Focus on Creation: Plato and the Platonists

Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita. De coelestis hierarchia.
Venice, J. Tacuinus de Tridino, 1502

Dionysius (fl. 500-550) can be regarded as a Christian Neoplatonist. God is the first principle, unknowable and unnameable (except by what he is not, according to the 'theologia negativa'), but man is connected with God through the divine emanations. In The hierarchy of the heavens, a work influenced by the Neoplatonism of the Greek philosopher Proclus, Dionysius describes three triads of entities which mediate between God and men. Dionysius distinguished three stages of light: the sun, the cosmic primal light (Fiat Lux) and the divine light. The divine can be observed in creation, in nature, and man can participate in the divine being. In De mystica theologia, Dionysius describes the ascent of the soul and the mystical union with God.