Emphasis Preaching Journal

This passage layers epithets of praise. In the early Christian writings of the one who called himself Dionysius the Areopagite, the same effort is made in the fifth-sixth-century text of The Divine Names. In reflecting on the benefits for the worshiper, Pseudo-Dionysius writes, "What happens is this. We use whatever appropriate symbols we can for the things of God. With these analogies we are raised upward toward the truth of the mind's vision, a truth which is simple and one. We leave behind us all of our own notions of the divine.