Pseudo-Dionysius: A Commentary on the Texts and an Introduction to Their Influence

«The personal identity of the writer is still a mystery, and he is known only and awkwardly as Pseudo-Dionysius, or Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite.» — Rorem consigna la atribución como problema abierto y no la resuelve: el autor no tiene identidad conocida y el nombre con que se le llama es el de la atribución negada.

«The Greek name Dionysios and the Latin Dionysius can be translated into English as Dennis; the French also call him Denis or Denys, and the Italians say Dionigi.» — las formas del nombre en las lenguas europeas, que Rorem enumera antes de fijar el suyo.

«We could, therefore, name this unknown author "the false Dennis," but an accepted, slightly negative convention names him Pseudo-Dionysius.» — y la convención que adopta, dicha con su carga: Rorem la llama levemente negativa y aun así la usa.

«The contents of the Dionysian corpus are not as well known as are its titles: The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology, The Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and the Letters.» — Rorem enuncia los cinco títulos del corpus y señala que se conocen más los títulos que los contenidos.

«The major task of this commentary is to present the contents of the corpus, both in their details and as a whole.» — la tarea que el libro se fija: presentar el contenido del corpus en detalle y como conjunto.

«For example, this Dionysius invented the word hierarchy, proposing a hierarchy of angels and a hierarchy in the church.» — Rorem le atribuye la invención del término *hierarchy* y sus dos aplicaciones, la de los ángeles y la de la iglesia.

«Other significant areas of influence in the middle ages include the following: a theological aesthetics, especially with regard to Gothic architecture at the abbey church of Saint-Denis near Paris; Scholastic philosophy and theology, specifically that of Thomas Aquinas; the interpretation of the liturgy as a dramatic allegory» — la lista de campos de influencia medieval que el libro se propone recorrer, de la estética de Saint-Denis a la alegoría dramática de la liturgia; el tramo se corta antes del folio impreso que el troceo mete a media plana.

«including the "cloud of unknowing," another phrase coined by Pseudo-Dionysius; and the entire subject of negative, or apophatic, theology.» — continuación de esa misma lista, con la nube del no saber y la teología negativa o apofática.

«Of course, all these topics have been influenced by other authors as well, often more decisively than by the Dionysian texts.» — el límite que Rorem pone a su propia lista: otros autores influyeron en esos mismos temas, a menudo con más peso.

«Still, the Areopagite's treatises have touched an exceptionally broad spectrum of topics crucial to the history of the Christian tradition.» — y la afirmación que sostiene pese al límite.

«Unfortunately, until 1987 there was no twentieth-century English translation available of the entire corpus. Replacing the late-nineteenth-century English rendition by John Parker—who still considered these texts a first-century witness—the new translation by Colm Luibheid and me permits a wider range of English-speaking readers to acquaint themselves with these writings.» — Rorem fecha en 1987 la primera traducción inglesa moderna del corpus entero y nombra la anterior, la de John Parker, que aún tenía estos textos por testimonio del siglo I.

«Except for a few encyclopedia articles, only Andrew Louth's recent volume entitled Denys the Areopagite enables new readers to approach this corpus.» — el estado de la literatura introductoria según Rorem, con el Denys the Areopagite de Andrew Louth como único acceso.

«Although elegant and solid, Louth's book is extremely brief and does not cover certain parts of the corpus.» — y su reserva sobre ese mismo libro.

«My own effort here takes the specific and longer form of a full chapter-by-chapter commentary on all of these writings.» — la forma que Rorem elige frente a esa brevedad: comentario capítulo por capítulo a todo el corpus.

«The present running commentary is intended to complement a thorough reading of the full corpus itself, not to serve as a substitute.» — y el uso que le asigna, que no es reemplazar la lectura del corpus.

«The great challenge of reading the Dionysian materials has little to do with quantity. The English translation of the complete works requires less than 250 pages.» — Rorem mide el corpus y niega que la dificultad esté en su extensión.

«The challenge is rather in the complexity of the vocabulary, the syntax, and especially the concepts involved.» — donde sí la sitúa.

«Ever since the Greek texts attached to the name Dionysius first appeared around A.D. 525 and through the centuries of translations into Syriac, Latin, and many modern languages, everyone who has read them has been perplexed and frustrated at times.» — Rorem fecha hacia el año 525 la aparición de los textos griegos bajo ese nombre y traza la cadena de traducciones, al siríaco, al latín y a las lenguas modernas.

«One must consider that the blessed Dionysius used an obscure style in all his books. He did this not from inexperience but rather from diligence so that the sacred and divine teachings might be hidden from the ridicule of the unbelievers» — Tomás de Aquino, citado por Rorem como testigo de esa dificultad, adjudica el estilo oscuro a la diligencia y no a la impericia: ocultar la enseñanza sagrada de la burla de los incrédulos.

«first, he frequently used a style and manner of speaking which the Platonists used, which is unfamiliar to modern readers» — primera dificultad que Tomás enumera en el mismo pasaje, el estilo de los platónicos.

«The second difficulty in his comments is that he frequently uses effective arguments to make his point but then often refers [back] to them with a few words or even just one word.» — la segunda, la remisión a un argumento entero con una palabra.

«The third difficulty is that he often multiplies words, which may seem superfluous, but nevertheless will be found to contain a great depth of meaning by those who consider them diligently.» — y la tercera, la multiplicación de palabras que solo al lector diligente le rinde profundidad.

«The picture of Thomas Aquinas straining to understand these writings is not intended to discourage the modern reader, but simply to advise patience and diligent consideration.» — Rorem declara para qué trae ese testimonio.

«There is no external indication of which treatise was actually written first, and therefore no historically reliable indication of a place to start reading.» — Rorem niega que haya base histórica para fijar el orden de escritura del corpus.

«The author's apparent intention was that the treatises be encountered together and treated as a discovery from the first century.» — y consigna la intención que el propio corpus declara de sí: leerse junto y como hallazgo del siglo I.

«There are some internal suggestions by the author himself about the intended sequence of treatises and some external factors in the order of the works in the manuscript tradition, but these are not definitive and do not dictate the best plan of introduction for a modern reader.» — el límite que Rorem pone a los indicios internos y a la tradición manuscrita.

«Standing apart from and following the four major treatises, the Letters are presented first, for two reasons.» — la decisión de método del libro: leer primero las diez Cartas, que en el corpus van detrás de los cuatro tratados.

«First, the first six letters are so brief, averaging just half a page each, that the reader can adjust to the rhythm of absorbing brief doses of Dionysius with frequent rereading and ample time for reflection.» — la primera razón, la brevedad de las seis primeras.

«Second, the ten Letters will serve to preview almost all the Dionysian themes to be investigated in the rest of this commentary.» — y la segunda, que las Cartas anticipan casi todos los temas del corpus.

«Even the list of titles of the letters raises questions about the order of the recipients, which moves steadily up an ecclesiastical ladder from a monk to a deacon, to a priest, and to a hierarch (bishop) and even beyond, except for the highly significant disruption of the eighth letter.» — Rorem lee el orden de los destinatarios como escalera eclesiástica —monje, diácono, presbítero, jerarca— y señala la ruptura de la octava carta.

«Of course, the Letters never were actual correspondence sent to historical individuals, despite the impressions given by the titles and announced recipients.» — Rorem niega que las Cartas fueran correspondencia real, pese a lo que sus encabezados dan a entender.

«The effort to present the author's work as a first-century, apostolic, and therefore authoritative witness is evident in the headings to several treatises and letters, including these initial letters addressed "To the monk Gaius.» — y adjudica a los encabezados un propósito: presentar la obra como testimonio apostólico del siglo I.

«Although "Gaius" is not that significant an example, the reader should be alert to the proper names used throughout the corpus.» — la advertencia de método que Rorem da al lector sobre los nombres propios del corpus.

«The special names used for God occupied an entire treatise (The Divine Names) while the technical designations for the angels and for ecclesiastical offices and rites received his consistent attention in The Celestial Hierarchy» — Rorem reparte los nombres por tratado: los divinos en Los nombres divinos, los de los ángeles y los oficios en las dos Jerarquías.

«He delighted in etymologies, puns, and allusions. In particular, the proper personal names, such as Gaius, were all selected carefully as part of an inventive overall program and may occasionally provide overtones and oblique clues to the contents of the corpus.» — y sostiene que los nombres personales del corpus están elegidos como programa, con la reserva de que solo *ocasionalmente* dan pistas.

«Besides the examples in the Letters and other instances (to be noted in their place), we should not overlook the brilliant choice of the name or pseudonym Dionysius the Areopagite for the author himself.» — Rorem lee el pseudónimo mismo como elección deliberada del autor.

«Just as Paul's starting point for his sermon in Athens was the "unknown god" (Acts 17), so also the writings attached to the name of his Athenian convert are especially concerned with God as known and unknown.» — y la razón que le da: el dios desconocido del sermón de Pablo en Atenas y el interés del corpus por Dios conocido y desconocido.

«Considering all the pseudonymous works attached early on to New Testament names, the wonder is that it took so long, some five hundred years, before the name Dionysius was appropriated as a pseudonym and linked to a literary» — Rorem invierte la pregunta de la atribución: lo llamativo no es el pseudónimo sino que tardara quinientos años en usarse.

«Darkness [or shadow] disappears in the light, the more so as there is more light. Knowledge makes unknowing disappear, the more so as there is more knowledge.» — apertura de la Carta 1 en la traducción de Luibheid que Rorem cita, con la referencia interna 1065A, 263.

«In the first letter and throughout these writings, the theme of knowing and un-knowing is cast in terms of light and darkness.» — Rorem fija el tema que la Carta 1 abre para todo el corpus.

«The phrase in The Mystical Theology, "the darkness of unknowing" (1001A, 137), became well known as the title of a fourteenth-century English mystical treatise, The Cloud of Unknow» — y traza la filiación de la nube del no saber hasta el tratado inglés del siglo XIV.

«In terms of deprivation, darkness is the absence of light, and thus inferior to it. In terms of transcendence, darkness is beyond light, and thus superior to it, as when a light is so bright that it actually prevents or blinds the sense of sight.» — y la distinción que sostiene entre privación y trascendencia, con el símil de la luz que ciega.

«Similarly, unknowing may be not simply the deprivation or lack of knowledge but rather the recognition that someone or something is in fact transcendent and far beyond the limits of human knowing.» — el traslado de la misma distinción al no saber, según Rorem.

«Human knowledge is possible only of those things that exist on the level of the knower. God, who transcends the level of human knowers, transcends that knowledge.» — y el principio epistemológico del que lo deriva.

«He is completely unknown and non-existent. He exists beyond being and he is known beyond the mind» — Dionisio en la Carta 1, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1065A, 263.

«this quite positively complete unknowing is knowledge of him who is above everything that is known» — el cierre de la Carta 1 en la traducción que Rorem usa, con la referencia 1065B, 263.

«On the one hand, this kind of verbal gymnastics, like oxymorons and multiple negatives, seems designed to stretch one's language and thought, and sometimes to hinder and to still the natural conceptual process.» — Rorem enuncia las dos lecturas posibles del procedimiento verbal de Dionisio, y esta es la primera.

«On the other hand, the author does work with a coherent and comprehensive view of religious knowledge that can embrace and reconcile these apparent contradictions.» — y esta la segunda, que es la que el libro adopta.

«In Letter 2 we are prevented from thinking that the divine transcendence is simply one step above our normal concepts, so that if God is not fully knowable as goodness, for example, God must then be fully knowable as the source» — Rorem lee la Carta 2 como cierre de una salida fácil: Dios no queda conocido por ser fuente de lo que no se conoce.

«It is not sufficient to elevate one's mind from one level of conceptuality to another, since all that the mind can conceive still ultimately falls short of the transcendence of God.» — y saca la consecuencia sobre el ascenso conceptual.

«The second letter also introduces the author's common designation of God as the thearchy, albeit in an unusual context. Here, the suffix -archy carries the meaning of source, since the point of the discussion is God as the source of divinity.» — Rorem sitúa en la Carta 2 el término *thearchy* y glosa el sufijo como fuente.

«Normally, the word thearchy is simply translated as divinity, deity, or God.» — con la reserva sobre el uso corriente del mismo término.

«The transcendent has put aside its own hiddenness and has revealed itself to us by becoming a human being» — Dionisio en la Carta 3, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1069B, 264.

«Although this expresses the standard Christian paradox of the incarnation, the Dionysian corpus has a peculiar and especially complex approach to Christology.» — Rorem sitúa esa frase dentro de la paradoja cristiana corriente y a la vez aparta la cristología del corpus.

«For this mystery of Jesus remains hidden and can be drawn out by no word or mind. What is to be said of it remains unsayable; what is to be understood of it remains unknowable» — Dionisio en la misma Carta 3, referencia 1069B, 264.

«In this third letter, Dionysius has also used the word theologia in a particular way. This is not theology in the general modern sense, but in the special, literal sense of the word of God, meaning the scriptures.» — Rorem fija el sentido técnico de *theologia* en el corpus, que no es el moderno.

«Similarly, for Dionysius the adjective theological often meant scriptural and the theologians were usually the biblical authors.» — y la consecuencia para los términos derivados.

«If all knowledge is of that which is and is limited to the realm of the existent, then whatever transcends being must also transcend knowledge» — Dionisio en el capítulo primero de Los nombres divinos, citado por Rorem con la referencia 593A, 53; el libro vuelve a imprimir este mismo pasaje palabra por palabra en la plana 152, al comentar ese capítulo, y el ancla se fija aquí, en la primera aparición.

«The opening lines of the first letter trade on our natural inclination to think of light as superior to darkness and to think of knowledge as superior to» — Rorem lee el arranque de la Carta 1 como apoyo en la jerarquía natural de luz sobre tiniebla; el tramo se corta en el límite de chunk del troceo, y sigue *rance, since in both cases the latter terms can mean the absence or the deprivation of the former*.

«rance, since in both cases the latter terms can mean the absence or the deprivation of the former.» — continuación de esa misma frase al otro lado del corte de chunk, que el troceo abre con la palabra partida *igno-*.

«The incarnation of this unknowable and transcendent One is addressed directly but briefly, and controversially, in the next epistle, Letter 4.» — Rorem sitúa la encarnación en la Carta 4 y le pone tres calificativos: directa, breve y controvertida.

«When the Dionysian writings made their first known appearance, this letter attracted more attention than any other passage.» — y adjudica a esa carta el primer foco de atención sobre el corpus.

«These writings were "discovered" and first cited at the beginning of the sixth century, when Christian thought was preoccupied with disputes over the relationship of Christ's divine nature to his human nature.» — Rorem fecha la aparición del corpus a principios del siglo VI y la sitúa en la disputa sobre las dos naturalezas de Cristo.

«The intention was to safeguard the integrity of both a fully human nature and a fully divine nature in Jesus Christ, and to condemn those who seemed to believe in only one nature in Christ, namely the divine.» — y el propósito que Rorem le adjudica al concilio.

«Nevertheless, large portions of the Christian world, especially in Syria and Egypt, felt that the statement of Chalcedon and the thinking behind it went too far toward separating the divine and human natures.» — la objeción del otro lado, que Rorem consigna sin arbitrar.

«Any such separation had already been condemned at the Council of Ephesus (431) in association with the name Nestorius (bishop of Constantinople; d.c. 451» — Rorem data en Éfeso el 431 la condena de la separación contraria y la liga al nombre de Nestorio.

«Around A.D. 532 opponents of the Council of Chalcedon cited several ancient authorities, including "Dionysius the Areopagite, all of whom assert that there is one nature of God the Logos after the union» — la primera cita conocida del corpus, que Rorem fecha hacia el 532 y en boca de los adversarios de Calcedonia.

«In response, Hypatius of Ephesus, a defender of Chalcedon, challenged the alleged authority of Dionysius, since none of his works had ever been cited before.» — y la objeción de Hipacio de Éfeso, que es el primer testimonio de la disputa por la autenticidad: ninguna obra suya había sido citada antes.

«Furthermore, it was not by virtue of being God that he did divine things, not by virtue of being a man that he did what was human, but rather, by the fact of being Godmade-man he accomplished something new in our midst—the activity of the God-man» — el cierre de la Carta 4 en la traducción que Rorem usa, con la referencia 1072C, 265; el troceo parte *God-made-man* a fin de renglón y span() devuelve *Godmade-man*, mientras que el impreso lee God-made-man.

«Those who labeled their opponents Monophysites detected a monophysite tendency in this wording, since the human and the divine did not here seem fully distinct, but were apparently merged into a single activity.» — Rorem consigna la lectura monofisita de esa frase sin suscribirla.

«And yet, the Dionysian corpus survived this initial taint of heresy and was eventually claimed by the Chalcedonian Orthodox as their own apostolic witness, instead of being condemned as heretical and fraudulent.» — y el desenlace: el corpus queda del lado de la ortodoxia calcedonia como testimonio apostólico propio.

«John of Scythopolis, the first to comment on the Dionysian corpus (within a decade or two of its appearance), takes pains to assert an equal concern on the part of Dionysius for Christ's divinity and humanity.» — Rorem nombra a Juan de Escitópolis como primer comentarista del corpus y fecha su trabajo a una o dos décadas de la aparición.

«This composite portrait and lack of emphasis on the human nature of Christ is consistent with the rest of the corpus and has often given pause even to its defenders.» — que Rorem extiende al corpus entero.

«the divine darkness is that 'unapproachable light' where God is said to» — Dionisio en la Carta 5, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1073A, 265 y con la fuente bíblica que el propio Rorem anota, 1 Timoteo 6:16.

«The sense of sight associated with light is not simply a metaphor for knowing in general. Seeing also stands for all the senses, for sense perception in general, which is linked with knowledge but not identical to it.» — Rorem niega que la vista funcione en el corpus como mera metáfora del conocer.

«In fact, perceiving and conceiving (the aesthetic and the noetic) are paired together in a complicated way, often as successive stages in the spiritual journey.» — y sostiene el emparejamiento de lo estético y lo noético como etapas sucesivas, con la reserva de *often*.

«This letter also introduces a notable feature of the Dionysian method when it supports these sentiments with a burst of biblical quotations, in this case from Paul» — Rorem señala el racimo de citas bíblicas como rasgo de método del corpus.

«He says too that 'inscrutable are his ways and unsearchable his judgments' [Romans 11:33], that 'his gifts are inexpressible' [2 Corinthians 9:15], and that 'his peace passes all understanding» — el racimo mismo en la Carta 5, con las tres referencias que Rorem restituye entre corchetes: Romanos 11:33, 2 Corintios 9:15 y Filipenses 4:7.

«Further, and more importantly, the Areopagite exhibited a consistent concern for interpreting the biblical names for God in The Divine Names and the scriptural descriptions of the angels in The Celestial Hierarchy.» — y el interés continuado por los nombres bíblicos que Rorem le adjudica, repartido entre dos tratados.

«Letter 6 previews a crucial facet of the author's conceptual method, namely, that refuting an error does not necessarily lead to embracing the truth.» — Rorem enuncia la tesis lógica de la Carta 6: refutar un error no equivale a alcanzar la verdad.

«For it could happen that the one hidden truth could escape both you and others in the midst of falsehoods and appearances. What is not red does not have to be white» — Dionisio a Sosípatro en la Carta 6, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1077A, 266.

«The Council of Chalcedon had decreed in A.D. 451 that Christ was "one person, in» — la fórmula de Calcedonia que Rorem cita como marco de la disputa; el troceo parte la plana 25 en dos chunks justo aquí y la frase sigue en la línea siguiente.

«two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separa» — continuación de la misma fórmula al otro lado del corte de chunk, cortada a su vez en el guion de fin de renglón de *separa-tion*.

«Nevertheless, even though Letter 4 does assert both the divinity and the humanity of Christ, it gives supportive examples only of a composite divine-human activity (the miracles) and not of a human nature as such» — la reserva que Rorem pone a la defensa de Juan de Escitópolis: la Carta 4 solo ejemplifica la actividad conjunta, nunca la naturaleza humana como tal.

«The Mystical Theology expresses this linkage in the very titles to its fourth and fifth chapters: "That the supreme Cause of every perceptible thing is not itself» — Rorem lee el emparejamiento de lo perceptible y lo conceptual en los títulos de los capítulos cuarto y quinto de La teología mística, con las referencias 1040D, 1045D, 140-41; el tramo se corta antes del guion de fin de renglón de *per-ceptible*.

«We should not conclude that the negations are simply the opposites of the affirmations, but rather that the cause of all [that is, God] is considerably prior to this, beyond privations, beyond every denial, beyond every assertion» — Dionisio al abrir La teología mística, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1000B, 136.

«This sentiment is repeated in the very last words of The Mystical Theology, and is in a sense the last word of the corpus.» — Rorem señala que esa misma frase cierra el tratado y, con él, el corpus entero.

«The climax of the Dionysian method is not simply a negation of some concept about God, but the negation of the concept of negation itself. God is beyond all human words and concepts, including the utterance of denials and the idea of negation.» — y enuncia lo que tiene por cima del método: negar el concepto mismo de negación.

«Externally, this advice to the biblical Sosipater (Romans 16:21 and perhaps Acts 20:4) to avoid the polemics of denunciations and refutation may also fit the actual author's historical context and partial purpose.» — Rorem propone un contexto histórico para el consejo de la Carta 6, y lo dice en condicional: *may also fit*.

«As mentioned above, the late fifth and early sixth centuries were wracked with bitter controversies over the natures of Christ.» — el marco de esa hipótesis.

«Emperors and theologians repeatedly tried to find words that would peacefully reunite the church and therefore the empire. Some of these efforts, like the Emperor Zeno's Henoticon (482), actually made things worse.» — los intentos imperiales de reunificación que Rorem enumera, con el Henótico de Zenón del 482.

«It is entirely possible that someone would attempt to resolve these difficulties with an authoritative word from the apostolic age, to go back "behind" the controversial language by attempting to avoid all the polemical terms and by stating the issue affirmatively without any denunciations or refutations.» — la hipótesis sobre el origen del corpus, enunciada por Rorem como posibilidad y no como hallazgo.

«While this speculative scenario for the origins of the corpus is certainly a possibility, it applies only to certain of the Dionysian comments on Christology, which constitute but a few lines among thousands on other topics.» — y el límite que él mismo le pone en la frase siguiente.

«Such guesswork, common in Pseudo-Dionysian scholarship, has brought us to the question of authorship, most explicitly involved in the next letter, Letter 7.» — Rorem llama conjetura a ese género y lo declara habitual en los estudios dionisianos.

«This epistle first repeats the theme of Letter 6, then takes up its own topic, and finally previews the concern of Letter 8.» — Rorem describe el engranaje de la Carta 7 con las vecinas.

«The interlocking of topics is quite typical of the author, and provides further evidence that these were not actual letters gathered together but more like chapters in a single work.» — y saca de ahí un argumento sobre el género: no son cartas sino capítulos.

«The proper name may have been chosen to invoke the apostolic age of Polycarp of Smyrna (c. 69-c. 155), to whom the seventh letter of Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35-c. 107) is addressed.» — Rorem propone, en condicional, de dónde sale el nombre del destinatario: Policarpo de Esmirna, a quien escribe Ignacio de Antioquía.

«But this results in a shaky chronology, since Polycarp of Smyrna was martyred after the middle of the second century.» — y señala el desajuste de fechas que esa elección produce.

«The real dialogue here is not with Polycarp, but with "the sophist Apollophanes," who has charged Dionysius "with making unholy use of things Greek to attack the Greeks» — Rorem identifica al interlocutor real de la Carta 7, el sofista Apolófanes, y la acusación que este le hace.

«They try to banish divine reverence by means of the very wisdom which God has given them.... This knowledge of beings, which he [Apollophanes] rightly calls philosophy and which the divine Paul described as the "wisdom of God" [1 Corinthians 1:21-24, 2:7], should have led true philosophers to be uplifted to him who is the Cause not only of all beings but also of the very knowledge which one can have of these beings» — Dionisio contra Apolófanes en la Carta 7, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1080B, 267 y con la remisión paulina que el propio texto trae, 1 Corintios 1:21-24 y 2:7.

«Not only does the author himself raise the subject of his presumed relationship to the Greeks and to philosophy, which modern readers rightly apply to the complex question of his actual relationship to Neoplatonism.» — Rorem lee esa disputa como el sitio donde el corpus mismo plantea su relación con los griegos, que es la cuestión moderna del neoplatonismo.

«He also makes a most explicit attempt to present himself as a first-century Christian.» — y como el sitio donde más explícitamente se presenta como cristiano del siglo I.

«In other words, this single epistle concerns both his efforts at pseudonymity, which were remarkably successful for centuries, and the twentieth-century issue of his true relationship to the Greek philosophical tradition of Neoplatonism.» — con las dos cuestiones que Rorem ve trenzadas en esa sola carta.

«Dionysius bases his refutation of Apollophanes on proofs from the natural order, or rather, from the unnatural order of cosmic miracles.» — Rorem describe el argumento de la Carta 7: los milagros cósmicos como prueba.

«How could Apollophanes refute the evidence of "the solar eclipse which occurred when the Savior was put on the cross» — el eclipse de la crucifixión que la Carta 7 dice haber presenciado junto con Apolófanes, con la referencia 1081 A, 268 tal como la imprime el troceo.

«Furthermore, claims the Areopagite, it was not a natural eclipse with the moon moving in a single direction past the sun, but a true miracle of the moon moving in front of the sun and then returning whence it came. How could Apollophanes now deny it?» — y el detalle con que la carta lo vuelve milagro y no eclipse: la luna que vuelve sobre sus pasos.

«I was with you as we looked at everything, scrutinized everything, were amazed by everything» — el apóstrofe de la Carta 7 a Apolófanes, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1081C.

«Here the text presents the author as a contemporary of Jesus and of the first disciples, not in Jerusalem as a witness to the human events, but in "Heliopolis" as a witness to the heavenly sign.» — Rorem lee ese pasaje como la construcción de la persona autoral: contemporáneo de Jesús, pero en Heliópolis y no en Jerusalén.

«By means of this fabrication, and others (including the "eyewitness" account of the apostles gathered around the Virgin Mary when she died [Divine Names 3, 681D, 70]), the elusive author succeeded in presenting himself as the Dionysius of the first century.» — y lo llama fabricación, junto con el relato de los apóstoles alrededor de María moribunda que remite a Los nombres divinos 3, 681D, 70.

«As already mentioned, the first citation of writings by the Areopagite prompted some suspicion, since no such texts had ever been identified before.» — Rorem repite el dato de la sospecha inicial, que ya había dado a propósito de la Carta 4.

«Eusebius, the fourth-century chronicler of the first Christian centuries, had already identified a Dionysius as the first bishop of Athens.» — y trae a Eusebio como quien ya había identificado a un Dionisio como primer obispo de Atenas.

«This was a rather natural conclusion to draw from the biblical account of Paul's preaching there about the "unknown God" and his converting Dionysius from the Areopagus.» — con la base bíblica de esa identificación.

«But since no writings had ever been associated with this name before, the initial reaction to their appearance was mixed and reserved.» — Rorem consigna la reserva de la primera recepción.

«And yet, the "Dionysian" books were soon embraced as apostolic and thus authoritative.» — y el vuelco que siguió.

«The embrace of "Dionysius" by orthodox Chalcedonians resulted most of all from the work of John of Scythopolis (d. c. 548) and then Maximus the Confessor (c. 580-662), who both accepted the apostolic authorship of the Dionysian texts and used them in an orthodox way.» — Rorem adjudica esa adopción a Juan de Escitópolis y a Máximo el Confesor, los dos por nombre y con sus fechas.

«The earliest explanation of the corpus, its authenticity and orthodoxy, was the sixth-century Prologue and Scholia by John of Scythopolis.» — y fecha en el siglo VI el Prólogo y los Escolios de Juan como primera defensa del corpus.

«In fact, it seems that the earliest manuscripts of the corpus itself already included John's introduction and explanations.» — con el grado de certeza que Rorem le pone, *it seems*.

«Some dare to abuse the divine Dionysius with charges of heresy, being themselves absolutely ignorant of matters of heresy» — el Prólogo de Juan de Escitópolis en defensa del corpus, citado por Rorem.

«The Dionysian Christ, says John here and in the Scholia themselves, had a fully human nature including a rational soul, against Apollinaris, whose candidacy as the actual, and heretical, author of the Dionysian corpus is explicitly refuted elsewhere.» — Rorem resume la defensa de Juan y nombra al candidato que esa defensa descarta, Apolinar.

«John even explains Eusebius's silence about the Dionysian treatises, just as an expansion of the Prologue, probably by another author, explains that the fifth-century Neoplatonist Proclus used the first-century Christian Dionysius, "even his exact wordings» — la explicación del silencio de Eusebio y la inversión cronológica del Prólogo ampliado: Proclo tomando de Dionisio, y no al revés.

«Most of the Scholia, however, do not directly defend Dionysius, at least not in explicit doctrinal or historical dialogue with Monophysite Christology or Neoplatonism.» — la reserva que Rorem pone sobre el grueso de los Escolios.

«Rather, most of them simply assume his antiquity as worthy of numerous small explanations about his terminology or meaning on miscellaneous matters.» — y lo que sí hacen.

«reputation as the master of negative theology, the author never claimed that negations fully capture the truth and therefore represent the final goal.» — Rorem acota la fama de Dionisio como maestro de la teología negativa: el corpus nunca da las negaciones por meta final; la frase abre en el chunk anterior con *Yet, despite appearances and despite his*.

«cal negations do not capture God. Beyond the last word is only silence.» — el cierre que Rorem le pone a la negación de la negación; el troceo parte la plana 27 en dos chunks a media palabra, y la frase abre con *Even the most sophisticated theologi-*.

«Greeks or any others.... It is therefore superfluous for someone expounding the truth to enter into dispute with this one or that one» — Dionisio en la Carta 7, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1077BC, 266; el tramo abre al otro lado del corte de chunk y sigue a *As far as I am concerned I have never spoken out against*.

«ing Maximus the Confessor, to whom the whole collection was then attributed, even though the comments known to be from his hand are very few.» — Rorem consigna la atribución de los Escolios a Máximo el Confesor y la acota en la misma frase: de su mano se conocen muy pocos; el tramo abre al otro lado del corte de chunk, donde el troceo parte *includ-ing*.

«But Maximus clearly accepted Dionysius in his other works, such as the Ambigua and the Mystagogy.» — y nombra dónde sí lo acepta Máximo.

«His labors and impeccable credentials in life and thought decisively claimed the Areopagite's corpus for orthodoxy and placed it at the beginnings of the Orthodox tradition.» — Rorem adjudica a esas credenciales el paso del corpus a la ortodoxia.

«Through Maximus, Dionysius was even cited in Rome at the Lateran Council in 649.» — y fecha la primera cita romana en el Concilio de Letrán del 649.

«As the principal exponent of an orthodox Christological spirituality in the seventh century, Maximus Confessor explained the language of Dionysius in such a manner that he achieved the Trinitarian and Christocentric reorientation of the Dionysian system and thus rehabilitated it» — Jaroslav Pelikan sobre el papel de Máximo, citado por Rorem.

«After the initial endorsements, especially by John and Maximus, the writings were usually taken at face value, namely, as the first-century works of an apostolic Dionysius.» — Rorem resume el estado de la atribución tras esas dos adopciones.

«Some doubts were occasionally raised, and refuted, as reported, for example, by the ninth-century patriarch of Constantinople, Photius (c. 810-c. 895)» — y nombra a Focio de Constantinopla como testigo de dudas antiguas ya rebatidas.

«But in general, the Dionysian author was securely identified with the apostolic Dionysius, and this mistaken identity was only compounded by the addition of yet another Dionysius, or Denis.» — Rorem añade la tercera identidad que se suma a la confusión.

«The legend of Saint Denis is one of the most colorful and complex creations in medieval sacred literature.» — Sumner McKnight Crosby sobre la leyenda de San Denis, citado por Rorem al abrir el excurso.

«Dear to the legendary history of Paris is the story of Saint Denis, said to be an early missionary to Gaul, the first bishop of Paris, and a famous French martyr.» — Rorem resume la leyenda parisina del santo.

«Decapitated for his faith, he nonetheless picked up his head and walked a staggering distance to his chosen site of burial, where the faithful gradually built a tomb, a church, and then an abbey.» — con el episodio de la cabeza cortada del que sale la abadía.

«The Abbey of Saint-Denis, named for him as the patron saint of all France, became the burial site of French kings, the archival repository for royal documents, and a prominent location in the royal, national, and architectural history of France.» — y la función que la abadía adquiere en la historia francesa.

«The confusion that in subsequent centuries identified our author with the Denis in France and with the biblical Dionysius of Athens as one and the same well-traveled person resulted principally from the creative historical work of Hilduin, the abbot of Saint-Denis in the ninth century, when the Franks were enjoying political and ecclesiastical prominence.» — Rorem adjudica la fusión de los tres Dionisios a la obra histórica de Hilduino, abad de Saint-Denis en el siglo IX.

