Divine Henads and Uncreated Energies? Procline Henadology in Dionysius the Areopagite

Abstract: This paper analyzes Dionysius the Areopagite’s reception of Proclus’s henadology. For Proclus, the henads are the gods: the ultimate participatory term in the metaphysical causal hierarchy that communicate unity to all things, and so the cause of each thing’s existence and character. While scholarship has charted various interpretive models for thinking of henads in Dionysius—making the henads angels, the persons of the Trinity, or the divine processions—the most plausible adaptation of Proclus’s henadology is that Dionysius removes their hypostatic agency and converts them into the divine πρόοδοι. In effect, Dionysius’s henadic language applied to God or angels only makes sense when “henad” is understood as either a unifying activity on the part of God or the activity of being unified on the part of the creature, which is precisely how henads function for Proclus. For Dionysius, the processions are distinct from the divine nature and yet are still beyond being, but, unlike the divine nature that is wholly unknowable and unparticipated, the processions are the paradigms, reasons, predeterminations, and good wills of God toward creation and serve as the term of participation for creatures in God. Pace Williams, I suggest such assimilation on the part of Dionysius is not “gross,” but metaphysically substantive, and will serve as a rich philosophical foundation for the concept of the uncreated divine energeia in later Byzantine thought.