Divine Justice According to Saint Dionysius the Areopagite

 

This speech was delivered on October 3, 2022 in the Senate Hall of the Old Parliament in Athens, to the members of the Association of Judges and Prosecutors.

The Metropolitan structured his speech into three sections. The first section referred to laws and justice according to Aristotle and Plato. The second section analyzed the theological system of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, and the third section made a special statement about divine justice in Saint Dionysius the Areopagite.

The whole theological system of Saint Dionysius is that God as Light sends His rays to creation, then all creation is attracted by God in different ways and this is how divine justice is expressed, according to God's will.

He concluded that there is a difference between human and divine justice, that those of us who judge cannot absolutely approach divine justice, but we should move between human and divine justice, that is, to be a little above human justice and to seek divine justice.

Divine Justice According to Saint Dionysius the Areopagite

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

I thank you for the assignment to address this distinguished gathering on the occasion of the feast of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, which is celebrated by the legal world of Greece. I am personally happy about this topic, since Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, repeatedly in the texts that bear his name, writes that the teaching he formulates is from his own "teacher" Saint Hierotheos, whose name I bear, and this Saint Hierotheos was the teacher of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite after the Apostle Paul. Both Dionysius and Hierotheos were members of the Areios Pagos of Athens.

Having the name of Saint Hierotheos, on the teaching of which Saint Dionysius based his entire theological work, I studied these famous writings faithfully many times and discerned their great value, as, after all, did many Holy Fathers, from Saint Maximus the Confessor to Saint Gregory Palamas and Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite.

The title of my topic "Divine Justice According to Saint Dionysius the Areopagite" is of great importance, and here I will only note indicative positions due to the limited time of my speech, and in essence I will emphasize that we must move between human and divine justice.

1. Laws and Justice According to Aristotle and Plato

In human terms, justice is "the legal or philosophical theory by which the law is applied," it is "the bestowal of justice." The issue is how human law is constituted and how it is interpreted and applied.

The law should not be seen simply as a reflection of social needs so that people can be served in their choices, as is done in our time, but, according to ancient philosophy, it should also be an educator, that is, to educate  people, to heal them, to tame them, to offer them standards of life.

Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics deals with the issue of the relationship between the virtue of society and the laws as a teacher, since he argues that virtue is the middle ground between excess and deficiency and does not come from nature, but is the result of ethics. He concludes that it is work of the teacher, which is done by the legislator, who acts as an educator through the law. He writes: "It is evident that public welfare is made through laws, and, of course, they are good if they are made through good laws - whether the laws are written or unwritten, it does not seem to matter, just as it does not seem to matter whether it is laws through which the education of a single person or group of persons will take place...". In fact, he writes that laws are a work of the art of politics, and Aristotle concludes that he wants to examine what is the best political system, "how each of them is organized and even which laws and which customs apply each of them."

With this perspective, justice is not only the bestowal of equals, but the balancing between the powers of society.

Let me remind here that according to Plato, as developed in his The Republic, the human soul is divided into three powers, that is, the intelligent, the incensive and the appetitive, and to these powers correspond the three basic virtues, namely the virtue of wisdom which refers to the intelligent part of the soul, the virtue of courage which is connected to the incensive part of the soul and the virtue of prudence which derives from the appetitive part of the soul.

The important thing is that, according to Plato, the fourth virtue which is justice ensures the connection and unity between the other three virtues.

If one thinks that the Republic, according to Plato, is the growth of the soul, then the citizens must practice virtue. Specifically, the virtue of wisdom refers to the kings-rulers, to the virtue of prudence correspond the producers, and to the virtue of courage the guards-soldiers are identified. Therefore, the virtue of justice is the unifying virtue that balances the other three virtues and the other three classes that live in the Republic. This shows not only the educational value of the law, but also the sanctity of justice which educates and does not allow each virtue to function unilaterally, but in unity with the others.

Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, who lived in Athens, knew these things, but the issue of justice advances to a higher point. Thus, I intend to speak about divine justice within the theological system of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite. I simply note that according to the Orthodox tradition, we cannot argue that the incarnation of the Son and Word of God took place for the atonement of divine justice, as scholastic theology does, mainly according to Anselm of Canterbury, and as expressed by Western Christianity.

According to the Orthodox patristic teaching, divine justice is conceptually identified with God's love, which love is expressed as sacrifice, offering, kenosis, cross. For example, Saint Nicholas Cabasilas will write: "God's ultimate and best philanthropy for mankind, is divine virtue and justice." This difference between Western and Orthodox theology was simply identified, to limit the discussion to Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, and even for divine justice. However, before identifying what divine justice is, it is necessary to make a brief reference to the theological system of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite.