«Greek manuscripts of the Dionysian corpus had already been given by Pope Paul I» — Rorem fecha la llegada de los manuscritos griegos al reino franco por regalo del papa Paulo I a Pipino; el tramo se recorta antes de las fechas del papa, que el troceo parte a fin de renglón y span() funde en una cifra.

«History of Saint Dionysius, written between 835 and 840 to introduce his translation of these works into Latin, sealed the case of mistaken identities.» — la obra de Hilduino que sella la confusión, fechada por Rorem entre el 835 y el 840; el tramo abre al otro lado del corte de plana.

«Only in the twelfth century did one independent thinker, Peter Abelard (1079-1142), challenge this conflation of three Dionysii.» — Rorem sitúa en Pedro Abelardo la primera objeción a esa fusión.

«Ever the sharp-tongued critic, he had the temerity to point out not only the contemporary abbot's personal corruption but also the historic abbey's fictional foundations.» — con lo que Abelardo objetó a la abadía que lo hospedaba.

«Abelard noted that according to the ecclesiastical history of Venerable Bede (c. 673-735), the Denis who came to France was not the Dionysius converted by Paul in Athens, but rather the Dionysius who had been bishop of Corinth.» — y la base de su objeción, la historia eclesiástica de Beda: el Denis de Francia sería el obispo de Corinto.

«Since Abelard did not challenge the authorship of the Dionysian writings, but left them associated with the convert of the Areopagus, the literary pseudonym was preserved, as it was throughout the Middle Ages.» — Rorem acota el alcance de esa objeción: Abelardo no tocó la autoría del corpus, con lo que el pseudónimo quedó en pie.

«Abelard merely questioned the identification of this author, the Areopagite, with the missionary to France who survived his beheading and inspired the Abbey of Saint-Denis.» — y precisa qué fue lo único que Abelardo puso en duda.

«Suger supervised the construction of a new church that he and especially some modern scholars interpreted according to the Areopagite's comments about uplifting and luminous beauty.» — y consigna, con sujeto repartido, quiénes leen esa iglesia a la luz del Areopagita: Suger y sobre todo algunos estudiosos modernos.

«Since this church has been widely considered the first Gothic structure, the history of Dionysian architecture receives considerable attention in its own right.» — con la razón por la que el asunto ocupa un lugar propio en el libro.

«Meanwhile, the writings themselves continued to influence the medieval West in the form of Latin translations by Hilduin and John Scotus Eriugena (c. 810-c. 877) in the ninth century and by John Sarracenus (f1. c. 1167) and Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175-1253) in the High Middle Ages, and through commentaries by Eriugena, Hugh of Saint-Victor (d. 1142), Thomas Gallus, Albert the Great (c. 1200-80), and Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), among others. These translators and commentators, and many others, will be introduced in the due course of this commentary.» — Rorem enumera la cadena de traductores y comentaristas latinos del corpus, de Hilduino y Eriúgena a Sarraceno, Grosseteste, Hugo de San Víctor, Tomás Galo, Alberto Magno y Tomás de Aquino.

«On the question of authorship, there was apparently no significant doubt about the apostolicity and therefore the authority of the corpus until the sixteenth century, when Desiderius Erasmus» — Rorem fecha en el siglo XVI la primera duda de peso sobre la apostolicidad del corpus, con su grado, *apparently*; el tramo se recorta antes de las fechas de Erasmo, que el troceo parte a fin de renglón.

«circulated some brief, stray comments that Lorenzo Valla (c. 1406-57) had made in 1457.» — y hace pasar esa duda por Erasmo, que difunde comentarios de Lorenzo Valla de 1457.

«Whereas Valla's doubts seemed based on the contrasts between Dionysian and apostolic vocabulary and syntax, Erasmus added his own doubts that the elaborate Dionysian liturgical rituals could date from the first century.» — Rorem separa el fundamento de cada uno: el vocabulario y la sintaxis en Valla, el ritual litúrgico en Erasmo.

«Several others, including Martin Luther, adopted Erasmus's phrase, "Dionysius the whoever-he-was," indicating a general scepticism but no alternate identification or dating.» — la fórmula de Erasmo que Lutero y otros adoptan, con el límite que Rorem le pone: escepticismo sin fecha ni nombre alternativos.

«These arguments were visually duplicated in the frontispiece to Cordier's work by Peter Paul Rubens.» — con el frontispicio de Rubens como forma visual del mismo argumento.

«The entire authorship question was resolved, negatively at least, only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the scholarly world accepted the independent conclusions of Hugo Koch and Josef Stiglmayr, published in 1895.» — Rorem fecha en 1895 el trabajo de Hugo Koch y Josef Stiglmayr y acota el alcance del resultado: resuelto en negativo.

«They established that certain precise phrases were in fact taken from the writings of the fifth-century Neoplatonist Proclus.» — y dice en qué consistió la prueba: frases tomadas de Proclo.

«Turning the Prologue's anachronistic assertion right side up, they argued that it was actually Pseudo-Dionysius who borrowed some "exact wordings" from Proclus, especially in the discussion of evil in the fourth chapter of The Divine Names.» — Rorem señala que eso invierte la afirmación del Prólogo ampliado, y localiza el préstamo en el capítulo cuarto de Los nombres divinos.

«Koch and Stiglmayr further argued that the author's overall terminology and conceptual framework were both dependent upon the Proclean school of Neoplatonism and must therefore date from the late fifth century at the earliest.» — con la consecuencia de fecha que los dos sacaron.

«Conclusively disproving a first-century Dionysian authorship, their work led almost all scholars, and not just a few skeptics, to use the expression "Pseudo-Dionysius.» — y el efecto sobre el nombre con que se le cita desde entonces.

«But the name Pseudo-Dionysius is more than awkward, and more than distastefully pejorative to some lingering loyalists. It also reflects the frustration that still marks the search for the author's true identity and real name.» — Rorem objeta el propio término que usa y dice qué refleja.

«While Koch and Stiglmayr made a breakthrough in disproving that a first-century Dionysius authored the corpus, they did not succeed in establishing a convincing case for anyone else as the actual author, despite Stiglmayr» — y separa lo que esos dos negaron de lo que no lograron poner en su lugar.

«In fact, almost a century of concerted efforts by numerous specialists with their various proposals has not yielded even a central candidate or two, much less a firm identification by a scholarly consensus.» — Rorem mide el saldo de un siglo de propuestas de autoría: ni candidato central ni consenso.

«Hypotheses about authors have ranged from writers of the early second century to the early sixth, from the famous to the obscure, from Alexandrian and Cappadocian Christians to Proclean Neoplatonists.» — con el abanico de hipótesis que enumera.

«The hunt for the true author, once pressed in full force, has come to an almost complete halt. The few scholars who devote themselves to Pseudo-Dionysian studies concentrate on the texts themselves and their influence, rather than venturing into historical hypotheses.» — y el estado en que dice que quedó la búsqueda.

«The most we can say with confidence is that the author reflects a mixture of late fifth-century Syrian Christianity and Athenian Neoplatonism.» — y fija el máximo que se atreve a sostener: una mezcla de cristianismo sirio de fines del siglo V y neoplatonismo ateniense.

«While this is only the identification of a type of author rather than of a specific individual, to say anything further would be more speculation than this general study could sustain.» — con la reserva sobre el alcance de esa identificación.

«Suger, abbot of Saint-Denis from 1122 to 1151, let Abelard go his independent way, and concentrated instead on bringing the abbey to its political and architectural heights.» — Rorem presenta a Suger con sus fechas de abadiato; el libro repite esa misma aposición en las planas 96 y 97, y el ancla se alarga aquí para fijar la primera.

«Gregory the Great (pope 590-604) ever quoted these texts and that parts of the corpus seemed blatantly fictional.» — los dos motivos de Valla que Rorem consigna: el silencio de los padres anteriores a Gregorio Magno y el carácter manifiestamente ficticio de partes del corpus; el troceo parte la frase entre las planas 31 y 32, y abre con *Valla had noticed that no Greek or Latin father before*.

«works, since attempts to do so have been thorough and fruitless. The failure of such attempts would mean that no other writings by the Dionysian author have survived, with or without the pseudonym.» — Rorem enuncia su pronóstico sobre la autoría con *perhaps* y saca la consecuencia; el tramo abre al otro lado del corte de plana, tras *Perhaps the corpus will never be convincingly tied to anyone known from other extant*.

«Not long after the Protestant Georg Calixt (1586-1656) coined the phrase Dionysius Pseudo-Areopagita in 1619, the Jesuit Balthasar Cordier supplemented his influential Greek edition of the Dionysian texts (1634) with thorough arguments for their apostolic authenticity.» — Rorem fecha en 1619 la acuñación de *Dionysius Pseudo-Areopagita* por Georg Calixt y, enfrente, la defensa de la autenticidad en la edición griega de Balthasar Cordier de 1634; tramo largo releído entero en el crudo, la guarda anticosido salta por el año entre paréntesis.

«To return to Letter 7, in which the claim of first-century authorship occasioned this historical sketch of the question of authorship, Dionysius hopes that Apollophanes, though wise, will also be humble or meek in learning the truth of the faith, "truth which far exceeds all wisdom» — Rorem vuelve de la digresión histórica a la Carta 7 y cita su cierre con la referencia 1081C, 269.

«Here too, the epistles cleverly interlock, for this sentence not only sums up previous material, but also introduces the next letter.» — y repite el argumento del engranaje entre cartas.

«The letter ostensibly responds to a monk's request for support for his drastic actions to preserve sacred things from profane priests. Since Demophilus violated proper lines of authority, which is the main subject of this letter, his portion from Dionysius was strong disapproval.» — Rorem resume la situación que la Carta 8 finge responder y la respuesta que recibe el monje.

«The choice of a monk as the fictional recipient at this particular point in the sequence of letters reinforces the argument of the epistle itself.» — y lee la elección del destinatario como argumento de la carta misma.

«Until this point, the recipients of the letters were arranged in a precise, ascending ecclesiastical order, from a monk (Gaius), through a deacon (Dorotheus), a priest (Sosipater), up to a hierarch or bishop» — Rorem reconstruye la escalera de los destinatarios antes de la ruptura.

«But now, abruptly, comes a letter to a monk, disrupting this order, just as Demophilus himself disrupted proper ecclesiastical order.» — y la ruptura, que hace del orden de las cartas un espejo de su contenido.

«The offending monk is immediately lectured about the humility, or meekness, of Moses, as well as other Israelites. The angels and Jesus himself exemplify this virtue, preferring humility about oneself and generosity toward others over against proud audacity and a judgmental attitude.» — el contenido moral de la carta según Rorem.

«After several pages of these biblical examples (1085A-1088A, 269-71), the letter comes to the specific case of Demophilus.» — Rorem mide el tramo de ejemplos bíblicos con la referencia 1085A-1088A, 269-71.

«In his community, a priest had taken pity on a penitent, but had thus erred, according to Demophilus. He, a monk, had intervened to rebuke and dismiss the priest, and had entered the inner sanctuary with others in order to rescue from defilement the sacred things» — el caso que Rorem reconstruye: el monje que reprende al presbítero y entra al santuario.

«The author, having set up this vulnerable target himself, has no trouble responding» — con el juicio de Rorem sobre el montaje retórico de la carta.

«Now hear what I have to say to you. It is not permitted that a priest should be corrected by the deacons, who are your superiors, nor by the monks, who are at the same level as yourself.... Even if disorder and confusion should undermine the most divine ordinances and regulations, that still gives no right, even on God's behalf, to overturn the order which God himself has established» — Dionisio a Demófilo en la Carta 8, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1088C, 272.

«This quotation touches on two facets of Dionysian good order: first, the local arrangement of clerical offices and their relationships with one other, as well as with the monks and other laity; and second, the larger concept of hierarchy in general with regard to the transmission of authority, revelation, and existence itself.» — Rorem desdobla la cita en dos planos: el arreglo local de los oficios y el concepto general de jerarquía.

«The Dionysian writings profoundly shaped the idea of hierarchy in the Christian tradition, whether a churchly hierarchy of clerical officers or a heavenly hierarchy of angelic beings.» — y adjudica al corpus la forma que toma la idea de jerarquía en la tradición cristiana.

«They also influenced the overall picture of reality, as it was transmitted down through a vertical structure, as "the order which God himself has established" (1088C, 272), a concept gladly embraced by Christian monarchs of all kinds.» — con el uso político que Rorem señala.

«Not only did Dionysius influence the evolution of this concept, but he also created the word hierarchy itself, which, with its cognates (like hierarchical) simply did not exist until the anonymous author invented it to express and to crystallize such thoughts about order.» — Rorem repite la invención del término y precisa que tampoco existían sus derivados.

«Few writers have ever coined a new word with a broader history in Western thought than the Dionysian neologism hierarchy, although Eriugena's translation of another Dionysian invention as "supernatural" was also influential.» — y pone al lado la otra acuñación que la traducción de Eriúgena difundió, *supernatural*.

«For Dionysius, the clergy consisted of a trio of orders: the deacons, the priests, and the hierarch.» — Rorem fija la tríada clerical del corpus.

«Similarly, the laity consisted of a trio or triad of classifications: the monks, the rest of the communing congregation, and those under some kind of discipline ("those yet being purified» — y la tríada laical.

«This last group is itself occasionally presented as a triad of the catechumens, the penitents, and the possessed.» — con la subdivisión del último grupo, que Rorem acota con *occasionally*.

«The entire pattern of triads, including the triple triad of the nine ranks of angels, is entirely characteristic of the author.» — Rorem generaliza el patrón triádico al corpus entero.

«It probably derives not from any trinitarian model but from the Neoplatonic fascination for the way an intermediary, or mean (or middle) term between extremes, creates a triad.» — y propone su origen con grado explícito, *probably*: no el modelo trinitario sino el término medio neoplatónico.

«For example, the Platonic ideals form a mean term between the One and the many, and thus attempt to provide some linkage between them.» — con el ejemplo que da.

«Dionysius borrowed this idea of middle terms to form triads and thus to create a continuum or a hierarchy.» — y la operación que le atribuye.

«For Dionysius, authority and revelation flowed from God down through the angelic beings to the hierarchs. Through them it continued down to the priests and then to the deacons, and finally to the various groups of laity, still in proper hierarchical order.» — Rorem describe el descenso de autoridad y revelación por la escala dionisiana.

«This pyramid was symbolized in the positions they occupied during the communion service, as Demophilus was immediately reminded» — y su figura litúrgica.

«Do not the sacred symbols shout this? Not every participant is simply removed from the Holy of Holies. No. First to approach it is the rank of sacred initiators [the hierarchs]. Then come the priests and then the deacons. The monks have their rightful place at the doors of the inner sanctuary.» — Dionisio a Demófilo sobre las posiciones en la sinaxis, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1088D-1089A, 272-73.

«The position of the [clergy] at the divine altar symbolizes the rank they hold.... To the obedient monks, to the sacred people, to the orders being purified, they make known, according to merit, those divine things which were safe from all contamination until the Holy of Holies was compelled to endure your arrogant invasion.» — continuación de esa misma cita, con la restitución entre corchetes que el propio Rorem imprime.

«The liturgical locations visualized here reflect the overall relationships of God, the clergy, and the laity.» — Rorem lee las posiciones litúrgicas como figura de la relación entera.

«Dionysius speaks often of the three powers of purification, illumination (some» — la tríada de potencias que Rorem destaca; el tramo se corta antes del paréntesis que abre la variante *contemplation*.

«His system also involves three sacraments: baptism, the synaxis (Communion), and the consecration of the» — y la tríada sacramental, cortada antes del compuesto *myron-ointment*.

«We must now sum up. The holy sacraments bring about purification, illumination and perfection. The deacons form the order which purifies. The priests constitute the order which gives illumination.» — Dionisio en La jerarquía eclesiástica poniendo en correspondencia sacramentos, órdenes y potencias, citado por Rorem con la referencia 536D, 248; el libro reimprime este mismo pasaje en la plana 129, al comentar ese capítulo, y el ancla se fija aquí, en la primera aparición.

«conformity with God, make up the order which perfects. As for those who are being purified, they do not partake of the sacred vision or communion. The sacred people is the contemplative order. The order of those made perfect is that of the monks who live a single-minded life» — continuación de la misma cita al otro lado del corte de chunk, donde el troceo parte *living in conformity with God*; el pasaje vuelve en la plana 129.

«This outline, however, is only the beginning. The full picture is yet more complicated and resists depiction. It will not be fully introduced until part III, on The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.» — Rorem declara provisional el esquema de tríadas que acaba de dar.

«It takes considerable discipline to appreciate the novelty and creativity involved in each use of this word family in the Dionysian writ» — la advertencia de método de Rorem sobre la novedad del término; el tramo se corta en el guion de fin de renglón de *writ-ings*.

«The starting point of this terminological cluster is the word hierarch, which was used long before the Areopagite in non-Christian texts to refer to a leader of sacred ritual.» — Rorem traza la etimología: *hierarch* es anterior al corpus y designaba en textos no cristianos al jefe del rito.

«The word consists of hieros (sacred) and arche (source). The latter term is often used to form compound words in the Dionysian vocabulary.» — y descompone el término.

«The thearchy, to take the example introduced above with regard to Letter 2, is literally the "source of divinity." The word hier-arch meant the source of the sacred, humanly speaking.» — con el paralelo de *thearchy* y la glosa de *hier-arch*.

«While extremely rare in Christian writings, the word was at least known and could be applied to clergy.» — Rorem acota el uso cristiano previo del término.

«By creating the abstract noun hierarchy from the cultic title hierarch, Dionysius invented a word for a structure or system for "sourcing" or channeling the sacred, and linked it all inextricably to the single leader.» — y describe la acuñación: un sustantivo abstracto para un sistema que canaliza lo sagrado y queda atado al jefe único.

«Dionysius claimed that the hierarch is named after the hierarchy, but the opposite is in fact the case: hierarchy was derived from hierarch.» — Rorem enfrenta lo que el corpus dice de su propio término con el orden que él sostiene.

«He used the existing term for a cultic leader to create the new word hierarchy and to imply that this person (the hierarch) completely dominates the system or arrangement (the hierarchy).» — y la intención que le adjudica a esa acuñación.

«We have a venerable sacred tradition which asserts that every hierarchy is the complete expression of the sacred elements comprised within it. It is the perfect total of all its sacred constituents. Our own hierarchy is therefore said to embrace every one of its sacred constituents. Thanks to this, the divine hierarch, following upon his consecration will attend to all his most sacred activities. Indeed, this is why he is called a» — Dionisio en el capítulo primero de La jerarquía eclesiástica, citado por Rorem con la referencia 373C, 197; el tramo se corta antes del entrecomillado siguiente.

«talk of "hierarchy" you are referring in effect to the arrangement of all the sacred realities. Talk of "hierarch" and one is referring to a holy and inspired man, someone who understands all sacred knowledge, someone in whom an entire hierarchy is completely perfected and known.» — continuación de la misma cita al otro lado del corte de plana; la plana 37 imprime el encabezado corrido con el OCR corrompido, *Pseudo-Dlonysius*.

«For Dionysius the hierarchy includes everyone from top to bottom, including the penitents and the possessed, not just the highest clergy, as implied in some modern uses of the word hierarchy.» — Rorem separa el sentido dionisiano del moderno: la jerarquía incluye también a penitentes y posesos.

«The hierarch is the mediator of divine things, and transmits some of his authority and knowledge to the order below him (the priests) and through them to the next order, and so on.» — y describe la transmisión de autoridad y conocimiento por grados.

«Perfection is his alone, but the lower two activities or powers are also shared with the priests, and the lowest power of purification is also shared with the deacons.» — con el reparto de las tres potencias entre los tres órdenes.

«But it is obvious that the order of hierarchs is not solely preoccupied with perfection. It also brings illumination and purification. Similarly, the order of priests has the understanding both to illuminate and to purify. For although inferiors may not boldly and sacrilegiously trespass on the functions of their superiors, the more divine powers have, in addition to their own, the sacred understanding of the inferior ranks as part of their own perfection.» — continuación de la misma cita, con la reserva que ella misma trae: los superiores incluyen las potencias de los inferiores.

«It was exactly by boldly and sacrilegiously trespassing on the functions of a superior that the fictional Demophilus earned the stern rebuke of Letter 8.» — Rorem cierra el caso de Demófilo devolviéndolo a la fórmula de la cita.

«The sequence of an ascending hierarchical order in the recipients of the letters is resumed in the ninth letter to another hierarch with added status, the biblical Titus, and then the tenth letter to John the theologian, apostle, and evangelist.» — y anota cómo se reanuda la escalera de destinatarios tras la ruptura.

«That the order of correspondents is disrupted by a monk and that the very contents of this letter also concern a monk's dramatic disruption of the hierarchy, with the resulting Dionysian rebuke, is no coincidence. It is the result of the literary creativity of the author.» — Rorem niega que la coincidencia entre forma y contenido sea casual.

«Several seemingly incidental features of the corpus, whether the very name Dionysius, the headings of the letters, or the overall sequence of the major treatises, may subtly reinforce a major or minor point.» — y generaliza la lectura con el grado que él le pone, *may subtly reinforce*.

«So then give the appropriate place to desire, to anger, and to reason. Accept the place assigned to you by the divine deacons. Let them accept what the priests have assigned to them. Let the priests accept what the hierarchs have assigned to them. Let the hierarchs bow to the apostles and to the successors of the apostles. And should one of these last [the hierarchs] fail in his duty then let him be set right by his peers. In this way no order will be disturbed and each person will remain in his own order and in his own ministry.» — Dionisio a Demófilo sobre el orden entre apetito, ira y razón y entre los grados eclesiásticos, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1093C, 276.

«Almost in passing, the author refers to hierarchical subdivisions within each being: desire, anger, and reason (also at 1093A, 275, where reason is to be in charge» — Rorem señala la jerarquía interior al individuo como tema menor del corpus.

«each intelligent being, heavenly or human, has his own set of primary, middle, and lower orders and powers» — el otro pasaje donde asoma esa jerarquía interior, de La jerarquía celeste 10, con la referencia 273C, 174.

«Similarly, Demophilus is lectured only briefly on the societal implications of hierarchical bonds between people: judges, governors, master and servant, old and young, father and son» — y la aplicación social, que Rorem también declara breve.

«The author's dominant concern is not the hierarchical relationships within an individual or a society but those within the church.» — Rorem fija dónde está el interés dominante del corpus.

«Only at this point in the entire corpus is there any higher authority than a hierarch.» — y señala la única excepción del corpus a la autoridad del jerarca.

«On the one hand, the reference to the apostles and their successors could mean that each local hierarch is responsible to a specific apostolic successor in the sense of a patriarch, as the Scholiast (one of the commentators included in the Scholia) surmises; the first-century pseudonym prevented Dionysius from being that specific.» — la primera lectura posible de esa excepción, atribuida al Escoliasta.

«On the other hand, the reference to being "set right by his peers" seems to imply a collegial relationship among hierarchs, presumably meeting together.» — y la segunda, que Rorem enuncia con *seems to imply*.

«Except for this text and the hierarch's ordination, Dionysius portrays only a single local community with its monarchical hierarch, whose authority is absolute and never qualified.» — Rorem describe la comunidad única y monárquica que el corpus retrata.

«The hierarch receives revelation and authority from God as mediated by angels but never from or through other humans.» — con la exclusión que le pone.

«Dionysius rebukes Demophilus and commands that he should learn to have mercy on those who repent, as did the priest who was wrongly pushed aside.» — Rorem separa el principio formal del contenido del caso: la misericordia con el penitente.

«The final example of humble generosity is a curious tale of a Cretan named Carpos, which echoes both Socrates's account in Gorgias (523-24) and also an early Christian story.» — Rorem sitúa el relato de Carpos entre el Gorgias de Sócrates y un relato cristiano antiguo.

«In Carpos's midnight vision, two apostates from his own community were below him on the brink of hell. As Carpos himself was cheering their demise and helping some serpents dispose of the wretches, Christ was compassionately coming down to help them and to chide Carpos for his unchari» — la visión de Carpos tal como Rorem la resume; el tramo se corta en el guion de fin de renglón de *unchari-table*.

«He never began the holy sacraments of the mysteries without having a propitious vision first appear to him in the preliminary sacred prayers» — la frase con que el corpus presenta a Carpos, citada por Rorem con la referencia 1097C, 278.

«This bears examination, for we will encounter two more people, Hierotheus (Divine Names 2, 648B, 65, and Divine Names 3, 681D, 70) and Moses (Mystical Theology, 1000CD, 136-37), who exhibit a complicated linkage of extraordinary religious experiences, often described in language borrowed from Neoplatonism, to standard liturgical practices, usually described with recognizable if unconventional Christian vocabulary.» — Rorem anuncia el patrón que le interesa: experiencia religiosa extraordinaria descrita en lengua neoplatónica y atada a la práctica litúrgica, en Hieroteo y en Moisés.

«I have now shown that the order of hierarchs has the task of consecration and of perfection, that the illuminative order of priests brings light and that the task of the deacons is to purify and to discern the imperfect.» — Dionisio en La jerarquía eclesiástica sobre el reparto de tareas entre jerarcas, presbíteros y diáconos, citado por Rorem con la referencia 508C, 238; el libro reimprime el pasaje en la plana 125 y el ancla se fija aquí, en la primera aparición.

«To put the matter simply. Through the mediation of the primary beings, those of secondary rank receive whatever» — el principio formal de la mediación en la Carta 8, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1093A, 275; el troceo parte la plana 38 en dos chunks y la frase sigue en *has been assigned to them by that Providence which is harmonious and thoroughly just*.

«has been assigned to them by that Providence which is harmonious and thoroughly just» — continuación de esa misma cita al otro lado del corte de chunk.

«Letter 9 resumes the ascending hierarchical order of recipients by addressing "Titus, the hierarch.» — Rorem reanuda la escalera de destinatarios con la Carta 9.

«Before giving an exegesis of these symbols (from Proverbs 9:1—5) and others, the author provides a complex and crucial discussion of his interpretive method regarding symbolism in general.» — Rorem localiza en esa carta la discusión del método interpretativo, y remite los símbolos a Proverbios 9:1-5.

«First, Dionysius extends the fabricated historical context of the letter even further by referring to Timothy as well as to an entire treatise ostensibly» — Rorem llama fabricado al marco histórico de la carta y señala la remisión a Timoteo; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«The treatise may never have been written at all, but the epistle seems to summarize its purported contents nicely.» — y consigna la duda sobre la existencia de La teología simbólica con su grado, *may never have been written*.

«I thought it necessary to explicate as well as I could to him [Timothy] and to others the great variety of sacred symbols used by scripture to reveal God, for if one looks at them from the outside they seem filled with an incredible and contrived fantasy» — Dionisio sobre su propia Teología simbólica, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1104C, 281.

«in the Songs there are those passionate longings fit only for prostitutes» — el último de esa serie, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1105B, 282.

«multiple shapes and forms [may] be given to what has neither shape nor form ... to enable the one capable of seeing the beauty hidden within these images to find that they are truly mysterious, appropriate to God, and filled with a great theological light» — la razón que la carta da para esos símbolos, citada por Rorem con la referencia 1105C, 283 y con la restitución entre corchetes que él imprime.

«Thus the numerous biblical examples are introduced as externally filled with incredible and contrived fantasy, but then are summarized as containing hidden beauty.» — Rorem señala la inversión que la carta opera sobre sus propios ejemplos.

«The external absurdity of such symbols protects from the profane and reveals to the initiated "the simple, marvelous, transcendent truth of the symbols» — y el doble efecto que le adjudica, con la referencia 1105C, 283.

«Dionysius mentions quickly his understanding of the double rationale for obscure and difficult symbols.» — Rorem enuncia la doble razón del símbolo oscuro.

«On the one hand, such symbols prevent outsiders from usurping privileged knowledge. On the other hand, once the interpretive methods are known, the initiates will be able to understand these symbols, which then reveal divine truths.» — con sus dos mitades.

«The motives for symbolism are secrecy and revelation, as accommodated to the abilities of the interpreters.» — y el resumen que Rorem da de ellas.

«the most sacred things are not easily handled by the profane but are revealed instead to the real lovers of holiness» — la formulación del propio corpus sobre ese doble motivo, con la referencia 1105C, 283.

«This double rationale for symbols, whether biblical or liturgical, underlies the author's extended interpretations of these symbols in this letter and throughout his works.» — Rorem extiende esa razón al conjunto de las interpretaciones del corpus.

«But there is a further point to understand. Theological tradition has a dual aspect, the ineffable and mysterious on the one hand, the open and more evident on the other. The one resorts to symbolism and involves initiation. The other is philosophic and employs the method of demonstration.» — Dionisio en la Carta 9 partiendo la tradición teológica en dos, la inefable y la manifiesta, citado por Rorem.

«The one uses persuasion and imposes the truthfulness of what is asserted. The other acts and, by means of a mystery which cannot be taught, it puts souls firmly in the presence of God.» — continuación de esa misma cita, con la distinción entre persuadir y obrar.

«principally from the Old Testament: God's womb, heart, mouth, and bosom; trees, roots, water, and light; God's drinking, inebriation, sleep, and hangover; his anger, grief, curses, and tricks.» — el inventario de símbolos bajos para Dios que la Carta 9 enumera, del vientre y la boca a la embriaguez y la resaca; el troceo reemite el marcador de plana a media frase y el tramo abre tras *He then supplies numerous examples of the lowlier symbols for God,*.

«Indeed we see the blessed angels using riddles to introduce the divine mysteries. Jesus himself speaks of God by means of parables, and passes on to us the mystery of his divine activity by using the symbolism of a table.» — cierre de la cita de la Carta 9 sobre los dos modos de la tradición teológica, con la referencia 1105D-1108A, 283.

«This passage presents many of the author's key terms regarding biblical and» — Rorem declara ese pasaje como cantera de los términos técnicos del corpus; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«The theological tradition is the scriptural data, as evident from the context of this letter and from the overall use of the word theology and its cognates to mean first of all the word of God.» — y fija el sentido de *theological tradition* en el corpus.

«Such a contrast led medieval theologians to cite this text, and others from other authors, when claiming that doctrinal argumentation could not rest solely on allegorical interpretations of biblical symbols» — Rorem adjudica a esa distinción un uso medieval preciso: negar que la argumentación doctrinal descanse solo en la alegoría.

«These symbolic passages, rightly understood, actually lead the initiate into a mystery (the activity called mystagogy), indeed into the presence of God.» — y nombra la operación que el corpus les asigna, la mistagogia.

«A symbol itself has two sides, as just discussed in this letter: the external absurdity and the internal meaning.» — Rorem desdobla el símbolo dionisiano en dos caras.

«This duality will often be expressed in spatial terms, namely, the lower perceptible level and the higher conceptual content.» — y señala la forma espacial en que el corpus la expresa.

«But the text goes on to introduce another type of symbol besides the biblical ones, namely, "the sacraments of the most holy mysteries.» — Rorem añade el segundo tipo de símbolo, el sacramental.

«The interpretation of these symbols is the agenda of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.» — y lo remite al tratado donde se interpreta.

«By way of an authoritative conclusion, Jesus himself is invoked regarding the complementarity of these two types of symbols, biblical and liturgical.» — Rorem señala a quién invoca la carta para cerrar: Jesús, que habla en parábolas y celebra la Cena.

«The relationship between the Bible and the liturgy, and the author's single method for interpreting them both, can only be appreciated gradually, as his scriptural and liturgical hermeneutics unfold in The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.» — y declara que el método único para ambos solo se aprecia despacio.

«We have therefore to run counter to mass prejudice and we must make the holy journey to the heart of the sacred symbols. And we must certainly not disdain them, for they are the descendants and bear the mark of the divine stamps. They are the manifest images of unspeakable and marvelous sights» — el cierre metodológico de la Carta 9, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1108C, 284.

«Dionysius was asked, he tells us, to interpret some passages about Wisdom's house, bowl of wine, and food in Proverbs 9.» — Rorem consigna el encargo de la Carta 9 con el grado que le corresponde, *he tells us*.

«Some of the references are not apparent in an English translation of the Bible from the Hebrew text, but only in the Greek Septuagint version that Dionysius read, here and throughout the Old» — y señala que los símbolos dependen de la Septuaginta griega y no del hebreo; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«The bowl, being round and uncovered, has to be a symbol of the Providence which has neither a beginning nor an end, which is open to all and encompasses all. Proceeding outward to everything, it yet remains in itself and continues to be its unaltered self» — la exégesis de la crátera en la Carta 9, citada por Rorem con la referencia 1109B, 285-86; el troceo pierde la comilla de cierre de esta cita.

«The other symbols are interpreted in a similarly free style, such as God's drunkenness as a divine ecstasy, or standing outside oneself (in this case God as beyond or outside of all things), God's sleep as the divine transcendence beyond any of our direct communications, and God's wakefulness as ceaseless care for us.» — Rorem resume las demás exégesis de la carta: la embriaguez como éxtasis, el sueño como trascendencia, la vigilia como cuidado.

