DIONYSIUS,PAUL AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PSEUDONYM

This essay interprets the CD through the lens of the pseudonym, Dionysius the Areopagite, and the corresponding influence of Paul. First, this essay argues that the author of the CD writes under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite in order to suggest that, following Paul, he will effect a new rapprochement between the wisdom of pagan Athens and the revelation of God in Christ. Second, this essay demonstrates how crucial Paul is for Dionysius' own “apophatic anthropology,” that is, his view of how the human self that would solicit union with the “unknown God” must also become somehow “unknown.” Finally, this essay hazards a final hypothesis regarding the significance of the pseudonym: that the practice of pseudonymous writing is itself an ecstatic devotional practice in the service of “unknowing” both God and self.     

ALBERT,AQUINAS, AND DIONYSIUS

Beyond the usual distinction between East and West, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas stand not only as commentators, but also appear to be close readers, of Dionysius' works. While Albert's own metaphysics of the Good tends to underline the diffusive dimension of the Good in a creation conceived of as an emanation, Thomas uses Dionysius to elaborate his notion of God as a free creator and to define His unique relation to creatures. If Albert's own via negativa is closer to Dionysius than one might have expected, it nonetheless stands within the same scope as Thomas' conception of proximity to God, as they both borrow the Dionysian exitus/reditus pattern to offer a divinization process of salvation through peace and praise.     

DIONYSIUS,DERRIDA, AND THE CRITIQUE OF “ONTOTHEOLOGY”

This essay explores Dionysius' work in light of the critique of ontotheology, focusing on Jacques Derrida's work on justice and the messianic. Ultimately, it suggests that the extent to which Dionysius troubles the ontotheological waters depends on the status of hierarchical and teleological relationships in Dionysius. Does hierarchy for Dionysius function strictly “vertically,” bringing a few chosen souls into union with God, or does it also establish ethical relations between and among creatures? And does the via negativa, as Derrida suggests, draw the soul along a pre‐determined path from hyperessence to hyperessence, or might it remain sufficiently indeterminate to welcome the unimaginable?     

The ecclesiology of Dionysius the Areopagite

This article explores the ecclesiological views of Dionysius the Areopagite through the examination of his Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, where he discusses the hierarchical ranks and sacraments, and of his Letter VIII to monk Demophilus, which is important for Dionysius's understanding of hierarchical organisation and discipline. These issues are put in the context of other important questions of the Areopagite's thought, such as his symbolic theory, the character of deification and the role of knowledge in it. Although the Areopagite is one of the most famous among early Christian Greek thinkers, his ecclesiology is somewhat less familiar, especially in the West. This article tries to fill in that gap, hence it represents a general, introductory outline of Dionysius's ecclesiology, with the aim of making it more accessible to the broader Western readership and to incite further research on the subject.     

LUTHER AND DIONYSIUS: BEYOND MERE NEGATIONS

This article argues that common ground may be found between Dionysius and Luther if one goes beyond the customary “mystical” framework for analyzing Dionysius’ work and views Luther (despite his dismissal of Dionysius as an impostor) as standing in a long line of interpreters who had sought to give Dionysian ideas a more explicitly Christological focus. Specifically, I argue, the similarities lie in Luther's conceptualization of God's hidden presence and the reformer's strongly ontological doctrine of justification. The latter has a procession‐return structure within which the status of the justified person, qua justified, is expressed in terms reminiscent of the Dionysian analogia.     

THE RECEPTION OF DIONYSIUS IN TWENTIETH‐CENTURY EASTERN ORTHODOXY

This essay surveys diverse interpretations of the CD by twentieth‐century Eastern Orthodox theologians. This essay argues that the evaluation of Dionysius' contribution crucially depends upon the master narrative within which the CD is considered. For example, for Vladimir Lossky, Dionysius' apophaticism was the “dogmatic ground” of Byzantine mystical theology, whereas according to John Meyendorff, Dionysius' theology was in need of a “Christological corrective” later provided in the theologies of Maximus the Confessor and Gregory Palamas. The points of contact and contrast between Dionysian mystical theology and Russian sophiology are also discussed. Finally, this essay argues that modern Orthodox readings of the CD are characterized by a profound irony: while they are in various degrees indebted to the Western intellectual tradition (as, for example, Christos Yannaras is to Heidegger), Orthodox theologians often use Dionysius to forge an anti‐Western Orthodox theological identity.     

