"God is not good": Pseudo-Dionysius

How can a Christian thinker claim that "God is not good"? What is the "divine darkness" beyond the rational light of our understanding mind? We approach these questions through the work of the influential Christian author known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (5th-6th c. CE).
This is part one in a four-part series on Christian mysticism:
1. "God is not good": Pseudo-Dionysius ( • "God is not good": Pse... )
2. God beyond God: Meister Eckhart ( • God beyond God: Meiste... )
3. Chambers of the soul: Teresa of Avila ( • Chambers of the soul: ... )
4. Nothing, nothing, nothing: John of the Cross ( • Nothing, nothing, noth... )

Пікірлер: 44

  • @derekpoole7922
    @derekpoole7922 Жыл бұрын

    This is an accessible and inspiring introduction to Christian Mysticism: taught by one who knows how to teach. Blessings from Ireland.

  • @wilfredobenitez7275
    @wilfredobenitez72755 ай бұрын

    A wonderful entry way into the deeper mysteries of divine evolution for those on the never ending quest beyond duality. Thank you!

  • @TomPrior16
    @TomPrior1611 ай бұрын

    Interestingly and clearly taught, thank you :)

  • @keithoyoung34
    @keithoyoung342 ай бұрын

    New listener and subscriber. I love these conversations.

  • @13SZ
    @13SZ Жыл бұрын

    Thank you for all the videos. Your channel has quickly become one of my favorites.

  • @jamessheffield4173
    @jamessheffield417310 ай бұрын

    examines all of Valla’s arguments about the pseudepigraphic nature of the corpus in his Collatio Novi Testamenti and Encomion S. Thomae Aquinatis. The third part turns to Erasmus’s extensive writings on the Corpus Dionysiacum and ancient forgeries. It discusses Erasmus’ knowledge and publication of Valla’s writings as well as Erasmus’ own arguments that the corpus was the deliberate forgery of a deceitful impostor. This section also evaluates all known evidence for William Grocyn’s reported doubts about the authenticity of the Corpus Dionysiacum. Valla and Erasmus on the Dionysian Question Denis J.-J. Robichaud

  • @user-ru1vs7cs9w
    @user-ru1vs7cs9w5 ай бұрын

    Nice Work!👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

  • @wungabunga
    @wungabunga5 ай бұрын

    Excellent, thanks.

  • @africandawahrevival
    @africandawahrevival Жыл бұрын

    Great explanation

  • @notoddbuttoddwho2550
    @notoddbuttoddwho25503 ай бұрын

    I love you man! Thank you for sharing this :)

  • @_VISION.
    @_VISION.2 ай бұрын

    The Tao Te Ching explains this Negative Theology the best imo, or one of the best I've read.

  • @ravissary79
    @ravissary79Ай бұрын

    I've never heard negative theology described as the contradiction to positive theology before. I'm not sure that's helpful.

  • @mcnallyaar
    @mcnallyaarАй бұрын

    10/10 Best of the Best of the Internet

  • @chriskenney4377
    @chriskenney43774 ай бұрын

    "Quarried in the West", where man digs and creates structural members to raise new structures? Not just past effort?

  • @jonbornholdt1790
    @jonbornholdt17902 ай бұрын

    Nice lecture, but "Augustine would have certainly read him" (3:28): nope, Augustine died in 430.

  • @labyrinthsideas

    @labyrinthsideas

    2 ай бұрын

    Ah yes - good catch! Very helpful. That is indeed an error here: Augustine wouldn’t have read Pseudo-Dionysius, whose writings so far as we can tell were written after Augustine. Thank you!

  • @ravissary79

    @ravissary79

    Ай бұрын

    ​​@@labyrinthsideasregardless of whether he was pseudo and therfore probably post-augustine, or not, if he was Dionysus, he was Greek, and one of Augustine's main academic limits, and why he accidentally skewed original sin from Romans 5, is because he couldn't read Greek, but only available Latin translations of Plato, Manny, and the Bible... and his Latin translation at the time was inaccurate in a few key ways he wasn't aware of. As such he wouldn't have had access to Dionysus unless he'd been translated into Latin at that time, and if his works were extant at all, he wasn't popular until the 6th century, so probably not.