«The letter contains many such interpretations, and refers the reader again to The Symbolic Theology, which purportedly covers even more symbols and is enclosed with this letter for Titus to read.» — y consigna la remisión a La teología simbólica, con el grado *purportedly*.

«Providence, a way of indicating God's farsighted care for all things, proceeds outside of itself in order to care for all.» — Rorem glosa la Providencia como salida de sí para cuidar de todo.

«This terminology and the entire conceptual framework are utterly foundational to the Dionysian corpus, and therefore to a right interpretation of it.» — y declara ese vocabulario fundamento del corpus entero.

«Both explicitly and implicitly, Dionysius presents God in the Neoplatonic language of "remaining, procession, and return (or» — Rorem nombra la terna neoplatónica con que el corpus habla de Dios; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«God remains unchanged, yet proceeds downward to all and indeed returns them all upward to unity with the Divine.» — y la despliega.

«The spatial imagery of remaining, proceeding down, and returning up (or uplifting) recurs at crucial points throughout the corpus» — con el alcance que le da en el corpus.

«proceeds step by step down to everything without ever ceasing to remain within itself» — la formulación de la propia Carta 9, citada por Rorem con la referencia 1109D, 286; el troceo pierde también aquí la comilla de cierre.

«The tenth letter summarizes the author's pseudonymous claim to the apostolic age in its very title: "To John the theologian, apostle and evangelist, an exile on the island of Patmos» — Rorem lee el título mismo de la Carta 10 como resumen de la pretensión apostólica, con la referencia 1117A, 288.

«Beloved and blessed soul—and this is something which I, more than many, can say—I salute you» — el saludo de la Carta 10 a Juan, citado por Rorem con la referencia 1117A, 288.

«As this greeting and the rest of the brief letter document, we are to consider Dionysius and John first as contemporaries, a chronology that requires Dionysius to have been a very young man when he saw the eclipse of the crucifixion under Tiberius» — Rorem saca la cuenta cronológica que esa ficción impone al personaje.

«A.D. 14-37) and a very old man ("around ninety," says the scholiast, John of Scythopolis) when he wrote this letter to John, who was exiled under Domitian» — y el otro extremo de esa cuenta, con la cifra que el propio escoliasta Juan de Escitópolis le pone, *around ninety*.

«Centuries of readers considered the Dionysian writings in precisely this historical context, namely, the first century.» — Rorem consigna cómo se leyó el corpus durante siglos.

«Consequently, the authority of their apostolic provenance was immense, even if we modern readers are scarcely able to grant them such a status.» — y la autoridad que de ahí salía, con la distancia que él marca para el lector moderno.

«the visible is truly the plain image of the invisible" and "some [are] already united here and now with» — las dos frases de la Carta 10 que Rorem retiene como resumen del corpus, con la referencia 1117B, 289.

«The relationship of the visible and the invisible runs through the entire Dionysian system.» — Rorem declara esa relación eje del sistema.

«The word visible is not here restricted to the sense of sight, even though the image of light is crucial in the corpus and is implied in the concept of illumination or enlightenment. Rather, the visible stands here for all sense perception, whatever is perceptible in the physical realm of the senses.» — y amplía *visible* a toda percepción sensible.

«But the negation involved in the word in-visible is characteristically Dionysian in that this realm is not exhausted by the conceptual.» — Rorem lee la negación de *in-visible* como marca dionisiana: lo invisible no se agota en lo conceptual.

«The realm of ideas is not the highest part of the invisible, for ideas too must be negated and abandoned in order to approach the transcendence of God, and indeed to be united with God.» — y saca la consecuencia sobre las ideas.

«To become "united here and now with God" (1117B, 289) is the highest goal of the Dionysian journey, and is the explicit subject of The Mystical Theology.» — Rorem fija la meta del camino dionisiano y el tratado que la trata.

«Yet, how Dionysius understands that union and how he envisions attaining it can only be grasped through a patient investigation of the entire body of writings.» — con la condición que le pone al lector.

«Contrary to many thumbnail presentations of the corpus, The Mystical Theology can only be approached after appreciating The Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and The Divine Names. There are no shortcuts.» — y la objeción de Rorem a las presentaciones abreviadas del corpus.

«Although really an appendix within the corpus itself, the Letters have been the starting point in this part for two reasons: their brief form and their wide-ranging contents.» — Rorem justifica otra vez su decisión de empezar por las Cartas, que en el corpus son apéndice.

«Second, the subjects treated and the perspectives glimpsed serve to preview most of the basic concerns of the enigmatic author.» — con la segunda de las dos razones.

«More complex is the relationship of the two hierarchical treatises to the other two, in terms of both their contents and their sequence.» — y localiza la parte compleja.

«There are no historical reasons for ordering them according to supposed dates of composition, since they were meant to be encountered all at once as a single discovery.» — Rorem niega que haya base histórica para ordenarlos por fecha, y da la razón: el corpus se presenta como hallazgo único.

«We have only the author's own statements and clues as to their internal order and sequence.» — con lo único que queda.

«The order of treatises in much of the manuscript tradition is followed by most commentators as indicating the proper order of treatises: The Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, The Divine Names, and The Mystical Theology.» — el orden que Rorem consigna como el seguido por la tradición manuscrita y por la mayoría de los comentaristas.

«Although there are both formal and material reasons to question this order, as I shall discuss in part V, there is also a strong sequential rationale for using it to present the corpus.» — y la reserva que él mismo le pone, anunciando su discusión en la parte V.

«Yet even when the field is restricted to the direct Western uses (and misuses) of Dionysius in the Middle Ages, the topics are so diverse that an introductory study can only sketch some rough outlines.» — Rorem acota el alcance de su tratamiento de la influencia medieval.

«The exposition of each treatise will conclude with a discussion of the medieval legacy of that work and its principal topic.» — y declara dónde va colocada en el libro.

«The Letters themselves contain some passages and themes that were cited and adapted by later authors.» — con la transición a la influencia de las Cartas mismas.

«The order of the Dionysian treatises is partly simple, partly complex. Dionysius clearly states that The Celestial Hierarchy precedes The Ecclesiastical» — Rorem separa lo que el corpus dice de su propio orden de lo que queda abierto; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *Hierarchy and that The Divine Names precedes The Mystical Theology*.

«Since they located Dionysius at the very start of the formative tradition of the church fathers, they had a profound respect for his authority.» — Rorem explica de dónde salía la autoridad del corpus para los medievales.

«We must first identify which edition, which Latin translation, and which prior interpreters conveyed the Dionysian material to the author in question.» — y enuncia la primera cautela de método para estudiar esa influencia.

«Further, the Dionysian writings may be cited only fleetingly or not at all where one might expect to find them, and then may suddenly become a central authority in an argument, indeed on both sides of an argument, where not anticipated.» — con la segunda, sobre lo imprevisible de las citas.

«A text may be applied completely out of context, or extrapolated far beyond its original arena, but almost always for the sake of lending apostolic authority.» — y la tercera, sobre el uso fuera de contexto.

«The best way to frame the question is in terms of the medieval uses and abuses of these texts, as illustrated with material from the Letters regarding two topics, hierarchy and allegory.» — Rorem formula así el asunto y anuncia los dos temas que tratará desde las Cartas.

«As pointed out above, the word hierarchy is probably of Dionysian coinage.» — Rorem repite la acuñación con su grado explícito, *probably*.

«It quickly won general acceptance in the Greek language and in Latin translation, undoubtedly because it conveniently crystallized and conveyed a concept already in broad use.» — y propone por qué se aceptó tan pronto.

«The novel word hierarchy received very little comment in the Scholia of John and Maximus, who seemed to accept the new word as a matter of course.» — Rorem mide el silencio de los Escolios de Juan y Máximo sobre el término nuevo.

«The ninth-century Western scholars who first translated the Dionysian writings, Hilduin and Eriugena, embraced the new word by simply transliterating it from Greek into Latin.» — y consigna que Hilduino y Eriúgena lo transliteraron en vez de traducirlo.

«Only when Hilduin presented the word for the first time did he pause to give it a true translation: sacer principatus (sacred» — con la única traducción que Hilduino da, *sacer principatus*; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«Otherwise, the Latin translators simply accepted a new word, hierarchia, and passed it on to many other languages. Transliteration was simple, but the meaning of the word, and its applications, proved exceptionally fluid.» — y la reserva de Rorem sobre lo que la transliteración no resolvió.

«Hilduin's pupil and then fellow monk, Hincmar, became archbishop of Rheims in 845 and invoked the Areopagite's notion of local and angelic hierarchy, by way of the writings of Gregory the Great, to champion a strong view of order and authority within the church at large.» — Rorem nombra a Hincmaro de Reims como primer uso político del término, por vía de Gregorio Magno.

«In the same generation, Pope Nicholas I (858-67) suggested to the Byzantine Emperor Michael III (842-67) that Letter 8 should remind him how the clergy, including the patriarch of Constantinople, is immune from judgment by its lay inferiors, even an emperor.» — y el uso que el papa Nicolás I hace de la Carta 8 ante el emperador Miguel III.

«The word hierarchy quickly developed a meaning far removed from the Dionysian usage. As seen already in Hincmar and Nicholas, it came to mean the upper echelons of clerical authority, even though the original author's churchly hierarchy had consisted of sacraments, local clergy only, and laity.» — Rorem mide el desvío del término respecto del uso dionisiano.

«Going still further, the eleventh-century Byzantine theologian Nicetas Stethatos» — Rorem añade a Nicetas Stethatos entre quienes amplían la tríada dionisiana; el tramo se recorta antes de sus fechas, que el troceo parte a fin de renglón.

«added to the Dionysian parish clergy the higher triad of patriarchs, metropolitans, and archbishops.» — y lo que ese teólogo bizantino le añadió: patriarcas, metropolitas y arzobispos por encima del clero parroquial.

«Various authors of the twelfth and especially the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Latin West were even more creative in applying the word and the concept of hierarchy.» — y la libertad creciente de los latinos.

«In the twelfth century, to take a pivotal example, Hugh of Saint-Victor employed the Dionysian term hierarchy and Hilduin's translation to identify three sacros principatus or hierarchies: the divine, the heavenly, and the human.» — Rorem da el ejemplo de Hugo de San Víctor, que triplica la jerarquía usando la traducción de Hilduino.

«With Hugh and other Victorines like Richard (d. 1173) and especially Thomas Gallus, as well as Alan of Lille (d. 1203), the Dionysian writings emerged from Eriugena's unorthodox shadow and received a twelfth-century impetus that positioned them to become immensely influential thereafter, both in general and on hierarchy in particular.» — y adjudica a los victorinos y a Alano de Lila el impulso que saca al corpus de la sombra de Eriúgena.

«The concept of a hierarchy—a mediated pyramid of revelation and authority—thus proved so flexible and adaptable that it can be traced into many quarters, both ecclesiastical and political.» — Rorem resume la plasticidad del concepto.

«Arguments for papal power and primacy could find support in some of the general comments about hierarchical authority in Dionysius, but only if these comments were transferred from their original context of a single parish to the larger sphere of the whole church.» — con la condición que pone al uso papal del corpus: trasladar de la parroquia a la iglesia entera.

«Denis' blueprint for ecclesiastical organisation was unable as it stood to provide complete guidance to the modern organisation of Christian society, but there were thinkers in the thirteenth century who thought it necessary to try to adapt Denis' notions of hierarchy to a situation in which the existence of a papacy, of kings and of orders of friars had to be accounted for as they had not had to be accounted for in Denis» — David E. Luscombe sobre el desajuste entre el esquema dionisiano y la sociedad cristiana medieval, citado por Rorem.

«He postulated three hierarchies—the divine, the angelic, and the churchly—as well as a hierarchy of the individual soul.» — con las cuatro jerarquías que le atribuye.

«Like the Areopagite's ecclesiastical hierarchy, Bonaventure's was a triad of triads, but it was occupied by various categories, depending upon Bonaventure's perspective at the moment and always quite different from the Dionysian trio of sacraments, local clergy, and groups of laity.» — y la diferencia que marca entre la tríada de tríadas de Buenaventura y la dionisiana.

«Bonaventure put all laity, including kings, in the lowest triad, which is Dionysian enough. When it came to the hierarchy of authority, he gave pride of place to the pope of Rome, which is also a natural extrapolation from Dionysian principles.» — Rorem concede lo dionisiano de dos rasgos de ese esquema.

«But when he considered the active and contemplative lives according to degrees of perfection, he put in the middle group all active clergy who are not members of a religious order, including the pope.» — y señala dónde se aparta: el papa en el grupo medio por vida activa.

«The triad that is highest, at least regarding the spiritual life of contemplation, consists of religious or monastic orders, such as various forms of Benedictines, corresponding to the Thrones, the mendicant orders of Dominicans and Franciscans, linked to the higher Cherubim, and the rare rapt and ecstatic individuals, like Francis of Assissi, who correspond to the highest Sera» — con el escalón más alto, las órdenes religiosas emparejadas a Tronos, Querubines y Serafines; el tramo se corta en el guion de fin de renglón de *Sera-phim*.

«The Seraphic Doctor, as Bonaventure himself was later called by Jean Gerson (1363-1429), took the Dionysian terminology and triadic structure of hierarchy and put it to use in his own way.» — Rorem consigna quién le puso el apelativo y qué hizo con el vocabulario dionisiano.

«He is thus typical of the medieval theologians who used Dionysius freely, although few of them were bold and inventive enough to advance such a universal framework, and one that even hinted at a superiority of monastic orders above the Roman pontiff in matters of purity of contemplation (although this perspective did gain great Franciscan sup» — y lo declara típico, con la reserva sobre lo inusual de su marco universal; el tramo se corta en el guion de *sup-port*.

«Yet with regard to supervision and episcopal authority, Bonaventure and many other mendicant friars looked to the pope as their effective superior and supervisor instead of yielding to the intermediate layers of authority in the local clergy.» — Rorem señala la tensión: los mendicantes miran al papa por encima de los grados intermedios.

«In this, the mendicants cited Dionysius, despite the secular clerics (the local bishops) and their appeal to Letter 8 (to Demophilus), in which Dionysius states that monks must obey their local parish clergy.» — y el uso contrario que los obispos hacen de la misma Carta 8.

«This was actually an older issue, beginning with the Benedictine house at Bobbio and known to all from the case of Cluny in the tenth century. But it reached new heights of polemics in the thirteenth century, and, more importantly for our purposes, invoked the Dionysian texts freely.» — con la genealogía del pleito, de Bobbio a Cluny.

«The friars and their papal champions, finding some mutual benefit in bypassing the local bishops, could also use the Dionysian understanding of hierarchy, especially the principle that the higher cleric contains all the powers of the lower orders within himself.» — y la lectura contraria, la de los frailes y el papado.

«Thus the Roman pope carries the fullness of ecclesiastical powers in himself, and can choose to exempt certain communities from local supervision, and to override episcopal jurisdiction by claiming it for himself.» — con la consecuencia que sacaban.

«The entire dispute, which occupied Bonaventure and Aquinas, can be seen, as Congar argues, as a debate over the proper reading of Dionysius.» — Rorem recoge la tesis de Congar sobre el pleito entero, con el sujeto nombrado.

«Although Hincmar and Nicholas were virtually alone in invoking Dionysius in the ninth century regarding hierarchical authority (or in the tenth» — Rorem acota el alcance de esos dos casos del siglo IX; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«and eleventh centuries, for that matter), they previewed several of the key issues which took center stage in the high Middle Ages.» — y al otro lado del corte les da valor de anticipo de la baja Edad Media.

«Bonaventure (c. 1217-74) provides a striking example of a medieval theologian who transposed the Dionysian dynamics of local hierarchy into several» — Rorem presenta a Buenaventura como caso de trasposición de la jerarquía local; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«broad and interlocking domains, indeed into a fully hierarchical universe.» — y el alcance que le da al otro lado del corte.

«To the local bishops and their theologians, the Dionysian insistence that the monk Demophilus obey his parish clergy meant that the expansive mendicant friars and preachers should be directly accountable to their own local episcopal supervision, which mediated» — la lectura episcopal del caso de Demófilo; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *authority on behalf of the pope*.

«Regarding this issue, the first of the three case studies, the mid-thirteenth-century quarrel in Paris over the proper supervision of the mendicant friars involved the Dionysian texts most directly, as Yves Congar documented in the 1960s.29 Beyond the two hierarchical treatises by Dionysius, the tale of Demophilus in Letter 8 provided a dramatic focus.» — Rorem sitúa la disputa parisina de mediados del siglo XIII sobre la supervisión de los mendicantes y remite a Yves Congar; tramo largo releído entero en el crudo, la guarda anticosido salta por la llamada de nota que el OCR pega a la inicial siguiente.

«Second, consider the arguments for papal primacy advanced in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in the controversy between the papalists, who championed the ecclesiastical authority of the bishop of Rome, and the conciliarists, who promoted the authority of general councils.» — Rorem abre el segundo caso, la disputa entre papalistas y conciliaristas.

«Typical and formidable were the arguments in 1318 by Guillaume de Pierre Godin, "a champion of papal monarchy,... a papal extremist» — y da su ejemplo, Guillaume de Pierre Godin, con el juicio ajeno entrecomillado que él mismo cita.

«Guillaume knew and used the Dionysian texts, yet he cited the Areopagite only fleetingly on the authority of the hierarch.» — Rorem mide el uso real que ese papalista hace del corpus, y resulta escaso.

«Having read a misleading translation of "the divine order of hierarchs" as divinus pontificiun ordo, Guillaume applied this passage to the papacy. But the link to Dionysius is tenuous at this point.» — con el error de traducción del que pende la aplicación al papado, y la reserva que Rorem le pone.

«As noted, the Areopagite's churchly hierarchy was a local one only, headed by the clerical office of hierarch, or bishop, who seems answerable only to God (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 7, 564B, 256), except in one passage.» — Rorem repite el carácter local de la jerarquía dionisiana con la referencia de La jerarquía eclesiástica 7, 564B, 256.

«There is but a single comment (in Letter 8) about the relationship of these hierarchs to one another, and it supports not the pope but rather the conciliarists, if any of them had been combing the Areopagite's writings for support» — y señala que el único pasaje sobre la relación entre jerarcas favorece a los conciliaristas, no al papa.

«The reference to "successors of the apostles" may imply the authority of certain bishops or patriarchs, while the process of being "set right" by one's hierarchical or episcopal peers may imply some sort of ecclesiastical council, as sometimes argued in the Byzantine East.» — con el grado que Rorem le pone a esa lectura, dos veces *may imply*.

«But the western medieval readers, papalists or conciliarists, paid little attention to this text. In fact, they did not treat the Areopagite's works as central to their debate at all, but rather as a minor support.» — y el saldo: ninguno de los dos bandos hizo del corpus el centro de su argumento.

«Defenders of papal monarchy could only extrapolate some general principles from Dionysian hierarchical theory; conciliarists, for their part, shared a vision of the church also shaped by the overarching hierarchical mindset, even if they wished the authority of the pope to be tempered by the authority of a council.» — Rorem reparte lo que cada bando podía sacar del corpus.

«was a moderate conciliarist and at the same time was thoroughly convinced that the church is a "hierarchical order by which the lower are led back to God through the higher" and "the lowest are led to the highest through intermedi» — las dos fórmulas de la ley jerárquica que Jean Gerson tiene por dionisianas, en el tramo que abre la plana 49; el corte cae en el guion de fin de renglón de *intermedi-ates*.

«This principle of hierarchical order Gerson accepted and presented as Dionysian, although it was also shaped by centuries of intervening interpreters.» — Rorem separa lo que Gerson atribuye a Dionisio de lo que le llegó ya elaborado.

«In summary, neither papalists nor conciliarists made very much of the Dionysian texts themselves, and when they did quote or allude to the Areopagite they were actually reflecting a diffused Dionysian tradition rather than a direct dependence upon the original texts.» — y da el saldo de la disputa: una tradición dionisiana difusa, no los textos.

«The medieval question of papal authority relative to the secular authority of a king or emperor presents yet a third area for adapting the Dionysian principles of hierarchy.» — Rorem abre el tercer caso, papado contra poder secular.

«Amid the struggles around 1300 between Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip IV (the Fair) of France, Giles of Rome (Aegidius Romanus; c.1245-1316) wrote an extensive defense of papal authority over any political figure.» — con el marco: Bonifacio VIII contra Felipe IV y la defensa de Egidio Romano.

«Giles knew the Dionysian texts well, but his 1301 treatise On Ecclesiastical Power did not treat them as central.» — Rorem mide el peso real del corpus en ese tratado.

«He did invoke and adapt a principle, or divine law, which was by then a commonplace frequently associated with the name Dionysius, namely, that the lower are led to the higher through intermediates.» — y localiza qué sí toma: un lugar común ya asociado al nombre de Dionisio.

«It is the all-holy ordinance of the divinity that secondary things should be lifted up to the most divine ray through the mediation of the primary things» — el pasaje de La jerarquía eclesiástica del que sale esa ley, citado por Rorem con la referencia 504C, 236.

«Giles knew this law of divinity from prior authors like Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas as a general summary of Dionysian hierarchical principles.» — Rorem traza la vía por la que le llega a Egidio: Alberto Magno y Tomás de Aquino.

«From Giles, however, it passed directly into an even more authoritative context, the papal bull Unam Sanctam (1302), which claimed enormous power for the pope over against all other authorities, especially the political positions of king or emperor.» — y su paso a la bula Unam Sanctam de 1302.

«From this point, later authors even refer to this general principle of mediation as the Dionysian rule of divinity, that the lower relate to the higher only through the intermediaries.» — con el nombre que el principio acaba recibiendo.

«Nevertheless, Giles's own most explicit use of the Dionysian authority is in fact a major alteration of the Areopagite's understanding of hierarchy.» — Rorem enfrenta ese uso con lo que el corpus sostiene.

«Like Bonaventure, Giles used the nine-fold pattern of three groups of three, as explicitly modeled on the heavenly hierarchy in Dionysius, and he too applied it in a remarkably free and inventive way.» — y señala la libertad con que Egidio aplica el patrón de nueve.

«Neither Bonaventure nor Giles simply put the pope on the top rung of a nine» — con la precisión de que ninguno de los dos se limitó a coronar la escala con el papa; el tramo se corta en el guion de *nine-step*.

«Giles puts the pope as the vicar of God above the ecclesiastical hierarchy, which is composed of three tripartite groups of clerics all subordinate to ultimate papal authority.» — Rorem describe el esquema de Egidio.

«First, and closest to the supreme pontiff, are the cardinal bishops, cardinal priests, and cardinal deacons. Next are the primates or patriarchs, the archbishops, and the bishops. Then come the archdeacons, parish priests, and other clergy.» — con sus tres tríadas de clérigos.

«Here, perhaps following William of Auvergne (c. 1180-1249), the churchly hierarchy is seen to include all priests, but no monks or other laity.» — y la exclusión que Rorem señala, con el grado *perhaps*.

«Such a hierarchy is remotely Dionysian, in its general principles and triadic format, and yet it is decidedly different from the specifics of the local churchly hierarchy described in the Areopagite» — Rorem contesta su propia pregunta sobre si eso es influencia dionisiana, y reparte el sí y el no.

«Employing the Dionysian texts to serve their own purposes, Giles and Bonaventure illustrate the ambiguous uses of these texts, often as the deep background of a medieval argument» — con la fórmula que usa para ese uso: fondo de escenario de la documentación de un argumento.

«Giles went further still and suggested a tripartite hierarchy among the laity, in terms of imperial power. Around the emperor would be the first triad of kings, princes, and dukes.» — y la jerarquía laical que Egidio propone alrededor del emperador.

«Giles refrains from further detail, especially because his overall point is that the secular rulers, here cast in terms of a lay hierarchy, are subordinate to the clerical hierarchy, headed by the pope.» — Rorem localiza el propósito de esa construcción.

«To this end, he marshaled the usual arguments about the material realm of imperial rule being subordinate to the spiritual realm of ecclesiastical authority, as allegorically expressed by the two lights of Genesis 1:16, and the two swords of Luke 22:38.» — con los dos lugares comunes alegóricos a los que Egidio recurre, las dos lumbreras y las dos espadas.

«But none of this is specifically Dionysian. Even for his overall hierarchical principles of subordination and superordination, Giles knew and cited a much larger tradition, including Aristotle and Augustine of Hippo (354-430).» — Rorem niega que eso sea propiamente dionisiano y nombra la tradición más ancha que Egidio cita.

«In fact, when he advanced the allegorical understanding of the two lights and the two swords, a commonplace dating back before Dionysius to Origen (c. 185-C.254), he found his opponents poised to cite the Areopagite back at him in rebuttal.» — y el vuelco: los adversarios le devuelven al Areopagita, con la alegoría remontada hasta Orígenes.

«While Giles of Rome articulated papal supremacy on behalf of Pope Boniface VIII, their opponent, Philip IV, King of France, had an equally formidable spokesman in John of Paris (c. 1255-1306).» — Rorem presenta al portavoz del otro bando, Juan de París.

«His book On Royal and Papal Power (1302) was not an explicit rebuttal of Giles, but the issues and arguments were well-worn by this time.» — con la fecha y el género del libro.

«John based his arguments on canon law and scripture, and had only a passing need to rebut a Dionysian argument about hierarchy, since neither Giles nor the other advocates of papal supremacy made very much of Dionysian authority on this point.» — y la razón de que apenas necesitara rebatir el argumento dionisiano.

«As to the rebuttal, first, John agrees with the Dionysian view of hierarchy: lay rulers, even kings, are on the lowest level of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.» — lo que Juan de París concede.

«This quite Dionysian principle means to John that such authority is purely spiritual, since no one could claim that every priest and lowly deacon has temporal authority over a layman like King Philip.» — con el argumento que Juan deriva de ese mismo principio.

«Thus the entire ecclesiastical hierarchy is restricted to the spiritual realm, he concludes, leaving to the monarchs their rightful temporal powers and authorities in their own contexts.» — y su conclusión.

«In arguing for pontifical monarchy, Giles of Rome extended a hierarchical system far beyond the supposed warrant in Dionysius.» — Rorem enfrenta los dos usos contrarios del mismo corpus.

«Conversely, John of Paris, the opponent of papal authority in matters temporal, might seem bereft of any Dionysian argument, but nevertheless turns the Areopagite's comments on hierarchy to his advantage as well.» — y el del otro bando.

«Yet in their overall argumentation, neither author presents the Dionysian authority as central, although the use of Dionysius in Unam Sanctam was of strategic significance, both for the papal bull itself and also for the rising profile of the Dionysian authority on the question of hierarchy.» — con el saldo, y la excepción que Rorem le pone: la Unam Sanctam.

«stands as the Vicar of God, and that, around him, a kind of threefold hierarchy is provided or can be discerned» — Egidio Romano sobre el lugar del pontífice, citado por Rorem; el troceo parte la frase entre las planas 49 y 50, y abre con *For we would say that the Supreme Pontiff*.

«even grants, beyond the Dionysian texts, that above the clergy is the supreme monarch, the pope. But the pope, he argues, has only that authority over the laity which is exercised through the mediation of the churchly hierarchy, that is, through the lower clergy.» — Rorem consigna lo que Juan de París concede y la distinción con que acota la consecuencia papal; el troceo parte la plana 50 en el pronombre, y la frase abre con *He*.

«Furthermore, the royalist John of Paris could dramatically turn Dionysius against the papalists on another front. No solid theological argument, he says, can be based on allegory alone.» — Rorem abre el segundo tema de la influencia de las Cartas, la alegoría bíblica como prueba.

«The symbolic explanation of the sun and the moon or of the two swords as supporting the supremacy of ecclesiastical authority over the temporal is not by itself a proof of anything.» — con la aplicación que Juan de París le da.

«Three times John reminds his readers of the principle in Dionysius (and Augustine) that an allegorical interpretation of scripture is not by itself a conclusive basis for a theological argument.» — Rorem cuenta las veces que Juan invoca ese principio y nombra sus dos autoridades, Dionisio y Agustín.

«Symbolic interpretations of biblical swords or of the moon as inferior and subordinate to the sun could be arbitrary and misleading.» — y la razón que da.

«Here John is explicitly citing Letter 9 of Dionysius, and a passage in Augustine, in accordance with an understanding of the senses of scripture which John and many others adopted from Thomas Aquinas.» — Rorem localiza la fuente real de esa doctrina de los sentidos de la Escritura.

«Before examining some of the intricacies of this line of influence, let us note how quickly and drastically the specific topic has shifted, both within the discussion of same issue over papal authority and in the same author. We have moved from an argument over order and hierarchy to the rules for any such argumentation, namely, the medieval rules of scriptural hermeneutics.» — y señala el desplazamiento de tema dentro de un mismo autor y una misma disputa.

«Here, too, the extent of the Dionysian influence on the medieval history of biblical interpretation is ambiguous and problematic.» — con la reserva que Rorem pone a toda esta línea.

«Nor is a convincing argument drawn from figures of this kind, as Augustine says in a certain epistle against the Donatists. Dionysius also says in the Epistle to Titus that symbolical theology is not conclusive.» — Tomás de Aquino sobre el valor probatorio de la alegoría, citado por Rorem, con la remisión a la Carta a Tito, que es la Carta 9.

«There is nothing here except a certain allegorical reading from which no convincing argument can be drawn. This is because, as has been said already, according to Denis, mystical theology is not conclusive and, according to Augustine in his Letter to Vincentius [the Donatist], allegory is insufficient to prove» — y la formulación paralela de Juan de París, con la restitución entre corchetes que Rorem imprime.

«For Thomas Aquinas, Dionysius was one of the most important authorities of the early church, to be ranked with Augustine.» — Rorem mide el lugar de Dionisio en Tomás.

«He quoted the Dionysian writings some seventeen hundred times, wrote an extensive commentary on The Divine Names, and was undoubtedly influenced by the Areopagite in major ways, as discussed more generally in part IV.» — con la cifra que da de las citas y las dos obras en que se apoya.

«This passage, like the text from Augustine, does not really provide an exact source for Thomas's influential dictum that a theological argument can be drawn only from the literal sense of a passage, and not from any allegorical sense. It treats a similar theme, but only in a general way.» — Rorem objeta que ese pasaje sea fuente exacta del dictamen tomista.

«The increasing interest in the literal and historical sense of scripture among later medieval exegetes owed much to Thomas' viewpoint, which he presented in strategic places, such as the beginning of the Summa theologiae.» — y consigna el efecto del dictamen sobre la exégesis posterior.

«Like John of Paris, who neglected to acknowledge Thomas, Thomas himself sometimes failed to credit his real source on this point, namely, the author of the Sentences, Peter Lombard (c.1100-60).» — Rorem localiza la fuente omitida por Tomás, Pedro Lombardo.

«Lombard was well known both to Thomas and then to John, as to anyone who pursued theological study from the thirteenth century onward, since his Sentences was a standard textbook.» — con la razón de que fuera conocido por ambos.

«In it he wrote that "the correct procession of an argument is not out of tropical [or allegorical] expressions.» — la formulación de las Sentencias, con la restitución entre corchetes que Rorem imprime.

«Thus, in this case, Dionysius appears at first to be a strategic authority, both for John and for Thomas before him. Nevertheless, the fuller and more accurate picture shows a complicated trail of unacknowledged intermediate influences between Dionysius and John, such as Peter Lombard and Aquinas himself.» — Rorem separa la apariencia del rastro real de intermediarios.

«Many centuries, translations, and layers of theological reflection separate the original Dionysian texts from most of their appearances in the Middle Ages, where they often served as examples of apostolic authority.» — con la distancia que mide entre los textos y sus apariciones medievales.

«It was a natural temptation to attach the authority of the apostolic age, including Dionysius, to positions which were neither Dionysian nor apostolic.» — y la tentación que le adjudica al procedimiento.

«Not every claim to the Dionysian legacy can be substantiated, making the questions of influence even more complicated.» — Rorem niega que toda reclamación de herencia dionisiana se sostenga.

«More than one Dionysian text was bent to fit a later context, and often supplemented by the addition of helpful» — con la forma que toma esa manipulación; el tramo se corta antes del entrecomillado de *clarifications*.

«Amid the many tangential or superficial uses of the Dionysian texts, there are also several substantial trajectories of influence to trace.» — y el saldo que Rorem sí reconoce.

«Part II, on The Celestial Hierarchy, concludes by considering the Areopagite's influence on various medieval views of the angels first, and then of perceptible (aesthetic) symbols in art and architecture.» — Rorem declara cómo reparte el tratamiento de la influencia entre las partes del libro.

«Part III is a commentary on The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and will also situate that Dionysian treatise within the history of the genre of liturgical commentaries.» — con la parte III.

«Part IV, on The Divine Names, ends with a sketch of that work's influence on certain medieval theologians, especially Eriugena and Thomas Aquinas.» — con la parte IV.