DIONYSIUS AND SOME LATE MEDIEVAL MYSTICAL THEOLOGIANS OF NORTHERN EUROPE

Though the authority of Dionysius as a virtually apostolic theological source remains unchallenged in the late Middle Ages, ownership of his inheritance is much disputed, in connection with two issues of “mystical theology” principally. The first controversy (broadly between “Intellectualist” and “affectivist” readings of Dionysius' Mystical Theology) concerns whether the soul, united to God by grace, is made one with God principally by knowledge or by love. The second controversy is well exemplified by the disagreement between Jean Gerson and Denys the Carthusian as to whether Ruusbroec's account of the nature of that union of the soul with God amounts to a heretical extinction of the identity of the created soul. But both Gerson's critique of Ruusbroec and Denys the Carthusian's rebuttal of it are equally superficial, and the theologies of Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa show why: Eckhart and Cusa retained, while Gerson and Denys had lost, their grip on the “dialectics” of “sameness” and “difference” expounded in Mystical Theology.     

Luther's Heidelberg Disputation and identity formation

Luther's famous Ninety‐five Theses overshadowed his twenty‐eight theses of the Heidelberg Disputation. This is regrettable insofar as Luther broke in Heidelberg with the traditional scholastic method and introduced for the first time publicly his influential theology of the cross. Luther's existential emphasis in this Disputation is particularly significant, because he answers here the big questions for us: Who am I really in the sight of God? What is my true identity in Christ? Luther radically exposes our self‐centeredness and calls us to look at the world, God, and ourselves through “suffering and the cross,” as only in this way will we be able to perceive clearly and “say what a thing is.” He encourages us to become theologians of the cross who have given up on themselves and discovered that “everything is already done.” Luther's passionate plea to put the cross of Christ at the center of our lives is a welcome reminder for us today, even five hundred years later, as we seek to find out who we are, who God is, and what God is accomplishing in and through us. Rescuing Luther's Heidelberg Disputation from oblivion is vital for the health of both church and academia today.     

Suffering the Promise of God: Engaging Oswald Bayer

This article examines Oswald Bayer's wide‐ranging constructive appropriation and application of Luther's theology of the Word. Bayer grounds theology in the divine word of promise, understanding theology and the Christian life as a vita receptiva in which human action is, from first to last, responsive. He pits Luther against modern theological evasions of the Word in his insistence on the distinctively Christian pathos of existence, and his ethic of categorical gift reflects this. I conclude with a commendation of Bayer's theology of the Word, a question about the relation between God's revelation and hiddenness and a concern that he may at times compromise the definitive self‐revelation of God in Christ.     

Luther: A Mystic

Understanding Martin Luther means looking at a medieval monk heavily influenced by his confessor, John of Staupitz. Staupitz inspired Luther and his friends to read the sermons of the late medieval mystic John Tauler. Here Luther found a theology of grace, the idea that faith is the only remaining point to a grace‐full God. Tauler's most obvious influence, his understanding of penance, shaped the first and second of Luther's Ninety‐five Theses. Another influence, that of passion mysticism, Luther explored and developed in his early tracts. Over the years, while Luther would stress the importance of Scripture over mystical experience, this was more a slight but meaningful transformation rather than a complete break with mysticism.     

'The Christian as Christ to the Neighbour': On Luther's Theology of Love

Abstract: This article explores the theology of love advanced by Martin Luther, relating it to his account of the presence of Christ by faith in other people, and to his biblical expositions. In outlining Luther's contrast between the love of God and the human loves, it is argued that Luther nonetheless is still able to value human love. Finally, the relationship between love and faith in Luther is described: love is chief among the many gifts of God that we receive by faith.     

THE SENSE OF THE BEAUTIFUL AND APOPHATIC THOUGHT: EMPIRICAL BEING AS IKON

This essay is an interdisciplinary study of beauty that attempts to bridge the gap between religion/theology and science in some measure by drawing from Dionysius the Areopagite (c. 500) a notion of being that I argue is consonant with the notion of the sense of the beautiful, which I develop using Steven Weinberg's and Werner Heisenberg's discussions of empirical beauty. I use the term ikon to refer concisely to Dionysius' theophanic notion of being, namely, that the beyond‐being is nonsubstantially present in being.     

Luther and Kierkegaard: Theologians of the Cross

The theologies of Kierkegaard and Luther begin with hiddenness as a necessary qualification of deity. Because God is transcendent and human reason is fallen, he cannot be directly known. To reveal himself, God must wrap himself in sensuous media that veil his deity while manifesting it. The indirect character of revelation implies a negative principle of cognition: God's nature is not recognizable in its transcendent glory, but rather in the lowliness and suffering of the cross. This epistemological principle yields virtually identical results for Kierkegaard and Luther alike, such that the term 'theologian of the cross' aptly describes each.     

Mercy as the essence of the Gospel: key themes in Walter Kasper and in the ministry of Pope Francis

This article explores two books by Walter, Cardinal Kasper, who brings to the task wisdom and experience drawn from his ministries as Professor of Theology, Bishop and President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. His major study explores mercy as the essence of the divine, engaging with biblical studies, philosophy, and systematic theology as he lays the foundation for this radical focus. In the second volume, Cardinal Kasper offers a perceptive account of the theological and pastoral perspectives of the ministry of Pope Francis. He characterises the theological approach as kerygmatic, an identification which applies also to his own approach to theology. There is a coincidence of themes and concerns evident in the two studies. Pope Francis has designated 2016 as a Year of Mercy. This article emphasises the importance of this focus on mercy for ecumenical discussion, explores the ecclesiology which results from it and examines the ecumenical implications and opportunities afforded by the Year of Mercy and the 2017 celebration of Martin Luther’s 95 theses with their focus on the question, ‘How may we find a merciful God?’     

