Hierarchy Versus Anarchy, Dionysius gita Symeon the New Theologian, Nicetas Stethatos And Their...

8/3/2019 Hierarchy Versus Anarchy, Dionysius gita Symeon the New Theologian, Nicetas Stethatos And Their Common Roots in Ascetical Tradition

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HIERARCHY VERSUS ANARCHY?DIONYSIUS AREOPAGITA,

SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN,NICETAS STETHATOS, AND THEIR COMMON ROOTS

IN ASCETICAL TRADITION

Hieromonk Alexander (Golitzin)The late Father John Meyendorff did not have much usefor Dionysius the Areopagite. The latter seemed to him toomuch the Neoplatonist, and his influence on the Orthodoxliturgy was especially to be regretted.' In this context, it wasDionysius' theory of hierarchy that Fr John found particularlyobjectionable, characterizing it as oscillating between, on theone hand, a "magical clericalism" and, on the other, a failureto distinguish the "objective presence of grace" from "the

personal perfection of the initiator.t" He felt that there was nodifference between the role of the Dionysian hierarch "andthat of a charismatlc.?" Dionysius thus represented "a tendencyin one line of spirituality, linked to Evagrius [of Pontus],"that culminated in Nicetas Stethatos' "conclusion in the eleventhcentury that the real bishop is the one who has knowledge ...not the one ordained by men."! Now it happens that Nicetas,for whom Father John also cared rather little, was the lifelongdisciple, editor, and promoter of a man for whom he andMeyendorff shared a very high regard: the great ByzantinelSee Chri st ill Eastern Christ ian Thought (Washington, D.C.: 1969),

75-84.2lbid., 82.8Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes (London:1974), 28.4Christ, 82, quoting Nicetas' On Hierarchy V.32 (SC 81), 340.

131


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132 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLYmystic, Symeon the New Theologian. Even Symeon, though,was not without his problems. His fierce opposition of "thecharismatic personality of the saint to the institution" of theChurch drew from Father John the observation that, in thisregard, the New Theologian was "reflecting a frame of mind~hich had e.xiste~ in both ancient and Byzantine Christianity,III Pseudo-Dionysius and the Macarian tradition."!

1. A Paradoxical Relationship?Aside from the interesting way these observations jux-tapose Dionysius and Evagrius with the Macarian Homilies,two sets of writings that he normally saw in opposition to each~ther,6 Father John's usual perspicacity does shed a certainlight on the problem of a three-cornered relationship-that

between Dionysios, Symeon, and the latter's disciple, Nicetas-that has puzzled scholars for some time. Jan Koder, editor ofthe Sources chretiennes edition of Symeon's Hymns, wondersfor example how Nicetas could have placed himself in the"paradoxical position of defending simultaneously both theanarchical mysticism of Symeon and the unilateral theoreticianof hierarchy," Dionysius.? Why, Koder continues, should Nicetashave sought, as he did in his own introduction to Symeon'sHymns.' t~ assimilate his master to the Areopagite's supposedteacher, Hierotheosf" And why do we find Stethatos' curioust~eatise, On the Hierarchy, trying to postulate the "exact coin-cidence of each person's hierarchical position with his illumina-tion by the Spirit?"IOIndeed, why should Nicetas have writtensuch a treatise at all? What possible relation could he haveseen his master, the charismatic anarchist, having with theapostle of hierarchical mediation-a system, moreover, bor-

5Byzantine Theology, 75.8For example, Ibid., 67-69.7From J. Koder's "Introduction" to Symeon Ie nouveau theologien:Hymnes (SC 156), 60-61, note 2.8S ee Nicetas' "Preface," Ibid., 106-132, with its frequent and copiousreferences to Dionysius' Divine Names.nu. 60-64.n. 60-61, note 1.

HierarchyVersusAnarchy? 1 3 3rowed from the pagan Neoplatonism of Iamblichus andProclus?"llIn reply to these questions, most scholars have held thatthere is no relation between Symeon and Dionysius, or at leastvery little. Nicetas, in this view, is quite on his own and, equally,quite in contradiction with his elder. He was a man, they pointout, who was very much in the center of church life in the im-perial capital, a hobnobber with the city's ecclesiastical andcivil elite, and who ended up as abbot of the Studion and thusa very important person on his own right." But, so this think-ing goes, he was nota particularly original or even very clearthinker. Hence his "ludicrous" attempt to link two men of rad-ically different persuasion was the result, first, of an effort toshow off his own learning that was quite consonant withantiquarian enthusiasm of upper class pretensions and, second,a clumsy effort to clothe the "quite personal system" of hisstill controversial master with the apostolic mantle of the divineDionysius." Others have suggested that perhaps there was aconnection between Dionysius and Symeon which the latterhanded on, not in his published writings, but in "detailed instruc-tion of a more esoteric nature" to his disciple, and which Nicetassubsequently articulated in his peculiar treatise, On Hierarchyi"

llThis, at any rate, is the usual picture of Dionysius since, in par-ticular, the publication of H. Koch's Pseudo-Dionysius in seinen Bezie-hungen zum Neuplatonismus und Mysterienwesen (Mainz: 1900), and onemay find it faithfully reflected in the most recent book in English on theAreopagite, P. Rorem's Pseudo-Dlonysius: A Commentary on the Texts andan Introduction to their Influence (Oxford: 1993). One may also find itin such a notableOrthodox scholar as the late G. Florovsky, Byzantine Asceticand Spiritual Writers (Belmont,MA: 1987),204-228, esp. 221-228; and, morerecently, K. P. Wesche, "Christological Doctrine and Liturgical Interpreta-tion in Pseudo-Dionysius," SVTQ 33, 1 (1989), 53-73. My own reply tothe latter, "On the Other Hand," SVTQ 34, 4 (1990), 305-323, left, asFr Wesche noted in his "Reply to Hieromonk Alexander's Reply" (Ibid.,324-327), some questions unanswered. I offer this article, originally a paperdelivered in honor of Fr John for the Byzantine Conference at PrincetonUniversity, November 1993, as a partial response to some of Fr Paul'sdifficulties.12por a sketch of Nicetas' life, see J. Darrouzes, SC 81, 7-10, andI. Hausherr, Vie de Symion Ie nouveau thiologien (Rome: 1938), xv-xxiv.18SeeDarronzes, Ibid., 37. The latter does, though, allow for 80mI'such possibility as Turner (below) suggests.

i 14H.J.M.Turner, St. Symeon the New Teologian and Spiritual Father-hood (Leiden: 1990), 116.


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134 ST VLADIMIR'S rimOLOGICAL QUARTERLYth While I think that. there is something to be said for allese s~ggestions about Stethatos-Nicetas did occasionally havesom~thing of the snob about him, nor is he always perfectlyc~nsistent, nor is it unlikely that his master had some privatetJ?ngs to say to him-I do not believe that we need to assumeeIther hi hi fusis ego or s con USIon,or even secret teachings in orderto se.e a relationship between the New Theologian' and theAreopagite. Father John's emphasis on what we might callthe "cha . ti .. I". nsma IC pnncip e is certainly one clue to Symeon's~ons~IOUSse.of Dionysius, but there are others as well. I haveIn mind particularly the note of "apostolic authority" struckabove: and, even more importantly (and never mentioned in~e literature), the idea of the hierarchy-and so the whole~ :r~h at worship-as the icon of the. inner man. The latter is. otion that .has common roots for both Symeon and DionysiusIn the ~acanan and Evagrian writings, which is to say. in .justthat cunous and uncharacteristic juxtaposition that we sawMeyendorff making above, and to which we shall return inth.elatterpart of this essay. For now, the faithful disciple Nicetas~ill help us by supplying clues to the presence of the motif~Just noted in two textual pairings taken from the works of theA~eQpagite and the New Theologian. We shall first examineD!onysius' Eighth Epistle, "To Demophilus a monk" in parallelwith S, . . "ymeon s famous (or Infamous) Letter on Confession and;~ond, the opening chapter and third paragraph of The Celestial'D~erarchy in comparison with Symeon's Fourteenth EthicalISCourse.

LA. Two Epistles: Dionysius' CIT0Demophilus"and Symeon's "On Confession"The two letters appear at first as a study in contrast.They advocate positions in diametric opposition. As pointedollt. by Roland Hathaway, Dionysius' Eighth Epistle is a kindof Interruption in the sequence of ten letters concluding thecorpus. III The addressees of the first four letters are monks,

L tt IIlR. F. Hathaway, Hierarchy and the New Definition of Order in thee ers of Pseudo-Dionyslus (The Hague: 1969), esp. 64-65 and 86-102.

Hierarchy Versus Anarchy? 135of the fifth letter a deacon, the sixth a priest, the seventh abishop, while the ninth and tenth are addressed to Timothy,St Paul's disciple and a bishop, and finally the Apostle Johnin exile at Patmos." The eighth is thus a disruption, and dis-ruption is precisely its subject. An unruly monk, Demopbilus("lover of the mob"), has broken into the sanctuary to disciplinea priest in the process of hearing a confession. He has chasedthe priest out, beaten up the penitent, grabbed the consecratedelements (ta hagia), and is standing guard over them in orderto prevent their profanation." This scenario provides Dionysiuswith an occasion to. expand on the importance of the divinelyestablished order of the Church. Like someone who presumesto occupy an imperial office without the emperor's writ, De-mopbilus has been audacious (tolmeros).18 He has forgottenhis place and calling, and has intruded upon a function not hisin defiance of God and God's hierarchy. First of all, a monkhas no place within the sanctuary veils. That is only for theclergy, who alone have the right to stand before the altar. Monksbelong at the doors, outside the sanctuary, ahead of but notwholly removed from the rest of the laity." To be sure, Dionysiusagrees, the priest who is unilIumined (aphotistos) is not a truepriest, but that does not give a bossy monk the right to correcthim." And do not, he adds, quote the example of Elijah tome (a reference, clearly, to the prophetic role assumed by themonastic movement from its first appearancej.t' It is Demopbilus'task instead to establish order (taxis) in his own house, andthis means giving the proper place (ta kafaxian) to appetite,

lIThe Migne text of the ten letters is in PG m, 1065A-1120A. Thecritical text of Dionysius is the Corpus Dionysiacum I (the Divine Namesedited by B. M. Suchla) and II (everything else, edited by H. llitter andO. Heil) , published by de Gruyter (Berlin: 1990/1991). The let ters a r ein volume n, 156-210. In future citat ions I shall give only the PO columnnumber and, in parentheses, the page an d line numbers (where necessary)of the critical text.17Epistlevm I08A-llOOD (171-192).l8Toimeros, tolmeo and the reference to the emperor are in 1089B(178: 1-6).191088D-l089A (176:9-177: 10).201092C (181:7-10).211096C (186:12). On early monastic claims to the mantle of theprophets, see, for example, P. Rousseau, Ascetics, Authority, and theChurch (Oxford: 1978), 18-67.


