Dionysios the Areopagite, Pseudo-

   Allegedly Dionysios, a member of the Athenian Areopagos who was converted by Saint Paul and who authored mystical theological writings. However, Dionysios is only a pseudonym for an unknown author who wrote in the late fifth or early sixth century, sometimes borrowing from the Neoplatonic philosopher Proklos (q.v.). Various names have been suggested for the author, including Peter the Fuller (q.v.), Peter the Iberian, John Scholastikos, and Severos of Antioch (q.v.). The theology (q.v.) shows a fusion of Christian thought and Neoplatonism (q.v.) that views God's relationship to believers as expressed through a set of celestial and ecclesiastical hierarchies, rather than as real and immediate. The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, supposedly authored by Dionysios, presents the liturgy (q.v.) as an earthly mirror of heavenly reality, an intermediary between the individual Christian and God. Dionysios's insistence on the unity of God made his writings popular among believers in Monophysitism (q.v.). Nevertheless, his writings were recognized as Orthodoxy (q.v.) in the seventh century by Maximos the Confessor (q.v.). The ninth-century translator Johannes Scotus Eriugena was responsible for introducing Pseudo-Dionysios to the West, where he had a great and enduring influence on medieval philosophy. In Byzantine monasticism (q.v.) his writings had less impact, in part because his mysticism was too intellectualized for the likes of Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, and the Hesychasts (qq.v.).