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In Acts 17:34, after Paul preaches in Athens, a few listeners believe him, among them “Dionysius the Areopagite”. Some five centuries later a set of Greek treatises appeared under that name, written as if by Paul’s convert. For centuries most readers took them at their word, and Thomas Aquinas cited them over 1,700 times. In 1895 two scholars, Hugo Koch and Josef Stiglmayr, showed independently that the author had borrowed from the pagan philosopher Proclus, who died in 485, and the works are now dated to about 485–528. Who wrote them is still unknown, so he is called Pseudo-Dionysius. What he wrote is short: four treatises, including The Divine Names and The Mystical Theology, and ten letters, about how God can and cannot be named. This guide covers his 5 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 5 key books · 1897–1987 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Pseudo-Dionysius left four treatises, The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology, The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and ten letters, written in Greek around 485–528 under the name of Paul’s Athenian convert. English readers know them through translations, above all Colm Luibheid’s Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works (Paulist Press, 1987). Start there. Below are 5 key English translations in order, his own works, and how the question of his identity was settled and left open.
Where to Start with Pseudo-Dionysius
If you want everything in one modern volume
→ Pseudo-Dionysius (1987) — the complete works, with notes by Paul Rorem.
If you want the two treatises on knowing God
→ The Divine Names and Mystical Theology (1980) — The Divine Names and The Mystical Theology.
If you want the church and its rites
→ The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy (1981) — The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy on its own.
If you want the classic early translation
→ The Divine Names and the Mystical Theology (1920).
5 Pseudo-Dionysius Books in English, in Order
The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite
The Rev. John Parker’s translation, published by James Parker and Co. in London and Oxford in 1897, “now first translated into English, from the original Greek”, as its title page says. The first volume contains The Divine Names, The Mystic Theology, the letters and a liturgy attributed to Dionysius, followed by a section on objections to the works’ genuineness. A second part, The Heavenly Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, followed in 1899.
The Divine Names and the Mystical Theology
C. E. Rolt’s translation of the two treatises, published by SPCK in London in 1920 as Dionysius the Areopagite on the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology. It was reprinted by IBIS Press in 2004.
The Divine Names and Mystical Theology
John D. Jones’s translation of the same two treatises, published by Marquette University Press in Milwaukee in 1980. The Divine Names is the longer work, in thirteen chapters; The Mystical Theology is brief.
The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy
Thomas L. Campbell’s translation, published by University Press of America in 1981. The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy covers the ranks, rites and liturgy of the church, with eight human ranks, from the hierarchs down to the possessed; its sacramental rites resemble Syriac rites, one reason scholars place the author in Syria.
Pseudo-Dionysius
Translated by Colm Luibheid, with a foreword, notes and translation collaboration by Paul Rorem, for Paulist Press’s Classics of Western Spirituality series in New York in 1987 (and SPCK in London). It has a preface by René Roques and introductions by Jaroslav Pelikan, Jean Leclercq and Karlfried Froehlich, and contains all four treatises and the ten letters. It is the only complete modern English translation.
In What Order to Read Pseudo-Dionysius
None of the works carries a date. The author himself cross-refers to a sequence: in The Mystical Theology he says he has already written Theological Representations, The Divine Names and Symbolic Theology, moving from God’s unity outward into more and more images. The Mystical Theology then reverses direction, back towards unity and silence. Of these, only The Divine Names survives; the others are either lost or were never written.
In practice readers start with The Mystical Theology, the shortest work, then read The Divine Names for the longer argument behind it. The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, on the orders of angels and of the church, and the letters can come after; the Luibheid volume has them all.