DIONYSIUS IN HANS URS VON BALTHASAR AND JEAN‐LUC MARION

This article evaluates Jean‐Luc Marion's retrieval of Dionysius against the backdrop of the debate in recent continental philosophy over the identity and meaning of “negative theology”. Marion's interpretation and use of Dionysius draws heavily on that of Hans Urs von Balthasar, both in his manner of approaching Dionysius and with the central elements of the Corpus Dionysiacum upon which he focuses. Through this comparison, it is clear that different polemical and apologetic interests shape their similar but distinct retrievals. Marion, like Balthasar before him, is translating Dionysius for a new audience. With this translation, I argue that Marion provides a richer and more complex confrontation with Dionysius than has previously been offered within the contemporary discussions of “negative theology”.     

Theme Articles: A Man Caught Between Bad Anthropology and Good Theology? Martin Luther's View of Women Generally and of Mary Specifically

Abstract : Martin Luther's view of women is as complex as his authorship is vast, encompassing a diversity of genres and purposes. Luther seems ambivalent toward women like the tradition before and after him. In his reformation enterprise he appears torn between his good theology and the bad anthropology that obscures his purportedly universal principles. This article uncovers some of the ambiguities in Luther's approaches to women, theoretically teaching men's authority over women yet simultaneously teaching the mutuality and equality of women and men; and practicing such mutuality and equality in his everyday life, not least in his marriage to Katharina von Bora. His good theology also comes to the fore in his Mariology, especially in his commentary to the Magnificat, in which Mary is not just a ‘woman’ but the human being par excellence in her truly faithful relation to God.     

The “Strange Acts of God:”The Hermeneutics of Concealment and Revelation in Luther and Shakespeare

Abstract: Martin Luther called himself “God's court‐jester”. He saw history as one of the “masks of God,” and he understood God as hiding Godself often behind the mask of the Devil. Luther developed a paradoxical theology, a theology of the cross, that is surprisingly compatible in certain respects with the paradoxical artistic vision of Shakespeare, especially in Hamlet, King Lear and Measure for Measure. Crucial motifs of Luther's theology—the hidden God, indirect revelation, revelation by concealment, revelation under the opposite, the “strange acts of God,” God's “rearward parts”(posteriora), and suffering (Anfechtungen and melancholy)—resonate with certain latent, even if at times blasphemeous, theological motifs and themes in Shakespeare. They also resonate with the experience of the Lutheran church in Hungary both in its past under communism and today in post‐communist Hungary.     

On Faith,Merit, and Eternal Life

Can eternal life be merited? The traditional Lutheran answer to this question has been negative. However, the question is not as simple as it first seems. For example, recently, Mats Wahlberg has argued that Lutherans should admit that eternal life can be merited, especially if they support the “Finnish Luther interpretation.” Although I find much to commend in Wahlberg's reading, there are at least two problems in his proposal. First, the language of merit is tied to a particular philosophical framework that is not shared ecumenically; and second, all Lutherans do not share all the details of the Finnish reading of Luther. However, both Wahlberg's proposal and the Finnish interpretation of Luther have genuine ecumenical potential if they are developed so that they can address the concerns related to the philosophy of action and Christian life.     

Challenges and Gifts of Teaching Luther in a Lutheran College1

This article examines what can be learned from teaching Luther to American college students. It reviews several ways in which college students benefit from studying Luther. The article suggests that identifying the “operating principles” in Luther's thought can help students more carefully discern the contemporary significance of his thought. After discussing some challenges encountered when teaching Luther to college students, the article ends with reflections on the theological significance of the college context. While Luther's discovery of a gracious God remains central, the college setting promotes a retrieval of several broader themes in Luther's thinking that have often been neglected by Lutherans: ongoing creation, wisdom, the Bible as “torah,” the suffering of God, and societal reform.     

Faith Alone: Reflections on an Adverb

In response to critics of his New Testament translation, Luther points out that they simply do not understand the grammar restrictions of language that requires the addition of the word alone in his translation of Paul's letter to the Romans. Luther also points out that they do not understand that alone in this passage is an adverb and not an adjective. This article explores the significance of the word alone (in “faith alone”) when it is considered an adverb as opposed to an adjective. As an adverb, alone resists attempts to manipulate it into a metaphysical principle. Alone as an adverb keeps faith as a living, dynamic relationship that God established and which comes to expression in the celebration of the sacrament.