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136 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLYemotion, and reason (epithymia/thymos//ogos).22 Once he hastruly "done his own thing" (dran to heautouy, then perhapshe may be given authority over home, city, and nation-but notbefore God has clearly singled him out for it.23 For the present,however, he is clearly lacking in the virtues necessary for thevision of God, and Dionysius begins' his epistle with an en-comium on the virtues of humility and compassion which hepresents as having been embodied in Moses and David.M Inthe meantime, Demophilus is to obey his superiors. Those whomGod has given rule distribute His providence to their subor-dinates.25.As examples of good shepherds, Dionysius points firstto "our divine and sacred initiator, Christ."2BJesus forgives thesinner, but He hasno patience with those who seek vengeance.He even, Dionysius adds in quoting Matthew 7:22-23, rejectspeople who have worked miracles in His name if they arelacking the virtues." Secondly, the Areopagite turns to theexample ofa righteous bishop, Carpus, who had known thesight of God (theoptia) and, indeed,had never celebrated theliturgy without having had such a vision beforehand." WhenCarpus was at one time tempted by thoughts of vengeance, hehad been vouchsafed a sudden (aphno) visitation from Christ. 29The roof had opened over him while he was at midnight prayer

221093A-C(182:6-183:11).281093B(183:6-10).MI084B-I085B (171:3-172:10) for Moses and David. Dionysius thenadd~Job and Abel (172:10-13), the angels (1085C, 173:7-11), and finallyChrist (173:11) as examples O f love and mercy, and especially of meek-ness, praotes (171:4 and 6). Of some interest, in view of what we have to

say below concerning Evagrlus' relationship to Dionysius;' is the former's;useof Moses and David in a very'sitniiar way. as examples.of meekness,and hence as apt for the vision of God. See esp. Evagrius' Letter 56 IIIW. Frankenberg's Evagrius Pontious (Berlin: 1912),: 60S, and for alikeuse of Moses and meekness,Letters 25 (583-585), 36 (591), and 41 (595).251093A(182:3-6).281096A(185:7).. 27por Christ is forgiving and patient, 1096B (185:10-187:8). Mercyand vengeance or hatred is the difference between the .angels and devils,1097A (187:10-188:2). It is above, 1098D (179:8-10), that Dionysiusq~otes Matt 7. God does not permit the laVli}eSs,aranomoi,to approachHim.~81097BC(188:9-13).29For the vision, 1096D-1100D (189:10-192:2). For aphno, nOOA

(190:5).

Hi era rc h y Ve rsu s Ana rch y? 137and the Lord Himself had given him an unforgettable lessonabout the virtues of mercy, patience, and long-suffering.In direct opposition to Dionysius, Symeon's Letter onConiessioa" is devoted to the defense of the proposition thatnot only priests, but also-even especially-monks have theright to hear confessions and absolve sinners. Confession,Symeon begins, is a necessity since everyone sins, and sin isdeath." The sinner cannot atone of himself, nor recover by hisown efforts the things which Christ "came down from heaven-and daily comes down-to distribute" to the faithful.32 One musttherefore look for "an intercessor, a physician, and a good coun-selor,"33"a friend of God ... capable of restoring" him to hisformer state." But such people are rare and, while there aremany pretenders, Christ will reject these false authorities evenas He will those who cast out demons in His name-and hereSymeon quotes Matthew 7:22-23.35 To presume upon what theNew Theologian calls the "Apostolic rank" (axioma) of "bind-ing and loosing" is comparable to the man who "has had theaudacity [tolmeo] to dare represent himself as the representativeof the earthly emperor" without the latter's permission. Wemust observe the proper rank [taxis]. To do otherwise is anact of dreadful presumption [tolmaJ.38 Pretenders are rightlyand dreadfully punished on earth and so will their ecclesiasticalequivalents be at the Last Judgement."

3O'fhetext of the Letter on Confession and its ascription to Symeonwas establishedby K. Holl, Enthus iasmus und Bussgewalt belm griechischenMonchtum, eine Studie zum Symeon dem neuen Theologe;, (Leipzig: 1898).The Letter is on pages 110-127,and was recently reprinted by OrthodoxKypseli, Tou hosiou patros hemon Symeonos tau neou theologou: Erga m:Hymnal kai Epistolai (Thessalonica: 1990), 423-439. Page and paragraphnumbers w ill be from Holl, page and line numbers in parentheses fromthe reprint.

81Letter 3-4, 111-113 (424-426).32Ibid., 4, 113-114 (425:26-427:12).33/bid., 7, 117 (429:21). The three characteristics of the spiritualfather are taken from ''The Pastor" in John of Sinai's The Ladder. SeeK. T. Ware, "Forward" to I. Hausherr, Spiritual Direction in the EarlyChristian East, trans. A. Gythiel (Kalamazoo: 1990), vii-xxxiii, esp. xi-xv."Letter 5, 115 (428:3-5).tu; 7, 117 (430:14-17).36Ibid.,9, 118 (431:17-20) .for the emperor, and 10, 119 (432:3-8)for taxis and tolma.37Ibid., 9, 118-120 and 10, 119 (431:20-24 and 432:9-11).


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138 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY. T~is . brings Symeon to the heart of his argument, that itISpermissible for unordained monks to hear confessions. Whilehe a?mits, it is true that only bishops used to have the authorityto bind and to loose, that original situation has changed be-cause of human corruption. Originally, and here he cites John20.:~2-23,.Ch~ist.gave this authority together with the HolySpirit to HIS disciples, and they in turn to their successors, thebishops. But this initial situation changed, because:

When time had passed and the bishops became use-less, this dread authority passed on to priests of blame-less life ... [and] when the latter in their turn hadbecome polluted ... it was transferred ... to God'selected people, Imean to the monks."Not to all the monks, Symeon hastens to add, since the devilgot to most of them as well. Thus today, he concludes, whilethe clergy still have the-presumably-unique authority to cel-ebrate (hierourgein) the rest of the sacraments:

The grace [of binding and loosing] is given alone tothose, as many as there are among priests and bishopsa?d.monks, who have been numbered among Christ'sdisciples on account of their purity of life.39Only the person who has "been borne aloft to the divine~ory : .. [and] become a participant of God," who has seenthe light unapproachable, God Himself," can say to another:'Be reconciled with God."40 For Symeon the vision of GodIS thus the sine qua non of authority in the Church and con-versely, authority belongs only to those who have had thisexpenence, These people are recognized by the apostolic virtuesthat they..e~,~~it, among them "compassion, brotherly love,and humility. They have found within themselves "the in-telligible light," and each of them has thus "discovered his own

tu; 11, 120 (432:22-31).ua; 14:124 (436:10-15,hierourgein on line 10).401bid., IS, 125 (437:29-438:3).iu (436:27-29).

Hierarchy Ver sus Anarchy? 139soul.?" Symeon concludes the epistle by citing the exampleof his own spiritual father, Symeon the Pious, "who did nothave the ordination from men," but who had encouraged himto receive it.43

We do not need Nicetas' help to note for ourselves a num-ber of interesting parallels between these two documents. First,the very contrast is itself suggestive. Dionysius is telling a monkto get out of the priestly business of confession while Symeonargues that, properly qualified by illumination, the monk hasa divine right-even obligation-to be thus involved. Second,both writers hold in common that illumination is an essentialqualification for the true confessor. Dionysius agree~ withDemophilus that the unillumined priest is not a priest, andSymeon speaks of the saint as in the light and glory of God.The list of virtues, third, which accompany this grace are alsosimilar. Dionysius begins with humility as that which enabledMoses to see God, and he concludes with the example of Carpusas an illustration of the same virtue, togther with long-sufferingand mercy. Likewise, Symeon begins the body of his Letter bystressing the observance of the commandments," denounceslike Dionysius the judgement of others uninformed by grace,"and returns at the Letter's end to the list of virtues, humilityand long-suffering prominent among them, that characterize theholy man. Fourth, both Symeon's saint and Dionysius' holyman, Carpus in this case, are singled out by visions. Carpusnever celebrated without one and the charismatic holy mansees Christ within (we might also recall Nicetas' descriptionof his master in the Vita as never having presided at liturgywithout seeingthe fireof the Spirit descending at the anaphora) .4IJFifth, without this divine sanction and its accompanying virtues,even those who work wonders in Christ's name are dismissed

tu, 126 (438:9-12).431bid., 16, 127 (438:28-439:2)."Ibid., 4, 112-114 (425:9-427:11)."Ibid., 8, 118 (430:18-431:6).4IJVie de Symeon 30 (40). And,too, Nicetas in Vie 33 (44) describesSymeon as a "concelebrant of the celestial.hierarchy," offering sacrificeand himself transformed into the fire of the Holy Spirit. The last line'simplicit equation of the saint's transformationwith the change (metabole)of the eucharisticelements recalls the point we observe below concerningMacarius' parallel between the saint and the Eucharist.


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1 4 0 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLYwith the same quotation from Matthew 7:22-23. To presume,sixth, upon the apostolic dignity (taxis/taxis) of reconciliationis,an act of audacity (tolmeros/tolmeo, tolma), Seventh, bothwriters offer the same illustration of this effrontery, that ofpretending to imperial office without having been appointedby the emperor." We might also point out, eighth, that whereSymeon does-grudgingly, it is true-allow that the clergy arestill uniquely empowered to celebrate the other sacraments, heis obedient to the Dionysian (and generally traditional) taxisand, moreover, uses a strikingly Dionysian term, hierourgein,48to describe the clergy's function.