«Finally, part V, on The Mystical Theology, will conclude with an overview of its reception in the history of medieval mysticism.» — y con la parte V.

«These brief sketches do not attempt to present extensive claims for some decisive Dionysian impact on multiple aspects of medieval thought.» — Rorem acota lo que esos esbozos pretenden.

«They only ask some initial questions about whether the Dionysian writings make an appearance, where they appeared, where they exerted any specific influence, and where they may have been strained or seriously distorted.» — y lo que sí preguntan.

«That the mendicants and the seculars, or a papalist like Giles of Rome and a royalist like John of Paris, could both quote Dionysius on opposing sides of the same argument illustrates the general comment of Alan of Lille: authority has a wax nose, it can be bent in diverse directions.» — Rorem cierra la parte con la sentencia de Alano de Lila sobre la nariz de cera de la autoridad.

«As a presumably ancient authority, Dionysius had his nose and his texts bent in several directions, on several topics, as we shall see.» — y la aplica al propio Dionisio.

«neglects to credit Aquinas for his argument, even though it is obvious from the wording used and sources claimed.» — Rorem señala el crédito que Juan de París omite a Tomás; el tramo abre al otro lado del corte de plana, tras *First, John typically*.

«Thomas used Letter 9 on eight occasions, often in conjunction with the passage from Augustine, and always to make the same point, namely, that symbolic theology is not argumentative, or conclusive.» — y mide el uso acotado que Tomás hace de la Carta 9, siempre para el mismo punto.

«On occasion, Thomas acknowledged his debt to Peter Lombard, but more often he preferred» — Rorem reparte los créditos de esa doctrina; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«hermeneutical principle cloaked only in the mantle of the ancient authorities, Augustine and Dionysius.» — y al otro lado del corte nombra bajo qué autoridades quedaba envuelto el principio.

«An introduction to the Dionysian treatises should start with The Celestial Hierarchy, for several reasons.» — Rorem abre la parte II justificando el orden que sigue.

«Much of the manuscript tradition presents it as the first of the treatises: The Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, The Divine Names, and The Mystical Theology.» — con la primera razón, el orden de la tradición manuscrita.

«A case can and will be made for placing the two hierarchical treatises after The Mystical Theology, as in the Paulist Press edition, but this is a structural argument that assumes a familiarity with the corpus, not a pedagogical order for introducing it.» — y la reserva que le pone, anunciando su propio argumento estructural.

«Furthermore, The Celestial Hierarchy comes first because in it we immediately encounter crucial facets of the author's theological method that recur throughout the writings.» — la segunda razón: el método teológico que ese tratado expone; el tramo se corta en el guion de *immedi-ately*.

«In the latter work, on the rites and offices of the church, the author explicitly refers to The Celestial Hierarchy as a book already written (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 1, 372C, 196), thus indicating the sequential relationship of these two treatises.» — Rorem fija la secuencia de los dos tratados jerárquicos por remisión interna, con la referencia 372C, 196.

«Letter 9 interpreted the biblical mixing bowl (1109B, 285-86) as a symbol for the procession and return of God, a conceptual framework that provides a foundation throughout these writings.» — y enlaza la parte II con la Carta 9 por la crátera como figura de procesión y retorno.

«Consideration of each treatise will begin with an overview of its contents by means of the chapter titles.» — la decisión de método que Rorem repite para cada tratado.

«Although the chapter titles are editorial additions and not original with the author (as discussed later), a list is here provided, along with an outline of this part in brackets.» — con la advertencia de que los títulos de capítulo son añadido editorial.

«As a treatise, The Celestial Hierarchy has influenced the history of Christian thought in two major ways, along with numerous lesser legacies.» — Rorem reparte la influencia del tratado en dos grandes vías.

«First, and quite specifically, it proposes an overall framework for understanding the angelic beings and for arranging them into three groups of three. This stimulated a medieval development of angelology, especially in the West, starting with Pope Gregory the Great.» — la primera, la angelología de tres tríadas y su desarrollo desde Gregorio Magno.

«Second, and more generally, it presents a complex method for interpreting religious symbols: the biblical symbols and names for the angels and for God, and the symbolic actions of the liturgy.» — y la segunda, el método de interpretación de los símbolos.

«This treatise and its methodological comments helped to shape medieval Western and Byzantine theories about symbols in general, both biblical and liturgical.» — con el alcance que le da.

«As part of a Dionysian tradition that passed through John Scotus Eriugena and probably Hugh of Saint-Victor (d. 1142), it specifically influenced the twelfth-century Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis with regard to the anagogical, or uplifting, power of stones, stained glass, and visual beauty in general.» — Rorem traza la vía por la que ese método llega a Suger, con el grado *probably* sobre Hugo de San Víctor.

«First, the title of a treatise is often supplemented by the title of its first chapter, which thus serves as a subtitle to the whole work.» — Rorem enuncia el primero de los tres rasgos que esa fórmula revela.

«Second, by means of the same phrase, these writings are presented as communications from "Dionysius" to "Timothy," the junior colleague, like the purported author, of Paul. As the biblical letters to Timothy seemed to give the young man advice in churchly matters, so these pseudonymous words pass on the wisdom of an elder to a younger churchman, even though Timothy preceded the real Dionysius in the faith.» — el segundo rasgo, la ficción del mayor que aconseja al menor, con el desajuste que Rorem señala: Timoteo precede al Dionisio real en la fe.

«Third, the technical term elder (presbyter) does not otherwise appear in the entire corpus, at least not to indicate a churchly office. The term for priest in the text itself, as opposed to in a title, is never presbyter but rather hiereus.» — el tercero, que el término de los títulos no es el del cuerpo.

«Similarly, the term fellow-elder or co-presbyter never appears in the body of the corpus at all, except for these three titles.» — con el mismo argumento para el otro término.

«Furthermore, other passages clearly imply that Dionysius and Timothy are not considered priests or elders but hierarchs or bishops.» — y la contradicción interna que Rorem consigna.

«Thus, the terminology of the titles is not consistent with the text itself, suggesting that perhaps an early editor put some inconsistent touches on the writings as they were passed on.» — de donde saca, con *perhaps*, la mano de un editor temprano.

«Some of these touches, such as the repetition of the names Dionysius and Timothy, reinforce the impact of apostolic authority.» — y la función que le adjudica a esos retoques.

«That title, in fact, is never the way the author refers to the human hierarchy in the text itself, where it is usually called "our hierarchy.» — Rorem señala que el propio título del segundo tratado no es el del texto, que dice *our hierarchy*.

«Thus, the third general feature of the corpus to be noted in this heading is that the terminology of such titles and subtitles is not original and can be misleading.» — con la conclusión del tercer rasgo.

«But for purposes of this study, the titles and subtitles will all be used and should be considered as accurate indicators of the contents unless explicitly challenged here or in the footnotes of the Paulist Press edition.» — y la decisión de método que Rorem toma pese a ello.

«Each procession of the Light spreads itself generously toward us, and, in its power to unify, it stirs us by lifting us up. It returns us back to the oneness and deifying simplicity of the Father who gathers us in» — la apertura de La jerarquía celeste en la traducción que Rorem cita, con la referencia 120B, 145.

«This sentence is preceded and followed by two biblical quotations that support the idea of procession and return: "Every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights» — Rorem localiza las dos citas bíblicas con que el tratado apuntala procesión y retorno, la primera de Santiago 1:17.

«In the full Neoplatonic context adapted by Dionysius, procession and return are actually the second and third terms in a tripartite pattern.» — Rorem acota la pareja procesión-retorno dentro de una terna.

«The overall motif, therefore, is remaining, procession, and return: the divine remains immanent in itself, yet it also proceeds outward or downward, and then reverts or returns back to itself.» — y la despliega entera.

«The motif of procession and return was essential to the philosophical structure of late Neoplatonism that clearly influenced Pseudo-Dionysius.» — Rorem adjudica el motivo al neoplatonismo tardío y declara la influencia sobre el corpus.

«Through him, among others, it profoundly shaped Christian theology and its systematic organization, especially as exitus and reditus.» — con su fortuna posterior en la teología cristiana.

«the eventual successor of Plato in Athens, received and refined this idea from his Neoplatonic predecessors, especially Iamblichus (c. A.D. 250-c. 325) and Syrianus (died c. A.D. 450), who claimed both continuity and some distance from their predecessors Plotinus (A.D. 205-70) and Porphyry (A.D. 232-c. 305).» — Rorem sitúa a Proclo en la cadena neoplatónica, con Jámblico y Siriano por delante y Plotino y Porfirio detrás; el tramo se recorta tras las fechas de Proclo, que el troceo parte a fin de renglón y span() funde en una cifra.

«The best direct access to late Neoplatonic procession and return is Proclus's handbook, Elements of Theology.» — y nombra los Elementos de teología como el mejor acceso directo a ese esquema.

«Each generation of Platonists seemed to add a new intermediary layer serving as a third term between two other levels.» — y el procedimiento que le atribuye a cada generación, con *seemed*.

«Plato himself posited the Ideas or conceptual Forms as mediating between the supreme One and the perceptible many, and also discussed the mediation of a World-Soul and other mediators in his Timaeus.» — con el caso de Platón.

«Aristotle emphasized the Nous or Mind to bridge the same gap.» — el de Aristóteles.

«Philo, the Jewish Hellenist (c. 13 B.C.-A.D. 45 or 50), pulled some of this together, saying that the perceptible world presents to us multiple instances of the Ideas which subsist in the Nous, or Mind, of God.» — y el de Filón.

«Each layer of this chain of being, which grew with Plotinus and others to encompass more and more intermediaries, had its own level of causation. It related to the realm below it as cause, and to that above it as caused.» — Rorem describe la cadena del ser y su lógica de causas.

«Borrowed whole from the realm of logic, the language of cause and effect helps us to avoid the evident fallacy of conceiving this theme spatially, even though most authors—ancient and modern—employ the imagery of a procession downward and a return upward.» — y advierte contra la lectura espacial del esquema, incluida la de los propios autores.

«Dionysius the Elder to Timothy the Fellow-Elder: Even though in various ways every divine enlightenment proceeds, out of its goodness, toward those provided for, it not only remains simple in itself but also unifies those it enlightens.» — el título del capítulo primero de La jerarquía celeste, que hace de subtítulo del tratado, citado por Rorem con la referencia 120A, 145; el libro lo imprime tres veces —en la lista de títulos de la plana 63, aquí y en el apéndice— y el ancla se fija en la primera.

«Every effect remains in its cause, proceeds from it, and returns to it.» — la formulación de Proclo que Rorem cita de los Elementos de teología; el libro la repite unas líneas más abajo en la misma plana, y el ancla se fija en la primera aparición.

«This statement of author and recipient is not really part of the» — Rorem recoloca la atribución del encabezado: no pertenece al capítulo primero sino al tratado entero; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *title to chapter 1, but part of the title of the overall treatise*.

«and to him [return] are all things" (Romans 11:36)» — la segunda cita bíblica con que el tratado apuntala procesión y retorno, Romanos 11:36, con la restitución entre corchetes que Rorem imprime; el troceo reemite el marcador de plana a media cita, que abre con *from him [procession]*.

«For the Platonists, there were multiple levels of reality and cau» — Rorem describe la escala platónica de niveles y causas; el tramo se corta en el guion de fin de renglón de *cau-sation*, al filo de la plana.

«sation, from the One as supreme cause of all on down to the many in this perceptible world.» — y al otro lado del corte, de la Unidad como causa suprema a la multitud del mundo sensible.

«But procession is not simply followed by return. These are rather two complementary ways of conceiving the single relationship of an effect to its cause, as simultaneously proceeding from it and yet reverting to it.» — Rorem niega la lectura secuencial de procesión y retorno y las declara dos modos de concebir una sola relación.

«Major studies of Proclus, the immediate source of Neoplatonic influence on Dionysius, generally conclude that this conceptual framework provided the overall structure for his philosophy.» — Rorem llama a Proclo fuente inmediata de la influencia neoplatónica sobre el corpus, y recoge el consenso de los estudios.

«the three moments of the Neoplatonic world-process, immanence in the cause, procession from the cause, and reversion to the cause—or identity, difference, and the overcoming of difference by identity. This triad is one of the governing principles of Proclus» — E. R. Dodds sobre los tres momentos del proceso neoplatónico, citado por Rorem.

«Dionysius used the theme of God's procession from unity to plurality to express several points of doctrine.» — Rorem abre el inventario de usos doctrinales del motivo en el corpus.

«He once described the unity of God as a remaining, and the trinitarian distinctions as processions.» — con el primero, la unidad como permanencia y las distinciones trinitarias como procesiones.

«He did not use this motif to establish any sense of hierarchy within the Godhead, which would have involved Arian subordinationism.» — y el límite que Rorem le pone: no hay jerarquía dentro de la divinidad.

«Nor did he engage in any specification of remaining, procession, and return as pertaining respectively to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. For Dionysius it is the entire triune Godhead that remains, proceeds, and returns.» — ni reparto de los tres momentos entre las personas.

«The existence of all things resulted from the same procession or outpouring of God» — la aplicación a la creación.

«Naturally, the doctrine of the incarnation could also be presented in terms of God's procession downward.» — y a la encarnación.

«The reversion or return could also be appropriated into the Areopagite's theological categories, since the Deity returns the world's divided plurality to a whole oneness and toward a oneness with its divine Self.» — con el retorno como reunión de la pluralidad.

«Dionysius and others after him connected this return very closely with salvation itself.» — y su enlace con la salvación.

«But such uses of the Neoplatonic construct of procession and return were not the Areopagite's primary appropriations of this theme.» — Rorem separa esos usos objetivos del uso principal.

«Those examples are all in the realm of objective reality (the being of God, creation, incarnation, salvation), which should be distinguished from the subjective or cognitive processes of revelation and spiritual knowledge.» — y traza la línea entre lo objetivo y lo cognitivo.

«Preferring subjective or cognitive epistemology to objective or metaphysical ontology, as one might summarize a modern study, the author adapted this entire motif to the way God's revelation reaches us and uplifts us.» — con la fórmula que él mismo atribuye a un estudio moderno.

«Of course, such uplifting is ultimately related to salvation, but the starting point for all this is the Dionysian doctrine of revelation.» — y el punto de partida que Rorem fija.

«Dionysius is here discussing God's self-revelation in terms of a divine descent down to our level, in order to return or uplift us.» — Rorem lee ese pasaje como doctrina de la autorrevelación divina.

«The veils, or "material means capable of guiding us" (121D, 146), are immediately identified as, among other things, the beautiful sights, odors, lights, examples, and Communion itself in the Eucharist» — y localiza qué son los velos sagrados de esa cita, con las referencias 121D, 146 y 124A, 146.

«through the sacred pictures of the scriptures so that he might lift us in spirit up through the perceptible to conceptual, from the sacred shapes and symbols to the simple peaks of the hierarchies of heaven» — la función anagógica de las imágenes escriturarias en La jerarquía celeste 1, con la referencia 124A, 147.

«The primary tasks of The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy are to identify this "variety of sacred veils" in the scriptures and the liturgy, and to elaborate on their anagogical, or uplifting, interpretation.» — Rorem fija la tarea de los dos tratados jerárquicos.

«The second chapter of The Celestial Hierarchy is a sustained methodological argument for the use of symbols in depicting the angels and God.» — y el carácter del capítulo segundo.

«It is especially concerned to justify those symbols that may seem most incongruous and insulting to the heavenly beings.» — con lo que ese capítulo se propone defender.

«Thus we should not be critical of the scripture writers for using such incongruous imagery, as though they should have used nobler language.» — Rorem saca la consecuencia sobre los autores bíblicos.

«This odd expression, an oxymoron, is at the heart of Dionysian hermeneutics, and will be explained in this chapter.» — y declara el oxímoron de las semejanzas desemejantes centro de la hermenéutica dionisiana.

«Now there are two reasons for creating types for the typeless, for giving shape to what is actually without shape. First, we lack the ability to be directly raised up to conceptual contemplations. We need our own upliftings that come naturally to us and which can raise before us the permitted forms of the marvelous and unformed sights. Second, it is most fitting to the mysterious passages of scripture that the sacred and hidden truth about the celestial intelligences be concealed through the inexpressible and the sacred and be inaccessible to the hoi polloi.» — las dos razones del símbolo que el propio tratado enumera, con la referencia 140A, 149.

«The symbols have a double rationale: to reveal and to conceal, to accommodate revelation to the capacities of the receivers and to keep it secret from the outsiders.» — Rorem condensa esa doble razón.

«In using perceptible symbols, revelation is accommodated to the cognitive abilities of the faithful, who are restricted to the perceptible dimensions of space and time as the starting points for spiritual knowledge.» — y explica la acomodación.

«To the initiated, the symbols serve as the very guide and way in, or up, to their interpretation. But to the uninitiated, the absurd exterior of the symbolic (as previewed in Letter 9) blocks their entrance to the inner meanings.» — con la función opuesta según el lector.

«They may find the absurd symbols laughable, which means that the perceptible exterior has accomplished its task of concealment.» — y el indicio que Rorem ve en la risa del profano.

«Here Dionysius provides a compact discussion of revelation's double way of describing divine things.» — Rorem anuncia el doble modo de la revelación.

«The Bible has some designations or names for God which seem straightforwardly accurate: word, mind, being, light, and life.» — con los nombres que parecen exactos.

«God is in no way like the things that have being and we have no knowledge at all of his incomprehensible and ineffable transcendence and invisibility» — la doctrina escrituraria de Dios que el tratado enuncia, con la referencia 141A, 150.

«It is the use of negations, demanded by the transcendence of God beyond all our concepts, which explains the scriptural dissimilarities.» — Rorem enlaza la negación con la desemejanza escrituraria.

«Since the way of negation appears to be more suitable to the realm of the divine and since positive affirmations are always unfitting to the hiddenness of the inexpressible, a manifestation through dissimilar shapes is more correctly to be applied to the invisible. So it is that scriptural writings, far from demeaning the ranks of heaven, actually pay them honor by describing them with dissimilar shapes so completely at variance with what they really are that we come to discover how those ranks, so far removed from us, transcend all materiality.» — el argumento del tratado sobre las formas desemejantes, con la referencia 141A, 150.

«It was to avoid this kind of misunderstanding among those incapable of rising above visible beauty that the pious theologians so wisely and upliftingly stooped to incongruous dissimilari» — la razón que el tratado da para ese descenso, con la referencia 141B, 150; el tramo se corta en el guion de *dissimilari-ties*.

«Incongruities are more suitable for lifting our minds up into the domain of the spiritual than similarities are» — la fórmula del tratado sobre la incongruencia, con la referencia 141B, 150.

«Indeed the sheer crassness of the signs is a goad so that even the materially inclined cannot accept that it could be permitted or true that the celestial and divine sights could be conveyed by such shameful things» — y la que hace de la crudeza misma un aguijón, con la referencia 141B, 150.

«One must learn how to interpret the dissimilar similarities (141C, 151), how to transfer attributes such as anger or desire from the lower realm of the senses up to the higher heavenly realm.» — Rorem describe la operación exegética que el tratado pide.

«Without such a hermeneutical transfer, attributes such as ignorance would be completely inappropriate to the celestial domain and would remain as an incomprehensible dissimilarity until they prodded the reader into interpretation.» — y lo que pasa sin ella.

«Of course one must be careful to use the similarities as dissimilarities, as discussed, to avoid one-to-one correspondences, to make the appropriate adjustment as one remembers the great divide between the intelligible and the perceptible» — el consejo de método del propio tratado, con la referencia 144C, 152.

«At this point some very important examples are introduced, confirming the impression that this method is to be applied not only to scriptural statements about the angels but also to all our knowledge about God.» — Rorem extiende el método de los ángeles a Dios.

«They simply illustrate the continuum of biblical symbolism for God, from sublime heights to degrading depths.» — y lee los ejemplos como continuo y no como división.

«Because they consist of exterior form and interior meaning, all symbols balance incongruity and insight.» — con la razón que da.

«Even the loftiest of them falls short of literal truth and even the lowliest contains some measure of accuracy, once properly interpreted.» — y el reparto que hace entre el símbolo más alto y el más bajo.

«Even the worm, points out a Scholiast, resembles Christ in an apparently spontaneous generation "without seed" from the virgin earth» — la lectura del gusano que Rorem adjudica a un escoliasta, con la referencia Scholia, 48A.

«This entire chapter sets out the Areopagite's method for interpreting the scriptural language for the angels, and for God as well. It is a methodological prologue to the rest of the treatise and to all Dionysian exegesis and reflection on theological language.» — Rorem declara el capítulo segundo prólogo metodológico de todo el corpus.

«Of course this ray never abandons its own proper nature, or its own interior unity. Even though it works itself outward to multiplicity and proceeds outside of itself as befits its generosity, doing so to lift upward and to unify those beings for which it has a providential responsibility, nevertheless it remains inherently stable and it is forever one with its own unchanging identity. And it grants to creatures the power to rise up, so far as they may, toward itself and it unifies them by way of its own simplified unity. However, this divine ray can enlighten us only by being upliftingly concealed in a variety of sacred veils which the Providence of the Father adapts to our nature as human beings.» — el rayo divino en La jerarquía celeste 1, citado por Rorem con la referencia 121B, 146; cita larga releída entera en el crudo, la guarda anticosido salta por pasar de setecientos caracteres.

«Of course we cannot actually think, he says, that the angels really do look like oxen or lions or eagles, or that they have multiple» — la objeción que el propio corpus se plantea sobre las imágenes bestiales de los ángeles, con la referencia 137A, 147-48; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *faces or carry spears or ride horses*.

«What we call lack of intelligence and lack of perception in animals and in objects is in fact the deficiency of reason and of perception. But when we are talking of immaterial and intelligent beings we say this, as befits holy beings. They, as transcendent beings, far surpass our discursive and bodily» — el ejemplo del tratado sobre la ignorancia atribuida a los ángeles, con la referencia 144B, 151; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«reason, just as material perception is something far beneath those entities which are intelligent and disembodied.» — cierre de esa misma cita al otro lado del corte de plana.

«it uses scriptural passages in an uplifting fashion as a way, provided for us from the first, to uplift our mind in a manner suitable to our nature» — el propósito anagógico que el tratado opone a esa objeción, con la referencia 137B, 148.

«For the very same things are both similar and dissimilar to God. They are similar to him to the extent that they share what cannot be shared. They are dissimilar to him in that as effects they fall so very far short of their Cause and are infinitely and incomparably subordinate to him.» — la simultaneidad de semejanza y desemejanza en Los nombres divinos, con la referencia 916A, 118; el libro reimprime este pasaje en la plana 175, al comentar ese capítulo, y el ancla se fija aquí.

«And I myself might not have been stirred from this difficulty to my current inquiry, to an uplifting through a precise explanation of these sacred truths, had I not been troubled by the deformed imagery used by scripture in regard» — el testimonio en primera persona con que el capítulo segundo cierra, citado por Rorem; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«to the angels. My mind was not permitted to dwell on imagery so inadequate, but was provoked to get behind the material show, to get accustomed to the idea of going beyond appearances to those upliftings which are not of this world.» — y su continuación al otro lado del corte, con la referencia 145B, 153.

«Perhaps this comment is genuinely autobiographical information about the real author of the Dionysian writings. It serves no pseudonymous purpose and is consistent with his overall concern» — Rorem propone leer ese pasaje como dato biográfico del autor real, con el grado *perhaps* y con la razón que da: no sirve a la ficción.

«In any case, the author's stated goal is to help the reader get used to the idea of going beyond appearances so that whenever symbols are encountered they may be recognized as such and rightly understood.» — y la meta pedagógica que sí le adjudica.

«The pedagogical preference for dissimilar symbols over the more flattering or plausible depictions is clear: the absurdities resist acceptance and demand interpretation, even by the novice.» — con la razón de la preferencia por el símbolo desemejante.

«a sacred order, a state of understanding and an activity approximating as close as possible to the divine» — la definición de jerarquía con que abre el capítulo tercero, citada por Rorem con la referencia 164D, 153.

«This threefold definition of hierarchy as order, understanding, and activity could and does serve as the organizing principle for a comprehensive treatment of the hierarchical structure of the Dionysian universe.» — Rorem señala el rendimiento sistemático de esa definición tripartita.

«In his landmark study, L'univers dionysien: Structure hierarchique du monde selonpseudo-Denys, Rene Roques invoked this passage and definition (his page 30) to present the Dionysian hierarchies.» — y adjudica a Rene Roques el haberla usado así en L'univers dionysien, con la plana de esa obra.

«He systematically treated the proper order that regulates the various hierarchical ranks, the understanding that they convey from their superiors to their subordinates, and their activity of purifying, illuminating, and perfecting.» — con lo que Roques ordena bajo cada término.

«Although this format works very well in an encyclopedic treatment like Roques's, it is not a structure that Dionysius himself uses in such a systematic way.» — y la objeción de Rorem a ese formato: no es el orden del propio Dionisio.

«The goal of a hierarchy, then, is to enable beings to be as like as possible to God and to be at one with him» — la finalidad de la jerarquía según el capítulo tercero, con la referencia 165A, 154.

«Hierarchy causes its members to be images of God» — la fórmula del mismo capítulo, con la referencia 165A, 154.

«Therefore when the hierarchic order lays it on some to be purified and on others to do the purifying, on some to receive illumination and on others to cause illumination, on some to be perfected and on others to bring about perfection, each will actually imitate God in the way suitable to whatever role it has» — el reparto de las tres potencias como imitación de Dios, con la referencia 165BC, 154.

«Here the author introduces a fundamental triad of divine actions—purification, illumination, and perfection—and yet he characteristically insists that God transcends this description as well.» — Rorem señala la tríada y a la vez la reserva que el propio texto le pone.

«is purifying, illuminating, and perfecting; or rather it is itself purification, illumination, and perfection. It is beyond purification; it is beyond light; it is the very source of perfection which is more than perfect. It is also the cause of every hierarchy and yet it surpasses by far every sacred thing» — la trascendencia de Dios respecto de sus propias potencias, con la referencia 165C, 155.

«The three activities of purifying, illuminating, and perfecting are primarily God's activities. The Divinity first purifies, then illuminates, then perfects, as the author repeats much later (508D. 239). God does these things by means of the hierarchies, and they, correspondingly, perform their purification, illumination, and perfection in imitation of the divine, indeed as an extension of the divine activity.» — Rorem adjudica primero a Dios las tres potencias y solo por extensión a las jerarquías, con la referencia 508D. 239 tal como la imprime el troceo.

«In complete harmony with the method laid out in the previous chapter, a hierarchy is both similar and dissimilar to God, similar in that it shares this trio of powers, dissimilar to God in that as an effect it falls incomparably short of its cause.» — y enlaza el capítulo tercero con el método del segundo: la jerarquía es a la vez semejante y desemejante de Dios.

«Ever true to his pseudonymous identity as the predecessor of the fathers, he must show no debts to them in using this triplex concept. Indeed, he must feign originality.» — Rorem lee la pretensión de originalidad como exigencia de la ficción pseudonímica.

«Nevertheless, the pattern of purification, illumination, and perfection was already well established in the works of Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-c. 394).» — y sitúa el esquema en Gregorio de Nisa antes que en Dionisio.

«Its earlier history may involve Origen's adaptation of some Stoic or Middle Platonic language.» — con la genealogía anterior, enunciada en condicional.

«Nevertheless, there is something original about Dionysius's systematic application of this triad to define so much of heaven and earth, and in his particular understanding of it.» — Rorem concede lo que sí tiene de original la aplicación dionisiana.

«The subsequent, medieval history of the three ways of purification (or purgation), illumination (or contemplation), and perfection (or union) claimed a continuity with the Dionysian presentation, but actually differed from it at a crucial point.» — y separa la vía medieval de la dionisiana pese a la continuidad que aquella reclama.

«Unlike the medieval framework, the Dionysian trio is not a moral purification as distinguished from an intellectual illumination and a final mystical perfection.» — con la diferencia precisa.

«For the Areopagite, as this chapter begins to explain, all three powers concern spiritual knowledge or understanding.» — y lo que en el corpus sustituye a esa lectura moral.

«Purification can apply to the angels in that they are purified not from any moral flaw but from relative ignorance» — con el caso de los ángeles, y la referencia 537AB, 248.

«Illumination is a matter of an uplifting, contemplative understanding.» — la segunda potencia leída en clave cognitiva.

«perfected understanding,... an understanding of the sacred things so reverently beheld» — y la tercera, con la referencia 168A, 155.

«And so it comes about that every order in the hierarchical rank is uplifted as best it can toward cooperation with God. By grace and a God-given power, it does things which belong naturally and supernaturally to God, things performed by him transcendently and revealed in the hierarchy for the permitted imitation of God-loving minds.» — el cierre de esa sección introductoria, con la referencia 168A, 155.

«The human hierarchy of sacraments, clergy, and laity receives its systematic presentation in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy in the same terms of purification» — Rorem remite la jerarquía humana al tratado siguiente, con los mismos tres términos; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«illumination, and perfection. Both realms, the celestial and the ecclesiastical, reflect the divine activity along these lines.» — y al otro lado del corte declara que los dos reinos reflejan la misma actividad divina.

«These chapters introduce material that forms the foundation of the heavenly and the human hierarchies: procession and return, a method for interpreting material symbols» — Rorem resume lo que los tres primeros capítulos fundan; el tramo se recorta antes de la definición funcional que sigue.

«In this chapter, Dionysius begins his specific discussions of the angelic hierarchy. He first presents the basic material, then considers some specific problems, and then ends the treatise with his interpretation of their depictions in the scriptures, "so that we may be uplifted by way of these mysterious representations to their divine simplicity» — Rorem describe el plan del capítulo cuarto y cita su propósito declarado, con la referencia 177C, 156.

«His basic statement is that all things relate to God as their creator. Everything that exists has this link to the very source of existence.» — la escala del ser con que el capítulo abre, según Rorem.

«Further, that which does not merely exist but also possesses the higher property of life also relates to God as the source of life.» — con su segundo escalón.

«Still further, some of those living things have the yet higher properties of reason and intelligence, and thus relate to God as the source of their reason and intelligence as well» — y el tercero.

«And, clearly, these latter beings are nearer to God, since their participation in him takes so many forms» — la consecuencia que el tratado saca, con la referencia 177D, 156.

«In other words, just as human beings surpass other living things and all inanimate objects as closer to God in that they partake of more divine attributes (not only being, but also life and reason), so also the angelic heavenly beings are superior to the human in that they have a fuller participation in the divine enlightenment, "because, ordered by such enlightenment, theirs is a life of total intelligence» — Rorem traslada la escala a los ángeles, con la referencia 180A, 157.

«They have the nearest and fullest participation in the divine, and they in turn pass it down as messengers.» — y la función de mensajeros que de ahí se deriva.

«Dionysius investigated not only the divine names in the treatise known by that title, but also the name angel and each of the specific names for heavenly beings, such as seraphim, to be treated in turn.» — Rorem señala que el corpus investiga también el nombre *angel* y los nombres de cada orden.

«That is why they have a preeminent right to the title of angel or messenger, since it is they who first are granted the divine enlightenment and it is they who pass on to us these revelations which are so far beyond us. Indeed the Word of God teaches us that the Law was given to us by the angels» — la explicación del nombre genérico en el capítulo cuarto, con la referencia 180B, 157.

«In this case, the texts that document that the law was given by angels are the New Testament traces of rabbinic tradition in Acts 7:38 and 53, Galatians 3:19, and Hebrews 2:2.» — y localiza los pasajes neotestamentarios que sostienen la mediación angélica de la Ley.

«The point here is that revelation about God and divine things is mediated or announced through the heavenly beings, which is why they are called angels.» — Rorem enuncia el principio del capítulo.

«The chapter gives examples of Gabriel and other angels revealing things to Zechariah, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds.» — con los ejemplos bíblicos que el capítulo enumera.

«It also applies to the angels' relationship to Jesus in his humanity (a passage appreciated by the Chalcedonian scholiasts [57BC]), for they assisted and strengthened him, according to Matthew 4:11 and Luke 22:43.» — y el caso de los ángeles que asisten a Jesús, que Rorem anota como apreciado por los escoliastas calcedonios.

«Not all celestial beings are equally close to God.» — Rorem traslada el mismo principio al interior de la jerarquía angélica.

«Those closer to God should be the initiators of those less close by guiding them to the divine access, enlightenment, and commun» — la fórmula del tratado sobre la iniciación de los inferiores por los superiores, con la referencia 181A, 158; el tramo se corta en el guion de *commun-ion*.

«Continuing its preliminary comments on the heavenly hierarchy, the treatise next explains how the word angel can apply both to a specific rank of heavenly beings and also to all of them in general.» — Rorem enuncia el problema del capítulo quinto.

«To explain this, Dionysius invokes not simply the grammatical convention of a term's generic and specific meanings, but also the hierarchical principle that higher beings always have in themselves all of the powers and attributes of the lower beings» — y la regla jerárquica con que el tratado lo resuelve.