  • @kmastanz
    @kmastanzАй бұрын

    makes me think of Isaiah 55:8-9 kjv

  • @youbetyourwrasse
    @youbetyourwrasse9 ай бұрын

    The Loch Ness Monster is real. Nessie has been loved for hundreds of years and will be loved for hundreds more. While I on the otherhand, will be forgotten in a day. If Nessie is NOT real, what does that say about me? Why do people have to TOUCH something with their grubby hands, to believe it?

  • @Joeonline26

    @Joeonline26

    28 күн бұрын

    What was the point of this comment? Did you watch the video?

  • @youbetyourwrasse

    @youbetyourwrasse

    28 күн бұрын

    @@Joeonline26 Mysticism my friend. The Red Lion eats the Green Sun. A White Dragon will become an Eagle. A Golden Age for Mankind. As above, so below .. ∞

  • @robertnowak732
    @robertnowak732 Жыл бұрын

    Dionysius is just a name?

  • @rufinaliamin
    @rufinaliamin Жыл бұрын

    I liked the idea how to define God through defining what God is Not😅 it seem like another side of a coin…. Then it’s so simple God is everything, good and bad and we don’t even know what good or bad is.

  • @raffacasting
    @raffacasting5 ай бұрын

    Gnostics?

  • @hermanhale9258
    @hermanhale92585 ай бұрын

    What has this got to do with Jesus Christ?

  • @Andrew-yw6kt

    @Andrew-yw6kt

    4 ай бұрын

    EVERYTHING!!!

  • @Joeonline26

    @Joeonline26

    28 күн бұрын

    ​@@Andrew-yw6kttell me how. I've been wanting to know how one gets from the God of the neoplatonists to the person of Christ (presumably via the Trinity?) for a long time. If someone can show me how or recommend something to read on this that would be tremendously helpful for my faith journey.

  • @mariakatariina8751
    @mariakatariina87516 ай бұрын

    Pseudo-Dionysos is tslking about the black sun.

  • @pinecone9045
    @pinecone90459 ай бұрын

    Major i.e. he copied his work from Greek philosophy hence the 'Pseudo'.

  • @shaundisch2020
    @shaundisch20209 ай бұрын

    Thanks for this. Your speech is very easy to listen to. This negative approach is the same in Hinduism. "Not this, not this." Known as Neti Neti, not not. Many Hindus actually know and love Meister Eckhart more than Christians do. I do love Jesus and the Christian saints and mystics, but if Christianity is grade school, Hinduism is university. Sounds degrading, but it is true. Hinduism is very scientific, much more than this guy or Eckhart, but at least these 2 think much more like Hindus than most.

  • @labyrinthsideas

    @labyrinthsideas

    9 ай бұрын

    Thanks also here - and indeed, one of the best engagements with Eckhart I've read is from D. T. Suzuki in his book Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist. Always I've hoped that more Christians might dig deeper into this tradition within their own faith. It is very rich.

  • @jamesstevenson7725

    @jamesstevenson7725

    9 ай бұрын

    Hindus fo not love Eckhart. Eckhart was no where equal to Sanatana Dharma

  • @jamesstevenson7725

    @jamesstevenson7725

    9 ай бұрын

    ​@@labyrinthsideaschristians should dig deeper into all traditions. Also. Echart belongs to the world not just christianity

  • @shaundisch2020

    @shaundisch2020

    9 ай бұрын

    @jamesstevenson7725 Completely different then Eckhart. Finding God, relinquishing the ego, are the only thing that matter.

  • @shaundisch2020

    @shaundisch2020

    9 ай бұрын

    @@jamesstevenson7725 You speak for all Hindus? 😆 They are the least homogeneous group in the world.

  • @frank.sophia
    @frank.sophia9 ай бұрын

    If the being is not Good why call it God? What do you mean by Good? Good is the echo of union into the world. It is certainly true that the Jewish tradition fails to do this. The entire premise here is that it's superior to all else. That is why Judaism is not Good. Most religions are not, because most favor the authors attributes. The philosophers wanted genuine truth. They went to all religions and cut out the stupid shit. Still the stupid shit persists.

  • @hermanhale9258

    @hermanhale9258

    4 ай бұрын

    When you get beyond good, you are into Satanism or no God at all.

  • @frank.sophia

    @frank.sophia

    4 ай бұрын

    @@hermanhale9258 For me the God of Israel is the greatest evil in human history... and all Satan did according to tradition is refuse to worship men because he loved God too much... this is basically every Abrahamic believers position.