A reading path
1. The Mystical Theology, in Luibheid and Rorem, The Complete Works (1987)
2. The Divine Names, in the same volume, or in Jones (1980) or Rolt (1920)
3. The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy
4. The ten letters
The Works of Pseudo-Dionysius
Beyond the 5 key books: 13 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Surviving works (Greek, c. 485–528)
5
5 books · Undated
- UndatedThe Divine Namesthirteen chapters on affirming and denying the names of God; chapter 4, on evil, draws on Proclus
- UndatedThe Mystical Theologya brief treatise on apophatic theology: approaching God by negation, into darkness and unknowing
- UndatedThe Celestial Hierarchythe nine ranks of angels, from seraphim and cherubim down to archangels and angels
- UndatedThe Ecclesiastical Hierarchythe orders, rites and liturgy of the church
- UndatedTen Lettersto monks, a deacon, a priest and bishops, on negative theology, the incarnation and symbols
Works he mentions that do not survive
3
3 books · Lost or fictional
- Lost or fictionalTheological Representationsnamed in The Mystical Theology as written before The Divine Names
- Lost or fictionalSymbolic Theologynamed in The Mystical Theology as following The Divine Names
- Lost or fictionalFive othersincluding On the Soul and On the Divine Hymns; none is attested
Early and modern editions
5
5 books · c. 838–1990–91
- c. 838Latin translationby Hilduin, abbot of Saint-Denis, from a Greek copy the Byzantine emperor sent to Louis the Pious in 827
- 862Latin translationmade at the request of Charles the Bald
- 1857Patrologia Graeca, vol. 3the Greek text in J.-P. Migne’s collection
- 1969Hierarchy and the Definition of Order in the Letters of Pseudo-Dionysiusa study with a translation of the letters (Nijhoff, The Hague)
- 1990–91Corpus Dionysiacum I–IIthe critical Greek edition, De Gruyter, Berlin
The years · 500–1987
Quick facts about Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
- Known for
- Describing a God approached through negation, into “divine silence, darkness, and unknowing”, in Greek treatises written under the name of Paul’s Athenian convert that shaped later Christian mysticism.
- 500
- Corpus written, c. 485–528
- 862
- Eriugena’s Latin translation
- 1457
- Lorenzo Valla doubts the attribution
- 1895
- Koch and Stiglmayr show his debt to Proclus
- 1987
- Luibheid’s Complete Works
- Identity
- Unknown; writes as Dionysius the Areopagite, Paul’s convert in Acts 17:34
- Dates
- About 485–528: after Proclus (d. 485), before Severus of Antioch quotes him (518–528)
- Place
- Probably Syria, judging by the rites in The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy
- Language
- Greek; translated into Syriac by Sergius of Reshaina in the early sixth century
- Works
- Four treatises and ten letters; seven further works he names do not survive
- Influence
- Aquinas cites him over 1,700 times; the Cloud of Unknowing author translated The Mystical Theology into Middle English
The red mark is 1987, when Colm Luibheid and Paul Rorem’s Complete Works gave English readers every surviving treatise and letter in one modern translation.
How Pseudo-Dionysius Wrote: Names, Negation and Hierarchy
He wrote as a Christian in the language of late Greek Neoplatonism, the school that began with Plotinus and reached Proclus in fifth-century Athens. The debt is direct: chapter 4 of The Divine Names, on evil, draws on Proclus’s treatise On the Existence of Evils. From Proclus too comes the pattern in which all things remain in their source, go out from it and return to it, here applied to God and creation.
His method works in two directions. In The Divine Names he takes the names given to God and explains what each affirms. In The Mystical Theology he turns to negation, holding that God is better approached by denying the names than by affirming them. “Mystical” here means hidden, not private experience. Language thins as it rises, he writes, until it ends in silence, darkness and unknowing, and his model is Moses, who enters the darkness above the mountain’s peak.
This is where readers of non-duality meet him. He does not teach that God and the soul are simply one, but he describes a God approached by letting go of names and knowing, into silence, darkness and unknowing. Through Latin translations that idea reached Meister Eckhart, Marguerite Porete, Johannes Tauler, Nicholas of Cusa, Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross and the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, who put The Mystical Theology into Middle English. The Celestial Hierarchy sets out the nine ranks of angels.