It is difficult to see these parallels as accidental. I thinkit clear that Symeon had the Epistle to Demophilus very muchin mind when composing his own Letter-just as, indeed, I be-lieve the Areopagite is in general far more important to the NewTheologian's thinking than has generally been admitted; andwe shall turn to one other such instance in a moment." Fornow, though, the one glaring difference between the two lettersremains to be explained. This is of course Symeon's thesis ofmonastic authority and the argument he uses to defend it, that

471tis true that the emperor makes frequent appearances in Symeon'swritings a fact usually ascribed to service at the imperial court as a youth(see V i e 3, p. 4), but the parallel between this text and Dionysius inEpistle illstill seems to me to be deliberate.4SFor hierourgein and its relatives in Dionysius, see the "Register:griechische Worter in Corpus Dionysiacum II, 286. I count hierourgeotwenty-three times, hierourgia thirty-eight, hierourglkos four times, andhierourgos five.411Appreciationfor the Areopagite's place. in Symeon's thought hasgrown somewhat over the years. Holl saw nothing at all, at least in termsof a direct acquaintance on Symeon's part, Enthuslasmus 99, note 2.D. L. Stathopoulos, Die Gottesliebe bel Symeon dem neuen Theologen,Diss. (Bonn: 1964), 20, declared that Symeonhad "keine direkte Kenntnis"of Dionysus. W. VOlker, Praxis und Theorle bel Symeon dem neuenTheologen: ein Beitrag zur Byzantinischen Mystik (Wiesbaden: 1974),342 and 359-360, felt there to have been some influence, but "fast alle"in Symeon'sCenturies, an opinion echoed by A. Louth, Denys the Areopagite(Wilton, Cf: 1989), 100 and 117. On the other hand, B. Fraigneau-Julien,Les sens splrltuels et la vision de Dieu selon Symlon le nouveau theolog/en(Paris: 1985), 171-180,admits to a considerable influence from Dionysius,especially from the Mystical Theology and Divine Names. Still, no one tomy knowledge has as yet advanced my thesis here, that Dionysius' treatiseson the hierarchies were quite as important for the New Theologian as theother works in the Corpus Dionysiacum.

Hierarchy VersusAnarchy? 141is, the history which he offers of the corruption of the bishop'soffice and the consequent devolution upon the monks of theauthority to bind and loose. It is here that we might look toNicetas to give us a clue as to the relationship obtaining be-tween our two texts. In his Eighth Epistle, accompanying hisown treatise On the Hierarchy, Nicetas quotes the Epistle toDemophilus altogether approvingly on the relative placementwithin the church building of the clergy (inside the sanctuary),(on the bema), and the laity (in the nave). This, Stethatosconcludes, is the order given by Christ to the Church and writtendown by Dionysius, the disciple of St Paul." In other words,Dionysius' authority, thanks to his pseudonym, is precisely"apostolic." We thus recall Symeon's Letter and his admissionthat the authority to bind and loose was originally given byChrist to the disciples and then to the bishops. Only the latter,he says, used to have it. Given the relationship between hisLetter on Confession and Dionysius' to Demophilus that wehave just noted, and combining it with the uses to which thelatter had previously been put by Byzantine ecclesiastical author-ities,III it is surely here that we find the reason for Symeon's

l5oNicetas,Epistle vm.l-S (SC 81, 281-286). Dionysius is cited in vm.3(286) together with the Apostolic Constitutions n.S7.51Dionysius'hierarchical vision had, I am told by John Erickson ofSt Vladimir's Seminary, been put into service in the century prior to Symeonby Constantinopolitanchurch authorities in order to rebuke dissident monks,in particular the inhabitants of the redoubtable Studion monastery whowere protesting in schism against the illegitimate marriage of the EmperorLeo IV. Given both Symeon's and Nicetas' ties with the Studion-see Vie 4and 10-21 (6, 18-30)-it is scarcely surprising to find the New Theologianseeking here to interpret a text that had played and continued to play animportant role in the relations between hierarchy and monastics. Certainly,in the three centuries following Symeon's death until the hesychast move-ment (see Gregory of Sinai mentioned below), when we see a very con-siderable clamping down on monastic charismaticism by ecclesiastical au-thority (see note 129 below), we also find Dionysius being read in a very"clerical" sense. Thus the use of both Epistle VIII and the EcclesiasticalHierarchy in the texts of John of Ephesus collected by J. Darrouzes inDocuments inldits d'ecclesiologie byzantine (Paris: 1966), 351, and esp.371:17ff (referring to Carpus), 384:21 (EH VIII.7), and 390:31 (Ep. vnr,1088 and 1093). But, as I hope to show, Symeon's relationship to Dionysiusrests on more than simply an anxiety to deal with a difficult "authority."His interpretation of the Areopagite is a much more profound affair, bothas applies to his own, intensely personal understanding of the tradition,and as witness to a centuries long reading of both Dionysius and hispredecessors.


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142 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLYhistorical theory of episcopal decline and monastic election.Things are not the same, he is arguing, as when the divineDionysius was writing. There have been changes since the timeof the Apostles. Perhaps it is only fair to add that Symeon'shistorical instincts were not all that far off the mark. The fourthcentury did see some singular developments along just thelines that he is defending.52 What he did not know, of course,was that Dionysius himself may well have been responding tosome of the problems (recall the allusion to Elijah) to whichthose developments gave rise.53 The point in any case is thatSymeon's historical excursus fits well within the argument thathis Letter was written with Dionysius' Epistle primarily in mind.

1. B. The Church as macrocosm and the saint as microcosm:Nicetas and Dionysius on hierarchyand Symeon "On the Feasts"Yet for the New Theologian the Areopagite is more thansimply an authority who must somehow be gotten round. There~e much deeper affinities between the two men. AuthorityItself as a personal and charismatic endowment is certainly oneof these, as we have just seen, but this in turn involves the largerissue of hierarchy per se with which we began this essay. Hereagain we may take a clue from a passing remark in Nicetas'Eighth Epistle, together with some other passages from histreatises On the Soul, On Paradise, and On Hierarchy. In thisli2SeeHoll, Enthusiasmus 225-330, and H. Dorries, "The Place ofConfession in Ancient Monasticism," Studia Patristica 5 (1962), 284-311,esp. 291-297.IiSSeeagain Holl, Enthusiasmus 205-211, and for the [monastic] holyman as locus of supernatural authority in late Roman times, P. Brown'sseries of studies in Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (Berkeley: 1982),esp. 103-105. Some of Dionysius' obvious concern to subordinate unrulymonks to duly constituted ecclesiastical authority (John of Ephesus didhave a point, after all) might have been shared by the author of theSyriac Life of Symeon Stylites,written about the same time as the probablecomposition of the Areopagitica (late fifth century). The Life has no lessthan fourteen appearances of the Eucharist, and six or seven mentions ofparish priests-to whom the Stylite invariably lends his unequivocal support.See the English translation by R. Doran, The Lives of Symeon Stylites(Kalamazoo: 1992), 101-198.

Hierarchy Versus Anarchy? 143epistle, as we have noted, he approves Dionysius' ordering ofthe different ranks of clergy and faithful. He then follows upthis approval with an allusion to the phrase from the DivineLiturgy, "The doors, the doors! In wisdom, let us attend," andgoes on to observe that the Christian is always to "guard thedoors of the intellect [nous]," since it is the latter which is"the altar within us" [to entos hemon thysiasterion].54The con-nection of the intellect with the altar, the liturgy, and the or-dering of celebrants and believers is not accidental. It pointsinstead to a theme that is central to all three of our writers:microcosm and macrocosm. In Book lIT of his treatise On theSoul, Nicetas brings this out expressly. The human being standson the dividing line (methorion) "of intelligible and sensible,"1iIi"as a kind of other world ... [at once] visible and intelligible ...mortal and immortal ... an angelic contemplator and initiate[mystes] of divine and human things.?" In Book IV, he tellsus that it is in this "other world" that God has established aparadise greater than Eden:

The human being [anthropos] is seen indeed as a kindof great [world] in the small .. . God creates togetherwith the soul, in the soul, in the whole of the humanbeing made according to His image, the intelligibleand invisible world in order that it may be contemplat-ed here [i.e., in the human person] as neighbor to theperceptible. 57The "sun" of this inner and greater world is not a physicalluminary, "but the primordial and divine light of the HolySpirit.?" Nicetas will therefore add in his treatise On Paradise:

God made the human being in the beginning as agreat world ... thus, as in a greater world, He plantedintelligibly in him another divine paradise greatlytranscending the perceptible one ... [which] is il-MNicetas,Epistle VllI.6-7 (288).1150nthe Soul lil.4 (76-78).1i61bid., 16 (78).tu. 27 (88-90).1i81bid.


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144 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLYlumined by the sun of righteousness. This, indeed, isthe place of the Kingdom of Heaven."It is against this background of the perfected human being

as the great world and spiritual paradise, together with theeschatological sense of the Eucharist, that we should look forNicetas' understanding of hierarchy. In the introduction to histreatise on the subject, he tells us that he has been inspired byDionysius' works on the hierarchies to write about the banquetof heavenly and earthly intellects (noes) around the one tableand Host, the unique banquet of Christ. 80 The hierarchy hehas in mind throughout the treatise is therefore not the present,canonical order of bishop, priest, deacon etc., but that realitytoward which the order of the Church here-below points, andwhich it-to a degree-embodies: the heavenly and eschatologicalmeal and liturgy of the Messiah Word. Hence Nicetas' infamousaddition. of the triad, Patriarchs-Metropolitans-Archbishops, toDionysius' Bishop-priest-deacon, and monks-baptized laity-catechumens and penitents. The nine ranks thus parallel thenine orders of angels," but they also and at the same time parallelthe nine orders of saints that Nicetas has mentioned just be-fore: Apostles-Patriarchs-Prophets, Ecumenical Teachers-Martyrs/Confessors-Ascetics, and Holy Rulers-Pious Abbots-Devout Laity. the first two triads of which would have beenfamiliar to him (as they still are to us) from the Byzantineliturgy." He is not therefore proposing some sort of superclericalism, but simply providing another set of names for themore conventional ranking or taxonomy of saints celebratingthe liturgy of heaven. It might seem a little odd to us, and itis perhaps a bit fanciful, but it is scarcely ludicrous.

This banquet is not just a cosmic reality, however. It isalso a personal and subjective truth. The eschaton has already

1I90nParadise TI.t9 (176).BOOn Hierarchy (300).81Ibid., III.21-23 (326-328).82Ibid., 17-19 (320-322). In today's liturgy, at least, the orders ofsaints in Nicetas' more traditional arrangement are recalled as the priestprepares the gifts in the prothesis, and at the prayer following the consecra-tion and immediately preceding the hymn sung in honor of the Theotokos,

"It .s truly right. ... " In the case of either arrangement, though, it is clearthat Nicetas is portraying the order of heaven, not of earth.

