The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite

The Dionysian corpus was a body of writings falsely ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, a convert of St. Paul, actually written in around 500 A.D. This handbook brings together forty papers by over thirty contributors on the the antecedents, the content and the reception of the corpus.

The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite contains discussions of the genesis of the corpus, its Christian antecedents, and its Neoplatonic influences. In the second section, studies on the Syriac reception, the relation of the Syriac to the original Greek, and the editing of the Greek by John
of Scythopolis are followed by contributions on the use of the corpus in such Byzantine authors as Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite, Nicholas Stethatos, Gregory Palamas, and Gemistus Pletho. In the third section attention turns to the western tradition, represented first
by the translators John Scotus Eriugena, John Sarracenus, and Robert Grossesteste and then by such readers as the Victorines, the early Franciscans, Albert the Great, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Dante, the English mystics, Nicholas of Cusa, and Marsilio Ficino. Essays on Dionysius as a mystic and a
political theologian conclude the volume.

Mark Edwards, Professor, Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK,Dimitrios Pallis, Independent Researcher, ,Georgios Steiris, Associate Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Mark Edwards has been Tutor in Theology at Christ Church, Oxford since 1993, and also University Lecturer/Associate Professor in Patristics in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. Since 2014 he has held the title Professor of Early Christian Studies. His books
include Neoplatonic Saints (2000), Origen against Plato (2002), John through the Centuries (2003), Culture and Philosophy in the Age of Plotinus (2006), Catholicity and Heresy in the Early Church (2009), Image, Word and God in the Early Christian Centuries (2012), Religions of the Constantinian
Empire (2015) and Aristotle and Early Christian Thought (2019).


Dimitrios Pallis is an independent researcher specializing in theology and philosophy in late antique Christian Platonism and modern Greek Orthodox thought. He is the author of twenty book chapters and research articles and a treatise in these areas. He has been awarded three prizes for
studies on Dionysius the Areopagite from the University of Oxford, the University of Athens, and the Academy of Athens respectively. Recent publications include: A 'Neobyzantine' Cultural Proposal?: A Critical Appraisal of the Assimilation of Areopagitic Apophaticism in the Early Thought of Christos
Yannaras (2017) and 'Constructed Self' and Christian Mysticism in Dionysius the Areopagite and his Place in the Orthodox Tradition (2018/2019).


Georgios Steiris is currently Associate Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He previously taught at the University of Peloponnese and the Hellenic Open University. He has been Visiting
Professor at Jyväskyl?University. He has been served as Secretary General of the Greek Philosophical Society (2015-2016). He co-edited the volume Maximus the Confessor as a European Philosopher (2017).

1. Introduction
Part I: The Corpus in its Historical Setting
2. The Dionysian Corpus, Beate Suchla
3. The Content of the Areopagitic Writings, Tim Riggs
4. New Testament, St. Paul and Dionysius, Maximos Costas
5. Apophatic theology before Dionysius, Mark Edwards
6. Philo and Clement, Bogdan Bucur
7. Origen and Evagrius, Ilaria Ramelli
8. Gregory of Nyssa, Michael Motia
9. Iamblichus and Proclus, Charles Stang
10. Dionysius and the Athenian School, Mark Edwards and John Dillon
Part II: Dionysius in the East
11. The Syriac Translation, Emiliano Fiori
12. Notes on the Earliest Greco-Syriac Reception of the Dionysian Corpus, Istvan Perczel
13. John of Scythopolis, Beate Suchla
14. Maximus the Confessor, Maximos Constas
15. John of Damascus, Mark Edwards and Dimitrios Pallis
16. Theodore the Studite and Dionysius, George Arabatzis
17. Byzantine traditions up to Symeon the New Theologian, Antonio Rigo
18. Gregory Palamas, Torstein Tollefsen
19. Plethon, George Steiris
Part III: Dionysius in the West
20. Eriugena, Deirdre Carabine
21. John Sarracenus, Mark Edwards
22. Robert Grossesteste, Declan Lawell
23. The Early Franciscan Reception, Monica Tobon
24. Hugh of St Victor, Paul Rorem
25. Thomas Gallus, Declan Lawell
26. Albert the Great and Aquinas, Wayne Hankey
27. Dante, Mark Edwards and Tamara Pollack
28. The Carthusians and the Cloud of Unknowing, Peter Tyler
29. Nicholas of Cusa, Theo Kobusch
30. Marsilio Ficino, Michael Allen and Mark Edwards
Part IV
31. Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus, Denis Robichaud
32. Luther, Johannes Zachhuber
33. Lutheranism after Luther, Johannes Zachhuber
34. English Reception since the Reformation, Andrew Louth
35. Stiglmayr and Koch, Christian Schäfer
36. 33. Three modern theological approaches: Inge, Lossky, Von Balthasar, Mark Edwards
37. Modern Greek Reception, Dimitrios Pallis
38. Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion, Timothy Knepper
39. Dionysius as a Mystic, Ysabel De Andia
40. The Theology of the Ps.-Dionysius, Gyorgy Geréby