Dionysius the Areopagite—or, more properly, Pseudo-Dionysius—was a Neoplatonic Christian mystic who is noted for his esoteric writings on the mysteries of Divine Wisdom, goodness beyond comprehension, First Principles, the nature of God, and the concept of beyond-being. Like Saint John of the Cross, he wrote about angels and darkness, but the “Divine Darkness” of Pseudo-Dionysius was of a different category—a transcendent realm beyond light. Works that have been attributed to Dionysius include
The Mystical Theology,
Divine Names,
The Celestial Hierarchies, and
Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Written barely within the limits of intelligibility, these treatises supposedly originated in the first century but in reality were penned under this pseudonym in the late fifth century or early sixth century. The abstract, assertive, mystical style in these writings is remarkably similar to the same obscurity of style in
Amos Bronson Alcott’s “Orphic Sayings” in the
Dial (1840–1841, 1842).