![]() It must also be recognized that “forgery” is a modernnotion. These dates are confirmed by what we find in the Dionysian corpus:a knowledge of Athenian Neoplatonism of the time, an appeal todoctrinal formulas and parts of the Christian liturgy (e.g., theCreed) current in the late fifth century, and an adaptation of latefifth-century Neoplatonic religious rites, particularly theurgy, as weshall see below. Since Proclus died in 485 CE, and since the first clear citationof Dionysius’ works is by Severus of Antioch between 518 and 528, thenwe can place Dionysius’ authorship between 485 and 518–28CE. Paul, Dionysius must have lived in the time of Proclus, mostprobably being a pupil of Proclus, perhaps of Syrian origin, who knewenough of Platonism and the Christian tradition to transform themboth. But it has only becomegenerally accepted in modern times that instead of being the discipleof St. Dionysius’ fictitious identity, doubted already in thesixth century by Hypatius of Ephesus and later by Nicholas of Cusa,was first seriously called into question by Lorenzo Valla in 1457 andJohn Grocyn in 1501, a critical viewpoint later accepted andpublicized by Erasmus from 1504 onward. ![]() Sosuccessful was this stratagem that Dionysius acquired almost apostolicauthority, giving his writings enormous influence in the Middle Agesand the Renaissance, though his views on the Trinity and Christ (e.g.,his emphasis upon the single theandric activity of Christ(see Letter 4) as opposed to the later orthodox view of twoactivities) were not always accepted as orthodox since they requiredrepeated defenses, for example, by John of Scythopolis and by MaximusConfessor. Thus, these worksmight be regarded as a successful ‘forgery’, providingPseudo-Dionysius with impeccable Christian credentials thatconveniently antedated Plotinus by close to two hundred years. Dionysius the Areopagite, who was a member of the Athenianjudicial council (known as ‘the Areopagus’) in the 1stcentury C.E. ![]() Though Pseudo-Dionysius lived in the late fifth and early sixthcentury C.E., his works were written as if they were composed bySt. ![]()
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