145Hierarchy Versus Anarchy?begun in Christ and, .in light of the notion of the microcosmsketched above, it is even now present in the spiritual man,the saint. Asking the reader to note Nicetas' allusion to Ephesians4: 13, we therefore find him describing the "true bishop" as

The man whose intellect, by unstinting participationin the Holy Spirit, has been purified of every impurityand il lumined richly by the Spirit's super-radiant-illu-minations, and who has attained to the measure ofthe fullness of Christ and been perfected into theperfect man."

Such a person is the true initiate and mystagogue of the hiddenmysteries of God.84 In this man, "the true bishop," the heavenlyliturgy is already discernible."

Jean Darrouzes is certainly correct to point to Gregoryof Nazianzus and John Damascene as sources for Nicetas' ideaof the microcosm." Rather curiously, though, he seems to missStethatos' more proximate sources in Symeon and, so I wouldhold, inDionysius. We can find everything we have just ~kc:tche~in the New Theologian, too. More often than not, the disciple ISsimply quoting or paraphrasing his master. The greatest part ofSymeon's First Ethical Discourse is devoted to the themes ofparadise, the mystical sun, the Church, and the heavenly mar-riage feast that reappear in Nicetas." The Church as the newand heavenly cosmos appears prominiently in Discourse n, and

68Ibid., IV.38 (340).MIbid., 39 (342).8lISee esp. Ibid. IV.36 (338). Thus Darrouzes, Ibid. 340. note 2, andHausherr, Vie xxxiv-xxxv, miss the boat somewhat by worrymg about thelack of an ex opere operata. But this is not. Nicetas' 'point. As we noted. atthe beginning of this essay, Meyendorff is also guilty of something like

this misreading.880n the Soul VI.27 (88 note 1); and see his "Index analytique" forkosmos, 538, Gregory' s "great world in the small" in Oration 38.11 PG 36,324A, and in John Damascene, De fide 26 (Kotter n: 76 and 79), tho,!ghJohn as Darrouzes observes reverses Gregory to speak of the human bemgas t h e "l ittle world." Niceta's and Symeon both reverse this again in orderto go back to Gregory.67Ethical Discourse I SC 122, 170-309. For Paradise, see 172-195;for the Church, 206-241.' for the heavenly. marriage feast, 241-271; fortho mystical BUn, see esp.' the "Allegory of the Prisoner," 297-305.


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146 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLYthis eschatological reality is identified with the Eucharist inDiscourse III.68 Discourse X is devoted to the theme of the"Day of the Lord," and the burden of its argument is thatthis same "Eighth Day" already shines in the heart of theperfected Christian." Again in Discourse III, Symeon assumesa parallel between the individual Christian as the throne ofGod and the Seraphim and Cherubim, as in the visions ofIsaiah and Ezekiel, who bear aloft the God of Israel presentin His Temple-an image that is certainly indebted to theCherub ikon of the Byzantine offertory." The Church, whichis the Body of Christ, is mirrored in Discourse IV by the "bodyof virtues" that comprise the Christian who has arrived at thestature of the fullness of Christ and the perfected man'


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148 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLYIlunivers dionysien." In addition, the obverse also applies.The human being, specifically the man or woman redeemedand renewed in Christ, is this new world in miniature. Theouter hierarchy mirrors and is the model for what should obtainwithin. We have already come across a hint of this in sum-marizing Dionysius' Epistle VIn. Demophilus has upset theGod-ordained taxis of the Church because his own, inner beingwas also out of true, and Dionysius therefore admonishes himto put his house in order, and to "give what is proper [ordeserving] to appetite, emotion, and reason." The hierarchy ofthe soul, here in terms taken from Plato's Phaedrus (thoughlong familiar to the Christian ascetic tradition since at leastEvagrius, if not Clement of Alexandria)," must reflect the har-mony and peace of taxis obtaining in the Church, and thatmeans in the liturgy." Only thus may one see God, as Dionysiustells his turbulent monk, and then perhaps be granted authorityover city and nation. Nicetas' and Symeon's picture of the holyman as the "true bishop," the very "place" of the Kingdom ofGod and spiritual paradise, is surely then indebted in good partto Dionysius' description of 'the hierarch as "the inspired anddivine man learned in all sacred knowledge, in whom his ownhierarchy [he kat' auton hierarchia] ... is both perfected andmade known.'?" Likewise, both later writers must have found

7 D R . Roques, L'univers dionyslen: structure hierarchique du mondeselon le pseudo-Denys (Paris: 1954), esp. 36-131.80The soul as the chariot steered by reason (logos) as the charioteergoverning the two steeds, irritability (thymos) and appetite (epithymia),dates to the Phaedrus 246. For Evagrius and the tripartite model of thesoul, see his Kephalaia Gnostica, PG 28, 111.35;N.73; and VI.13 and 85.81See, for example, Dionysius' handling of the powers or activitiesof purification, illumination, and perfection as applied to the angelichierarchy in CH VII 205B-D (27:4-18:12), to the individual intellectwhether angelic or human in X.3 273C (40:23-41:6), and to the ordersof the Church (clergy, monks, laity) in EH V.l 500D-501A ('104) andesp. 504A-C (106:4-23), wherein the actions and physical placement arethose.which obtain during the celebration of the services.82EH 1.3 373C (66:5-6); see also CH XII,3 29iB (43:12-19) on"holy men" as like angels, receiving the title or divinity by participation.My reading in the first citation of he kat' auton hierarchia takes the kat'auton as distinct from the he kath' hemas hierarchla ("our hierarchy") ofa few lines above (65:24-25), Dionysius' usual phrase for the Church.The kat' auton suggests to me the bishop's (or holy man's) own, innerordering of the soul, his "interior" hierarchy, i.e., exactly what we sawout of order above in Demophilus. 1 know of no other scholar who has

149Hierarchy Versus Anarchy?a more than sympathetic chord being struck in Dionysius' descrip...tion of the divine man (presumably again the hierarch) WEcclesiastical Hierarchy as one who, wholly in conformity withGod, has become "at once an attendant and temple [naos] ..of the divine Spirit," and thus, "by virtue of the dispassion[apatheia] of his own state of mind [hexis] ... is beheld Sphysician to others."88The references to "temple," with its echoof church and liturgy," and to the "condition of mind [hexis)"of the saint, bring us to our second set of textual pairings.

We begin with the passage from Dionysius' CelestialHierarchy 1.3:

It would not be possible for the human intellect[nous] to be ordered with that immaterial imita-tion of the heavenly hierarchies [i.e., angels] unlessit were to use the material guide that is proper to it[the liturgy, thus:], reckoning the visible beauties as

read this phrase as I do, though 1 still believe the reading works quite well.Indeed, I think that the simultaneous application of, so to speak, macro-cosmic and microcosmic readings works in the case of virtually ever!single one of Dionysius' definitions of hierarchy. Thus, for example, hedefines a hierarchy as a "sacred order (taxis), knowledge (episteme); andactivity (energeia)" in CH ill.l 164D (17:3-4), its aim as "the likeningto and union with God so far as possible" in 2 165D (17: 10-11), and lateron as a "certain sacred arrangement and image [eikon] of the divinebeauty" in 165A (18:11). Granted that these are definitions of the, as itwere, "collective entity," the same expressions can still quite as easily beapplied to the "individual" ordering of the soul or intellect, a point thatseems to be borne out by the fact that in the last passage quoted Dionysiusgoes on to say that hierarchy makes its members "divine images [agalmata-recall eikon above] and most transparent mirrors" of God (18:2-3) and.a little below, that hierarchy establishes each member as a "co-worker ofGod" showing forth "in himself the divine activity" (18:16-17). One mayfind. a similar set of definit ions in, again, EH 1,3; hierarchy has as its goal"love," "knowledge" and "divine participation" (66:13-19), and in 11,1392A (68:16-17) where its goal is the "likening to and union with God."Everything, in short, said about hierarchy as a whole can be applied tothe individual. The same terms are consistently used throughout the corpusin reference to both the individual and the collective.

88EH ill.3.7 533CD (86:7-16)."Por naos in Malachi 3: 1 and its importance for the reading ofDionysius' use of exaiphnes in Epistle ill (1069B, 159), see my article,"The Mysticism of Dionysius Areopagita: Platonist or Christian?", MysticsQuarterly XIX,3 (1993), esp. 108-109.


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150 ST VLADIMIR'S mEOLOGICAL QUARTERLYreflections of the invisible splendor, the perceptiblefragrances as impressions of the intelligible [noetos]distribution, the material lights an icon of the im-material gift of light, the sacred and extensive teaching[of the scriptures] [an image] of the mind's intelligiblefulfillment, the exterior ranks of the clergy [an image]of the harmonious and ordered habit of mind rhexis]which leads to divine things, and [our partaking] ofthe most divine Eucharist [an icon] of our participationin Jesus."

The text speaks first of all about the earthly liturgy as animitation and revelation of the one in heaven. Secondly, though,it also states that our hierarchy, specifically the ranks and orderof the clergy, is an image of that inward state or condition ofthe nous which allows for the vision of God-in other words,just what we found out of order in Demophilus. The visibleliturgy and outward church are an icon of the liturgy celebratedin the perfected soul. In short, there are as it were three "litur-gies" going on here, three "churches": the heavenly, the earthly,and the "little church" of the soul. The first two meet in thethird, in the perfected soul of the "hierarch" -as we saw above-but this is not to say that the middle term of earthly cult isunnecessary. It is instead essential. It mediates and reflects theeternal and unseen presence of heaven in the saint. Everythinghere-below is icon or symbol of a pervasive and invisible re-ality which is discovered, at the end of the passage, in theEucharist and in Jesus. The image of the church outside revealsand enables the reality present both in heaven and within thesoul, but the soul does not and cannot become aware of thisreality, cannot find the indwelling presence of Christ, withoutthe "material guide" given from above.

In his fourteenth Ethical Discourse, Symeon wonders aboutthe true meaning of great and elaborate liturgical solemnities."How," he asks, can the man who has "seen the Master"and who knows himself as naked and poor "take pride in beauty,or pay great attention to the multitude of candles and lamps,or fragrances and perfumes, or an assembly of people, or a85CH. 1.3 121C-124A (8:18-9:6).

Hierarchy Versw Anarchy? 151rich ... table?"86 The wise man, he replies, does not look tothe visible, but to the eschatological "events which are presentin the rites being celebrated," and he will therefore celebratethe feast "in the Holy Spirit with those who celebrate in heaven.''"This does not mean that Symeon discourages the visible liturgy-"God forbid! On the contrary, I both advise and encourage youto do these things" -but he does want to point out what thethings done "in types and symbols really mean.?" In explainingthe latter, he displays his debt to the Areopagite. The function,he says, of the lamps in church is "to show you the intelligiblelight" (Dionysius' "immaterial gift of light"). 89The perfumesand incense (Dionysius' "perceptible fragrances") suggest the"intelligible perfume of the Holy Spirit"; the crowds reveal "theranks of the holy angels," friends and dignitaries "the saints,"and the refreshments laid out for the people "the living bread ...Who comes to you in and through what is perceptible" (Dio-nysius' "most divine Eucharist") .90 The comparisons followfairly closely the sequence of the text from the CelestialHierarchy. The order is a little different from Dionysius', withlights preceding perfumes and the crowds and dignitaries in-stead of the order of the clergy, but the overall debt Symeonowes the Areopagite in these passages seems to me to be clear.So is the general idea. For both men the earthly church atworship is the image of the new man transfigured in Christ.It reflects both heaven and the saint and, more, connects thelatter to the former. Neither for Symeon nor for Dionysius isthe icon, here preeminently the Eucharist, a mere pointer orempty memorial. Rather, it conveys the presence which it sig-nifies. Dionysius tells us in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 'that theEucharist is the "sacrament of sacraments" (telete teleton) whichfirst illumined his own perceptions, and by whose light he was"led up in light to the contemplation of the other sacred things.?"

86Discourse XIV (SC 129), 424:26-35.vtu; 35-44.uu; 428:87-92.tu, 93-94 and following.901bid., 430:106-432:139 for the fragrances, 432:140-153for the crowds;and the Eucharist in 436:211-458:223. The sequence, light, fragrances,crowds is repeated in 436:194-438:223.91EH II1.1 424C (79:3) for telete teleton, and 425B (80:2-4) forDionysius' personal witness.


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152 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLYIt is in the same spirit that Symeon addresses his reader at theend of Discourse XIX. If,he says, you truly celebrate the feastand partake worthily

... of the divine mysteries, all your life will be toyou one single feast. And not a feast, but the be-ginning of a feast and a single Pascha, the passageand emigration from what is seen to what is sensedby the intellect, to that place where every shadow andtype, and all the present symbols, come to an end."

11. The roots of an image:Evagrius, Macarius, and the Liber GraduumThe tri-cornered relationship between Dionysius, Symeon,

and Nicetas is therefore no paradox, and certainly not the faultof sloppy thinking on Nicetas' part. At this point I should liketo take a look at the roots that all three, and particularly theAreopagite, have in the ascetic literature of the fourth andfifth centuries. Here I have especially in mind 'the two authors,Evagrius and the anonymous source of the Macarian Homilies,with whom we saw Father John linking, respectively, Dionysiusand the New Theologian. Now, it is also typical of Meyendorffto place the Evagrian and Macarian traditions somewhat inopposition-or at least contrast-to each other. According tothis schema, Evagrius, the Origenist, is "intellectualist" in hisapproach, placing his primary emphasis on the intellect (nous)as the place of encounter with God while, for Macarius, it isthe "biblical" notion of the heart (kardia) that serves to indicatethe center of the human being and locus of meeting." I wouldlike first of all to express some reservations about this opposi-tion. .The contradistinction of "mind" and "heart" reflects the

92DiscourseXIV, 443:280-290. In this eschatological context, see Dio-nysius, DN 1.4 592BC (Suchla 114:1-115:5) with its sequence "now," i.e.,in this world, "but then," that is in the world to come, and my article, "Onthe Other Hand," 310-316.93Seenote 5 above and, for another place where Father John lays theoppositionout very clearly, Saint Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality,

trans. A. Fiske (Crestwood, NY: 1974), 20-29.

.. .I

HierarchyVersusAnarchy? 153Medieval Western opposition between "intellective and affec-tive" mysticisms a little too much for my comfort." Evagriusis not an Eckhardt, nor is Macarius a Bernard of Clairvaux,and neither should any of our first three writers be placed ineither camp. Then, too, the contrast implicit in this distinctionbetween a "biblical" and a "platonizing" Christianity strikesme as very questionable." Plato and company were quite asmuch involved in first century Palestine as they were anywhereelse in the Greco-Roman world, and the "Greeks" thus had asay in the formation of both Christianity and rabbinic Judaism."I do not, in short, believe that Evagrius' nous and Macarius'kardia are all that different from each other.For both Evagrius and Macarius, however, the theme ofthe microcosm plays an important role, and that in ways whichcontributed significantly to the three men whom we have beendiscussing. Evagrius inherits and makes important use of Origen'smyth of a pre-cosmic fall-and here, by the way is the real

IMSee,for example, the sketch of Dionysius' reception in the Westprovided by A. Louth, ''The Influence of Dionysius Areopagita on Easternand Western Spirituality in the Fourteenth Century," Sobornost 4 (1982)esp. 187-193. The "affective" reading of Dionysius is taken up by theVictorines and emphasized, through the influence of Bernard of Clairvaux,by Thomas Gallus in the thirteenth century. For the same, though in a waythat treats Dionysius as exclusively"intellectualist," see P. Rorem, Pseudo-Dionysius: A Commentary on the Texts and an Introduction to their In-fluence (Oxford: 1993), 217-225.911"Biblical"versus "Platonist" echoes altogether too clearly the re-action of Roman Catholic and Orthodox scholars earlier this century tothe late nineteenth and early twentieth century thesis of a "Hellenized"-and therefore corrupted-Christianity associated in particular with Adolph

von Harnack. People such as Jean Cardinal Dani6lou, Henri de Lubac,orindeedVladimir Losskyfought Harnack a little too hard. While we aUowea great debt to these men, among whom Father John is certainly to be in-cluded, this does not mean that we are obliged to accept distinctionsthat doless than justice to the texts and thought of the ancients, or-worse-subjectthem often uncritically to the concerns of philosophies and movements thatare quite alien to them. Modern existentialismcomes to mind in this con-nection. A Danielou, for example, might have had an ear cocked to whatwas being said over the absinthe at Cafe les Deux Magots, but we neednot. It is simplypast time to have.done with the exploded myth of a pureHebrew, or "Semitic," tradition over and against a subversive "Hellenism."96See, for example, M. Hengel, Iews, Greeks and Barbarians: Aspectsof the Hellenization of Iudalsm in the Pre-Christian Period, trans. J. Bowden(Philadelphia: 1980), esp. his conclusionson Palestine in the Roman period,

125-126.


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154 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLYproblem that he would pose to later writers such as, I wouldmaintain, the Areopagite." In part as the result of this in-heritance, though the idea has deep roots, he reads the phenom-enal world as, in effect, the human being writ large." To bor-row a phrase from David Evans' summary of the Evagrianscheme, the present human realities of body, soul, and nousrepresent "moments in the knowledge of God."99 The universe. 9~e issue of Dionysius' relationship to Evagrius turned up in thedISCUSSionetween me and Fr Wesche. See his "ChristologicalDoctrine" 72,an~ m y "Other. Hand," 316 note 34. Hence the following digression. Imamt~m that Dionysus has Evagrius in mind both as source and as target.Touching ~~ the latter (~e will come to the former below in this essay),earlier criticism of Evagrius had turned especially around his anthropologyand cosmology.As A. Guillaumont points out in Les "Kephalaia Gnostica"d 'Evagre . l~ pontique (Paris: 1962), 109; notes 129-130, Theophilus ofAlexandrias Festal Letter of 402 A.D., cited by Jerome (Epistle 98, CSEL 54:1?6-19_7),focused ~articularly on Evagrius' lack of a permanent place in~IS universe for variety (kosmos, we might say), for permanent differences~ r~nk a~d.~rder (taxis), or for change and development (motion, kinesis).Similar Criticismswere voiced a century later by Philoxenus of Mabboug.See G. Harb, "L'attitude de Philoxene de Mabboug a l'egard de Ia spiritualitesavante d'Bvagre Ie pontique" Parole d'Orient (1969), esp. 142-145, 149,and 155. If we turn to Dionysius we find exactly these elements: the worldas cosmos and order in continual motion. The DN gives particular atten-!ion to the kinesis of angelsand people in IV,8-9, 7040-705B (153-154), andmd~edstates that movementis to be eternally into God (701A, 149:19). Thevariety of the universe is pictured chiefly in DN IX's meditation on thedi~ine "peace:' and "salvation" (954D-956B, 217-223), while taxis com-prises a constituent element of Dionysius' hierarchies (see Roques, L'univers,36-59~. As .opp~ed. to the ultimate dissolution of the body proposed byEvagrius, Dionysius IS careful to devote significantspace to the consideration~d defence o~ the.body's resurrection EH VII 552D-556B (120-122), andIts transformation IS signaled again in DN 1.4 592BC (114:7-115:5). Johnof ~ythopolis, incidentally, stresses the latter passage as directed preciselyagainst "those who think that the resurrection is without the body" (PG IV197C)-a point I overlooked in my reference to John's views on this textin ' :On the Other Hand," 316. These adjustments, such as the clear bor-rowmg of Gregory of Nyssas's epektasis, also render permanent the im-portance of the Incarnation. Jesus is not simply the way, but also the telos.Thus see I?iony~ius'Epistles III and IV, and again DN 1.4, with its use ofthe Trans~lguratlon.as model of the eschaton, an image perhaps owing toth~Macarian Homilies (see note 126 below). For a consideration,regrettablyWithout too much documentation, of many of these points, see H. vonBalthasar, Herr lichkeit: eine theologische Aesthetik II (Einsiedln: 1962)147-214. '

9.lI'fhenotion ?f the microcosm is at least as old as Plato's Republic,the City as the rational man writ large, and particularly emphasizedin theStoa. For the Neoplatonists, see again Gersh, note 78 above.99D. B. Evans, Leontius of Byzantium (Washington, D.C.: 1970) esp.

