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The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite

By John Parker

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To Dorotheus, Leitourgos.

The Divine gloom is the unapproachable light in which God is said to dwell 66 . And in this gloom, invisible 67 indeed, on account of the surpassing brightness, and unapproachable on account of the excess of the superessential stream of light, enters every one deemed worthy to know and to see God, by the very fact of neither seeing nor knowing, really entering in Him, Who is above vision and knowledge, knowing this very thing, that He is after all the object of sensible and intelligent perception, and saying in the words of the Prophet, "Thy knowledge was regarded as wonderful by me; It was confirmed; I can by no means attain unto it 68 ;" even as the Divine Paul is said to have known Almighty God, by having known Him as being above all conception and knowledge. Wherefore also, he says, "His ways are past finding out 69 and His Judgements inscrutable," and His gifts "indescribable 70 ," and that His peace surpasses every mind 71 , as having found Him Who is above all, and having known this which is above conception, that, by being Cause of all, He is beyond all.

p. 145
Footnotes
144:66 1Timothy 6:6.

144:67 1Timothy 1:17.

144:68 Ps. cxxxix. 6.

144:69 Rom. xi. 33.

144:70 2Corinthians 9:15.

144:71 Phil. iv. 7.