2. The Theological System of Saint Dionysius

When Saint Dionysius the Areopagite was in Athens, the city of the philosophers Plato, Aristotle and their students, he certainly knew about Plato's ideas and about Aristotle's primary unmoved mover. For example, Plato had set as the beginning of his theology, the image of the human brain with its thoughts and transferred this image to his theology, to say that God has within him the world of Ideas and the whole world is a copy of the world of Ideas.

Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, after he accepted the teaching of the Apostle Paul and became a Christian, and after he learned that God is the true Light, started from this truth. That is, as the sun sends its rays to the world, after passing through various layers in the atmosphere, so God is the true Light and His energy passes successively through the orders of angels and men and reaches the whole creation. From this perspective he speaks of the Heavenly Hierarchy, i.e. the ranks of angels, and the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. In all creation, invisible and material, there is concord, since all creatures receive the Light of God, but this is done hierarchically, according to the partaking of each being.

Saint Dionysius speaks of Thearchy, which he defines as the origin of deification, and the origin of deification is God, that is, the Triune God is the origin of divine energy, but also the origin of the attraction of all beings towards Him.

In the Thearchy, in the Trinitarian Unity, we see a permanence, which is His essence, the super-essential essence, the hiddenness, but it is also the progress of God towards all creation, that is, it is the energies of God, the divine power. God's energy is called progress, which multiplies into many other powers. There is talk even of "thearchic lights."

Along with the Thearchy, he also talks about Theonymies. Theonymy means the Names of God, the names of God that we give. There are many Theonymies, many names that we give to God, such as Being, Eros, Love, Desire, Beloved, Wisdom, Power, Justice, Peace, Holiness, Ruler, Divinity, etc.

Saint Dionysius the Areopagite at the beginning of his work On the Divine Names insists on two Theonymies, namely the Theonymy of the good and the Theonymy of the beautiful. This is what the ancient philosophers called "good and beautiful." Who is the perfect man? He is "the good and beautiful." Saint Dionysius the Areopagite receives these from humanity and attributes them to God. They are, therefore, the Names of God. After all, according to cataphatic theology we give names to God, we say that God is love, peace, justice, and with apophatic theology we remove names from God, we say that God is invisible, incomprehensible, indescribable, etc.

Goodness is the only cause of everything, which indicates the Light of God, the energy of God, the light that pours into all creation. The goodness of God is a movement from God towards all creation. God is the only cause of everything, He is the Light.

Beauty, according to Saint Dionysius, is connected with the beautiful, that is, with beautifulness. What the Thearchy creates, this is a reflection of Light, and this shows that there is unity in the whole world, and unity of God with creation, so this is reflected as Light. Beauty is the return of beings to God through beautifulness.

This means that the good is the only cause of everything, which is the Light, the illumination emitted by Thearchy. And then, this illumination is seen by man in the beauty of the creatures of creation, and so he returns to God through attraction. This is also done with creation. So, we have two movements. With goodness, God moves towards creation, and with beauty, with beautifulness, all creation returns to God through the beautiful.

This has to do with the fact that God is eros and the one desired, and as eros He moves towards man and as the one desired He attracts towards Himself the things receptive of eros. Therefore, God is eros and the one desired. Eros can be attributed to the concept of goodness, because God is good. We can connect desire with beauty, with the fact that God is beauty, since when creatures see the beautiful they return to God.

These are the two movements, that is, of God towards the creation with His Light, and of the creation towards God with the attraction of the creation towards Himself. With these two movements, this unity exists between God and all of creation. Therefore, God is good and beautiful, and these are the Theonymies, it is the participation of people in these powers of Thearchy. And by participating in the powers of the Thearchy, of God, man participates in God and acquires knowledge of God.

Beyond the Thearchy and the Theonymies, there is also the Hierarchy. Hierarchy is the participation in Theonymies. The word Hierarchy is derived from hiero and archo, which denotes the Origin of Sacredness. This is meant by Hierarchy.

We, of course, use the word Hierarchy in a different sense, with the hierarchy of everything. This meaning also exists, because he speaks of Hierarchies, but always the Hierarchies, when he divides them into threes, he interprets them with the meaning that, on the one hand, the first ones receive the illumination, and transmit it to the next ones that they attract, i.e. the lower ones are attracted to the middle ones, the middle ones to the higher ones and they all go back to God. Therefore, there is always this origin of sacredness which is the origin of the partaking of God's energy.

Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, speaking of Hierarchies, gives the definition that the origin and essence of the entire Hierarchy is God, the beautiful and good and wise God, who is the revelation of divine eros and divine love.

Hierarchy is the adornment, which is the image of thearchic beauty, which is the theophany of the beautiful and the good. This is Hierarchy. And what is the purpose of the Hierarchy? "The aim of the hierarchy is to assimilate and unite with God as much as possible, having Him as the Ruler of all sacred science and energy."