(

Hi erar ch y Ve rsus Anar ch y? 155created to house the fallen noes is thus a kind of giant school-book or lesson plan, and ultimately a sacrament. For the personwho contemplates it, it carries the knowledge of one's soul, ofChrist who created the soul's temporary housing, of the eternalrealm of the intellects and, at the last, leads to the "essentialknowledge" of the Trinity.looOne does one's lessons by ascend-ing the three stages of the ascetic life, moving from masteryof the passions crowned by apatheia and love, then to illumina-tion with regard to the logoi investing both the visible and in-visible worlds, and finally to the vision of God.l'" The worldas' icon, as in a way "church" and "sacrament," therefore ful-fills a function analogous to the one that we have seen the visiblechurch serving for Dionysius, Symeon, and Nicetas. It pointsthe way toward, and communicates, the reality that is alreadypresent within the believer. But the imagery of church andliturgy, especially as expressed in the Old Testament languageof Exodus, particularly chapters 19 and 24, is important forEvagrius, too. The account of the theophany at Sinai, itselfinfluenced by the Temple liturgy and paradigmatic in turnfor subsequent descriptions of God's manifestation in bothpublic cult and personal experience.l'" serves Evagrius well ina number of key texts. He is, indeed, one of the first-if notthe first-to internalize it. Hence his description on severaloccasions of the "place of God" within the nous as "like a89-111.For Evans'c-as well as everyone else's-source, see Guillaumont, Les"Kephalaia Gnostica," 15-43 for an analysis of Evagrius' doctrine and, forthe text of the Kephalaia that Guillaumont established and edited forPatrologia Orientalia 28, see Ibid., 200-258.

lDOporhe praktike as pre-condition, see KG ll.6-9; for the physicaluni-verse as (temporary) sign, lll.57 and 70; for the (again temporary) necessityof the body as sign, IV.60 and 62; for motion as original sin 111.22;forChrist as the maker and meaning of the (temporary) physical world, butnot the Word and the telos of creation, m.2-3, 24, 57; IV.8-9, 60-62, 80and V1.14;for the "essential science"of the Trinity as beginning and end ofthe cycle,m.6 and 15; IV.18; V.60, 77-88; and especiallyVI.I0.101Forthe Praktikos, see Trai te Pratique (SC 171/172) and Guillau-mont's "Introduction," SC 171:38-62and 113-124.For Evagrius' own words,Prak. 1-3 (498-501) and, on apatheia,63-70 (646-657). For the contempla-tion of the noeta, see KG ll.19 and VI.55. On "essential science," note 100

above.1020n Exodus 19/24 and its relation to 'the liturgy of tabernacle andtemple, see M. Noth, Exodus: A. Commentary (Philadelphia: 1962), 11-17,and R. E. Clements, The Temple (Philadelphia: 1965), 17-27 (esp, 22,


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156 ST VL,U>IMIR. . ' sHSOLOGlCAL QUARTERLYsa pp hire ," a c lea r b or ro win g fr olO th e a cc oun t o f th e S hek hin ah ,the div ine presence, that M oses and tile elders encounter ontheM ountain in Exodus 24:10.10 3 III a p ass ag e fr olll the KephalaiaGnostica, he also m akes explicit use of tem ple itnagery inorderto describe the innermost reality of the human soul a s th e"p lace " o f en co un ter w ith the T rinity :

T he in tellig ib le te mp le is the pur e i nt elle ct wh ic h no sp os se ss es i n it se lf th e "W is dom o f G od , fu ll o f v ar ie ty ";note 3) and 100-122. As paradigmatic .. see in the Old 'testament I Kg 8,Is 6, and Ezk 1-2, each one of them referrin& back to the Sinai t h e o p h a n y ,and the Transfiguration accounts in 14 k 9:3ff and ParaIle ls , together wi thII Cor 3 and Rev 4-5 in the New Testament. For a diSCUssion of MosesinII Corinthians see Carol Stockhausen, Mose Veil an d the Glory o f theNew Covenant : The Exegetical Substrut :ture of II Cor 3:1-4,6 (Rome: 1989).For comment on Rev, see J. P. M. sweet, Revelation (Philadelphia: 1979),41-42 and 113-132, and E. Petersen , The Angels and the Liturgy, tram,Walls(London: 1964), ix-x and 1-12. Sinai ~ a Set image of the encoun~r withGod in Philo, Origen, and Gregory of Nyss~ e.g. the latter's Life o f Moses(SC 1), and no less for Dionysius in MystJcal Theology 1.3 1000c1001A(143:17-144).lOSSeethe sixty chapters supplemen-tary to the Kephalaia Gnostlca,whoseSyriac translation was edited and retranslated into Greek by W. Frankenberg,Evagrius Pontious (Berlin: 1912) esp. chapters 2, 21, and 25 (Frankenberg425,441, and 449). See also Letters 2~ (587),33 (589) and esp. 39(593).In the latter, Evagr ius identif ies the vision of God within the nous w i t h bothSinai and Zion, and calls it "another ~eaven" (recall NicetlllS and Symeonabove). For the Zion motif, an impliC:1t reference to .the Temple, le e alsoKG V.88 and VI.49 and Frankenberg, c :::hapter 28 (453). A Guil Ia1lD!onthlllSoffered a fascinating commentary on tJIese texts of Eva&rius ( togetherwithothers of his in PG 40 1224AB and 19 12218) in "La vision de I'intellectpar lui-meme dans las mystique 6vagr i. enne," M~langes de l'UniverriU SaintJoseph L,1 (Beirut: 1984) 255-262. Of part icular interest i s the apparentlinkage he establishes between Evagr ius here and the "mdden" visionof theOne in light described by Plotinus in p;:nneads V.317; 5.7; and VI.7.36(thussee Dionysius' Epistle m 1069B, 159: 3ff), A disciple of GuilIa~t, N.S'ed in "La Shekinta et ses amis araameens," Cahiers d'OrientaiiJrnf!XX(1988) 133-142, followed this up by ~otin~ Evagrius' relation to thetradi-tion of the Aramaic Targums and the Syriac Peshitta, Particularly in theirhandl ing in Exodus and Chronicles, of the theme of GOd's "footstool" andthe Shekhinah, what the Septuagint calleS the topos theou .in Ex 24: 1 0 , HenceS'ed's verdict, 240-242, that Evagrius appears to have been the first to"internalize" this tradition, i.e., for hittn the topos theou or spiritualSinaiis within the nous. There the Shek.hU:nah makes its appearance. Thus seeMT 1.3 and the mind's ascent to the t,cpos theou beneath God's "footsteps"on the heights , beyond which Moses is called to ascend (10000, 144:3-5)-a note echoed nearly nine hundred ye~S later by Gregory Palamas in hisTriads in Defense of the Holy Hesychc;::uts n.3.52 (ChristOll 584).

157Hierarchy Versus Anarchy?of tbethe temple of God ishe who is a beholder la-s ac re d u nity , a nd th ea lta r o f G od is the coo tetnPtio n o f t he H oly T rin i~ .1 1K

. . our themeThus again, as Inth e t h r e e later writers, we fiDg the div ineof the holy man as thetrue temple and altar o tpresence. . jfically , t he. The equation of. theinner man with, s~ v reh appearslitu rg y a nd e ve n t he h ie ra rc hyf t he C hr is tia n Cbv f o m thein u~istakabl~. form In a rem arkable passa$~p ~e usualMaca ri an Homi li es , thou~it is one that is not: ,. editedc olle ctio n o f fifty homilies,u t in the longer -vef:;o~he text? y H. ~ er th ~ld fo r. G C S SOmetwenty years ago, and it be-in question IS HomIly 5 2 o f t he lo ng er c oll ec ti oP f'a r to us :gins on a note which b y n ow ho uld b e q uite fatniV

h h 1 . ibl of theT e woe VIS I e arrangement [oikonomiaJ l ivingC hu r~ h o f. ~od c a~ e!oa ss fo r th e sak e o f t : 1 Jestio11ala nd m te~l ig Ib le b e1 I! ~noera ousia] of 'the Id tfllesoul [loglkes p s y c h e s ) " . which is the liv ing ~t aJldChurch of God .. ,For the Church of CW ' .{ice isT em ple of G od andrue altar and liv ing sael!the man of God.1 0!. , 11 was theThus, he continues, J U ~ as the Old D ispensa"tiP Cburch ashadow of the Ne~, "so sthe present and visibt&either doesshadow of 'the rational andrue inner man "107 ~t liturgyM b thi vISacanus mean y S fua!he present Church aP thout an y." .. bol" th 411IS mere s~. in e senseof a transparency. we abid-~ubstance InI tself : ! ts .~uos!ances nothing lessili~e A postlesing of the H oly S pirit: .~eS av ior granted through t~ke part inth at th e C om fo rte r S PIn !ho uld be present and" e Spiritall the liturgy of the H O l y Ci lU rcho f God ."108Tb.e samFra,llkenberg,l04KG V,84. For the n O i l l 8 ! temple and altar see alsdchapters 37 ~d45 (459 a n d % 1 ) , ' . des Vaticanus10flMakanos/SYmeon. R e d ! n undBriefe: Die Sammlung t t the completeGrae~us 694_(B), ed. H. ~rthold(Berlin:1973), II.138-142. F~text in Engbsh. see our A p p e n d i l " below.l061bid., 138 : 1 -8 .l07Ibid., 10-11 .l081bld., 139:79.


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158 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Hierarchy Versus Anarchy?type] of the rational and hidden matters of the innerman, we receive the manifest arrangement and ad-ministration [oikonomia kai dioikesis] of the Churchas an illustration [hypodeigma] of [what is] at workin the soul by grace.!"

By sequence (akolouthia) and arrangement (ofkonomia)Macarius means, respectively, the sequence of the liturgy andthe hierarchical ordering of the faithful and of the sacramentalministers. Beginning with the first, he observes that the twoparts of the eucharistic liturgy, the synaxis ("liturgy of theword") and anaphora (offertory, consecration with the epiklesisof the Spirit, and communion), are incomplete without eachother. The whole rule (kanon) of the first must be completedin order for the consecration to follow and, conversely, thesynaxis is "incomplete and in vain" without the sacramentalcommunion.!" Just so, he argues, is it the case for the in-dividual Christian. The latter must have the full complementof "fasting, vigil, psalmody, ascesis and every virtue" for the"mystical activity of the Spirit" to be "accomplished by graceon the altar of the heart.'!" This interior order, kosmos, of theSpirit's activity (energeia) corresponds to the visible orderand glory of the sacrament.!"