«Now in every sacred rank the higher orders have all the illuminations and powers of those below them and the subordinate have none of those possessed by their superiors» — la formulación de esa regla en el tratado, con la referencia 196C, 159.

«Theologians give the name angel also to the highest and holiest orders of the heavenly beings by virtue of the fact that they too make known the enlightenment proceeding from the Deity» — y su aplicación al nombre común de ángel, con la referencia 196C, 159.

«Yet the reverse cannot be true. The lower angels cannot be called seraphim or thrones, since they do not have the powers of their superiors.» — Rorem marca la asimetría de la regla.

«While it is true that there are nine names for celestial figures found in the scriptures, as enumerated below, the biblical presentation is not at all systematic and does little or nothing to explain the relationships of these beings to each other.» — Rorem concede los nueve nombres bíblicos y a la vez niega que la Biblia los ordene.

«Nor does the scriptural revelation explicitly specify the number of angelic ranks as nine, much less as three triads.» — con la negativa expresa sobre el número.

«This structure for arranging them was original with Dionysius and then definitive for the later tradition of medieval angelology.» — y adjudica la estructura al propio Dionisio y su fortuna a la angelología medieval.

«But, to compound matters, Dionysius credited the structure not to Paul's "third heaven,"8 but to another source: "my own sacred-initiator has divided these into three threefold groups» — Rorem señala a quién atribuye el corpus esa estructura, con la referencia 200D, 160.

«Several times in his writings Dionysius acknowledges a teacher and "illustrious leader" named Hierotheus, who is usually credited with transmitting some special portion of the unwritten tradition, such as this triple triad of angels.» — y presenta a Hieroteo como el iniciador al que el corpus adjudica la tradición no escrita.

«and a functional definition of hierarchy as imitating God's own activity of» — el tercer fundamento que Rorem retiene de los tres primeros capítulos de La jerarquía celeste, la definición funcional de jerarquía como imitación de la actividad divina; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *purification, illumination, and perfection*.

«The English phrase "word of God" here translates the Greek term theologia, illustrating again the author's consistent use of the word theology to mean not simply words about God, but rather God» — Rorem vuelve sobre el sentido técnico de *theologia* en el corpus; el tramo se corta en el apóstrofo de *God's Word*.

«teaches that these ordinances were mediated to us by angels so that God's order might show us how it is that secondary beings are uplifted through the primary beings» — la mediación angélica de la ley a Moisés según el tratado, con la referencia 181A, 157-58; el troceo parte la cita entre las planas 75 y 76, y abre con *Yet theology quite clearly*.

«The same rule will be smoothly applied to the human hierarchy, where the hierarch's powers include those of the subordinate priests and deacons» — Rorem traslada la regla jerárquica a la jerarquía humana; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«and where the sacramental power of perfection embraces the lesser powers of illumination and purification, but not vice versa.» — y al otro lado del corte la aplica a las tres potencias sacramentales.

«According to the author's own hierarchical principles of mediated revelation, all that we in the lower human hierarchy are able to know of the higher angelic realms is what has been revealed to us through them» — el límite del conocimiento humano sobre los ángeles que Rorem deriva de los propios principios del corpus.

«In the Pseudo-Areopagite's fiction, Hierotheus stands between Paul and Dionysius, but in reality he may be a thinly veiled allusion to someone who did actually influence the real author.» — y propone, con *may be*, que ese maestro ficticio encubra a alguien real.

«This influence may be related to Neoplatonism, since Dionysius says (648A, 65; 681A, 69) that Hierotheus wrote a work called the Elements of Theology, which is the name of a standard work by Proclus.» — con el dato del que lo deriva: el corpus atribuye a Hieroteo unos Elementos de teología, que es el título de la obra de Proclo.

«Furthermore, the items of the tradition that Dionysius credits to Hierotheus are often expressed in language borrowed from Neoplatonism, including this triadic arrangement of three threefold groups.» — Rorem añade que lo adjudicado a Hieroteo suele venir en lengua neoplatónica.

«Neoplatonists like Proclus or lamblichus promoted numerous mean terms between extremes, creating triads to link together various levels of reality» — y remite el procedimiento a Proclo y a Jámblico, cuyo nombre el troceo imprime *lamblichus* con ele inicial.

«Dionysius embraced this triadic framework as a principle throughout his hierarchical structure.» — con la adopción que le atribuye.

«When squared, so to speak, as a triple triad, it was a convenient and consistent way to present the nine scriptural categories of angelic beings.» — y el rendimiento de la tríada al cuadrado.

«The second group, [Hierotheus] says, is made of 'authorities,' 'dominions,' and 'powers.' And the third, at the end of the heavenly hierarchies, is the group of 'angels,' 'archangels,» — el reparto de las tres tríadas tal como el capítulo sexto lo adjudica a Hieroteo, con la referencia 201A, 161 y la restitución entre corchetes que Rorem imprime.

«The designations given to these heavenly intelligences signify the mode in which they take on the imprint of God» — el principio exegético del capítulo séptimo, con la referencia 205B, 161.

«The author who carefully chose the name Dionysius begins his every presentation of a celestial rank by discussing the meaning of its name.» — Rorem enlaza ese método con la propia elección del pseudónimo.

«those with a knowledge of Hebrew are aware of the fact that the holy name 'seraphim' means 'fire-makers,' that is to say, 'carriers of warmth.' The name 'cherubim' means 'fullness of knowledge' or 'outpouring of wisdom» — las etimologías hebreas de serafines y querubines que el tratado da, con la referencia 205B, 161.

«Here and elsewhere, the seraphim are presented in terms of fire: warm and bright, uplifting and purifying, banishing every shadow» — Rorem resume la figura de los serafines, con la referencia 205C, 162.

«The interpretations of the names of the seraphim and the cherubim rely on second-hand etymology, since Dionysius presents himself as ignorant of Hebrew, and indeed shows no awareness that "seraphim" is a plural form.» — Rorem acota el valor de esas etimologías: son de segunda mano y el corpus ignora que *seraphim* es plural.

«But the name thrones conveys a clear meaning in his own language. Like a literal throne or royal seat, an angelic being with the name throne (Colossians 1:16) is elevated above this world, aimed further upward, and in intimate proximity to the seat of the Most High—no disrespect intended.» — y separa el caso de los tronos, cuyo nombre sí es transparente en griego.

«The task of every hierarchy is to receive and to pass on undiluted purification, the divine light, and the understanding which brings perfection» — la tarea de toda jerarquía según el capítulo séptimo, con la referencia 208A, 162.

«In presenting these heavenly beings as pure, contemplative, and perfect, Dionysius must distinguish between the way such categories apply to angels and the way they apply to humans.» — Rorem señala la distinción que el tratado se ve obligado a hacer.

«First, angels are pure not because they are free of any earthly tarnish, which is obviously out of the question, but because they transcend any weakness.» — con la primera de las tres, sobre la pureza.

«Second, the highest of angelic beings are contemplative, not because they contemplate perceptible symbols as we do, but because they are filled with a superior light, a transcendent and luminous contemplation and communion with Jesus, who makes a sudden appearance in the discussion.» — la segunda, sobre la contemplación, y la aparición súbita de Jesús en ese punto.

«Third, they are perfect, not because of an enlightened understanding in the human sense, but "rather because of a primary and supreme deification, a transcendent and angelic understanding of God» — y la tercera, sobre la perfección, con la referencia 208C, 164.

«This triad of heavenly beings is nearest to God, not in terms of physical proximity, but in terms of the capacity to receive more of God's presence and to pass it on (as Letter 8 put it; 1092B, 274» — Rorem precisa en qué sentido esa tríada está más cerca de Dios.

«Yet even they can grow in their enlightenment concerning God, as Dionysius attempts to document with some dubious but traditional exegesis of Isaiah 63:1-2» — y consigna, con su propio juicio sobre la exégesis, que hasta ellos pueden crecer en luz.

«In summary, we can reasonably say that purification, illumination, and perfection are all three the reception of an understanding of the Godhead, namely, being completely purified of ignorance» — el resumen cognitivo de las tres potencias en el capítulo séptimo, con la referencia 209CD, 165; el tramo se corta en el guion de *knowl-edge*.

«As those in immediate proximity to God and thus possessing supreme knowledge of God, this first group of celestial leaders has transmitted some of this knowledge down through hierarchical channels even to us.» — Rorem describe el descenso del conocimiento desde la primera tríada.

«The Areopagite says that he has already explicated such songs as "Holy, Holy, Holy" in his book Divine Hymns, which is either lost or entirely fictitious.» — y consigna el libro de Himnos divinos que el corpus se atribuye, con las dos salidas posibles y sin arbitrar entre ellas.

«When the first rank has directly and properly received its due understanding of God's Word from the divine goodness itself, then it passes this on, as befits a benevolent hierarchy, to those next in line» — la función de esos himnos según el tratado, con la referencia 212B, 166.

«The exposition of the middle triad of dominions, powers, and authorities also begins with their names, since these designations indicate how they imitate and conform to God.» — Rorem repite el método del capítulo octavo.

«The name dominion reveals to Dionysius an uplifting freedom, yet without any harsh domination that would create slaves.» — con la etimología de las dominaciones.

«In explaining and distinguishing most of the heavenly ranks, especially these three, the author has little or no scriptural content to work with, but only the biblical names and his own inventiveness in etymological wordplays.» — Rorem mide lo que el tratado tiene para trabajar en estos capítulos y resulta ser solo los nombres.

«Except for specific passages about seraphim and angels, the Bible provided Dionysius with very little beyond some scattered names for celestial beings.» — con la constatación sobre el material bíblico.

«His own creativity made the most of these names, however, and also created a tightly organized system out of unconnected references to them.» — y el crédito que le da a la invención del autor.

«The middle triad of heavenly minds illustrates quite graphically the mediating function of every order, since it mediates between the highest and the lowest ranks of angels.» — Rorem lee la tríada media como figura de la mediación misma.

«It receives what it has from the first triad and passes it on to the lower, even though each step brings diminution because of the growing distance from the source. Yet the lower is thereby uplifted to the higher.» — con la disminución que el descenso implica.

«The vision in Zechariah 1 was a message from God, but one that was mediated through an angel of the first rank, who in turn conveyed it to an angel of an inferior rank, who then talked with Zechariah» — el ejemplo de Zacarías 1 que el tratado usa para la mediación entre ángeles, con la referencia 241 A, 168 tal como la imprime el troceo.

«Similarly, Dionysius read Ezekiel 9 to mean that the angel in the cloak was lower than the cherubim, and passed on the divine message to those lower still, who executed the orders among Jerusalem» — y el de Ezequiel 9, con la referencia 241B, 169.

«Other equally ambiguous examples are given to document "the divine and harmonious arrangement befitting the heavenly hierarchy" that our own hierarchy tries to imitate in order to be uplifted to the source of all order and hierarchy» — Rorem califica de ambiguos esos ejemplos y consigna para qué los trae el tratado, con la referencia 241C, 169.

«The Dionysian delight in puns and wordplays here reaches a high point, at least in sheer density. The stem princ- leads the punster into a crowded courtyard of princes, principles, and the Principle of principles» — Rorem señala la densidad del juego de palabras en el capítulo noveno, con la referencia 257B, 170.

«The holy archangels stand between the principalities and the angels, "as a mean between extremes» — la función mediadora de los arcángeles, con la referencia 257C, 170.

«That is, within the first triad (seraphim, cherubim, and thrones), Dionysius did not propose an internal order regarding first, middle, and last.» — con el primer caso.

«Similarly, the dominions, powers, and authorities were simply grouped together without any explicit ranking or discussion of their order or interrelationship.» — y el segundo.

«In both cases, these triads were presented in a particular order, that given here, but the order has not been justified or even discussed so far, although it is clear later that the powers are above the authorities» — y la reserva que Rorem añade, con la referencia 284C, 174.

«But when we encounter the last triad, we find it arranged internally according to an order explicitly discussed.» — frente a la tercera tríada, donde el orden sí se discute.

«The archangels generously announce to the angels the enlightenment they have received from the first powers, and then through the angels they announce it to us» — la cadena de anuncio hasta los hombres, con la referencia 257D, 170.

«so that the uplifting and return toward God, and communion and union, might occur according to proper order» — y la finalidad que el tratado le da, con la referencia 260B, 171.

«It is the angels who relate directly to humanity, as Michael, for example, relates to Israel, and other angels to other nations, according to the Dionysian interpretation of Daniel 10 and other texts.» — Rorem consigna el reparto de ángeles por naciones que el tratado lee en Daniel 10.

«The author understands Deuteronomy 32:8 ("the Most High has established the boundaries of the nations by the number of his angels") to mean a one-to-one linkage of nations and angels.» — con la base escrituraria de ese reparto, Deuteronomio 32:8.

«The single Providence of the Most High for all commanded angels to bring all peoples to salvation, but it was Israel alone which returned to the Light and proclaimed the true Lord» — la respuesta que el tratado da a por qué solo Israel fue elevado, con la referencia 261C, 172.

«tral figure in portions of The Divine Names (648C, 65; 681AB, 69; and 713AB, 83), which present him more fully.» — Rorem localiza a Hieroteo en Los nombres divinos con tres referencias internas; el troceo parte la plana 78 en la palabra *cen-tral*, y la frase abre con *Hierotheus is a cen-*.

«at the end of the treatise, and in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, where the twelvefold covering symbolizes the two six-winged seraphim» — Rorem remite los serafines a los otros dos sitios del corpus donde reaparecen, con la referencia 408BC, 229-30; el troceo reemite el marcador de plana a media frase, que abre con *They are discussed more fully*.

«Their content reveals God as a monad, as "one in three persons," and as providentially concerned for everything from the loftiest angel to the lowliest creature» — el contenido de los himnos angélicos según el capítulo séptimo, con la referencia 212C, 166.

«the title refers to a kind of masculine and unshakable courage in all their godlike activities» — la etimología de las potestades en el capítulo octavo, con la referencia 237D, 167; el tramo se recorta tras el entrecomillado de *powers*.

«Although this bit of Neoplatonic method is presupposed throughout, and although Dionysius here claims that each hier» — Rorem señala la inconsecuencia del término medio en las dos primeras tríadas; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, en la palabra *hier-archy*.

«archy has its first, middle, and last powers, the function of mediation within a triad was not applied to the first two triads of angelic beings discussed above.» — y al otro lado del corte precisa dónde no se aplicó ese principio.

«This practice is completely different from calling all the heavenly beings angels since it is in the nature of a hierarchy that the superiors all contain in themselves the powers of the inferior ranks, and thus could all be called by the lowest name.» — Rorem separa el caso del nombre común de *powers* del de *angels* en el capítulo undécimo.

«How, then, could the lower orders of angels, archangels, and principalities ever be called powers without confusing the attributes peculiar to each rank?» — y enuncia la dificultad.

«Never at a loss, at least for the questions he poses to himself, Dionysius has a ready answer» — con el juicio que Rorem intercala sobre el método del corpus: no se queda sin respuesta a las preguntas que él mismo se pone.

«There is within all divine minds the threefold distinction between being, power, and activity. Now suppose that we loosely describe some or all of them as "heavenly beings" or "heavenly powers," it must be recognized that in talking of beings and powers we are engaging in circumlocution, because of the being or power that is in each one.» — la distinción entre ser, potencia y actividad con que el tratado resuelve, con la referencia 284D-285A, 175.

«Here a Neoplatonic distinction within each mind enables a different, generic use of the name power to be applied to each heavenly intelligence, just as they are all called beings because they each have existence or being.» — Rorem nombra neoplatónica esa distinción.

«Calling all the angels powers in the latter sense does not violate the fundamental principle of hierarchical order, namely, that inferior ranks participate only partially in what superior ranks enjoy in full, lest confusion reign.» — y salva con ella el principio jerárquico.

«This chapter poses a second exegetical difficulty, one related to the first and to the overall question of proper order within a hierarchy, that is, "If the last ones do not partake in what is available to the higher, why is it that our human hierarch is designated in scripture as "angel of the all-powerful Lord?» — la segunda dificultad del tratado, por qué el jerarca humano se llama ángel, con la referencia 292C, 175.

«The naming of a human leader as an angel "does not actually contradict what has been said already" (292C, 175) because the lower orders do have a lesser share of the powers enjoyed in full by their seniors.» — y la respuesta del tratado, con la referencia 292C, 175.

«Thus, certain humans could be called angels in that they have a smaller share in the angelic attribute of announcing something to a yet lower order.» — Rorem traslada la regla de la participación parcial a los hombres.

«for it is characteristic of him that like the angels he is, to the extent of which he is capable, a messenger and that he is raised up to imitate, so far as a man may, the angelic power to bring revelation» — la fórmula del tratado sobre el jerarca como mensajero, con la referencia 293A, 176.

«Why is it said that one of the theologians was visited by a seraphim? Someone could well be puzzled by the fact that it was not one of the subordinate angels but someone from among the most senior beings who came to purify the interpreter» — la tercera dificultad, la de Isaías purificado por un serafín, con la referencia 300B, 176.

«There is an important point here since the author shows no awareness that a single member of the rank of seraphim should be called a seraph» — Rorem convierte el error gramatical en dato sobre el autor.

«This might challenge the usual identification of his background as Syrian. Such guesswork about his geographical origin may still be true, in that West Syria was dominated by the Greek language, but no one who knew Syriac itself would mistake the common Semitic form for a plural ending on the Hebrew word seraphim.» — y lo usa para objetar, con *may still be true*, la localización siria del autor.

«Elsewhere the author refers to others and not himself as "those who know Hebrew" (205B, 161; Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 4, 481C, 230, and 485B, 232» — con los tres pasajes en que el corpus se declara ajeno al hebreo.

«The real issue here is that a superior celestial being seems to have bypassed all the intermediate ranks in order to visit and purify a human, according to Isaiah 6.» — Rorem enuncia el problema de orden que el capítulo trece atiende.

«The answer, amid all the review, is that it was not really a seraphim who met Isaiah, but a lower angel in the strict sense.» — y la salida que el tratado toma.

«This modest angel becomes invisible in the biblical text because he correctly attributed his power of purification to his superior, the seraphim. The biblical narration condensed the scene so much that it presupposed and therefore left out the rest of the angelic mediation.» — con el mecanismo que la sostiene.

«According to this strained Dionysian interpretation, proper hierarchical order is not here violated, since "the angel who sacredly worked out the purification of the theologian attributed his own purifying understanding and power first to God, as the Cause, and then to the seraphim, as the initial hier-arch» — Rorem la califica de forzada y la cita, con la referencia 305D, 180.

«The light of the sun and the heat of fire both illustrate the transmission of a property from its source through intermediaries that gradually diminish or obscure the original impulse.» — los dos símiles de la mediación que el capítulo usa.

«Since the secondary beings share in these holy properties through the mediation of the primary beings, they attribute such properties to those primary beings, the ones who, after God, are like hierarchs to them» — la fórmula del tratado sobre la atribución al mediador, con la referencia 304B, 179.

«Hierarchs on the human level provide another illustration, which anticipates the presentation of the human hierarchy in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. When the lower orders of deacons or priests engage in their activities of purification or illumination, one can also say that it is the hierarch who is doing this purification or illumination, since he is the source, humanly speaking, for his subordinates.» — Rorem traslada el símil al clero.

«Indeed this nameless angel was so self-effacing that he disappeared entirely from the biblical record, leaving the misleading impression that a seraphim had bypassed proper order.» — y cierra el caso con la ironía que el propio argumento produce.

«The issue here is simply the received way of numbering the angels as "a thousand times a thousand and ten thousand times ten thousand» — la cuestión del capítulo catorce, con la referencia 321B, 181.

«This biblical convention is not an actual figure, explains the author, but rather a poetic and forceful way of saying that their number surpasses our finite abilities» — y la lectura que el tratado da de esas cifras.

«These numbers, enormous to us, square and multiply themselves and thereby indicate clearly that the ranks of the heavenly beings are innumerable» — la formulación del propio tratado, con la referencia 312B, 181.

«With this, the last chapter, the author finally honors his earlier promise to explain the various picturesque descriptions of the angels found in the scriptures.» — Rorem sitúa el capítulo quince como cumplimiento de la promesa del capítulo segundo.

«We must come down to the plains of distinction and multiplicity, to the many variegated forms and shapes adopted by the angels. Then, once more, we will take off from these images, and will, by retracing, rise up again to the simplicity of the heavenly minds» — la apertura del capítulo quince, que repite el esquema de procesión y retorno, con la referencia 328A, 182.

«The movement down to the dissimilar shapes and then up to their meanings is here presented as the exegete's journey, even though in the larger picture it is God whose accommodating revelation stoops to use these perceptible forms and then returns to the higher conceptual realm, uplifting the interpreter along the way.» — Rorem desdobla ese movimiento en dos sujetos, el exégeta y Dios.

«imagery of fire best expresses the way in which the intelligent beings of heaven are like the Deity» — el primer atributo que el capítulo trata, con la referencia 329A, 183.

«The transcendent God is portrayed as fiery because fire symbolizes God's ubiquity, transcendence, hiddenness, illumination, power, warmth, penetration, elevation, independence, and greatness: "It is dynamic, powerful, invisibly present in everything» — Rorem enumera lo que el fuego simboliza, con la referencia 329B, 184.

«touch is understanding how to distinguish the profitable from the harmful. Eyelids and eyebrows signify the guarding of what the mind has observed of God» — dos de las exégesis corporales del capítulo quince, con la referencia 332B, 185.

«To sum up, a discerning mind would not be hard put to find a correlation between visible signs and invisible reality» — el resumen del propio tratado sobre el método, con la referencia 333C, 187.

«Indeed you will find that each form carries an uplifting explanation of the representational images» — y la fórmula anagógica del capítulo, con la referencia 336C, 188.

«Even animal shapes prove no barrier to experienced interpretation: the lion is powerful and secretive, the ox strong and invincible, the eagle fast and lofty, the horse obedient and docile.» — Rorem resume las lecturas animales del capítulo.

«The treatise closes with some modesty, admitting that some biblical texts were omitted for lack of interpretive insight, and with a final restatement of the value of such interpretation, namely, that it keeps us "from the wretchedness of being stuck in the fictional appearances» — Rorem consigna la abstención con que el tratado cierra, con la referencia 340B, 190.

«In summary, The Celestial Hierarchy presents a general method for interpreting symbols, a heavenly arrangement of three threefold groups of angels, and the author's specific exegesis of awkward passages and of the lowly biblical images for the celestial ranks.» — y resume lo que el tratado entero entrega.

«The theological literature of the Latin Middle Ages was influenced by The Celestial Hierarchy in two major areas: its teachings about the angels and its general theory or method for the interpretation of symbols.» — Rorem reparte en dos la influencia medieval del tratado.

«The method for interpreting symbols was adapted by medieval authors like Eriugena as part of a long and broad tradition of theological aesthetics.» — y la segunda, la estética teológica.

«Since The Celestial Hierarchy received the most medieval commentary of any Dionysian treatise, there were other influential passages as well, but the main topics treated here are the angels and aesthetics.» — Rorem mide el volumen de comentario medieval a este tratado y acota su propio tratamiento.

«Although several authors of the early Christian centuries made occasional exegetical observations about angelic beings, the medieval writers looked back to The Celestial Hierarchy for the definitive way to organize the various ranks and types of angels.» — y fija el lugar del tratado en la angelología medieval.

«Dionysius gave himself to contemplation of these same orders with such holy zeal that he named and ranked them just as I have done. Gregory, later, differed with his conclusions. But hardly had he wakened in this heaven than he was moved to laugh at his own delusions.» — Dante en el Paraíso acreditando a Dionisio el orden de los ángeles y subordinando a Gregorio Magno, citado por Rorem.

«When it came to ordering heaven, even the great Pope Gregory took second place to Dionysius for most of the medieval authors, although it took Dante's creative talents to depict Gregory smiling at his mistake upon arrival in heaven.» — Rorem glosa ese pasaje de Dante.

«The question of Dionysian influence on Christian angelology in the Middle Ages admits of a rather straightforward answer, at least compared to the ambiguities encountered earlier regarding the churchly hierarchy and biblical allegory.» — y separa este caso de influencia de los dos anteriores por su claridad.

«Despite the wide range of comments from other church fathers, The Celestial Hierarchy was an extremely influential and openly acknowledged authority on the angels in the Middle Ages. On this point, there is no controversy.» — con la afirmación que sostiene sin reserva.

«Some seem to be extrapolated by the author from the general scriptural references to human forms.» — Rorem separa lo que el capítulo quince lee en la Escritura de lo que extrapola, con el grado *seem*.

«impact on medieval angelology, from Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) through Dante» — y al otro lado del corte marca los dos extremos de esa línea, Gregorio Magno y Dante.

«Not only do these things suffice to the wise but the explanation of one incongruous image suffices for the like-mannered interpretation of comparable ones» — el traspaso del método al lector que el propio tratado enuncia, con la referencia 337C, 189; el libro reimprime el pasaje en la plana 223, y el ancla se fija aquí.

«treatise regarding the three threefold groups of heavenly beings had a decisive» — Rorem adjudica al tratado el peso decisivo en la angelología medieval; el tramo abre al otro lado del corte de plana, tras *The contents of the*.

«Nevertheless, once we consider the author's true historical context, his actual influence is harder to assess.» — Rorem acota la claridad de esa influencia en cuanto se atiende al contexto histórico real del autor.

«Given the work of those who preceded him, at what points did the Areopagite's writings contribute anything new and distinctive to Christian angelology?» — con la pregunta que abre.

«Furthermore, Gregory the Great's arrangement of the angels is so remarkably similar to the Areopagite's, at least in one passage, that we must also ask whether Gregory arrived at his angelology independently or was influenced by Dionysius.» — y la segunda pregunta, sobre si Gregorio Magno llegó solo a su angelología.

«The Areopagite's influence on Christian angelology is not so much in his overall teachings about the angels, since their attributes and functions had been thoroughly discussed by earlier authors such as Origen and many others.» — Rorem niega que la novedad esté en la doctrina sobre los ángeles.

«The specific influence is rather in his framework of organizing nine types of angels in three triads.» — y la localiza en el armazón de tres tríadas.

«Dionysius, as we have seen, was careful to use only this biblical nomenclature, adding no new names.» — con la constatación de que el corpus no inventa nombres.

«Others before him, such as the Latin authors Ambrose (339-97) and Jerome (c. 347-420) and the Greek writers Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-c. 394) and John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) had already noticed these various scriptural designations and had tried to pull them together into lists of various lengths.» — Rorem enumera a los que ya habían reunido esos nombres antes.

«Some of them, such as Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-86), had listed the very same nine ranks or types that appear in The Celestial Hierarchy, starting with angels and archangels and ending with cherubim and seraphim.» — y señala que Cirilo de Jerusalén ya traía los mismos nueve.

«What distinguished the Dionysian teaching, and thus constituted its specific influence, was not the common fund of biblical names, or even the identification of nine ranks, but rather the precise way that the nine were grouped.» — con lo que sí queda como propio.

«Unlike previous lists, those by Dionysius generally began at the top, with the seraphim, and proceeded down to the last group, the angels.» — y la diferencia de dirección en las listas.

«This subtle, perhaps trivial, difference may stem from his overall hierarchical theory of descending revelation and authority.» — que Rorem explica en condicional y calificando su propia observación de quizá trivial.

«More importantly, it was Dionysius who first organized the nine into three groups of three each, and he credited this triadic framework to Hierotheus (200D, 160-61). Whenever medieval angelology presented the angelic ranks as a triple triad, the Dionysian imprint is unmistakable.» — y la marca que permite reconocer la huella dionisiana, con la referencia 200D, 160-61.

«Regarding a specific aspect of his own teaching on the angels, Gregory cited Dionysius by name and called him an "ancient and venerable Father.» — Rorem consigna que Gregorio nombra a Dionisio y con qué fórmula.

«Yet, specific uses of the Dionysian text are hard to identify in Gregory, who elsewhere said that he did not read Greek.» — y el límite que le pone a esa cita.

«Although Gregory spent six years in Constantinople and refers to Dionysius regarding the angels, his presentation of them does not show much explicit Dionysian influence.» — con el saldo sobre la dependencia.

«Furthermore, Gregory's lists proceed in an ascending sequence typical of the pre-Dionysian examples, not in the descending order typical of the Areopagite's hierarchical universe.» — y la dirección de esas listas, que es la anterior a Dionisio.

«Beyond these differences, Gregory's explanation for the total number of the angelic ranks as nine refers not to Dionysius or to Hierotheus or to any triadic pattern at all, but to some unexpected biblical passages.» — Rorem localiza en otra parte la razón del número nueve en Gregorio.

«His comments on nine angelic ranks are part of a creative exegesis of the parable of the lost coin (Luke 15). In Gregory's typological interpretation, the one coin (or sheep) that was lost symbolized humanity, as found by Christ.» — con la exégesis de la parábola de la dracma perdida.

«This conventional typology leads to an apparently novel interpretation for the nine coins that were not lost, having never fallen. To Gregory, it is the rejoicing angels who are represented by the nine coins never lost, which means that there are nine types of angels.» — y la lectura de las nueve monedas no perdidas, que Rorem llama al parecer nueva.

«On one crucial point, Gregory's work clearly differs from Dionysius: his list of the nine angelic ranks did not subdivide them into groups of three.» — y la diferencia que Rorem considera decisiva.

«there is sufficient resemblance to suggest that Gregory had some knowledge of the subject matter of the De caelesti hierarchia.» — Joan M. Petersen sobre el parecido entre las dos angelologías, citada por Rorem.

«This knowledge, however, was not a direct firsthand familiarity with the Greek text, but rather a secondhand account or summary, perhaps given to him orally during his stay in Constantinople.» — y la reserva que Rorem le añade, en condicional.

«In brief, the Dionysian and Gregorian arrangements of the angels were distinct but similar, indeed intertwined, since Gregory seemed aware of his Greek counterpart.» — con el saldo que da del cotejo.

«As for subsequent Christian angelology in the West, at least regarding the specific ordering of angels, Gregory's views prevailed for several centuries until the Dionysian corpus was translated into Latin.» — Rorem fija el predominio de Gregorio hasta la traducción latina del corpus.

«For example, the lists of the types of angels in Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) or Rabanus Maurus (ninth century) reproduce exactly Gregory's list in the Moralia, the one that differs considerably from the Dionysian ordering.» — con los dos ejemplos que da.

«As noted earlier, the ninth-century scholar John the Scot (Eriugena) translated the Dionysian corpus into Latin, and wrote an influential commentary on The Celestial Hierarchy. The Dionysian triadic order then became an option in the West but did not dominate Latin angelology for several more centuries.» — y el efecto acotado de la traducción de Eriúgena.

«Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), for example, still considered Gregory's ordering to be correct, and showed no Dionysian influence on any topic whatsoever, according to a thorough study.» — Rorem da el caso de Bernardo de Claraval, sin huella dionisiana según el estudio que cita.

«But the authority of Dionysius was on the rise, especially regarding the angels.» — y el vuelco del siglo XII.

«Most decisively of all, Bernard's exact contemporary, Peter Lombard (c. 1085-1160), advanced with great rigor the Dionysian system of ordering the angels.» — y el factor que Rorem considera decisivo, Pedro Lombardo.

«On this subject, Lombard's Sentences show a familiarity with Gregory's work but a clear preference for the Dionysian authority.» — con el cotejo de autoridades en las Sentencias.

«Since the Sentences became the standard textbook in the High Middle Ages, it was the Dionysian triadic arrangement that prevailed.» — y la razón de que esa preferencia se impusiera.

«Thomas Aquinas, who owed much to Peter Lombard, discussed the angels at length in his Summa theologiae. In angelology and many other doctrines, the Dionysian authority was decisive for Thomas, even when he was concerned to reconcile the Gregorian order with the Dionysian.» — Rorem sigue la línea hasta Tomás de Aquino, que concilia los dos órdenes.

«He also pondered whether angelic bodies took up any space, perhaps contributing much later to the deprecating parody about the head of a pin, although this way of putting it can be traced only to the fourteenth century.» — y consigna el origen tardío de la parodia sobre la cabeza de un alfiler, con su grado, *perhaps*.

«Thereafter, however, the interest of the Renaissance in humanity and its critique of the Dionysian authenticity qualified such celestial pursuits, and the priorities of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation relegated angelology to poetry and popular piety.» — Rorem cierra la línea con el Renacimiento y las dos Reformas.

«Only recently has the modern, Enlightenment disdain for the celestial hierarchy shown any signs of giving way to a post-modern rumor of angels.» — y con la vuelta reciente.

«an order that in one passage (Moralia) was quite different from the Dionysian order, and in another (his Homily on Luke 15) was only slightly different.» — y al otro lado del corte da el resultado del cotejo, con las dos obras de Gregorio nombradas.

«interpretive creativity also invoked the nine types of precious stones in Ezekiel 28:13, and even the ninety-nine sheep also in Luke 15.» — los otros dos apoyos escriturarios con que Gregorio sostiene el número nueve, las piedras de Ezequiel 28:13 y las noventa y nueve ovejas.