Thus, the purpose of the Hierarchy in the whole creation is how everyone will assimilate and unite, as much as possible, with God, through sacred science and knowledge, having God as ruler.

This theological system of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite with the movement of God towards the world and the attraction of the world by God is wonderful. It is a matter of theoptic experience that clearly creatively transcends the philosophical views of pre-Socratic philosophy, such as Heraclitus, and the classical metaphysics of Plato, Aristotle and the Neoplatonists, even modern Western philosophy and German idealism.

It is not easy to simplify these big issues, but a brief consideration of them was simply made so that it can be understood that divine justice is a Theonymy, it is an energy of God, of which the creation participates with one synodical and hierarchical system to partake in God.

3. Divine Justice in Saint Dionysius the Areopagite

In the works of Saint Dionysius there is talk of "divine justice," of "God's justice." The issue, however, is how divine justice is understood by what was mentioned before about God's energies.

In his work On the Divine Names, he refers to the names of God, to His epithets. God is anonymous in terms of His essence, precisely because He is unpartakable by man in His essence, but He is also polyonymous in His energies, which are partakable. Among these "divine names is justice." In a special chapter of his book (ch. 8), he writes "Concerning Power, Justice, Preservation, Redemption, also Concerning Inequality." Of course, I must repeat that these names do not belong to God, but we give God names, participating in His uncreated energies.

In this chapter he begins with the phrase: "But since the theologians praise the divine truthfulness and super-wise wisdom, both as power and as justice, and designate It preservation and redemption, come then, let us unfold these Theonymies also, as best we can."

Here he talks about how theologians, i.e. seers, those who "see" God, talk about "Theonymies."

Saint Dionysius the Areopagite speaking about God being power, according to theologians, means that He precedes and surpasses all power, because He is the cause of all power and produces everything with undiminished and unlimited power, and because He is the cause of self-sufficiency and of the power of the individual. This infinite propagation of God extends to all beings, and there is no being that is completely deprived of having some power, but everything has invisible or rational or sensual or vital or essential power and the same is existence.

Then, speaking of the justice of God, he writes that God is praised as Justice, because He bestows on all beings according to their value harmony, beauty, order and movement, He assigns all gifts and positions as befits each one according to absolute rule of justice, and is in everything the cause of his self-activity. Therefore, it is the divine justice that classifies and defines everything, and everything is kept unmixed and unconfused by everything, it bestows on all beings what suits each one, according to their special value.

The equality of everything is measured by God's justice. That is, justice is preservative, since it does not allow everything to be disturbed, mixed with everything, but it guards beings, each according to its kind, in the position to which it belongs by nature.

Here special attention is needed. With what Saint Dionysius the Areopagite writes about justice and equality, he does not mean any kind of feudalism, as feudalism was cultivated and applied by the Franks in Western theology, since God sends His Light to all creation, to angels and people, to baptized and those outside the Church, but each partakes of His Light in a different way. Therefore, it is not God who creates inequality by nature, but inequality is created by the way each one participates in the divine Light.

In the whole theological system of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, which is clearly different from the philosophical systems of his time, all beings are distinguished from each other, but at the same time they are interdependent, and this can be seen from the three principles that govern the relationships between them. The first principle is the principle of union, since God is the One who with His coming to the world is multiplied, the world is the many that always tends towards the union with the One, God. The second principle is the principle of movement, of God and beings, with straight, helical and circular motion. And the third principle is the principle of kinship and order, since every adornment that is around God is more God-like than another that is far removed from Him and those that are closest to the true light are brighter and more illuminating. This happens in all the individual hierarchies and this is divine justice. The cleaner the mirror, the brighter and clearer it receives and radiates the sun's rays.

***

I tried as quickly as I could to present the Theonymies of God, among which is the Theonymy of divine justice. This is how the empirical theologians, i.e. the seers, such as Saint Dionysius the Areopagite speak.

There is a difference between divine justice and human justice. Divine justice is a division of the divine Light into different degrees. Human justice is the application of human laws. However, despite this, the agents of justice, i.e. those who administer human justice, according to the degree and manner of the infusion of divine justice, have the possibility to see the law as its application to the specific conditions of man, and perhaps they are more philanthropic. This is expressed in an amazing way by Alexandros Papadiamantis in his short story The Murderess. He ends his short story: "The old woman Hadoula found death in the passage of Agios Sostis, in the neck, which unites the rock of the hermitage with the dry land, halfway between divine and human justice."

This means that Papadiamantis leaves the "murderer", the old woman Hadoula Fragogiannos, to the justice and mercy of God. This by extension means that we cannot act fully with divine justice, since God sees the depth of our souls, but we must all judge a little above the insufficient human justice, that is, to move in the middle between human and divine justice.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.