TO THE FELLOW PRESBYTER TIMOTHY, DIONYSIUS

 being illuminated super-cosmically by them for the hymns of the Godhead and being conformed to the sacred hymnologies, so as to see the divine lights

 For all knowledges are of things that are and have their limit in things that are, but It is beyond all essence and is removed from all knowledge. <5>

 <7> Thus, therefore, to the Cause of all and which is above all, both the nameless will apply and all the names of the things that are, so that it may

 the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will, and that It is the Spirit that gives life? That the ent

 to the one-principled Trinity also is common the super-essential existence, the super-divine divinity, the super-good goodness, the identity beyond al

 has partaken of the Word, unless someone might say according to the good-pleasing and man-loving common will and according to all the transcendent and

 Jesus, he says in his compiled Theological Outlines: <10> The all-causing and fulfilling Godhead of the Son, which preserves the parts in harmony with

 <III.> <1> And first, if you please, let us investigate the name Good, which reveals the whole procession of God's emanations, invoking the Good-Pri

 to the hierarchs, when we too, as you know, both yourself and many of our sacred brethren, had gathered for the sight of the life-originating and God-

 communions, the unconfused distinctions, the powers of the subordinate that lead up to the superior, the providences of the senior for the secondary,

 moves and nourishes and increases and perfects and purifies and renews. And light is the measure and number of hours, of days, and of all our time. Fo

 impartations and as calling all things to itself, whence it is also called Beauty, and as gathering all in all into one, and Beautiful as being All-Be

 the beautiful and the good is that which is beyond all rest and motion. Wherefore every rest and motion and that from which and in which and to which

 <12> And yet it has seemed to some of our sacred writers that the name 'eros' is even more divine than that of 'agape'. And the divine Ignatius also w

 an eternal circle through the Good, from the Good and in the Good and to the Good, moving about in an unerring convolution and in the same and accordi

 Whence then is evil? one might say. For if evil does not exist, virtue and vice are the same thing, and the whole is the same as the whole, and the pa

 irrational desire, in this it neither exists nor desires existing things, but it nevertheless partakes of the good by virtue of the faint echo itself

 simply nor in respect to time. <22> But neither is evil in angels. For if the good-like angel proclaims the divine goodness, being secondarily by part

 <24> But would someone say that souls are evil? If, because they associate with evil things providentially and for salvation, this is not evil, but go

 <30> To speak concisely The good is from one and the whole cause, but the evil from many and partial deficiencies. God knows evil, insofar as it is g

 goodnesses. <34> Therefore evil is not a being, nor is evil in beings. For evil, as evil, is nowhere. And the coming-to-be of evil is not according to

 manifestation of the all-perfect providence of the one God, and those of the more universal and the more particular things of the same. <3> And yet on

 <6> Therefore, the Essential Super-Goodness, putting forth the first gift, that of being itself, is praised by the first and most ancient of participa

 For if our sun, although the substances and qualities of sensible things are many and various, yet it, being one and shining a uniform light, renews a

 godlike and unchangeable immortality and the unwavering and unswerving perpetual motion, extending through an abundance of goodness even to the life o

 and is the cause of being of Wisdom itself, both of the whole and of each particular. <2> From it the intelligible and intellectual powers of the ange

 the cause of all things. Therefore God is known both in all things and apart from all things. And God is known through knowledge and through unknowing

 to be power-in-itself, both by being beyond-power and by bringing forth other powers, infinitely many times the infinite number of existing powers, an

 of the age, as having fallen away from none of the things that are, but rather both surpassing and pre-eminent over all beings according to a supra-es

 is defined and all inequality, which is a privation of the equality in each of them, is banished. For if anyone were to take inequality to mean the di