«Eriugena's version of Dionysian angelology was briefly authoritative; Hugh of Saint-Victor (d. 1142) wrote a very influential commentary on The Celestial» — los hechos que Rorem alinea para el vuelco del siglo XII; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«Hierarchy; through various means, the treatise was becoming known in England; and a new translation of the entire corpus was advanced by John the Saracen» — y al otro lado del corte, la difusión en Inglaterra y la nueva traducción de Juan Sarraceno.

«He lists the same nine ranks, but does so in» — Rorem coteja los órdenes de las listas de ángeles de Gregorio Magno; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *an order that in one passage (Moralia) was quite different from the Dionysian order*.

«The Latin Middle Ages appropriated from The Celestial Hierarchy not only its contents regarding the celestial beings, but also its method for the interpretation of perceptible symbols in general.» — Rorem abre la sección de estética con el segundo legado del tratado.

«Its first two chapters presented principles for interpreting the "variety of sacred veils" that conceal and reveal the divine ray» — y remite a los dos primeros capítulos, con la referencia 121C, 146.

«In the Dionysian universe, perceptible symbols play an indispensable role. The material world of sense perception is symbolic of a spiritual world of conceptions, and of God» — con el lugar que el símbolo sensible ocupa en el corpus.

«For it is quite impossible that we humans should, in any immaterial way, rise up to imitate and to contemplate the heavenly hierarchies without the aid of those material means capable of guiding us as our nature requires. Hence, any thinking person realizes that the appearances of beauty are signs of an invisible loveliness» — el pasaje del que sale toda la estética dionisiana medieval, con la referencia 121CD, 146.

«Before tracing some of the appropriation of this sentiment in the medieval interest in beauty as material guidance toward invisible loveliness, the context of the passage should be reviewed in order to determine what can and cannot be extrapolated from it.» — Rorem anuncia una cautela antes de seguir la fortuna de ese pasaje.

«On the one hand, from this statement about the angels we can and should extrapolate a method for understanding the heavenly domain in general, including all we may know about God as well. In Letter 9, in both hierarchical treatises, in parts of The Mystical Theology, and in the references to "The Symbolical Theology" in The Divine Names and elsewhere, the entire corpus is consistent and emphatic on this point: the material world is anagogically (or upliftingly) symbolic of the immaterial world, not just concerning the angels but also and especially concerning God.» — y la parte que sí autoriza extrapolar.

«On the other hand, we must not extrapolate from this quotation an equal Dionysian concern for all forms of sense perception.» — con la parte que no.

«Although he mentions the sense of smell, especially for the sacrament of the ointment in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy (477D, 228), he does not really emphasize it elsewhere.» — Rorem mide el peso de cada sentido en el corpus, con la referencia 477D, 228.

«Nor do the senses of taste or hearing receive much notice, which might seem unremarkable but for the emphasis placed by other authors on music and harmony as beautifully symbolic of the higher realm.» — y el silencio sobre gusto y oído, que contrasta con otros autores.

«The Areopagite's interest in perceptible symbols is dominated by his emphasis specifically upon the sense of sight, on the visual depictions that are used to symbolize the invisible.» — con el sentido que sí domina.

«The Dionysian aesthetic, or doctrine of beauty, shows remarkable continuity with the overall Platonic tradition, including the essay entitled "Beauty" that introduced much of Plotinus's philosophy in the Enneads.» — Rorem sitúa la estética dionisiana en la continuidad platónica y nombra el ensayo de Plotino.

«Dionysius briefly but explicitly interprets the name and concept of beauty in chapter 4 of The Divine Names.» — y localiza el tratamiento explícito de la belleza en el corpus.

«In a standard Platonic wordplay, he there remarks that it is called "beauty" because it bids or calls all things to itself» — con el juego de palabras que el corpus usa, y la referencia 701D, 76.

«Beauty's bidding or calling is an upward or anagogical movement, as part of the overall Dionysian motif of a spiritual return to God, within the Neoplatonic structure of procession and return.» — Rorem enlaza la belleza con el retorno.

«All beautiful things participate in divine Beauty as their cause and source.» — con la tesis de participación que el corpus sostiene.

«Nevertheless, the Dionysian passages that had the most influence on medieval aesthetics were not from The Divine Names or any explicit discussion of beauty in and of itself.» — Rorem separa lo que más influyó de lo que el corpus dice sobre la belleza.

«The influence came rather from the general hermeneutical principles enunciated in The Celestial Hierarchy regarding the anagogical interpretation of all symbols, whether beautiful or not, as part of the overall Dionysian method of ascending to union with God.» — y localiza la fuente real de esa influencia.

«Aesthetics, especially for later commentators on The Celestial Hierarchy, is part of a spiritual journey to God.» — con el marco en que los comentaristas la colocan.

«He concentrates not on any pleasing artistic forms, but on the contents or information found in both the biblical word-pictures for the angels and God and also in the visual presentation of the divine rites.» — y dice dónde está puesto.

«The depictions of the angels as horses, for example, or the censing processions by the hierarch, are valued not for any loveliness of their own, but for their educational value as symbols.» — con el ejemplo que da.

«That influence came principally through Eriugena and especially his commentary on this very book, as already mentioned.» — Rorem fija el canal histórico de esa influencia.

«One important survey calls The Celestial Hierarchy the medieval "handbook of light-symbolism," and documents the Dionysian and Eriugenian connection on this point.» — y recoge la fórmula de un estudio sobre el tratado como manual del simbolismo de la luz.

«The ninth-century Irish guest in the Carolingian circles of Charles the Bald (823-77) made a significant impact on medieval theology through his translation and appropriation of Dionysius, as well as through his use of Augustine, not to mention his own creative genius.» — Rorem presenta a Eriúgena y reparte sus fuentes.

«The works of Saint Denis were just becoming a significant part of the Frankish or Carolingian self-identity since Hilduin, abbot of Saint-Denis, had recently identified the author with the legendary Denis of earliest Christian history in France and had completed a Latin translation of the Dionysian writings around 835.» — con el contexto franco en que Hilduino había fundido las identidades y traducido el corpus.

«Eriugena was asked to try his hand at a translation some twenty years later.» — y la fecha del encargo a Eriúgena.

«The result, as seen shortly afterward in his major work, Periphyseon, is that his encounter with the Dionysian treatises proved formative for his own thought, and led him to Maximus the Confessor and Gregory of Nyssa.» — Rorem mide el efecto de ese encuentro sobre el propio Eriúgena.

«His massive Periphyseon and the subsequent commentary on The Celestial Hierarchy adapted many Dionysian themes and passed them on to the Middle Ages, especially symbolic aesthetics and the overall philosophical framework of procession and return, which will be presented more fully in part 4.» — y lo que Eriúgena transmite a la Edad Media.

«Despite his condemnation much later, it was Eriugena's use of these very chapters of The Celestial Hierarchy, as he combined them with the Augustinian tradition, that influenced the medieval way of interpreting symbols, especially artistic beauty.» — con la condena posterior consignada y el efecto sostenido.

«For Eriugena, "every visible and invisible creature can be called a theophany, that is, a divine apparition" or "a self-manifestation of God.» — Eriúgena sobre la teofanía, citado por Rorem.

«This means that the world as a whole is a metaphor for God, and must be interpreted anagogically as an uplifting to God.» — y la lectura que Rorem hace de esa fórmula.

«For everything that is understood and sensed is nothing else but the apparition of what is not apparent, the manifestation of the hidden, the affirmation of the negated, the comprehension of the incomprehensible.» — la fórmula de Eriúgena sobre lo aparente y lo oculto, citada por Rorem.

«Visible forms, whether those in the nature of things or those in the holy symbols of the divine scriptures, should be contemplated not because of themselves or the desires they instill in us, but rather because they are the images of an invisible beauty. Through them divine providence recalls human souls to the pure and invisible beauty of its own truth.» — el comentario de Eriúgena al pasaje dionisiano sobre la belleza, citado por Rorem.

«Therefore it is no small step but a great and indeed profitable one from the knowledge of the sensibles [perceptible things] to the understanding of the intelligibles [concepts]. For as through sense [perception] we arrive at understanding, so through the creature we return to God.» — Eriúgena en el Periphyseon sobre el paso de lo sensible a lo inteligible, citado por Rorem.

«But John, developing a fuller theological aesthetics, was interested in all five senses, in ugliness, in color, in music and harmony.» — y señala en qué Eriúgena excede al Areopagita.

«Because he viewed existence or being itself as a theophany and the world as metaphor, he also could view art as anagogy, more explicitly than Dionysius ever did.» — con la consecuencia sobre el arte.

«Eriugena's aesthetics, while based on Dionysian principles, went beyond the Areopagite's writings and even influenced the way Eriugena went about translating them.» — Rorem enlaza esa estética propia con la manera de traducir.

«The Word of God makes use of poetic imagery when discussing these formless intelligences [the angels] but, as I have already said, it does so not for the sake of art, but as a concession to the nature of our mind. It uses scriptural passages in an uplifting fashion as a way, provided for us from the first, to uplift our mind in a manner suitable to our nature» — el pasaje de La jerarquía celeste 2 en que se apoya el ejemplo, con la referencia 137B, 148.

«The phrase "not for the sake of art" translates the negative adverb atechnos. It means, to put it crudely, "inartfully" or "unskillfully.» — Rorem da el griego y su sentido.

«But Eriugena's emphasis on aesthetics led him to treat this prefix (a-) not as a negation, but as an intensifier, namely, "most artfully." Thus the Eriugenian translation reads valde artificialiter. "most artfully does theology use poetic imagery.» — y la inversión que Eriúgena opera al traducir.

«This was not an accurate translation of Dionysius, but it was a natural evolution of Dionysian interpretive principles in terms of Eriugena» — con el juicio que Rorem le pone: traducción inexacta y a la vez desarrollo natural de los principios dionisianos.

«is in the larger context of understanding all perceptible symbols, most of which are artistically neutral.» — Rorem acota el interés estético del corpus; el tramo abre al otro lado del corte de plana, tras *When Dionysius mentions beauty, as in the above quotation, it*.

«Eriugena composed a poem on the occasion of the consecration of a church building. Entitled "Aurelae sidereae" (golden rays), it expresses some of his theological aesthetics regarding the beautiful objects in the church and the beauty of the building itself.» — Rorem trae el poema de consagración que Eriúgena compuso como puente hacia Suger; el troceo imprime las planas 96 y 97 idénticas y el ancla se fija en la primera.

«The interest in the symbol of light and the allusions to procession and return continue the Dionysian tradition and point to its later development as well.» — y lo que en ese poema continúa la tradición dionisiana; plana repetida en el troceo, el ancla se fija en la 96.

«Whoever thou art, if thou seekest to extol the glory of these doors, Marvel not at the gold and the expense, but at the craftsmanship of the work. Bright is the noble work; but, being nobly bright, the work Should brighten the minds, so that they may travel through the true lights To the True Light where Christ is the true door. In what manner it be inherent in this world the golden door defines: The dull mind rises to truth through that which is material And, seeing this light, is resurrected from its former submersion.» — el poema que Suger hizo inscribir en un par de puertas de la abadía, citado por Rorem; plana repetida en el troceo, el ancla se fija en la 96.

«This poem indicates Suger's interest in two Dionysian themes: physical light and the anagogical role of material beauty in lifting the beholder up to spiritual beauty.» — Rorem lee en ese poema dos temas dionisianos, la luz física y el papel anagógico de la belleza material; plana repetida en el troceo, el ancla se fija en la 96.

«But a direct link between Dionysius' thought and Sugar's new abbey church and therefore the birth of Gothic architecture should be qualified at two points.» — Rorem pone dos reservas al enlace entre Dionisio y el gótico; el troceo imprime aquí *Sugar* por Suger.

«First, Suger seems never to quote Dionysius explicitly, and he surely knew of his works only through intermediaries such as Eriugena's translation and commentary.» — la primera: Suger no cita a Dionisio y lo conoce por intermediarios.

«The poem on the door also reveals an emphasis on Christ that Suger may have gained from his neighbor and contemporary, Hugh of Saint-Victor, another Parisian abbot, who wrote his own commentary on The Celestial Hierarchy just in time to influence Suger, although the hard evidence is slim.» — con la hipótesis sobre Hugo de San Víctor y el grado que Rorem le pone, prueba escasa.

«But even though Eriugena and Hugh must also be examined for their debts to others besides Dionysius, such as Augustine, surely Suger's writings stand in a Dionysian tradition, broadly defined, a tradition not of light mysticism but of theological aesthetics, even if he rarely or never quoted Dionysius directly.» — y lo que Rorem sí sostiene: una tradición dionisiana de estética teológica, no de mística de la luz.

«The second qualification on claims for the Dionysian origins of Gothic architecture is equally serious, and yet outside the purview of this study.» — la segunda reserva, que Rorem declara fuera de su competencia.

«Recent historians of architecture have challenged the identification of Suger's abbey church as the first Gothic structure.» — con la objeción de los historiadores de la arquitectura.

«If another building, or a combination of features of various buildings, is the true source of Gothic, then Suger's use of Dionysian aesthetics is not the creative inspiration for the new style but rather a perceptive commentary on it.» — y la consecuencia que Rorem saca en condicional.

«Despite this doubt about the origins of Gothic, Suger's output still stands as a fascinating record of medieval thought in this regard, and worthy of the scholarly and popular attention it has received in the late twentieth century.» — Rorem conserva el valor del testimonio de Suger pese a esa duda.

«I am convinced that medieval iconography owes as much to St.-Denis as architecture, sculpture, and stained glass.» — Emile Male sobre la deuda de la iconografía medieval con Saint-Denis, citado por Rorem.

«Thus, when—out of my delight in the beauty of the house of God—the loveliness of the many-colored gems has called me away from the external cares, and worthy meditation has induced me to reflect, transferring that which is material to that which is immaterial, on the diversity of the sacred virtues: then it seems to me that I see myself dwelling, as it were, in some strange region of the universe which neither exists entirely in the slime of the earth nor entirely in the purity of Heaven; and that, by the grace of God, I can be transported from this inferior to that higher world in an anagogical manner.» — el resumen anagógico de Suger que Umberto Eco pone en boca del abad Abo en El nombre de la rosa, citado por Rorem.

«The influence of Dionysius on medieval aesthetical theology may not be as specific and objective as on the word hierarchy or on the triadic structure of the angelic host.» — Rorem gradúa esta influencia frente a las dos anteriores.

«But as part of an evolving tradition that flows through Eriugena, the Dionysian corpus certainly had a major impact on the way beauty was understood theologically in the Latin Middle Ages, not least in the towering» — Rorem sostiene la influencia dionisiana sobre la teología de la belleza por vía de Eriúgena; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«luminous beauty of Gothic architecture. Among the most visible, concrete and well-known legacies of the Middle Ages, this architecture is linked, ironically, to one of the most evasive, elusive, and least-known figures of earlier Christianity, the yet-anonymous author of The Celestial Hierarchy.» — y al otro lado del corte cierra la parte II con la ironía entre la arquitectura más visible y el autor más oculto.

«The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy consists of the author's systematic interpretation of Christianity's main rites, which provides him several occasions to discuss hierarchical theory in general and the role of the clergy in particular.» — Rorem abre la parte III declarando de qué trata el segundo tratado jerárquico.

«The words "Dionysius the Elder to Timothy the Fellow-Elder" (369, 195) serve less as a heading for the first chapter than as a subtitle to the overall book.» — y repite para este tratado la recolocación del encabezado.

«As already mentioned with regard to The Celestial Hierarchy, the subtitle is probably an early editorial addition rather than original with the author, since this very chapter concludes by implying that the author is writing not as an elder to a fellow-elder but as one hierarch or bishop to another, passing on privileged information pertinent to that office» — con el argumento interno que sostiene la mano del editor, y la referencia 377AB, 199-200.

«On the other hand, the body of the text itself refers to the human hierarchy only as "our hierarchy" and never as "the ecclesiastical hierarchy.» — Rorem enfrenta el título recibido con el uso del propio texto.

«The adjective ecclesiastical appears only once within the text, and there it refers to the assembled body of worshipers, as does every appearance of its noun form, ekklesia. Neither form ever refers to the whole structure of churchly ranks and rites.» — y mide ese uso palabra por palabra.

«This doubt is not dispelled by any internal reference to the treatise by name within the text, since there are none.» — y la búsqueda negativa que la sostiene: el tratado no se nombra a sí mismo ni una vez.

«The introductory chapter of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy first establishes its progression from The Celestial Hierarchy and then, by way of distinguishing the heavenly hierarchy from the human, discusses the rationale and method for symbolism, especially the liturgical symbols that it deals with.» — con el plan del capítulo primero.

«The chapter begins and ends with an admonition to share this enlightenment only in proper proportion to the recipient's capacities, a safeguard also applied to the relative receptivity of the angelic hosts above humans» — y la advertencia que lo enmarca, con la referencia 372A, 195.

«who is transcendent mind, utterly divine mind, who is the source and the being underlying all hierarchy, all sanctification, all the workings of God, who is the ultimate in divine power» — la afirmación sobre Jesús que Rorem considera la más fuerte del corpus, con la referencia 372A, 195-96.

«These high claims, that Jesus is the being of any hierarchy, for example, should be qualified by other conflicting claims, such as the statement that it is the scriptures that are the being of our hierarchy (376B, 198), to take the same example.» — y la afirmación que Rorem le opone dentro del mismo tratado, sin armonizarlas, con la referencia 376B, 198.

«Ambiguous Christology aside, the point is that the angels and we are all recipients, proportionately, of a descending process of revelation.» — Rorem declara ambigua esa cristología y retiene lo que sí sostiene el pasaje.

«its being and proportion and order are in him divinely perfected and deified, and are then imparted to those below him according to their merit, whereas the sacred deification occurs in him directly from God» — la dependencia de la jerarquía humana respecto del jerarca, con la referencia 372D, 196.

«This comment serves notice that in this treatise, and in the system that it describes, the human hierarchy is completely dependent upon its hierarch, not only for authority but also for the exclusive transmission of revelation and even for its very being.» — y el alcance que Rorem le da a esa dependencia.

«The higher, incorporeal realm of the angels is purely conceptual, beyond our spatial and temporal world of sense perception.» — Rorem glosa esa diferencia.

«That structure is simply and consistently called "our hierarchy," which therefore casts doubt not only on this subtitle but on the» — Rorem saca del uso interno una duda sobre el título mismo del tratado; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *received title of the treatise itself, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*.

«Doubt about the title's originality is not a major concern, for it does not really mislead the reader.» — y acota el alcance de esa duda.

«Of course, as I have said already, those beings and those orders which are» — el contraste entre la jerarquía angélica y la humana en La jerarquía eclesiástica 1, con la referencia 373A, 197; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«superior to us are also incorporeal. Their hierarchy belongs to the domain of the conceptual and is something out of this world. We see our human hierarchy, on the other hand, as our nature allows, pluralized in a great variety of perceptible symbols lifting us upward hierarchically until we are brought as far as we can be into the unity of divinization.» — y la continuación de esa cita al otro lado del corte.

«The heavenly beings, because of their intelligence, have their own permitted conceptions of God. For us, on the other hand, it is by way of the perceptible images that we are uplifted as far as we can be to the contemplation of what is divine» — el contraste entre el conocer angélico y el humano en La jerarquía eclesiástica 1, con la referencia 373B, 197.

«This uplifting from perceptible images to their conceptual meanings, to the contemplation of the divine, is intimately related to the return upward toward God already discussed as part of procession and return.» — Rorem identifica la anagogía con el retorno del esquema neoplatónico.

«The anagogy that occurs through interpreting symbols is itself the return to God; thus the author's anagogical interpretation of biblical and liturgical symbols is part of his overall conceptual structure or metaphysics.» — y saca la consecuencia: la hermenéutica dionisiana es parte de su metafísica.

«The relationship between the conceptual and the perceptible was ostensibly the subject of a treatise by that name, "The Conceptual and the Perceptible" (373B, 197). But here, too, the supposedly lost treatise is not really missed, since the role of perceptible symbols in uplifting the interpreter to their conceptual meanings and beyond is thoroughly discussed throughout the Dionysian corpus.» — Rorem consigna otro tratado que el corpus se atribuye y declara perdido, y por qué no lo echa de menos, con la referencia 373B, 197.

«Furthermore, whatever was given by these sacred men in a more immaterial initiation, as already given to our neighbors in the heavenly hierarchy, from mind to mind, this too our leaders have revealed, through the means of verbal expression and thus corporeal, but at the same time more immaterial since it is free from writing. But the inspired hierarchs have transmitted these things not in the common part of the sacred act in undisguised conceptions, but in the sacred symbols.» — la transmisión no escrita según el mismo capítulo, con la referencia 376C, 199.

«This "more immaterial initiation" beyond the written scriptures is not simply the unwritten tradition in general, but specifically the teachings conveyed in the exclusive portion of the liturgy, after the reading of the scriptures which was "common" or shared even with the uninitiated and after the dismissal of the uninitiated.» — Rorem precisa qué es esa iniciación más inmaterial: no la tradición no escrita en general sino la parte reservada de la liturgia.

«uplifting and divinization for their subordinates. And so, using images derived from the senses they spoke of the transcendent. They passed on something united in a variegation and plurality. Of necessity they made human what was divine. They put material on what was immaterial. In their written and unwritten initiations, they brought the transcendent down to our level.» — la razón del símbolo según el capítulo primero, con la referencia 376D, 199.

«They did this for us, not simply because of the profane from whom the symbols were to be kept out of reach, but because, as I have already stated, our own hierarchy is itself symbolical and adapted to what we are. In a divine fashion it needs perceptible things to lift us up into the domain of conceptions» — la doble razón del símbolo repetida en este tratado, con la referencia 377A, 199.

«Our context within this created world of space and time means that we humans are dependent upon sense perception, upon the plurality implied in our awareness of extension in space and of sequence in time as the starting points for knowledge.» — Rorem explica la dependencia humana del símbolo por la condición espacio-temporal.

«But this must all occur in proportion to one's station along the way. The outsider is kept away even from the symbols, the initiate is gradually learning their explanations, and the hierarch is charged with concealing and sharing these truths.» — y el reparto del secreto por grados.

«never to pass to anyone except sacred-initiators of your own order the hierarch's superior sacred words» — la promesa de confidencialidad que el tratado exige a Timoteo, con la referencia 377A, 199-200.

«Although the chapters of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy do not actually carry titles, the heading given by the editor to each chapter's initial subsection actually functions as a title to the whole chapter.» — Rorem repite la advertencia sobre los títulos de capítulo en este tratado.

«Each of these chapters presents a rite and then interprets it.» — y el esquema fijo de cada capítulo.

«Illumination refers to baptism (or "divine birth"), and synaxis means the Eucharist.» — con la traducción de los dos términos técnicos.

«These two are joined by the consecration of the myron-ointment as the three sacraments at the head of "our hierarchy.» — y la tríada sacramental que encabeza la jerarquía humana.

«Chapter 5 considers the clerical triad of hierarch, priests, and deacons, with special attention given to their rites of ordination.» — Rorem reparte los capítulos restantes: el quinto para la tríada clerical.

«Chapter 6 treats the lay triad: those still being purified (itself a trio of catechumens, penitents, and possessed), the communicants, and the monks, with special attention to the rite of monastic profession.» — el sexto para la laical.

«Chapter 7 concludes the work with a treatment of funerals and a few appended discussions.» — y el séptimo para los funerales.

«The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy is the earliest extant work of this kind—a full and systematic exposition of liturgical rites—in all Christian literature.» — Rorem fija el lugar del tratado en la historia del género.

«Some earlier expositions of parts of liturgical texts survive, such as The Mystagogical Lectures ascribed to Cyril of Jerusalem, but nothing as systematic as this treatise by Pseudo-Dionysius.» — con la reserva sobre lo que sí se conserva de antes, las Catequesis mistagógicas atribuidas a Cirilo de Jerusalén.

«It is thus considered the first in a long line of liturgical commentaries that influenced Christian worship, East and West, for centuries.» — y la línea que abre.

«Chapter 2 of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy begins a format that is followed for the rest of the treatise: each chapter presents and interprets a liturgical rite, within an explicit tripartite structure.» — Rorem describe el formato fijo de los capítulos de este tratado.

«First comes an introduction, which is usually short, and carries a title actually descriptive of the whole chapter, as given above.» — con su primera parte.

«Third, the ritual receives an elaborate interpretation under the title "Contemplation.» — y la tercera.

«This triadic structure may itself subtly express the Neoplatonic triad of remaining, procession, and return, since the three parts present the foundation, the successive events which the senses perceive, and the interpreter's return from sense perception up to the conceptual contemplation.» — y propone, con *may*, que la estructura misma repita la terna neoplatónica.

«While the tripartite format is consistently Dionysian, the nomenclature of the headings is not. Here too the subtitles show signs of an editorial hand, and one usage in particular could be seriously misleading.» — Rorem separa lo que es del autor de lo que es del editor en este tratado.

«In each chapter's second section, the subtitle applies the word mystery to the rite in question, implying a common category for the six rituals treated in the six chapters.» — con el caso concreto, el uso del término *mystery* en los subtítulos.

«This pattern in the titles is contradicted by the body of the text itself, where there are only three sacraments, and where the singular form mystery is never applied to a specific rite as a whole.» — y la contradicción con el cuerpo del texto.

«Thus the practice of calling each chapter's second section "the mystery of..." may rightly indicate the sections' common purpose in describing the contents of a rite, but it wrongly implies a common status for the six rites, since ordination, tonsure, and funerals are not Dionysian sacraments.» — y el efecto engañoso del subtítulo editorial.

«To compound matters further, the headings in this second chapter are also misleading in their use of the name illumination for baptism.» — con el segundo caso de subtítulo engañoso.

«that sacred sacrament of the divine birth ... first introduces the light and is the source of all divine illumination. And because this is so we praise it, giving it the designation of what it achieves, that is, illumination» — la etimología que el propio tratado da en el capítulo tercero, con la referencia 425A, 210.

«Similarly, the specific term baptism is only used twice, and refers to the actual immersion (404A, 207; 565A, 257), not to the overall ceremony, which is consistently called "the divine birth.» — Rorem mide el uso del término *baptism* en el tratado y lo opone al que sí es constante.

«Divinization is to have a divine birth. . . . So, therefore, let us behold the divine symbols which have to do with the divine birth» — la fórmula del propio tratado que justifica ese nombre, con la referencia 392B, 201.

«has bestowed hierarchy as a gift to ensure the salvation and divinization of every being endowed with reason and intelligence. It has given it in a more immaterial and intellectual fashion to those who are blessedly above this world.... As for us, this gift which the heavenly beings have received» — el don de la jerarquía según el capítulo primero de La jerarquía eclesiástica, con la referencia 376B, 198; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«uniquely and unitedly has been passed on to us by the divinely transmitted scriptures in a way suited to us, that is, by means of the variety and abundance of composite symbols.» — y la continuación de esa cita al otro lado del corte, que devuelve la transmisión a los símbolos compuestos de la Escritura.

«The format had already appeared in some patristic exegesis of the Bible, notably Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses, which introduced» — Rorem localiza el precedente patrístico del formato en la Vida de Moisés de Gregorio de Nisa; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«then interpreted Moses' life in a third section also entitled "Contemplation," or "Theoria.» — y al otro lado del corte nombra la tercera sección de esa obra, la Contemplación o Theoria.

«The Areopagite used a creative variety of words for liturgical ceremonies, but the Greek word telete for sacrament (485A, 232) was» — Rorem mide el uso del término griego para sacramento; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *only used for baptism, Eucharist, and the consecration of the ointment*.

«only used for baptism, Eucharist, and the consecration of the ointment.» — y los tres únicos ritos a los que el corpus aplica ese término.

«The disrobing and westward renunciation are plainly the first half of one's conversion, as completed by turning to the eastern light and professing new faith» — Rorem resume la exégesis dionisiana de la renuncia y la profesión bautismales, con la referencia 401B, 206-7.

«The initial anointing with oil is compared with an athlete's preparation (404A, 207), while the triple immersion itself indicates burial, including Jesus' three days in the tomb.» — con las dos siguientes, la unción atlética y la triple inmersión.

«Now because of this it is quite appropriate to hide the initiate completely in the water as an image of this death and this burial» — la formulación del propio tratado sobre la inmersión, con la referencia 404B, 208.

«In clear contrast to the earlier emphasis on the incongruous and dissimilar symbols for God and for the angels in the Bible, these various symbolic actions are expressly considered to be appropriate to their subject matter» — Rorem enfrenta este tratado con el anterior: aquí los símbolos se declaran apropiados.

«you can see that the hierarchic rites are the precise images of these realities.... Join me in observing how appropriately the symbols convey the sacred» — la fórmula del tratado sobre la exactitud de los ritos, con las referencias 401C, 404B, 207.

«Neither here in this chapter nor anywhere else in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy does Dionysius present or even mention his earlier principle of incongruity, that every symbol falls short of its heavenly referent and therefore cannot be unequivocally true.» — Rorem consigna una búsqueda negativa como hallazgo: el principio de incongruencia no aparece en todo el segundo tratado.

«Yet The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, with all its explanations for symbolic acts, completely lacks any discussion or even hint of negation and incongruity in its theory and practice of interpretation.» — y la repite midiéndola sobre el libro entero.

«Rather than conclude that the author was inconsistent, or that biblical symbols need negation and liturgical symbols do not, we should ask whether his earlier insistence that all symbols combine relative congruity and incongruity (and therefore affirmation and negation) is silently assumed throughout this treatise.» — con la salida que Rorem propone, en forma de pregunta y sin resolverla.

«every sacredly initiating operation draws our fragmented lives together into a one-like divinization. It forges a divine unity out of the divisions within us. It grants us communion and union with the One» — la etimología de *synaxis* que el capítulo tercero da, con la referencia 424CD, 209.

«As "the sacrament of sacraments," the synaxis is the culmination of several other rites, such as baptism and ordination. Since Communion concludes those ceremonies, it therefore completes or perfects them» — y el lugar que el tratado le asigna entre los ritos, con la referencia 424D, 209.

«The hierarch, having said a sacred prayer at the divine altar, begins the censing there and then he makes the round of the entire sacred place. Returning to the divine altar, he begins the sacred singing of the psalms and the entire assembly joins him in this. Then the deacons begin the reading of the holy tablets, after which the catechumens leave the sacred precincts, followed by the possessed and the penitents, so that only those remain who are entitled to the vision and communion of the divine things. Some of the deacons stand on guard in the sacred place to ensure that the doors are kept closed. Others perform tasks appropriate to their order.» — la descripción del rito hasta la despedida de los catecúmenos, con la referencia 425BC, 210-11.

«First, even those still awaiting initiation will receive an introductory lesson from the simple appearances of these things. Beyond the teachings contained in the readings, those who are dismissed at least know that the initiated ones stay to share bread and wine. This illustrates, at a minimum, the virtue of sharing things peacefully and in common, and commemorates the Last Supper» — Rorem resume la lección elemental que el tratado concede a los no iniciados, con la referencia 428B, 212.

«I think we must now go inside the sacred things and reveal the meaning of the first of the images» — el paso a la contemplación en el capítulo tercero, con la referencia 428D, 212.

«In this fascinating passage, Dionysius applies the philosophical concept of procession and return not only to the hierarch's censing procession and return to the altar, but also to three other areas.» — Rorem señala el rendimiento del esquema de procesión y retorno en el incensario.

«Note that the things to do with the censing are understood anagogically in three ways» — el escoliasta sobre esa triple lectura, citado por Rorem con la referencia Scholia, 140.

«The symbol of censing is applied first to the activity of the Deity, which proceeds outward to us but also remains in itself; second, to the sequence of this sacrament, which remains indivisible yet is pluralized into variegated symbols in order to return all partakers to its own oneness; and third, to the overall role of the hierarch, who generously and pedagogically stoops to a "multitude of sacred enigmas" and yet returns to his own lofty post without loss» — Rorem desglosa las tres aplicaciones del incensario.

«In his mind he journeys toward the One. With a clear eye he looks upon the basic unity of those realities underlying the sacred rites. He makes the divine return to the primary things the goal of his procession toward secondary things, which he had undertaken out of love for humanity» — la fórmula del tratado sobre el jerarca que desciende y vuelve, con la referencia 429B, 213.

«Dionysius next considers the Psalms and the scripture readings, which have few symbolic activities attached to them, but become the occasion for a cryptic enumeration of the biblical books that are read.» — Rorem describe el tratamiento de los salmos y las lecturas.

«The sung Psalms unite and harmonize the worshipers, preparing them to hear the fuller and clearer narrations in the readings, which progress naturally from the Old Testament to the New» — con la función que el tratado les da.

«The truth of what was forecast by the one was confirmed by the events described by the other. The divine works are the consummation of the divine words» — la relación entre los dos Testamentos según el tratado, con la referencia 432B, 214.