Frequently asked questions about Pseudo-Dionysius’s books
How many books has Pseudo-Dionysius written?
Five works survive: four treatises, The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology, The Celestial Hierarchy and The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and a set of ten letters. He mentions seven other works, such as Symbolic Theology, that are either lost or were never written. This page lists 5 key English translations, from 1897 to 1987.
What are Pseudo-Dionysius’s books in order?
His own works are undated and were written around 485–528; he presents The Divine Names as coming before The Mystical Theology. The English translations on this page, in order, are Parker (1897), Rolt (1920), Jones (1980), Campbell (1981) and Luibheid and Rorem (1987).
Where should I start with Pseudo-Dionysius?
With The Mystical Theology, the shortest work, in Colm Luibheid and Paul Rorem’s Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works (Paulist Press, 1987). Then read The Divine Names in the same volume.
What is Pseudo-Dionysius’s most famous book?
The Mystical Theology, a brief treatise on approaching God through negation, darkness and unknowing; it is often described as the first text in which theology becomes explicitly “mystical”. The Divine Names is his longest work, and The Celestial Hierarchy sets out nine ranks of angels.
Who was Pseudo-Dionysius really?
Nobody knows. The works present themselves as written by Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian Paul converted (Acts 17:34). That was questioned as early as 532, at a meeting in Constantinople where Hypatius of Ephesus objected that no earlier Father or council had cited them, but defenders such as John of Scythopolis and Maximus the Confessor prevailed for centuries. Lorenzo Valla argued in 1457 that the author could not be Paul’s convert, and Erasmus spread the view from 1504. In 1895 Hugo Koch and Josef Stiglmayr showed independently that the author used Proclus, who died in 485. Proposed identities include Peter the Iberian, Severus of Antioch, Sergius of Reshaina and Damascius, the last head of the Neoplatonic school in Athens; there is no scholarly consensus. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy points out that “forgery” is a modern idea, and reads the pseudonym as a way of placing the works within a tradition.
When did Pseudo-Dionysius live?
In the late fifth or early sixth century. The works must postdate Proclus, who died in 485, because they borrow from him, and they are first clearly quoted by Severus of Antioch between 518 and 528. Details of the church rites he describes suggest he lived in Syria.
Was Pseudo-Dionysius a Neoplatonist?
He was a Christian writer who used Neoplatonic philosophy, especially that of Proclus, so he is often called a Christian Neoplatonist. His pattern of all things remaining in their source, going out from it and returning to it comes from Proclus.
What is apophatic theology?
Speaking of God by saying what God is not. Pseudo-Dionysius pairs it with cataphatic, or affirmative, theology: The Divine Names affirms the names scripture gives to God, and The Mystical Theology negates them, holding that God is better approached through negation.
Did Pseudo-Dionysius influence The Cloud of Unknowing?
Yes. The anonymous fourteenth-century author of The Cloud of Unknowing made a Middle English translation of The Mystical Theology. Through Latin translations, from Eriugena’s of 862 onwards, Dionysius also shaped Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, Nicholas of Cusa, Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross.
Which translation of Pseudo-Dionysius should I read?
For everything in one modern volume, Luibheid and Rorem’s Complete Works (1987), the only complete modern English translation. For The Divine Names and The Mystical Theology alone, John D. Jones (1980) or the older C. E. Rolt (1920). Thomas L. Campbell’s Ecclesiastical Hierarchy (1981) covers that treatise on its own.
Footnotes
- Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite — Wikipedia
- Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, trans. Luibheid — Princeton Byzantine Translations
- The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite, trans. John Parker (1897) — Tertullian Project
- The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite, Part II, trans. John Parker (1899) — Tertullian Project
- Dionysius the Areopagite on the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology, trans. C. E. Rolt — CCEL
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The more it climbs, the more language falters.”
— Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, The Mystical Theology, chapter 3, as quoted in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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