The Celestial Hierarchy

Name: The Celestial Hierarchy
Author: Pseudo-Dionysius

Pseudo-Dionysius is the name given to an unknown Christian theologian and philosopher, probably a Syrian monk, who wrote around the year 500. He presented his works as those of Dionysius the Areopagite, Paul's Athenian convert, and they carried apostolic weight for a thousand years. His Mystical Theology founded the apophatic, or negative, way of speaking about God; our library also holds On the Divine Names and The Celestial Hierarchy.

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First published: 500
Category: Devotional
Length: 15k words · about 1 hour
Chapters: 15

About this book

The Celestial Hierarchy, attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite and written around AD 500, describes the nine orders of angels and their ministry of passing God's light downward through the ranks of heaven and the church. It founded the medieval science of angels and much of the church's language about hierarchy, symbol, and worship. A short, dense, influential treatise.

Chapter I. To My Fellow-Presbyter Timothy, Dionysius the Presbyter
Chapter II. That Divine and Celestial Matters are Fittingly Revealed Even Through Unlike Symbols
Chapter III. What is Hierarchy, and What the Use of Hierarchy? 🔒
Chapter IV. The Meaning of the Name ‘Angels’. 🔒
Chapter V. Why All the Celestial Beings in Common are Called Angels. 🔒
Chapter VI. Which is the First Order of the Celestial Beings, Which the Middle, and Which the Last? 🔒
Chapter VII. Of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, and Their First Hierarchy. 🔒
Chapter VIII. Of the Dominions, Virtues and Powers, and Their Middle Hierarchy. 🔒
Chapter IX. Of the Principalities, Archangels and Angels, and Of Their Last hierarchy. 🔒
Chapter X. Recapitulation and Summary of the Angelic Hierarchies. 🔒
Chapter XI. Why All the Celestial Hierarchies in Common are called Celestial Powers. 🔒
Chapter XII. Why the Hierarchs Among Men are Called Angels. 🔒
Chapter XIII. The Reason Why the Prophet Isaiah is Said to Have Been Purified by the Seraphim. 🔒
Chapter XIV. What the Traditional Number of the Angels Signifies. 🔒
Chapter XV. What is the Meaning of the Formal Semblances of the Angelic Powers? 🔒