«This last sentence illustrates the Areopagite's complex vocabulary, and the magnitude of the decisions that stand behind any translation.» — Rorem usa esa frase para mostrar el peso de las decisiones de traducción.

«Literally, the text says that theurgy is the consummation of theology, which may seem to be far removed from a discussion of the biblical testaments.» — con la lectura literal del griego.

«But in the Areopagite's dictionary, theurgy is literally "God's work" (e.g., 436C, 218) and theology is often "God's word," as already mentioned.» — y el sentido que los dos términos tienen en el corpus.

«Since there is no mistaking the context as a discussion of the relationship between the two testaments, this creative expression means that the divine works of saving history recorded in the New Testament are the fulfillment of God's predicting words in the Old.» — de donde Rorem deriva el sentido de la frase.

«The catechumens are the lowest order, being as yet uninitiated and still awaiting their divine birth.» — Rorem describe a los tres grupos que se despiden, empezando por los catecúmenos, con la referencia 432C, 215.

«The fatherly scriptures "incubate" them until the proper time for their birth and further nourishment» — con la figura que el tratado usa para ellos, y la referencia 433AB, 215-16.

«Those considered to be possessed by demons have weakened before a powerful, opposing passion, but they could be strengthened by the scriptures» — y la de los posesos, con la referencia 433C, 216.

«A final summary of the groups which are dismissed abandons this clear triadic pattern, and implies that there are more than three groups» — Rorem consigna la inconsecuencia del propio tratado en el recuento de esos grupos.

«The "hymn of universal faith" is undoubtedly the Nicene Creed.» — Rorem identifica ese himno con el credo niceno.

«It is identified as the creed because of its position here, and because the Areopagite's summary of it outlines creation, incarnation, and communion, even though he never directly quotes the creed itself.» — con los dos argumentos en que se apoya, y la reserva de que el corpus nunca lo cita.

«This identification has been an important part of the historical task of dating the Dionysian corpus, since the eucharistic liturgy did not include the creed until well after the Council of Chalcedon, around A.D. 476, and even then not everywhere at once.» — Rorem convierte esa identificación en argumento de datación.

«A commentary that presupposes its inclusion in the divine liturgy, therefore, must have been written considerably after this date.» — y saca la consecuencia.

«Since the Dionysian writings were first cited around 525, simple arithmetic and round numbers suggest a midpoint between 476 and 525, namely, A.D. 500 as roughly the date of their composition.» — con el cálculo del que sale la fecha de hacia el año 500, dicho por Rorem como aritmética simple y números redondos.

«The exchange of peace indicates the community's reconciliation (437A, 218), and the external washing symbolizes inner purity» — Rorem resume dos exégesis del rito, con las referencias 437A, 218 y 440A, 219-20.

«Reverently take note of the following also. It is while there are placed on the divine altar the reverend symbols by which Christ is signaled and partaken that one immediately reads out the names of the saints. It is made clear in this way that they are unshakably bound to him in a sacred and transcendent union» — la razón que el tratado da para leer los nombres de los santos en ese punto, con la referencia 437C, 219.

«This anaphora (eucharistic prayer or series of prayers) describes the pitiable human condition, the divine generosity in assuming human nature in order to change it, the warrant of Jesus' saying, "Do this in remembrance of me," and the hierarch's prayer for worthiness.» — Rorem resume la anáfora que el tratado parafrasea, con la referencia 440C-444A, 220-21.

«In Dionysian eucharistic theology, the emphasis is not so much upon the consecration of the material elements of bread and wine, as upon the sacred actions involving the loaf and the cup.» — y señala dónde pone el acento la teología eucarística del corpus.

«The bread which had been covered and undivided is now uncovered and divided into many parts. Similarly, he shares the one cup with all, symbolically multiplying and distributing the One in symbolic fashion. With these things he completes the most holy sacred act» — la fracción y la distribución según el tratado, con la referencia 444A, 222.

«The point is not simply that Jesus' body is represented in the material of bread and wine, but that the process of becoming a visible and corporeal body is symbolized in the unveiling and dividing of the loaf and cup. It has become pluralized so that many may partake of it and thereby be made one with Christ and with each other.» — Rorem precisa qué simboliza esa fracción: no el cuerpo sino el proceso de hacerse visible.

«That Christ is said to have been "utterly incarnate among us while yet remaining unmixed" occasions a Chalcedonian apologetic (one that insists that there are two natures, divine and human, in Christ) in the earliest scholia. They argue against any Apollinarian sympathies (that would insist that there is only one nature, the divine, in Christ) about a compromised (not full) humanity» — Rorem consigna la apologética calcedonia que ese pasaje provoca en los escolios más antiguos.

«Note that here, as previewed much earlier, the motif of procession and return applies to the central events of the sacrament. Representing Christ's incarnation, the elements proceed into plurality so that those who partake can be returned to unity with God.» — y localiza otra vez el esquema de procesión y retorno en el centro del sacramento.

«Reception of the mysteries always comes before their mystical distribution. This is the universal order and the harmonious arrangement appropriate to the divine realities» — el orden de la comunión según el tratado, con la referencia 445A, 223.

«This "trickledown" direction, essential to hierarchical theory ever since, applies not only to the distribution of communion but also to moral and spiritual leadership in general.» — Rorem extiende ese orden al gobierno espiritual.

«This introduction to the Dionysian eucharistic liturgy and its interpretation raises several crucial questions.» — y cierra el capítulo dejando abiertas las preguntas.

«Does the author presuppose Christ's real presence, or is the synaxis only a set of symbols? The final chapter refers to a bodily communion, but with the "symbols"» — con la primera de ellas, sobre la presencia real, y el único dato que el propio corpus da, la referencia 565B, 257.

«What about the absence in this chapter, indeed in the whole book, of negative theology and of any apparent awareness of the incongruity of symbols?» — y la segunda, sobre la ausencia de la teología negativa en este tratado.

«Dionysius calls this ritual "another rite of perfection belonging to the same order" as the synaxis (472D, 224), as opposed to the rites of purification or illumination.» — Rorem sitúa la consagración del ungüento entre los ritos de perfección, con la referencia 472D, 224.

«The chosen deacons, along with the priests, put on the divine altar the sacred bread and the cup of blessing. And all this is preceded by the singing by the entire gathering of the hymn of universal faith. Then the divine hierarch says a sacred prayer and bids holy peace to all. All the others exchange the ritual kiss and the mystical reading of the sacred volumes is concluded. After the» — la descripción del rito desde el ofertorio, con la referencia 425CD, 211; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«hierarch and the priests wash their hands in water, the hierarch sits at the center of the divine altar surrounded by certain of the deacons, together with the priests. The hierarch speaks in praise of the sacred works of God, sets about the performance of the most divine acts, and lifts into view the things praised through the sacredly displayed symbols.» — y la continuación de esa descripción al otro lado del corte, hasta la ostensión de los símbolos.

«This, then, is what the hierarch reveals in the sacred rites, when he uncovers the veiled gifts, when he makes a multiplicity of what had originally been one, when the distributed sacrament and those receiving it are made perfectly one, when a perfect communion of all the participants is achieved. By resorting to the perceptible, to imagery, he makes clear that which gives life to our minds. He offers Jesus Christ to our view. He shows how out of love for humanity Christ emerged from the hiddenness of his divinity to take on human shape, to be utterly incarnate among us while yet remaining unmixed. He shows how he came down to us from his own natural unity to our own fragmented level, yet without change.» — la exégesis extensa que el tratado da de la fracción, con la referencia 444C, 222; cita larga releída entera en el crudo, la guarda anticosido salta por pasar de setecientos caracteres.

«With eyes that look beyond the world I must behold the sacred forms attributed to it [the angelic hierarchy] by the scriptures, so that we may be uplifted by way of these mysterious representations to their divine simplicity» — el paralelo de método entre los dos tratados que Rorem señala, con la referencia de La jerarquía celeste 4, 177C, 156.

«In both cases, Dionysius proposes a reverent regard for the traditional symbols, whether the biblical depictions of the angels or the liturgical actions of consecration, so that we might be uplifted through and beyond these things to the higher realm.» — y lo que ese paralelo sostiene.

«As happens with the synaxis, the imperfect orders have to be excluded as soon as the hierarch has spread the fragrance around the whole sacred space, and all have reverently completed the singing of the psalms and the readings of the most divine scriptures. Then the hierarch takes the ointment, covered by a dozen sacred folds, and places it on the divine altar. Everyone joins in that sacred song which God inspired in the prophets. A consecrating prayer is offered over the ointment and this is then used in the holy sacraments of sanctification for almost all of the hierarchy's rites of consecration.» — la descripción del rito del ungüento, con la referencia 473A, 224-25.

«Here the word anagogy has the almost technical sense of an interpretation or teaching that uplifts.» — Rorem fija el sentido técnico de anagogía en el tratado, con la referencia 473B, 225.

«divine men cover in secret the fragrance of that sanctity within their minds» — la lección elemental que el tratado concede sobre este rito, con la referencia 473B, 225.

«The hiddenness itself plainly teaches that divine knowledge is confidential.» — Rorem separa lo que el secreto enseña por sí solo de lo que exige interpretación.

«First, this rite is in the exclusive domain of the hierarch, since it is clearly part of the highest power, that of perfection.» — Rorem enumera los rasgos del rito, empezando por su reserva al jerarca.

«The ointment is "a mixture of fragrant substances," and the composite nature of the ointment is itself considered symbolic, "giving a form to what is without form" (480A, 228), since it symbolizes Jesus.» — la composición del ungüento como símbolo, con la referencia 480A, 228.

«Although the author discusses this identification of the ointment with Jesus, he never says how its composition or mixture of substances is itself symbolic of Jesus.» — Rorem señala el hueco que el propio tratado deja.

«One modern interpreter has speculated that this mixture reflects a Monophysite Christology in that it gives preeminence to the divine over the human. For the balsam oil or other aromatic, despite its lesser quantity, dominates the other oil in the resulting fragrance, just as the invisible divinity came to dominate the bulkier humanity.» — y consigna la conjetura monofisita de un intérprete moderno, nombrándola como especulación.

«This speculation is linked to the possibility earlier in the chapter of a pun on the word artist to allude to Peter the Fuller, (d. 488), a Syrian from Antioch who was associated with Monophysite leanings.» — con el juego de palabras en que esa conjetura se apoya, y el nombre propio que propone, Pedro el Batanero.

«to cause a longing for God's gifts, and to feed on conceptual food» — la función del aroma según el tratado, con la referencia 480A, 229.

«the twelve folds signify the order of seraphim» — la lectura del velo de doce pliegues, con la referencia 480B, 229.

«Thus it is not arbitrary that the covering involves twelve folds, since two six-winged seraphim are here symbolized, at least abstractly or perhaps even by artistic realism.» — Rorem cierra esa lectura con la reserva sobre hasta dónde llega el realismo, y la referencia 481B, 230.

«Hence the tradition of the sacred symbols covers the divine ointment with the seraphim even during the sanctification, and it does so to show and to demonstrate that Christ remains forever unchanged even when fully and truly made one of us» — la razón cristológica que el tratado da para mantener cubierto el ungüento, con la referencia 484A, 231.

«As a symbol for Christ, who consecrates others without change in himself, the ointment becomes the consecrating medium in other rites, namely, the finale of baptism, the consecration of the baptismal water (to which Dionysius seems to be the earliest witness8), and the consecration of the altar» — Rorem enumera los ritos que el ungüento consagra y anota que el corpus parece el testimonio más antiguo de la consagración del agua bautismal.

«willingly died on the cross for the sake of our divine birth» — la lectura de la aplicación cruciforme al agua, con la referencia 484B, 231.

«Could the ointment that consecrates and the altar that is consecrated both represent Christ? This is no barrier to Dionysian exegesis, since "it is the most holy Jesus who consecrates himself for us» — la circularidad simbólica que Rorem señala y la salida que el propio tratado da, con la referencia 485A, 232 y la cita de Juan 17:19.

«Neither here nor anywhere else in the corpus is a single word of any rite intentionally quoted. Allusions to the liturgical texts are always indirect and oblique, such as this avoidance of the simple Hebrew word Alleluia by translating it into Greek instead.» — Rorem consigna otra búsqueda negativa como hallazgo: el corpus jamás cita literalmente el texto de un rito.

«It is, so to say, the perfecting rite of God which [way of speaking] praises in a double sense its divine work of perfection. God, first of all, having become man, was consecrated for us and, secondly, this divine act is the source of all perfection and of all consecration» — el honor que el tratado da a la consagración del ungüento, con la referencia 485A, 232 y la restitución entre corchetes que Rorem imprime.

«First, Dionysius presents every hierarchy as tripartite: the sacraments, those who preside over them, and those who are initiated» — la estructura tripartita de toda jerarquía según el capítulo quinto, con la referencia 501A, 233.

«This applies perfectly to the human hierarchy, but only poorly to the heavenly one.» — Rorem objeta el ajuste de ese esquema a la jerarquía celeste.

«Dionysius certainly presented a hierarchical relationship between superior and inferior beings with regard to the angels, but the celestial tripartite arrangement consisted of three groups of beings, with no mention of sacraments.» — y da la razón de la objeción.

«It is both celestial and of the Law for it occupies a place half way between two opposites. With the one [the celestial] it shares the contemplations of understanding; with the other [the legal] it has in common the use of varied symbolism derived from the realm of perception, symbolism by means of which there is a sacred uplifting to the divine» — la jerarquía humana como término medio según el tratado, con la referencia 501D, 234 y las restituciones entre corchetes que Rorem imprime.

«The symbols of the ecclesiastical hierarchy bridge the gap between the earlier and lowlier dependence upon sense perception (the hierarchy in the days of the Law) and the future and higher purity of conceptual contemplation (the heavenly hierarchy). Furthermore, and this is crucial for understanding the author's interpretive method, the symbols fill that gap by lifting us up to the divine.» — Rorem lee el símbolo eclesiástico como puente entre la Ley y el cielo.

«The first godlike power of the most holy work of the sacraments is the sacred purification of the uninitiated. Its middle power is to illuminate and to initiate those whom it has purified. Its final power, embracing all that went before, is to bring about in the initiates a more perfect understanding of that to which they have been initiated.» — las tres potencias sacramentales según el capítulo quinto, con la referencia 504A, 235.

«In this summary statement, note first that the power of perfection is not a unitive power above and beyond illuminating knowledge. In fact, it is the perfection of knowledge and understanding, and as such it effects the unifying uplifting toward the divine.» — Rorem acota la perfección: no es potencia unitiva por encima del conocer sino perfección del conocer.

«Second, there is no simple one-to-one correlation of the three powers to the three sacraments. Baptism is presented in terms of the two powers of purification and illumination, while both the synaxis and the myron consecration are associated with perfection.» — y niega la correspondencia uno a uno entre potencias y sacramentos.

«Furthermore, we know from earlier statements that baptism also includes perfection, in the final anointing of the candidate with the perfecting ointment, and that the synaxis and the ointment consecration also include purification in that the scripture readings in the first half of the service help to purify the lower order.» — con los datos del propio tratado que no la sostienen.

«Thus all three powers are present in all three sacraments, although with different emphases.» — y la conclusión que Rorem saca.

«Instead of explaining any of this, Dionysius presses ahead to the chapter's principal subject, the clerical rank's "three harmonious orders—the one which purifies, the one which illuminates, and the one which brings about perfection» — Rorem señala que el tratado deja sin explicar ese punto, con la referencia 504C, 236.

«In terms of the triad of powers, the order of hierarchs is the perfecting or consecrating order, in which "the whole arrangement of the human hierarchy is fulfilled and completed» — el lugar del jerarca en esa tríada, con la referencia 505B, 236.

«Purification by deacons occurs in the disrobing and renunciations at baptism, their purifying reading of the scriptures, and the dismissal and guarding of the doors» — las tareas del diácono según el tratado, con la referencia 508B, 238.

«Of course, the hierarchs have not only the highest power of perfection, but also the two lower powers as well; similarly, the priests conduct both illumination and purification.» — Rorem repite la regla de inclusión de potencias.

«In this way, the ranks of the clergy are an image of the divine order and activity, since "the divinity first purifies those minds which it reaches and then illuminates them. Following on their illumination it perfects them in a perfect conformity to God» — y la fundamenta en el orden divino, con la referencia 508D, 239.

«It is necessary to quote the entire summary because the commentary that follows does not proceed according to the sequence of the rite or of this summary paragraph.» — Rorem explica por qué cita entero ese resumen.

«Instead, it considers first the items that are common to all three consecrations, namely, the presentation at the altar, the genuflection, the imposition of hands, the sign of the cross, the announcement, and the concluding kiss. It then proceeds to the items that are particular to each order and to each ordination.» — y el orden que el comentario sí sigue.

«The presentation and genuflection at the altar symbolize the ordinands' complete devotion to God, the source of every consecration. The imposition of hands by a hierarch teaches the hierarchical principle that these powers come to the ordinands from God and through a mediator.» — Rorem resume las exégesis comunes a las tres ordenaciones.

«The sign of the cross indicates a renunciation of the flesh and the imitation of Jesus» — con la de la señal de la cruz, y la referencia 512A, 240.

«The ritual announcement of the candidate's name means that the ordaining hierarch is not merely following his own impulses, but rather God's choice. In the same way, Moses did not consecrate Aaron until God commanded it, Jesus did not consecrate himself or his disciples without ascribing this choice to the Father and Spirit, and the disciples did not choose a successor to Judas without asking God to point out the chosen one» — la del anuncio del nombre, con sus tres precedentes bíblicos y la referencia 512D, 241.

«The final kiss symbolizes the love of peers, the sacred communion of like minds, and the joyous shared love that conforms to God» — y la del beso final, con la referencia 513B, 242.

«It is more difficult to appreciate how physical aromas are» — Rorem señala la dificultad del aroma como símbolo; el tramo se corta ante el entrecomillado que sigue, *images of that infinitely divine fragrance* con la referencia 476A, 226.

«The author starts with the uninitiated and the possessed, who are incubated and strengthened by the scriptures, and then move on to the communicants, who» — el efecto de las lecturas sobre cada orden de laicos, con la referencia 477A, 227-28; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *are illuminated, and the perfected (the monks), who are united to God*.

«Apart from any doctrinal overtones about mixing substances, the fragrance itself is symbolic in that its pleasure is perceived according to one's capacity and proximity» — Rorem separa la lectura doctrinal del ungüento de la simbólica.

«Something has already been said about the triple power connected with the holy work of the sacraments. From scripture it has been shown that the sacred divine birth is a purification and an illuminating enlightenment, that the sacraments of the synaxis and of the myron-ointment provide a perfecting knowl» — el reparto de las tres potencias entre los tres sacramentos, con la referencia 504BC, 235-36; el tramo se corta en el guion de *knowl-edge*, al filo de la plana.

«edge and understanding of the divine workings and that it is through this that there is effected both the unifying uplifting toward the divinity and the most blessed communion with it.» — y el cierre de esa misma cita al otro lado del corte.

«Even if a priest officiates at a baptism or the Eucharist, this presupposes the hierarch's prior consecration of the ointment, of the altar, and even of the» — la dependencia del presbítero respecto del jerarca, con la referencia 505BC, 237; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *priest himself in his ordination*.

«At his consecration the hierarch kneels on both knees in front of the altar. On his head he carries God's revealed word, together with the hand of the hierarch who is consecrating him. This latter performs the rite of consecration with most sacred invocations. The priest also kneels on both knees before the divine altar. The hierarch places his right hand on his head and in this way he sanctifies him with the consecrating invocations. The deacon kneels on one knee before the divine altar. The hierarch places his right hand on his head and with invocations suitable to the deaconal functions he consecrates him. The hierarch makes the sign of the cross on everyone whom he consecrates and for each of them makes the announcement and he gives each of them the kiss of consecration. All the clergy present at the ceremony take turns after the hierarch in kissing the one who has been consecrated in one of the above clerical orders.» — la descripción de los tres ritos de ordenación en el capítulo quinto, con la referencia 509BC, 239; cita larga releída entera en el crudo, la guarda anticosido salta por pasar de setecientos caracteres.

«As for features distinctive to each order, the hierarchs alone have the scriptures placed upon their head, the priests bend both knees, and the deacons bend only one knee.» — Rorem resume los rasgos propios de cada ordenación.

«Since the scriptures are handed down by God and reveal to us all that we can know of God, it is fitting that this revelation be symbolized by their placement on the head of the hierarch, who not only receives this enlightenment but also passes it on down to the others.» — con la exégesis de la Escritura puesta sobre la cabeza del jerarca.

«Kneeling indicates humility; the single-kneed posture of the deacons indicates that they possess only the single power of purification, whereas the double-kneed posture of the priests indicates that they possess the two functions of purification and illumination» — y la de las genuflexiones, con la referencia 516B, 243.

«it is through the three holy sacraments and powers that the three ranks of holy initiators preside over the three orders of those being initiated» — el resumen de las tres tríadas que el propio tratado da, con la referencia 516A, 242.

«The core of this chapter is the description and interpretation of the rite of monastic profession and tonsure.» — Rorem fija el asunto del capítulo sexto.

«But it begins with a discussion not of the monks but rather of the other lay people (who do not have a comparable ceremony), and it includes a summary of the entire human hierarchy.» — y señala el desorden del capítulo.

«Furthermore, and far from the subject of monastic tonsure, it concludes by expanding on the discussion begun in the previous work on how purification can apply to the angels.» — con el apéndice que no viene a cuento.

«Spanning the spectrum from catechumens and penitents through the communicants to the select group of monks, the lay orders are hard to designate by a singular collective noun.» — Rorem señala la dificultad de nombrar de un golpe a los órdenes laicales.

«The author calls them all initiates, meaning both those who are already initiated and also those who are in the process of becoming initiated.» — y el término que el propio tratado usa.

«Yet in this chapter there seem to be even more than three groups "of those purified by the incubating and purifying power of the deacons" (532A, 244), although the distinctions are blurred.» — con la inconsecuencia que Rorem vuelve a consignar, y la referencia 532A, 244.

«The intermediate, contemplative rank consists of the communicants, who are entrusted to the priests for illumination. This identification of the middle group of the sacred people, or the laity, employs the middle power of illumination, between purification and perfection» — el orden medio de los laicos y su potencia, con la referencia 532B, 244.

«Accordingly, the most exalted order of the initiates, the sacred rank of monks, includes all purification and all contemplation in its elevation to the power of perfection. The order of monks is entrusted to the perfecting power of the hierarchs, who have completed or perfected the order» — y el más alto, el de los monjes, entregado a la potencia perfeccionadora de los jerarcas.

«Thanks to their understanding, it has been uplifted into the most complete perfection proportionate to this order» — con la fórmula del tratado, y la referencia 532D, 245.

«Because of this exalted status, the tradition has called them by more than one name; "therapeutae" indicates their servanthood, and "monks" indicates their singular way of life.» — las dos etimologías que el tratado da para los monjes.

«Although they are at the peak of the lay orders, they are completely subject to the clergy, as Letter 8 reminded the monk Demophilus.» — Rorem enlaza ese lugar con el caso de Demófilo.

«Their rite of profession is a secondary ceremony in the hierarchy, presided over not by a hierarch as in the clerical ordinations, but by a priest.» — y señala quién preside ese rito.

«Yet this would seem to be inconsistent with the author's principle that the monks' perfection needs to come from the perfecting order, the hierarchs. The perfecting rite of monastic profession and tonsure would seem beyond the priest's purifying and illuminating powers.» — con la inconsecuencia que de ahí resulta, enunciada en condicional.

«This apparent inconsistency and others may stem from some differences between the author's theoretical system and the practices of his actual historical context.» — y la explicación que Rorem propone para ella, también en condicional.

«The priest stands before the divine altar and chants the invocation for a monk. The person being initiated stands behind the priests and does not kneel on either one or both knees. The divinely granted scriptures are not put on his head. He simply stands while the priest chants the secret invocations over him. When this is finished the priest approaches the initiate. First he asks him if he will not only renounce but even refuse to phantasize anything which could be a distraction to his way of life. He reminds him of the rules governing a fully perfect life and openly asserts that he must surpass the median way of life. After the initiate has devoutly promised to do all this the priest makes the sign of the cross on him. He cuts his hair and invokes the three persons of the divine blessedness. He takes away all his clothes and gives him others. Then, together with all the other sacred men present at the ceremony he gives him the kiss [of peace] and confers on him the right to commune in the divine mysteries.» — la descripción del rito de profesión monástica, con la referencia 533B, 245-46; cita larga releída entera en el crudo.

«This rite is distinguished from the clerical ordinations in that the monk does not kneel on both knees, or on one knee, but stands.» — Rorem marca la diferencia de postura.

«The renunciations separate the monks and their lifestyle from the intermediate order of lay people, placing them closer to the clergy than to their fellow initiates» — con el efecto de las renuncias, y la referencia 533D, 247.

«Tonsure] is a sign of a pure and unencumbered life, a life adorned by no unworthy appearances forged by the mind but rising freely thanks to beauties which are not manmade but which lift the soul in unity and monastic state up to conformity with God» — la exégesis de la tonsura, con la referencia 536A, 247 y la restitución entre corchetes que Rorem imprime.

«The change of clothing signals the change of order from the middle rank to the greater perfection, just as the baptismal change of clothing indicated the earlier uplifting from purification to contemplation and illumination.» — Rorem lee el cambio de vestidura por paralelo con el bautismo.

«The concluding invitation to communion is mentioned here not because the new monk was previously denied this sacrament, for the middle order of the illuminated is certainly an order admitted to Communion. Rather, it is discussed here because now a monk will surpass the middle order's contemplation with a perfected understanding and he will receive communion in a different way.» — y explica por qué la invitación a comulgar aparece en este rito.

«Beyond the spiritual implications regarding new insights, this reference to a different way of receiving communion may refer concretely to the monks' new status in standing closer, seeing more, and receiving Communion before the rest of the lay people» — con la lectura concreta que propone, en condicional, y la referencia 1088D-1089A, 272f..

«Indeed, we learn here (and not in chapter 5) that the newly ordained is also immediately invited to participate in the Eucharist in his new office and its "proportionate share in the divine gift of this communion» — Rorem señala el dato que el capítulo sexto da y el quinto calla, con la referencia 536C, 247-48.

«This is the very passage used in part I to introduce the human hierarchy, yet drastically abbreviated.» — y consigna que ese resumen ya se había citado, abreviado, en la parte I.

«In conclusion, Dionysius repeats his standard argument that this, our human hierarchical arrangement, mirrors the ranks of heaven, and he anticipates again the argument that no angelic rank needs purification.» — Rorem resume el cierre del capítulo sexto.

«These powers are not moral purification, contemplative illumination, and a uniting perfection, but together involve the progressive understanding of sacred things, namely the proper uplifting interpretation of the biblical and liturgical traditions.» — y la tesis de Rorem sobre las tres potencias, repetida al cerrar el capítulo.

«The seventh chapter of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy presents and interprets the Christian funeral rite11 and concludes the work as a whole. As such, it stands outside of the triadic framework of three sacraments (chapters 2, 3 and 4), three clerical orders (chapter 5), and three lay orders (chapter 6).» — Rorem sitúa el capítulo séptimo fuera del marco triádico.

«The chapter begins with a discussion of death itself, and of the resurrection as reuniting one's body and soul. It opposes mistaken pagan notions of death as the dissolution of being, the permanent rupture of body and soul, or the occasion for the soul's assignment to a different body» — con lo que el capítulo niega sobre la muerte, y la referencia 553BC, 250.

«The divine hierarch assembles the sacred gathering. If the deceased belonged to one of the clerical orders, then he is placed at the foot of the divine altar. Then the high priest begins with prayer and thanksgiving to God. If the deceased was one of the holy monks or of the* sacred people the hierarch puts him in front of the sanctuary at the holy entrance reserved for the clergy. And then he recites the prayer of thanksgiving to God. The deacons then read out the true scriptural promises concerning our sacred resurrection and sing the psalms which also bear upon the same theme. The leader of the deacons then dismisses the catechumens. He reads out the names of the saints who are already dead and judges the one most recently deceased to be worthy of commemoration along with them. He calls upon everyone to pray for final beatitude in Christ. The divine hierarch then approaches and offers a most sacred prayer for the dead, at the conclusion of which he kisses the deceased, as do all those with him. After everyone has given the kiss the hierarch pours the oil on the deceased, prays for all, and lays the body in an honored place along with the bodies of others of his order.» — la descripción del rito funerario, con la referencia 556CD, 251-52; cita larga releída entera en el crudo.

«Since the rite would provoke laughter among the profane, it must be contemplated in the light of Jesus» — Rorem abre la contemplación del rito, con la referencia 557A, 252.

«the fate of each one will correspond with the life he led here» — la lectura de la colocación del cadáver según el orden, con la referencia 557A, 252.

«After the scripture readings about the blessed inheritance, a chief deacon (a position mentioned nowhere else) dismisses only the catechumens, since they lack even "the first gift of light in the divine birth» — la despedida solo de los catecúmenos, con la referencia 557C, 253.

«But the possessed and the penitents, who also need purification and who are also dismissed during the synaxis and the myron consecration, have previously received at least some initiation, despite their subsequent weaknesses. Since they may be strengthened by the rite's messages about fearlessness, rewards, and sorrows, they are allowed to stay for the rest of the funeral.» — y la razón de que posesos y penitentes se queden.

«By what prayer could the hierarch win for the dead person such a change of condition that it would be different from what he had earned during his life here?» — la objeción que el propio tratado se plantea sobre la oración por los muertos, con la referencia 560D, 254.

«First of all, an essential part of a holy life is to accept and to seek the mediating help of the leaders of the hierarchy» — y la primera respuesta, con la referencia 561B, 254-55.

«Furthermore, the hierarch seeks to conform his mediation to God's will, and therefore "does not offer this prayer for those who have died in a state of unholiness» — con la segunda, y la referencia 564A, 255.

«Conversely, the hierarch would never excommunicate someone if this judgment were not revealed from God» — y su reverso, con la referencia 564B, 256.

«The sacred anointing with oil once called the initiate to sacred combat; now the pouring on of the oil reveals that in this sacred combat the deceased fought his way to victory» — la lectura atlética de la unción funeraria, con la referencia 565A, 257.

«Since the body shared in the saint's journey, receiving along the way the imagery of the ointment and the symbols of communion even as the soul enjoyed the contemplative understanding of these rites, the body also receives honor in death and burial, and thereby anticipates the resurrection.» — Rorem resume por qué el cuerpo recibe honor en el rito.

«This passing reference to the body's reception of the symbols of communion does not vitiate, but actually confirms, the impression that for Dionysius the crucial factor in the sacrament was the conceptual interpretation of the rite, not a bodily communion with Christ's body and blood.» — y saca de ese pasaje un argumento sobre la teología eucarística del corpus: el factor decisivo es la interpretación conceptual, no la comunión corporal.

«In all of this, we must remember that Dionysius may be reflecting some practices known to his actual community» — Rorem separa la práctica histórica de la presentación apostólica, en condicional; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *but he wishes to present everything as the apostolic beginning of the tradition*.

«their solitary status, explains the punster Dionysius with typical wordplay. They are not entrusted with leading others, whether in the two priestly powers of illuminating and purifying or in the single power of the deacon» — el juego de palabras del que el tratado deriva la postura del monje, con la referencia 533C, 246; el troceo parte la plana 129 y la frase abre con *The monks stand alone in*.

«But even the angels differ in the degree of their understanding, and» — Rorem consigna la salvedad sobre la purificación angélica; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *the lower celestial ranks can be purified from their relative ignorance*.

«the lower celestial ranks can be purified from their relative "ignorance of truths not previously understood» — y al otro lado del corte, de qué se purifican los ángeles, con la referencia 537B, 248-49.

«The chapter concludes with two unrelated appendixes.» — Rorem señala los dos apéndices con que cierra el tratado.

«Second, the practice of infant baptism and infant Communion is defended, especially for the vicarious way that the renunciations and promises are spoken for the children by others.» — el segundo, sobre el bautismo y la comunión de los niños.

«Only here, and not in chapters on baptism or the synaxis, does the corpus ever mention infant baptism or infant Communion.» — con el dato de que el corpus solo lo menciona ahí.

«The initial answer to skeptics is that these things are mysteries revealed only partially, even to superior beings. They are simply to be accepted.» — Rorem resume la respuesta del tratado a la objeción.

«Furthermore, in baptism the sponsors appropriately speak the renunciations and promises for the child, since they are taking on the responsibility to bring the child up in accordance with those promises» — y su segunda parte, con la referencia 568B, 258.

«When the hierarch admits the child to a share in the sacred symbols it is so that he may derive nourishment from this, so that he may spend his entire life in the unceasing contemplation of the divine things, may progress in his communion with them, may therefore acquire a holy and enduring way of life, and may be brought up in sanctity by the guidance of a holy sponsor who himself lives in conformity with God» — la defensa de la comunión de los niños en el propio tratado, con la referencia 568C, 259.