Turning to the order of the Church's hierarchy, Macarius'remarks bring very sharply to mind what both Dionysius andNicetas, each in his respective eighth epistle, had to say aboutthe physical place of each of the respective ranks of the Church.Those believers, Macarius says, who "do not sin and whomake progress ... come to the priesthood, and they are trans-ferred from some outer place [apo topou tinos exoterou],,-

159is truly communicated to faithful believersin the sacraments,though It stays "far away from the unworthy.109Ultimately,however, which is to say in the perspectiveof the eschaton:

The living activity of the Holy Spirit is to be soughtfrom God in living hearts, because all visible thingsa~d all the [present] arrangements [of the Church]WIll pass away, but hearts alive in the Spirit willabide. 110

Macarius concludes this section with a repetition of the themeof the church as icon [eikon], noting that the Savior came andthat the icon of the Church was formed [diatyposis] in ordertha~ "faithful souls might ... be made again and renewed and,ha~mg. accepted transformation [metabole], be enabled to in-hent l~fe everlasting.v- The reference to change or trans-formatIon is quite in line with the parallel between the liturgyand ~he Christian soul. The term metabole after all, carriesthe distinct echo of the eucharistic change at the liturgy's con-secrato 11:! Th .. ry prayer. e consecration of the sacred elementsIS an '" f .b Ii antICIpatIon 0 the eschatologicaj transformation of thee eVer and of the world.~t is therefore to the service itself that Macarius turns hisattentIon next. He begins by restating his points above in a;~y that should a.lert us still more clearly to the themes inIony~ius, Symeon, and Nicetas with which we have beenoCCUPIed:B.ecause visible things are the type and shadow ofhIdden ones, and the visible temple [a type] of thetet;nple of the heart, and the priest [a type] of the trueprIest of the grace of Christ, and all the rest of thesequence [akolouthia] of the visible arrangement [a

109/b'd .hi I .,26-27. Recall Symeon above In Discourse XIV together withIS empb . . h L . ,bei . asis m tee tter on Confession on the necessity of the holy man'semg lUUm' d So too D' . . E . IlIo/b me. ,"'-I, ronysms in PISte VUI and the aphotistos hiereus.id., 27-29.1I1/bid 139'30-14.0'2112 .,

metabo~e Lampe, A Patristic Greek LexiCon (Oxford: 1961), 850 forI an~ 848 for metaballo. The sources Cited for the former begin asear y as Justm Martyr,

l1SMakarios/Symeon 140:38.1141bid., 8-19.1151bid., 21-23.1161bid., 141:1-2.Note the use of kosmos, and recall Nicetas and Symeonabove.1171bid., 13-15. Recall Dionysius in Ep. vrn, esp. 1088D-.I089A (176:9-177:8), on the physical placement of clergy, monks, and laity, and like-wise Nicetas' Epistle VllI 280-286, esp. 8.3 283.118SeeIgnatius' Let ter to Polycarp 6, as well as to Ephesians 6, Mag-nesians 6-7, Trallians 1-2, Philadelphians 4, Smyrnans 8. Lampe 406 citesedraloma for the bishop's throne, and indicates Polycarp 6 for paredroi, 1030.


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160 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Hierarchy Versus Anarchy? 161presumably referring to the narthex or nave-"up to the altar[epi to thysiasterion] so that they may be God's ministers andassistants [leitourgoi ... kai paredroi .Y?" The latter term sug-gests the throne, edra, of the bishop who, as Ignatius ofAntioch wrote, occupies the place of God.!" This spatial ar-rangement of clergy and laity-"according to this example"-is then taken and applied to the "Christians who are movedby grace."?" Whoever sins must confess and repent in order tocome again under the oversight-episkopes, an evident playon episkopos, bishop-of the Spirit.P" As for the soul that makescontinual progress in the struggle for the virtues:

It is made worthy of transference [or promotion,metathesis] and of spiritual dignity [axiomatos], andof being transferred from divine to heavenly mysteries[Le., from the sacraments here-below to the King-dom] ... and thus, having reached the perfect measureof Christianity through both its own freely willedordeal and with help from on high, the soul will beinscribed in the Kingdom among the perfect workersand with the blameless ministers and assistants[leitourgous kai paredrous] of Christ.P'

as the other Macarian HomiliesP" we can surely take it asshedding new light on Dionysius' supposed "originality." Itallows us to see the Areopagite as something other than thelonely meteor crossing the night sky of patristic thought thatsome have taken him for, and gifted moreover and in con-sequence of his pseudonym with an otherwise inexplicableauthority.P" Homily 52 by itself shows up Dionysius as partof an already extant tradition.P' But the homily is not alone,either in the Macarian corpus or even in a wider context. Thewhole thrust of the Macarian writings, in the words of FatherGeorges Florovsky, is "the soul as throne of God."125Thefamous first Homily in the more familiar and widespread col-lection of fifty opens with the vision of God from Ezekiel 1,itself of course with deep roots in the Temple cult, and goeson to speak of the soul as the true resting place of the divineglory.P" In this same vein, and scattered throughout the restof the homilies, in whatever collection, we can find referencesto the soul as temple or as "little church."!" Homily 52 is in-

The spatial ordering of clergy and faithful is the icon of boththe taxis of heaven and of the illumined soul. We are back,in short, to the version of hierarchy that Nicetas would offerus in greater detail seven hundred years later. In betweenstand his elder, Symeon, and, for both master and disciple, theCorpus Dionysiacum.Some might feel that Macarius' argument here, so heavilydependent on the categories of type and antitype, outer andinner, visible and invisible etc., is much too Platonist in toneto be the work of the "real" author of most of the Homilies.I would certainly agree that the cast of thought owes enor-mously to Plato, but then I find it difficult to think of a singlemajor patristic writer who does not. Given this text alone,and reckoning it as of the same late fourth century provenance119Makarios/Symeon 141: 16.12olbid., 142: 1.nu. 142:9-16.

1221, a s no one questions, the Homilies are by the same author aswrote the Great Letter, they can be no later than Gregory of Nyssa's OnChristian Perfection, and therefore the 380s stand as the ad quem indating their composition. For a brief survey of the question and of Macarius'alleged "Messalianism," see G. Maloney' s "Introduction" to Pseudo- Macarius:The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter (New York: 1992) esp.7-11. For Macarius as clearly a product of the Syrian tradition, see C.Stewart, "Working the Earth of the Heart": The Messalian Controversy inHistory, Texts, and Language to A.D. 431 (Oxford: 1991), esp. his con-clusions, 234-240. Nyssa thus appears to have adapted a typically Syriacexpression of the Christian faith for Greek sensibilities. The Homilies,besides being the victim of a case of cross-cultural miscommunication (hencemuch of the smoke of the Messalian controversy), are thus clearly fourthcentury.123'fhisis the usual explanation for Dionysius' reception in the East.The pseudonym, together with the tradit ional and "christological correc tives"supplied by John of Scythopolis and-in particular-Maximus the Confessor,enabled the Corpus Dionysiacum to pass muster. For an example of thisview, see J. Pel ikan, "The Odyssey of Dionysian Spi ritual ity," in C. Liubhe id,and P. Rorem's transla tion, Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works (NewYork: 1987), 11-24. Yet one of the striking things about Scythopolis' com-mentary, aside from an admitted reference to some challenges to Dionysius'orthodoxy (20AB), is his overall effort to present the Areopagite as on theChalcedonian side. That is to say, he is fighting much less to defend himthan to lay claim to him, just as it seems that Severns even earlier wasstruggling to enlist him for the non-Chalcedonian party (for the latter pointI am indebted to a paper delivered by J. Lamoreaux for the North American


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162 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAl. QUARTERLY Hierarchy Versus Anarchy? 163deed peculiar for its exclusive concentration on this theme,but there is nothing in it that is foreign to the Maccq.ian corpusas a whole.

The theme of the "little church," though, is not confinedto the Macarian writings. Taking its start from St Paul's logiain I Corinthians 3: 16 and 6: 19-20 that the Christian is the"temple of the Holy Spirit," w~ discove~ ~hat this. rt:otif is wellestablished in the Syriac-speaking, Chnstian traditron from atleast the same time as Macarius. We find it chiefly in themysterious Syriac work known as the Liber Graduutn. Thoughtby some scholars earlier this century to have been the Mes-salian Ascetikon condemned at Ephesus in 431,12 8 the Liberappears in fact to be the work of a writer, perhaps somewhatembattled by ecclesiastical authorities, who is at pains todistance himself and his community from the charge of neglect-ing the visible church.P" The work as a whole does not breathethe atmosphere of sectarianism, and its account of the relationbetween the inner and outer church bears striking resemblanceto what we have just seen in Macarius, as well as to the themeswe picked out in Evagrius-under whose name, interestinglyenough, it seems often to have circulated.P"Patristics Society at Loyola, Chicago, in June 1993). Why wereboth sidesfighting for him if he was in fact as dubious a comm?ity.she is usuallypresented?The pseudonymwould ha~e been .ofno.help if his Contemporarieshad felt his theology to be truly amiss, a point raised=or at leasta questionstrongly implied-by Georges Florovsky in Byzantine As~etic and Spiri tualWriters (Belmont, MA: 1987), 204: "It hardly ~ms possiblethatthe patentanachronism of the document could have remamed unnoticed... historicalmemory at the time was not that weak." M?reover, as. I loolcforward toseeing demonstrated by P. Rorem's forthcomrng transl~tlon Ofthe Scholia,John was thoroughly conversant with late Neoplatonism and thus surelycould not have been fooled by some rascal disguising a dOUbtfulagendabehind an apostolic facade. "Christological correctives" just donot reply tothis problem. See also the critique of Fr John's similar positionregarding"correctives"by J. Romanides, note 172below.

124Seemy article, Mysticism, 105-106.125Ascetic and Spiri tual Writers 154: "And it is ther.e,"F'lorovskyadds,"that a certain secret light flashes out." The light is Christ, andthis suddenflash recalls to me, once again, Dionysius' Ep. Ill: "suddenly,"there isOhrist.126Homily 1,13 and 9, in Die 50 gei st lichen l!omil ien des Makarios,

eds, H. Dorries, E. Klostermann, M. Kroeger (Berlm: 1964),1-5 and 10.For English, see Pseudo-Macarius (Maloney), 3738 and 42. For theTransfiguration in Macarius as both foreshadowingthe body'seschatological

I would like first of all to point to the hierarchy of be-lievers which the book presumes throughout: those being puri-fied, the righteous (laymen), and the perfected (asceticsj.f"This triad certainly seems to echo at least the lay orders ofDionysius' own hierarchy, as well as having established rootsin the Syriac tradition. 132 Secondly, though, and more im-portantly for our argument, there is the picture drawn in theLiber's Discourse XII, "On the Ministry of the Hidden andtransformation and as an image for the soul's inner reality even now, seeHomily VIII, esp. VIII.3 (Dorries 7880, Maloney 21-82), and XV,38(Dorries 149-150 and Maloney 122123). Again recall DN 1.4. For thenous (here instead of kardia!) as the throne of God, see, for example, VI,S(Dorries 6869,Maloney 77).