 We said the neck was opinion, as between the rational and irrational the breast, spirit the belly, desire the legs and feet, nature, using the name

 the return to him of those who have proceeded from him. <10> But if one should take the divine name 'Same' from the Oracles, or 'Justice,' in the sens

 beings, inasmuch as He is both before eternity and above eternity and His kingdom is a kingdom of all the ages. Amen. <ΧI.> <1> Come now, let us c

 and would never willingly wish to be at rest. And if he who says these things says that otherness and distinction are the particularity of each of the

 self-deification, of which beings, partaking according to their own nature, both are and live and are divine, and are and are called, and the others l

 It is therefore Perfect not only as being self-complete and defined in itself by itself in a single form and most perfect whole through whole, but als

 And not even the name of Goodness do we offer to It as being applicable, but from a yearning to conceive and speak something about that ineffable Natu

self-deification, of which beings, partaking according to their own nature, both are and live and are divine, and are and are called, and the others likewise. Wherefore also the Good is said to be, first, their source, then of their wholes, then of their parts, then of those who partake of them wholly, then of those who partake of them partially. And what need is there to speak about these things? Seeing that some of our divine sacred teachers even say that the source of Goodness-itself and Divinity-itself is the supra-Good and supra-Divine, saying that Goodness-itself and Divinity-itself are the good-making and God-making gift that has proceeded from God, and Beauty-itself is the beauty-making effusion, and whole beauty and partial beauty and things wholly beautiful and things beautiful in part, and as many other things have been said and will be said in the same manner, signifying providences and goodnesses partaken of by beings, proceeding from God the unpartaken in an abundant effusion and overflowing, so that precisely the Cause of all things may be beyond all things, and the supra-essential and supra-natural may in every way transcend those of any essence and nature whatsoever. <ΧII.> <1> But since concerning these matters, as many things as it was necessary to say have, I think, received their fitting conclusion, we must hymn the One of infinite names both as “holy of holies” and king of those who reign, reigning “for ever and for ever and yet more,” and as lord of lords and god of gods. And first, indeed, it must be said what we think Holiness-itself to be, and what Kingship, and what Lordship, and what Divinity, and what the oracles mean to signify by the doubling of the names. <2> Holiness, then, is, to speak according to our measure, the purity free from all pollution and complete and in every way unstained. And Kingship is the assigning of all limit and order and law and rank. And Lordship is not only superiority over inferiors, but also the complete possession of all things beautiful and good, and true and unchangeable stability. Wherefore also Lordship is from authority and mastery and dominion. And Divinity is the providence that beholds all things, and with perfect goodness both encompasses and holds together and fills all things from itself, and transcends all things that enjoy its providence. <3> These things, then, in the case of the all-surpassing Cause, must be hymned absolutely, and It must be called transcendent Holiness and supreme Lordship and super-eminent Kingship and most simple Divinity. For from It, in one and all at once, has come forth and been distributed all the unmixed precision of all sincere purity, all the arrangement and ordering of beings, banishing disharmony and inequality and disproportion, and making glad and bringing around to well-ordered identity and rightness those things deemed worthy to partake of it, all the complete and entire possession of all good things, all good providence that beholds and holds together the things for which it provides, giving itself in a manner worthy of goodness for the deification of those who have turned toward it. <4> And since the Cause of all is super-full of all things according to a single excess which transcends all, He is hymned as holy of holies and the rest by reason of an overflowing cause and pre-eminent transcendence, as one might say. Inasmuch as beings—whether holy or divine or lordly or kingly—and the self-participations of those who partake of them, transcend non-beings, by so much is the One who is above all beings, and the unpartaken Cause of all who partake and of all participations, established above all beings. And the oracles call holy and kings and lords and gods the more ruling orders in each, through whom the secondary partakers of the gifts from God, receiving the simplicity of their transmission, are multiplied according to their own distinctions; of whom the first orders providentially and divinely gather the variety toward their own unity. <ΧIII.> <1> So much also for these things. Next, then, if you please, let us proceed in our discourse to the most powerful name. For the theology of the Cause of all both predicates all things and all things at once of It, and hymns It both as perfect and as one.