«The very end of the treatise includes the modest protest that other interpreters could have contemplated and shared even more with Timothy, who himself will doubtless rise up to higher insight. This advanced enlightenment Dionysius wishes to receive from his epistolary son, "for I feel sure that my words will rekindle the sparks of God» — el cierre del tratado, con la referencia 569A, 259.

«Of course, this finale is a literary flourish, not a real invitation to surpass or supplement The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.» — Rorem lo declara recurso literario y no invitación real.

«Nevertheless, it is instructive to review this liturgical commentary by noting what it chose to interpret and what it left out.» — y propone leer el tratado por lo que calla.

«The Areopagite consistently emphasized the liturgical actions and movements far more than the ritual words, which are never divulged and rarely interpreted, and more than the ceremonial objects, which are never described in themselves apart from their use in a gesture or activity.» — con el primer hallazgo: el acento en la acción y no en la palabra ni en el objeto.

«The suppression of all worship texts, even the word Alleluia, is not fully explained by the motive of secrecy, since the entire treatise is ostensibly addressed to a fellow initiate and hierarch or at least teacher.» — Rorem objeta que el secreto baste para explicar ese silencio.

«Even the phrase "lift up your hearts," the well-attested opening of the anaphora and a convenient confirmation of Dionysian anagogy, or uplifting, is passed over in silence.» — y da el caso que más lo agrava, la fórmula que mejor le convendría a la anagogía.

«Of course, too much precision in the explicit quotation of a text could have jeopardized the pseudonymous apostolicity of the overall project.» — con la explicación que Rorem propone, en condicional: la cita exacta habría comprometido la ficción apostólica.

«More subtle than this neglect of the texts is the author's downplaying of the liturgical objects. When the hierarch processes throughout the church and returns to the altar, we learn nothing about the appearance of the hierarch himself, the building, the censer, or the altar.» — Rorem mide el segundo silencio, el de los objetos litúrgicos.

«Yet, as static objects, the bread and cup themselves are of negligible interest.» — con el caso del pan y la copa.

«We never learn of their shape, size, type, or contents, or anything about their appearance at all.» — y el detalle de lo que no se dice.

«Further, baptism involved a consecration of the font and immersion into the water, but these things are interpreted for their dynamic character as activities, not for the appearances of the material objects involved.» — con el caso de la fuente bautismal.

«Neither the font nor the water are ever characterized as to shape, depth, warmth, or any other quality mentioned by other commentators.» — y la comparación con otros comentaristas.

«As a final example, the clothing of a clerical rank or monastic state is never described, even though the priest's activity of disrobing and robing a monk is symbolic of the latter's change of rank.» — con el último ejemplo, la vestidura.

«The reasons for this dominant emphasis upon the ritual activities may be several, but the discussion must be suspended until more of the corpus is presented. Part V invokes my answer on this point, which is more fully argued elsewhere.» — Rorem aplaza su explicación y remite a la parte V y a un trabajo propio.

«Also delayed for more thorough discussion in part V is the related difficulty introduced above: why does the entire treatise speak not a word of negative theology or even acknowledge the incongruity of the use of this world's symbols for divine things?» — y aplaza también la ausencia de teología negativa en este tratado.

«This absence is striking since his biblical hermeneutics are otherwise so similar to his liturgical hermeneutics, and the earlier companion treatise The Celestial Hierarchy consistently incorporated such themes into its principles for understanding biblical symbols.» — con la razón de que esa ausencia le llame la atención.

«First, the secret "consecrating invocations" were not divulged in writing even in this communica» — el primero de los dos apéndices del capítulo séptimo, con la referencia 565C, 257-58; el tramo se corta en el guion de *communica-tion*, al filo de la plana.

«tion to Timothy (565C, 257-58). Indeed, no liturgical text is quoted in the entire treatise.» — y la búsqueda negativa que Rorem repite al otro lado del corte: ningún texto litúrgico se cita en todo el tratado.

«Questions about the influence of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy involve a completely new set of topics and texts, not primarily from the Latin Middle Ages but from Byzantine Orthodoxy.» — Rorem desplaza el terreno de la influencia de este tratado hacia la ortodoxia bizantina.

«The influence of this Dionysian treatise was not so much in its contents (namely, its specific descriptions and interpretations of ritual acts), as in its format as a liturgical commentary.» — y localiza esa influencia en el formato y no en el contenido.

«Just as the genre of biblical commentary has its own history as a form of literature,15 so too can scholars trace the history of liturgical commentaries, namely, those treatises that systematically comment on the rites of the church.» — con el paralelo del comentario bíblico.

«Current scholarship evaluates the impact of the Dionysian corpus in terms of its sixth-century appearance, between the early church and the Byzantine or medieval church. But the medieval and Byzantine authors considered it to stem from the very beginning of church tradition, and they took its author to be the first century Athenian Areopagite, among the very first of the fathers.» — Rorem enfrenta la perspectiva moderna con la medieval sobre la fecha del corpus.

«The original success of the pseudonym forever complicated any assessment of the author's real influence on medieval and Byzantine Christians, since their false assumption about his antiquity inflated their own view of his importance.» — y saca la consecuencia sobre toda medida de influencia.

«Recall that in chapter 3 of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Dionysius was determined to divulge no text of the liturgy whatsoever (cf. 565C, 257), not even a single word like Alleluia» — Rorem repite la abstención textual del tratado, con las referencias 565C, 257 y 485AB, 232.

«Except for paraphrasing certain prayers obliquely, such as the anaphora (440C to 444A, 220-21) or a funeral prayer for the dead (557BC, 252-53), no part of his exposition is an exegesis of the text of the liturgy, not even of the creed or the Lord» — con el alcance exacto de esa abstención, y las referencias 440C to 444A, 220-21 y 557BC, 252-53.

«Nor did he comment on the appearance of the building, of the vestments, or of such items as the altar or font. Rather, his concern was consistently for the activities that took place in the building and around the altar or font, and for the higher or spiritual meaning of those actions.» — y el segundo silencio, el de los objetos.

«None of his lectures for the newly baptized is really a commentary on the liturgy in the sense of a sequential explanation of the components of the rite. Their completely different purpose and their Western, Latin milieu distinguish them sharply from The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.» — y niega que sus catequesis sean comentario litúrgico en sentido estricto.

«With Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-86), Ambrose's distant Greek contemporary, we come closer to our proper subject since he did comment on the liturgy itself.» — con el segundo, Cirilo de Jerusalén, que sí comenta la liturgia.

«Of the Mystagogical Catecheses, the fourth lecture considers the meaning of the Eucharist in general and the fifth presents and interprets certain features of the service.» — Rorem localiza en qué lecciones de las Catequesis mistagógicas está ese comentario.

«Cyril's comments on the liturgy are dominated by explanations of the liturgical texts that the initiates had recently heard for the first time: the peace, the Preface and Sanctus, an epiclesis, or invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine, as well as some other prayers and commemorations, especially the Lord» — y mide su método: exégesis de los textos litúrgicos.

«Cyril's brevity and his emphasis on exegesis distinguish his work in its very format and intention from the lengthy Dionysian interpretations of the ritual acts and his silence on the liturgical texts.» — con el contraste frente al tratado dionisiano.

«The interpretations themselves also sharply distinguish Cyril from Dionysius, but the formal considerations are enough to establish the novelty of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy over against Cyril» — y la conclusión que Rorem saca del cotejo: el tratado dionisiano es nuevo por su forma.

«The liturgical interpretations advanced by Theodore of Mopsuestia» — Rorem introduce el tercer predecesor del género, Teodoro de Mopsuestia; el tramo se recorta antes de sus fechas, que el troceo parte a fin de renglón.

«present a more complicated case, both in their contents and in their influence, since he was posthumously condemned as a heretic for other reasons.» — y lo que complica su caso, la condena póstuma por razones ajenas a la liturgia.

«Theodore was of the Antiochene school, and understood both the scriptures and the liturgy according to typology. That is, events were linked together, whether prophetically from the Old Testament forward to the New Testament (in biblical interpretation), or historically from the present sacramental meal backward to the events of Christ's life (in liturgical interpretation).» — con su método tipológico, en las dos direcciones.

«Unfortunately, one of Theodore's many students, Nestorius (d. c. 451), so rigorously emphasized the distinct, historical human nature of Christ that he was accused by Alexandrian theologians of separating the two natures of Christ too far, almost into two persons.» — Rorem traza la cadena que lleva a la condena, empezando por Nestorio.

«Nestorius was condemned as a heretic and his notoriety extended to his teacher.» — y la transferencia del descrédito al maestro.

«When the Alexandrians and others continued their opposition to all things Nestorian, including (in their eyes) the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Justinian's imperial policy of ecclesiastical harmony attempted to satisfy them with the condemnation of some texts by Theodore, among others, at the Council of Constantinople held in 551.» — con el marco político de la condena de 551.

«None of his work could escape guilt by association, including the liturgical interpretation.» — y su efecto sobre la obra litúrgica de Teodoro.

«Every sacrament consists in the representation of unseen and unspeakable things through signs and emblems. Such things require explanation and interpretation.» — Teodoro de Mopsuestia sobre el sacramento como representación, citado por Rorem.

«Theodore could comment on the liturgical texts themselves, as Cyril of Jerusalem did, and his typology could also have the eschatological flavor of looking ahead to the complete fulfillment of these things in a heavenly banquet.» — con lo que Teodoro comparte con Cirilo y con el matiz escatológico.

«But his principal interpretive framework for the events of the rite itself, as opposed to the general idea of heavenly food, was his historical, christological typology, which looked back to the events of the passion» — y el marco que Rorem considera principal en él.

«In contemplating with our eyes, through faith, the facts that are now being re-enacted—that he is again dying, rising and ascending into heaven—we shall be led to the vision of the things that had taken place beforehand on our behalf.» — Teodoro sobre los hechos que el rito reactualiza, citado por Rorem.

«Theodore also supplied some specifics, such as understanding the Great Entrance in the liturgy to mean the carrying of Christ's body to the tomb and placing it on the linen cloths.» — con el ejemplo concreto de la Gran Entrada.

«This motif was later carried to extremes.» — Rorem marca el extremo al que llega esa línea.

«In the homilies of Narsai (c. 500), the bread and wine indicated the embalmed and covered body of Christ being brought to the altar in the sanctuary (which stood for the tomb in the garden), and the removal of the veil was understood as the rolling away of the stone.» — con el caso de Narsai.

«This line of interpretation was influential on a popular level, and yet was never embraced by official Orthodox theology, both because the bread and wine were not yet the body and blood of Christ and also because Theodore and Narsai were considered Nestorian heretics in their Christology.» — y las dos razones por las que la ortodoxia no la adoptó.

«Ambrose (339-97) presented the meaning of baptism and the Lord's Supper, but with little reference to the specific items of the communion liturgy, espe» — Rorem abre la serie de predecesores con Ambrosio; el tramo se corta en el guion de *espe-cially*, al filo de la plana.

«cially in contrast to his more detailed description of baptism.» — y al otro lado del corte, el contraste con su tratamiento del bautismo.

«nents of the liturgy with the events of Christ's passion, a method also implicit in Jerusalem's annual reenactment of the events of Holy Week.» — la tipología litúrgica de Teodoro de Mopsuestia, que empareja las partes de la liturgia con la pasión; el troceo parte la plana 136 en la palabra *compo-nents*.

«A comparison of Theodore's principles of liturgical interpretation with those of The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy shows mainly contrasts.» — Rorem coteja a Teodoro con el tratado dionisiano y da el resultado.

«Theodore's understanding of liturgical symbolism was consistently typological, and the events of the rite were almost always linked to the saving events of Christ's suffering and resurrection.» — con lo que caracteriza a Teodoro.

«The Areopagite engaged in virtually no typological interpretation, and certainly none that related events of the liturgy to the passion of Christ.» — y la negativa que le opone.

«Dionysius sought, rather, to relate the events of the liturgy to eternal truths about God and our relationship to God.» — con lo que el corpus sí hace.

«The only exceptions are a baptismal reference to Jesus' burial (404B, 208), and the uncovering and pluralization (i.e., breaking and distribution) of the bread and wine as symbolic of his appearance in this world's spatial and temporal plurality» — y las dos excepciones que Rorem consigna, con las referencias 404B, 208 y 444BC, 222.

«Neither Cyril's emphasis on giving an exegesis of the liturgical texts nor Theodore's typology of Christ's passion find any continuation in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, although they were carried on by others.» — Rorem cierra el cotejo con los dos predecesores.

«The Dionysian interest in the ritual actions as symbolic of eternal spiritual truths had no real predecessors in Christian literature.» — y declara sin precedente cristiano el interés dionisiano por la acción ritual.

«But this does not imply complete originality on Dionysius» — con la reserva inmediata que le pone a esa negativa.

«Late Neoplatonism, especially in the variety that included Proems (c. 410-85), had an important place for religious ritual, dating especially from lamblichus (c. 250-c. 330).» — Rorem sitúa el precedente en el neoplatonismo tardío; el troceo imprime *Proems* por Proclus y *lamblichus* por Iamblichus, y las fechas son las que el libro da.

«Differing sharply from Plotinus (c. 205-70) and less dramatically from Porphyry (c. 232-c. 303), lamblichus led a Syrian school of Neoplatonic theurgy (the works or rites addressed to the gods)» — con la posición de Jámblico dentro de esa escuela y la glosa de teurgia que el propio Rorem da.

«In his hands, Neoplatonism was not a pure, speculative philosophy but a mediating, saving religion, with some rites that must be properly performed and understood.» — Rorem caracteriza el neoplatonismo de Jámblico como religión mediadora y no filosofía especulativa.

«the unutterable is voiced by means of ineffable symbols, the shapeless is captured in shapes, things superior to every image are represented through images» — Jámblico sobre el símbolo ritual, citado por Rorem.

«Although the sacraments that interested Dionysius were completely different from the rites of Neoplatonism, the Areopagite interpreted the Christian symbols according to a method similar to that of lamblichus: a symbol's perceptible appearance corresponds to its higher conceptual message of an eternal truth» — Rorem separa los ritos y a la vez empareja los métodos.

«Listen therefore to the conceptual interpretation of the symbols ... abandoning that illusion of these symbolical things which comes from visual and aural impressions, and elevating yourself to the conceptual truth» — la segunda cita de Jámblico que Rorem trae, sobre la interpretación conceptual del símbolo.

«This material is complex and ultimately inconclusive, since lamblichus provided so little application of his method.» — y la reserva con que Rorem cierra esa comparación.

«When it comes to precedents for the Areopagite's interest in the liturgical actions as timeless allegory, as opposed to Theodore's typology of Christ's passion or Cyril's exegesis of the liturgical texts, there are no credible candidates within Christianity.» — Rorem repite la búsqueda negativa dentro del cristianismo.

«There is, however, a methodological similarity in lamblichus regarding the rituals of later Neoplatonism.» — y la similitud que sí concede.

«For some readers this similarity could explain why Dionysian liturgical allegory seems to breathe a spirit different from other Christian interpretations of the Eucharist.» — con las dos lecturas que esa similitud admite, y esta es la primera.

«For others, any such link to pagan philosophy and superstition is an affront to the orthodox integrity of the liturgical tradition in which this venerable work firmly stands.» — y la segunda, que Rorem consigna sin arbitrar.

«It starts, as do many questions of Dionysian influence, with Maximus the Confessor (580-662). In addition to his comments on various passages in the corpus as a whole, including The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Maximus also cited Dionysius respectfully in a liturgical commentary entitled Mystagogia, written around 630» — Rorem abre la historia bizantina del género con la Mistagogia de Máximo, fechada hacia el 630.

«But since the symbols of the sacred celebration of the holy synaxis have also been considered by the most holy and truly divine interpreter Dionysius the Areopagite in a manner which is worthy of his great mind in his treatise Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, it should be known that the present work will not repeat these same things nor will it proceed in the same manner.» — Máximo el Confesor declarando que no repetirá lo ya interpretado por Dionisio, citado por Rorem.

«Although Maximus pays tribute to Dionysius again at the close of the Mystagogia and credits him with a specific idea near the end, the question of Dionysian influence is not so simply settled.» — y abre tres reservas sobre esa deuda.

«First, the final chapters of the work, with their references to Dionysius, may not be by Maximus himself.» — la primera, sobre la autenticidad de los capítulos finales.

«Second, he credits many of his liturgical interpretations to a certain unnamed "grand old man and truly wise in divine matters.» — la segunda, sobre el anciano sin nombre al que Máximo acredita sus interpretaciones.

«This could be a veiled reference to someone like Sophronius, Maximus's monastic superior at Carthage, but it could also be a fictional literary device to present Maximus» — con las dos salidas que Rorem deja abiertas para esa figura.

«Third, the specific liturgical interpretations advanced by Maximus and his "grand old man" are themselves quite complicated and diverse.» — y la tercera reserva.

«While The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy may have influenced Maximus's Mystagogia in terms of its form or genre as a liturgical commentary, the deeper questions concern the specific contents of these two works, namely, the items chosen for comment and the way they are interpreted.» — Rorem separa la influencia de forma de la de contenido.

«In contrast to the Dionysian indifference to the church building, Maximus begins his work with a multifaceted interpretation of the church as an image of God, of the universe, of the material world, and of the human being.» — y opone la indiferencia dionisiana al edificio con la lectura que Máximo hace de él.

«For example, the nave, sanctuary, and altar symbolize the human body, soul, and mind.» — con el ejemplo que da.

«When it comes to the rite itself, Maximus begins with a bit of historical typology similar to that of Theodore of Mopsuestia: the bishop's initial appearance is an image of Christ's first appearance in the flesh.» — Rorem localiza en Máximo un resto de tipología histórica.

«But Christ's passion is not emphasized, since immediately after this appearance, his "ascension into heaven and return to the heavenly throne are symbolically figured in the bishop's entrance into the sanctuary and ascent to the priestly throne.» — y el giro que Máximo le da, hacia la ascensión y no hacia la pasión.

«To take a few examples, the closing of the doors, the kiss of peace, and the Creed all symbolize the eschatological future, namely, our eventual transition from material to spiritual things, our final perfect peace and unanimity with each other, and our future fulfillment in the faith.» — con los ejemplos de la tipología escatológica de Máximo.

«Similarly, the Trisagion and the Our Father symbolize the fullness of praise and adoption that will be ours in the eschaton. In general, the liturgy is a foretaste of the feast to come, an image of the final future.» — y la fórmula que la resume.

«The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy contained not a hint of such eschatological typology or correlation of the events of the liturgy with the future glory of heaven.» — Rorem consigna la ausencia de esa tipología en el tratado dionisiano.

«In fact, the entire Dionysian corpus is devoid of eschatology, except for one passage» — y la extiende al corpus entero, con la única excepción y su referencia, 592C, 52-53.

«In terms of this crucial interpretive methodology, Maximus's Mystagogia shows a remarkable creativity and originality, and no Dionysian influence at all.» — con el saldo: en ese punto Máximo no debe nada a Dionisio.

«In his work On the Mysteries, lamblichus advanced elaborate methods and ideas about the» — la obra en que Jámblico expone su teurgia, De mysteriis; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *intermediate levels and triads of reality that connect the physical and spiritual worlds*.

«intermediate levels and triads of reality that connect the physical and spiritual worlds. Through them, the soul could ascend to God.» — y al otro lado del corte, los niveles intermedios por los que el alma asciende.

«to leave for others." (The Areopagite himself gave the same reason for using, but not duplicating, the work of his mysterious authority Hierotheus at 681BC, 69-70.)» — y anota que el propio corpus usa esa misma razón con Hieroteo, con la referencia 681BC, 69-70.

«In this prefatory comment, Maximus goes on to assure the reader that he will» — Rorem glosa la declaración de Máximo el Confesor sobre no repetir lo ya interpretado por Dionisio; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *not presume to interpret anything already covered by such an authority as Dionysius*.

«Although its authorship was once disputed, The Ecclesiastical History and Mystical Contemplation is now known to be by Germanus, who was the patriarch of Constantinople from 715 until 730.» — con la atribución de esa obra y las fechas de su autor.

«He was deposed for defending icons of Christ in defiance of the emperor's decrees against such images.» — y el motivo de su deposición.

«Germanus honored the view of liturgical interpretation as contemplation, or theoria, in that the rites are contemplated for their higher or inner meaning.» — Rorem lee el título mismo como programa, en su primera mitad.

«The first half of the title, Ecclesiastical History, refers not to church history in the usual sense but to those historical and saving events that are symbolized in the church's liturgy, namely, the ritual typology of Christ's passion and death that we have encountered in Theodore of Mopsuestia.» — y en la segunda.

«The church is an earthly heaven in which the supercelestial God dwells and walks about. It represents the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Christ.» — Germano de Constantinopla sobre la iglesia como cielo terrestre, citado por Rorem.

«Thus the altar can correspond both to the tomb of Christ, an echo of Theodore's historical typology, and to the heavenly and spiritual altar, a theme consistent with Maximus.» — Rorem reparte esa doble lectura del altar entre sus dos fuentes.

«The Confessor is quoted at length regarding the heavenly future, especially toward the end of Germanus's work. But the heretic Theodore is never mentioned, even though Germanus shared his interest in the burial of Jesus, in the garments, and in the tomb itself as symbolized by the actions and vessels at the altar.» — y señala el crédito que Germano da a Máximo y el que calla a Teodoro.

«Why would Germanus risk echoing the Antiochene interest in the historical events of Christ's passion despite its association with the Nestorians' heretical separation of humanity and divinity of Christ?» — Rorem plantea por qué Germano corre ese riesgo.

«The probable answer is that this emphasis was prompted by Germanus's own historical context, the violent dispute about icons.» — y la respuesta que propone, con su grado, *probable*.

«Over against the iconoclasm of the emperor and his theologians, Germanus insisted that the historical, incarnate Christ could and should be depicted in images, yet without idolatry.» — con la posición de Germano en la disputa iconoclasta.

«For him and eventually for all Orthodoxy, it was essential to ground divine reality in the incarnate, human history of Jesus.» — y lo que esa posición exigía.

«Since Germanus became the standard liturgical commentary for many centuries, thus continuing the themes of Cyril of Jerusalem, of Maximus the Confessor especially, and even of the unacknowledged Theodore of Mopsuestia, one can hardly claim much lingering influence from Dionysius at this point.» — Rorem mide el saldo de influencia dionisiana en el comentario que se vuelve estándar.

«It is true that the format of a liturgical commentary was new with the Areopagite and became an important genre of literature. But the contents of his treatise, the actual interpretations of the rites as allegories of eternal truths, were not all that influential.» — y separa otra vez la forma del contenido.

«In its dominant methodology, On the Divine Liturgy by Nicholas Cabasilas (b. c. 1322) returned especially to the textual exegesis already seen in Cyril of Jerusalem.» — con el comentario que sustituye a Germano en el siglo XIV, el de Nicolás Cabasilas.

«Orthodox tradition was obliged to honor The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy by Dionysius, even with its Platonic overtones about timeless truths rationally grasped by the individual far above this inferior world of space and time. But a full embrace was prevented by the powerful Orthodox insistence on the decidedly un-Dionysian themes of a christocentric salvation history and eschatology and the belief in sacramental realism within the corporate reality of the church.» — Rorem explica el abrazo incompleto de la ortodoxia al tratado y nombra los tres temas no dionisianos que lo impedían.

«The pivotal figure is Amalarius of Metz (c. 780-850), whose commentary on the Mass had few Latin ancestors but many descendents.» — Rorem abre la línea latina con Amalario de Metz.

«Since Amalarius was part of the same Carolingian circle as the Hilduin who translated the Areopagite's writings around 830, one could well pose questions about Dionysian influence, as long as Amalarius's overall context is kept in mind.» — y la coincidencia de círculo con Hilduino que hace legítima la pregunta.

«But they were not working in a complete vacuum, even though Amalarius claimed and demonstrated considerable originality. Biblical commentaries, including their allegorical and typological methods, provided a model. Authors such as the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) and Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) had already laid a foundation.» — con los precedentes latinos que Rorem le reconoce.

«The brief exposition of the Mass falsely attributed to Germanus of Paris (c. 496-576) is an important illustration. Written around 700, this commentary presented the liturgy in terms of the historical typology we have already seen in Theodore of Mopsuestia. The events of the Mass correspond to events in the life of Israel and especially in the life and passion of Christ. As in Theodore, the procession of bread and wine is likened to the burial of Jesus, complete with the linen cloths.» — y el testimonio pseudoepígrafe de hacia el 700 atribuido a Germano de París.

«The sacraments ought to have a certain resemblance to those things of which they are sacraments. Therefore the priest resembles Christ, just as the bread and drink resemble the body of Christ. Thus the sacrifice of the priest at the altar is in a way like the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.» — Amalario en el prefacio de su Liber officialis, citado por Rorem.

«When it came to specifics, Amalarius interpreted practically everything in sight.» — Rorem mide el alcance de la exégesis de Amalario.

«The men are seated on the right or south side of the oriented (i.e., eastward) church, for example, and the women are seated on the north, in order to symbolize the scriptural text (1 Corinthians 10:13) that it is the stronger, virile souls who are placed amid the hot passions of this world.» — con el ejemplo del reparto de hombres y mujeres en la nave.

«More to the point, Amalarius consistently interpreted the rite as symbolic of Christ's sufferings, death, and burial. Since nothing like this liturgical interest in the passion of Christ appears in the Areopagite's Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Amalarius's main method or emphasis cannot be attributed to a Dionysian influence.» — y la negativa que Rorem opone a la influencia dionisiana sobre él.

«The Pseudo-Dionysian concentration on timeless allegory or spiritual truths in general finds only minor continuation in Amalarius.» — con lo poco que sí continúa.

«In any case, Amalarius's career as a liturgical expositor, including the early editions of his major commentary, began well before Hilduin's Latin translation of the Dionysian corpus was made.» — y el argumento cronológico que Rorem añade.

«The narrow question of direct Dionysian influence on Amalarius must be answered negatively.» — con la respuesta que da a la pregunta estrecha.

«For example, did Theodore's emphasis on historical, christocentric typology appear in the West by coincidence, or through general application of biblical typology, or through a specific channel of influence such as the Venerable Bede, which then reached Amalarius?» — Rorem abre las preguntas que quedan sobre las demás vías de influencia.

«To compound things, Amalarius himself visited Constantinople at length and made a point of learning all he could about the liturgy.» — con el dato del viaje de Amalario a Constantinopla.

«He may well have caught the spirit of the liturgical commentary by Germanus of Constantinople, with its unacknowledged continuation of Theodore» — y la hipótesis que de ahí sale, en condicional.

«Amalarius's travels, however, do not explain the earlier appearance of this emphasis in the other Latin authors mentioned above.» — con el límite que Rorem le pone a esa hipótesis.

«Nor do they explain the assessment, by Amalarius himself and by his peers, that his work advanced truly new interpretations of the liturgy.» — y el segundo límite.

«His apparent novelty, in fact, resulted in Amalarius's condemnation for false teaching.» — con el desenlace, la condena de Amalario.

«Despite his official rebuke, Amalarius was extremely influential on later commentators on the Latin Mass, such as Pope Innocent III (c. 1198-1216) and William Durandus (c. 1230-96), bishop of Mende, whose work became a standard in the later Middle Ages.» — Rorem sigue la línea de Amalario hasta Inocencio III y Guillermo Durando.

«In general, the history of the genre of liturgical commentaries is not widely known.» — Rorem declara poco conocida la historia del género.

«The authors mentioned in this quick sketch, and many others, should be investigated further for traces of specific Dionysian influence, perhaps especially in the West for impact which may have come after Amalarius through the Latin translations by Hilduin and especially Eriugena.» — y deja abierta la investigación.

«But one must conclude that the clear medieval emphasis on historical typology, on the liturgy representing the passion of Christ, is not at all Dionysian.» — con la conclusión que sí sostiene.

«Specific emphases aside, however, the very genre or format of a liturgical commentary, in the West no less than in the East, may have been encouraged by the examples of Dionysius and Maximus.» — y lo que concede en cuanto a la forma, en condicional.

«Beyond advancing a literary genre, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy also opened up a whole new and imaginative world of liturgical allegory, rather like Pandora» — Rorem cierra la parte III con la imagen de la caja de Pandora.

«Once one author, indeed someone from the apostolic age, had expanded the boundaries of liturgical interpretation, others were only too eager to follow with creative efforts of their own.» — y la razón de que la apertura fuera irreversible: el precedente venía de la edad apostólica.

«After Maximus, the legacy of liturgical commentaries becomes even more complicated, both because it branches out to the West and also because the next» — Rorem abre la fase siguiente del género con dos razones de complicación; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *example in the East, Germanus I of Constantinople, weaves together all the strands*.

«example in the East, Germanus I of Constantinople (c. 634-c. 733), weaves together all the strands of emphasis we have sampled so far.» — y al otro lado del corte presenta a Germano de Constantinopla como confluencia de todas las líneas.

«Western Latin interpretations of the Mass were dominated by the historical typology of Christ's passion typical of Theodore of Mopsuestia, not by the allegory of timeless spiritual truths advanced by the» — el saldo que Rorem da para el occidente latino; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana, y sigue *Dionysian Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*.

«us directly to the dramatic representations of the passion events, and therefore to the evolution of drama itself. The scriptural and liturgical dialogue of the angel and the women at the empty tomb (the trope or song "Quem quaeritis?" or "Whom do you seek?") is a crucial component in the history of the theater.» — la derivación del comentario de la misa hacia el teatro, que Rorem señala con el tropo *Quem quaeritis*; el troceo reemite el marcador de plana a media frase, que abre con *The commentaries on the Mass also lead*.

«The Divine Names is the longest Dionysian treatise, and the most complex in both content and structure.» — Rorem abre la parte IV midiendo el tratado.

«It contains the author's interpretations of the biblical names ascribed to God, such as good, light, beautiful, and so on.» — con su asunto declarado.

«As to structure, chapters 1 through 3 present the introduction to his interpretive methodology and chapters 4 through 13 the interpretations themselves.» — y su estructura aparente.

«But on closer examination complexities abound.» — Rorem anuncia que esa sencillez no se sostiene.

«In general, what light does this treatise shed on the author's profound and complicated combination of the Christian tradition, with its biblical names for God, and Neoplatonism, with its own interest in the divine names?» — con la pregunta de fondo que el tratado plantea: la combinación de tradición cristiana y neoplatonismo.

«The best introduction to such complexities is the sequential presentation of the treatise according to its own order of chapters and topics, in the commentary form used so far.» — y la decisión de método que Rorem repite.

«The same situation, and the very same wording, was encountered in the two treatises already discussed, along with the technical reasons for considering this statement to be an editorial addition.» — Rorem repite el diagnóstico sobre el encabezado editorial.

«And so, my friend, after The Theological Representations, I come now to an explication of the divine names, as far as possible» — la primera línea del tratado, con la referencia 585B, 49.

«The work here mentioned as immediately prior was either lost before the first appearance of the corpus or is wholly fictional.» — Rorem consigna las dos salidas para esa obra previa sin arbitrar.

«In general, it is not necessary to believe that the Dionysian project involved works that were later lost, since the extant material summarizes them nicely.» — y la razón por la que no le urge decidirlo.

«It also applies to such lesser titles as "The Divine Hymns" (mentioned in Celestial Hierarchy 7, 212B, 166), "The Conceptual and the Perceptible" (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 1, 373B, 197 and 2, 397C, 204-5), and "The Soul» — con el censo de títulos menores que el corpus se atribuye y sus referencias internas.

«This is why we must not dare to resort to words or conceptions concerning that hidden divinity which transcends being, apart from what the sacred scriptures have divinely revealed» — el primer principio de método del tratado, con la referencia 588A, 49.

«Here he previews the work's contents and its form: the dialectic between the divinity as hidden beyond being and yet revealed, and the insistence on exclusive use of the Christian scriptures for this revelation.» — Rorem lee en esa frase el programa entero del tratado.

«Since the unknowing of what is beyond being is something above and beyond speech, mind, or being itself, one should ascribe to it an understanding beyond being» — la trascendencia divina en el capítulo primero, con la referencia 588A, 49.

«Nor can any words come up to the inexpressible Good, this One, this Source of all unity, this supra-existent Being. Mind beyond mind, word beyond speech, it is gathered up by no discourse, by no intuition, by no name» — y la negación de todo nombre, con la referencia 588B, 50.

«First, in the scriptures themselves the Deity teaches us this very dialectic: the Divinity is invisible, incomprehensible, "unsearchable and inscrutable" (588C, 50, quoting Romans 11:33 and alluding to Colossians 1:15, among other passages), and yet it is revealed in proportionate enlightenments» — Rorem localiza la dialéctica misma dentro de la Escritura, con la referencia 588C, 50 y la cita de Romanos 11:33.

«We learn, for instance, that it is the cause of everything, that it is origin, being, and life» — lo que el tratado dice que sí se aprende, con la referencia 589B, 51.