology is not just a formal matter of context or structure; it defines a specular as well as a speculative position.