αὐτοθέωσιν, ὧν τὰ ὄντα οἰκείως ἑαυτοῖς μετέχοντα καὶ ὄντα καὶ ζῶντα καὶ ἔνθεα καὶ ἔστι καὶ λέγεται καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὡσαύτως. ∆ιὸ καὶ πρῶτον αὐτῶν ὁ ἀγαθὸς ὑποστάτης λέγεται εἶναι, εἶτα τῶν ὅλων αὐτῶν, εἶτα τῶν μερικῶν αὐτῶν, εἶτα τῶν ὅλως αὐτῶν μετεχόντων, εἶτα τῶν μερικῶς αὐτῶν μετεχόντων. Καὶ τί δεῖ περὶ τούτων λέγειν; Ὅπου γέ τινες τῶν θείων ἡμῶν ἱεροδιδασκάλων καὶ τῆς αὐτοαγαθότητος καὶ θεότητος ὑποστάτην φασὶ τὸν ὑπεράγαθον καὶ ὑπέρθεον αὐτοαγαθότητα καὶ θεότητα λέγοντες εἶναι τὴν ἀγαθοποιὸν καὶ θεοποιὸν ἐκ θεοῦ προεληλυθυῖαν δωρεὰν καὶ αὐτοκάλλος τὴν αὐτοκαλλοποιὸν χύσιν καὶ ὅλον κάλλος καὶ μερικὸν κάλλος καὶ ὅλως καλὰ καὶ ἐν μέρει καλά, καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν εἴρηται καὶ εἰρήσεται τρόπον δηλοῦντα προνοίας καὶ ἀγαθότητας μετεχομένας ὑπὸ τῶν ὄντων, ἐκ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀμεθέκτου προϊούσας ἀφθόνῳ χύσει καὶ ὑπερβλυζούσας, ἵνα ἀκριβῶς ὁ πάντων αἴτιος ἐπέκεινα ᾖ πάντων, καὶ τὸ ὑπερούσιον καὶ ὑπερφυὲς πάντη ὑπερέχοι τῶν καθ' ὁποίαν ποτὲ οὐσίαν καὶ φύσιν. <ΧII.> <1> Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ καὶ περὶ τούτων, ὅσα εἰπεῖν ἔδει, τὸ προσῆκον ἀπείληφεν, ὡς οἶμαι, τέλος, ὑμνητέον ἡμῖν τὸν ἀπειρώνυμον καὶ ὡς «ἅγιον ἁγίων» καὶ βασιλέα τῶν βασιλευόντων καὶ βασιλεύοντα «τὸν αἰῶνα καὶ ἐπ' αἰῶνα καὶ ἔτι» καὶ ὡς κύριον τῶν κυρίων καὶ θεὸν τῶν θεῶν. Καὶ πρῶτόν γε ῥητέον, τί μὲν αὐτοαγιότητα εἶναι οἰόμεθα, τί δὲ βασιλείαν, τί δὲ κυριότητα, τί δὲ θεότητα, καὶ τί βούλεται δηλοῦν τὰ λόγια τῷ διπλασιασμῷ τῶν ὀνομάτων. <2> Ἁγιότης μὲν οὖν ἐστιν, ὡς καθ' ἡμᾶς εἰπεῖν, ἡ παντὸς ἄγους ἐλευθέρα καὶ παντελὴς καὶ πάντη ἄχραντος καθαρότης. Βασιλεία δὲ ἡ παντὸς ὅρου καὶ κόσμου καὶ θεσμοῦ καὶ τάξεως διανέμησις. Κυριότης δὲ οὐχ ἡ τῶν χειρόνων ὑπεροχὴ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶσα τῶν καλῶν τε καὶ ἀγαθῶν ἡ παντελὴς παγκτησία καὶ ἀληθὴς καὶ ἀμετάπτωτος βεβαιότης. ∆ιὸ καὶ κυριότης παρὰ τὸ κῦρος καὶ τὸ κύριον καὶ τὸ κυριεῦον. Θεότης δὲ ἡ πάντα θεωμένη πρόνοια καὶ ἀγαθότητι παντελεῖ καὶ πάντα περιθέουσα καὶ συνέχουσα καὶ ἑαυτῆς ἀποπληροῦσα καὶ ὑπερέχουσα πάντα τὰ τῆς προνοίας αὐτῆς ἀπολαύοντα. <3> Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τῆς πάντα ὑπερβαλλούσης αἰτίας ἀπολύτως ὑμνητέον καὶ προσρητέον αὐτὴν ὑπερέχουσαν ἁγιότητα καὶ κυριότητα καὶ βασιλείαν ὑπερκειμένην καὶ ἁπλουστάτην θεότητα. Καὶ γὰρ ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐν ἑνὶ καὶ ἀθρόως ἐκπέφυκε καὶ διανενέμηται πᾶσα ἀμιγὴς ἀκρίβεια πάσης εἰλικρινοῦς καθαρότητος, πᾶσα ἡ τῶν ὄντων διάταξίς τε καὶ διακόσμησις ἀναρμοστίαν καὶ ἀνισότητα καὶ ἀσυμμετρίαν ἐξορίζουσα καὶ εἰς τὴν εὔτακτον ταὐτότητα καὶ ὀρθότητα γανυμένη καὶ περιάγουσα τὰ μετέχειν αὐτῆς ἠξιωμένα, πᾶσα ἡ παντελὴς καὶ πάντων τῶν καλῶν παγκτησία, πᾶσα ἀγαθὴ πρόνοια θεωρὸς καὶ συνοχικὴ τῶν προνοουμένων, ἑαυτὴν ἀγαθοπρεπῶς ἐπιδιδοῦσα πρὸς ἐκθέωσιν τῶν ἐπεστραμμένων. <4> Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ὑπερπλήρης πάντων ἐστὶν ὁ πάντων αἴτιος κατὰ μίαν τὴν πάντων ὑπερέχουσαν ὑπερβολήν, ἅγιος ἁγίων ὑμνεῖται καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ καθ' ὑπερβλύζουσαν αἰτίαν καὶ ἐξῃρημένην ὑπεροχήν, ὡς ἄν τις φαίη. Καθ' ὅσον ὑπερέχουσι τῶν οὐκ ὄντων τὰ ὄντα, ἅγια ἢ θεῖα ἢ κύρια ἢ βασιλικὰ καὶ αὐτῶν μετεχόντων αἱ αὐτομετοχαί, κατὰ τοσοῦτον ὑπερίδρυται πάντων τῶν ὄντων ὁ ὑπὲρ πάντα τὰ ὄντα καὶ πάντων τῶν μετεχόντων καὶ τῶν μετοχῶν ὁ ἀμέθεκτος αἴτιος. Ἁγίους δὲ καὶ βασιλεῖς καὶ κυρίους καὶ θεοὺς καλεῖ τὰ λόγια τὰς ἐν ἑκάστοις ἀρχικωτέρας διακοσμήσεις, δι' ὧν αἱ δεύτεραι τῶν ἐκ θεοῦ δωρεῶν μεταλαμβάνουσαι τὴν τῆς ἐκείνων διαδόσεως ἁπλότητα περὶ τὰς ἑαυτῶν διαφορὰς πληθύουσιν, ὧν αἱ πρώτισται τὴν ποικιλίαν προνοητικῶς καὶ θεοειδῶς πρὸς τὴν ἑνότητα τὴν ἑαυτῶν συνάγουσιν. <ΧIII.> <1> Τοσαῦτα καὶ περὶ τούτων. Ἐπ' αὐτὸ δὲ λοιπόν, εἰ δοκεῖ, τῷ λόγῳ τὸ καρτερώτατον χωρῶμεν. Καὶ γὰρ ἡ θεολογία τοῦ πάντων αἰτίου καὶ πάντα καὶ ἅμα πάντα κατηγορεῖ καὶ ὡς τέλειον αὐτὸ καὶ ὡς ἓν ἀνυμνεῖ.