127Seethe references collected and cited by R. Murray, Symbols ofChurch and Kingdom: A Study in Early Syriac Tradition (Cambridge: 1975),269-271,and C. Stewart, "Working," 218-220.128Athesis advanced in particular by M. Kmosko in the latter's "Praefa-tio" to hiseditionof the Liber Graduum in Patrologia Syriaca HI (Paris: 1926).

A. Voobusreplied to the contrary in History of Ascet ici sm in the Syrian Orient(Louvain: 1958), Vol. 1:178184, and was seconded more recently by A.Guillaumont, "Situation et significancedu 'Liber Graduum' dans la spiritu-alite syriaque," in Symposium Syriacum 1972, Orientalia Christiana Analecta197 (Rome: 1974), 311-325.129TbusMurray, Symbols 263-269.We might note that "Messalianism"is apparently one of the charges that John of Scythopolis does not wantstickingto Dionysius, 169D-172A.Could this be the reason why he does notpick up on the "little church" theme present in CH 1.3 in his commentaryin 33BC, but instead tries to define hexis as pertaining exclusively to theangels?We might note, too, that "Messalianism"proved a useful stick withwhich to beat adherents of a spirituality very akin to Symeonin the decadesafter the latter's passing. See in this context the articles by J. Grouillard,"ConstantineChrysomallossous la masque de Sym60n le nouveau th60logien,"

Travaux et Memoires V (1973), 313-327, and especially "Quatre proces demystique a Byzance (vers 960-1143)," Revue des etudes byzantines 36(1978), 5-81.130Voobus,History of Asceticism 1:184, note 31.131Ibid., 190193,though the Liber concentrates on the second two, thejust (layfolk) and the perfect (ascetics). See also A. Persic, "La Chiesa diSiria e i 'gradi' della vita Christiana," in Per Foramen Acus (Milano: 1986),208263,esp. 214ff.132Theidea of a kind of triad can be found in Ephrem, too. See S'ed,"La Shekinta," 238-239, working esp. from Ephrem's Hymns on Paradise.See also M. Schmidt, who underlines this and moreover draws an explicitconnection with Dionysius, "Alttestamentliche Typologien in den Paradi-eshymmen von Ephram dem Syrer," Paradeigmata, ed. F. Link (Berlin:1989), 78. Her remarks, 6465, on ties between Ephrem's and Dionysius'

use of Moses are also of interest. With respect to the negative theology inEphrem and Dionysius, see also her article, "Die Augensymbolik EphriimB


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164 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Hierarchy Versus Anarchy? 165

By starting from these visible things, and providedthat our bodies become temples and our hearts altars,we might find ourselves in their heavenly counter-parts ... migrating there and entering in while weare still in this visible church.f"

church enables the Christian to "find himself in the Churchof the heart and in the Church on high.">" All three churchesall three liturgies, are necessary and all three are necessarilycoordinated, though only the second (the heart) and the third(the heavenly original) will abide in the eschaton.14,l There"on the mountain of the Lord" which is the Church in heaven'"shines the light of the countenance of our Lord," and therealone is He "seen openly."l42

Manifest Church."!" The writer is anxious to insist on thenecessity of the visible church and its liturgy. The Lord Him-self, he tells us, "established this Church, altar, and baptismwhich can be seen by the body's eye," and He did so in orderthat,

The latter's "priesthood and its ministry," as we just saw inMacarius, act "as fair examples for all those who imitate therethe vigils, fasting, and endurance of our Lord."135To despisethis visible church, however, means that our body

Although Homily 52 and Discourse xn of the Liber arethe outstanding examples of this theme in the Syrian traditionwe can also find other and later instances. In the fifth-centuryhomily by the Pseudo-Ephrem, "On Hermits and Desert~wellers," the anonymous writer sums up the ascetics, livingIn utter poverty, with words and ideas now familiar to us:... will not become a temple, neither will our heartbecome an altar ... Nor shall we have revealed to usthat church on high with its altar, its light, and itspriesthood, where are gathered all the saints who arepure in heart.138

They stay very late at service, and they rise early forservice. The whole day and night, their occupation isthe service. Instead of incense, which they do nothave, their purity is reconciliation. And instead of achurch building, they become temples of the HolySpirit. Instead of altars [they have] their minds. Andas oblations, their prayers are offered to the Godheadpleasing him at all times.1~ ,he Church in heaven is shown forth in the "likeness" whichis the earthly church.?" and it is the latter which makes ofeach believer "that body and heart where the Lord dwells ...in truth a temple and an altar.'?" As we noted above in dis-cussing Celestial Hierarchy 1.3, there are therefore "threechurches, and their ministries possess Life."lB9 The earthly

The body of the holy man is the Church in its fulness where thesacrifice to God is accomplished. A similar picture is offeredu~, ~OUgh the theme is indic~ted in the images employed-SInaI, Thabor, altar and euchanst-rather than in express state-ments, in the mid-fifth century, Syriac Life of Symeon Stylites,l44lffJlbid. (296:8-10).141Thusrecall, again, DN 1.4.142Brock7, 42-43 (301:15-304:'11). Note the "Mountain of the Lord"(304:17-20), citing Ps 24:3-5, and adding: "This is the heavenly church"~d recall Sinal in MT 1.3 together with our observations concerning Evagri~sm note 103 above.143'J'extquoted from the translation by J. Amar in Ascetic Behavior inGraeco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook, ed. W. L. Wimbush (Minneapolis.1990), 79:481-496. See also 72:181-184 and 73:229-232. Amar's "IntroduC:-tion," 67:68, touohes on the Evagrian influence in this poem, though not inways of interest to our theme.144SeeDoran, Lives of Symeon Sylites, and the Syriac Life's notes of

und Parallelen in der deutschen Mystik," in Typus, Symbol, .A.llegorie, 00.M. Schmidt (Regensburg: 1982), 285. For Dionysius' distinctions betweenthe "purified," "illumined" and "perfected"orders of believers (cateohumens/penitents- layfolk-monks), see EH VI'!-3 592D-553A (114-116).183lWlosko,PS ill285-304.The translation is by S. Brock, The SyriacFathers on Prayer (Kalamazoo: 1987), 45-63.'lMBrock,46, 2 (K:mosko288:23-289:1).185Ibid., 46 (289:2-4).138Ibid. (289:14-22).187Ibid., 48 (292:13-16).138Ibid. (292:7-10).139Ibld., 49,4 (294:23-24).


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166 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Hierarchy Versus Anarchy? 167which is to say in the decades immediately prior to the probablecomposition of the Areopagitica. Roughly contemporary withDionysius, that is early sixth century, we find the sermon ofthe Chorepiscopus Balai on the consecration of the church atQenneshrin and, once more, precisely the same themes. R.Murray has provided us a near complete translation in hisSymbols of Church and Kingdom. Let us take up the threadat stanzas 21 and 22:

Three [gathered] in Thy name are [already] achurch ... for they have toiled on the church of theheart and brought it to the holy temple, built in Thyname. May the church that is inward be as fair asthe church that is outward is splendid. Mayst Thoudwell in the inner and keep the outer, for [both]heart and church are sealed by Thy name.

Mount Sinai, longtime haunt of Christian hermits, we find theconstruction of St Catherine's monastery and, within its centralchurch, artisans from the imperial city are putting together,in the apse above the altar, the mosaic image of Christ trans-figured on Mount Thabor. Sinai and Thabor, the mountains oftheophany, meet, in a land of ascetic saints, above the altarof the Eucharist. The mosaic itself, featuring the brilliant figureof Christ set amid a mandorla of deep blue, its darkness reced-ing with progressively lighter-hued bands of color as one movesaway from the center, seems to me markedly suggestive ofDionysius' Epistles+" Might we not take this image and itssetting as together a kind of summary of the Dionysian-andmore than Dionysius' own-themes we have been discussing'P"Certainly, the Dionysian corpus fits well within the con-tinuum of (especially Syrian) ascetic literature interpreting the

May his soul surpass in hidden beauty the visibleadornment which the house displays. Since his heartcarries the temple of his Lord ... this visible houseproclaims concerning the mind of him who built it,that the inward heart is illumined and fair.14l1

that the note of the "inner church" is absent in Babai's. Yet the church onearth, even the physical building, as microcosmof the universe and ultimatelyof the heavenly church is itself of interest to those of us who are dealingwith the Dionysianuniverse (above note 79). The idea of the ecclesiasticalmicrocosm (in whatever sense) certainly seems, on the basis of these twopoems alone,to have been "in the air" in Syria around and just after 500 A.D.

146E.Wellecz,A History of Byzantine Music and Hymnography 2d ed.(Oxford: 1961), 106, and for Dionysian influence generally, 57-60.RecallSymeon'suse of the Cherubikon in Discourse III above and note 70.147porthe date of the mosaic, see V. Benesevic, "Sur la date de lamosaiquede la Transfiguration au Mont Sinai,"Byzantion 1 (1924), 145-172,andfor an analysisof thisimage asbreakingnewgroundfor the depictionof theTransfiguration, E. Kitzinger, Byzantine Art in the Making (Cambridge,MA: 1977) 99-104. The contrast with Ravenna's contemporary portrayalof the same event is particularly striking,and it was the Sinai image thatwould prove the prototype for subsequent Byzantine iconography.14S1am reminded especially of the sequence beginning in Ep. ,I, thedarkness, Ep. non the gift of deification followed by Ep. m's "suddenly"Christ, moving to IV's gift 1hrough Christ of the theandrike energeia, andconcludingwith V's equation of God's darkness with his "unapproachablelight." Thus with the Sinai image,as one moves into the mystery (theprogressively darker bands of blue) one reaches the unfathomable depthsof the darkest hue and there, suddenly and brilliant, one meets Christ, whoyet "when spoken remains ineffable, and when conceived unknowable"(1069B, 159:9-10). The mosaic, to me at least, appears as virtually anillustration of D

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