Negative Theology Of Dionysius Hipparcos Sub Slightly

When the Christianity met the times of Dionysius the Areopagite (around the5-6century), it was still constrained in the Greek philosophy (especially the middle-Platonism and Neo-Platonism). Before Denys, Origen tried to combine the Greek philosophy and Christian Theology, but some creative thoughts which he left caused a great crisis in6century. Compared to Origen, Denys was more thoughtful and ready for dealing with the paradox between the Christian Theology and Neo-Platonism. For that we could say, Denys is the first one who reached a remarkable intellectual level of the Christian Theology-his language seems fall into the pattern of Neo-Platonism, but faithful to the content of Christian Theology. Meanwhile, Denys was one of greatest inventors of Christian Theology, who established a whole new style to express the Christian faith, which includes the word like Hierarchy, Theurgy and the grammar of "Hyper-"structure. Of course, the most influential word is the "Apophatic Theology", which is the main theme to this thesis.This thesis tries to probe the Apophatic Theology by studying two counterpart categories——Analogy and Symbol. With help of these categories, I could place the Apophatic Theology and Cataphatic Theology side by side. By comparing them, I find the unique characters of Apophatic Theology.The first part is the introduction of Denys’Christian theology outline and the Neo-Platonism philosophy he adopted. The ideas of "Procession and Return" in Neo-Platonism was used by him to express its counterpart "Creation and Restoration" in Christian faith. With the analysis of these two pair of categories, I find the kernel of this thesis—Analogy and Symbol. The Cataphatic Theology follows the Analogous Procession and the Apophatic Theology is the Restoring Symbol.Secondly, according to the cosmology of Denys, I start it since the peak of Procession—the highest God. Denys reconstructed the Oneness in the Neo-Platonism philosophy and applied it to the Christian God. It was just in this way the paradoxical dimension in the Christian God Transcendence and Immanence came out. With analysis of Names of God, I distinguish two kinds of names:One is the Unity names which express the relationship between God and its creation; the other one is the divided names which express the Image of God itself--the Trinity.Thirdly, it is the part of analysis to the creative word "Hierarchy" in Denys Theology. I am going to argue that the Hierarchy is just the "Image" of God. Then, according to the Procession, I am going to point out the similarity and dissimilarity of the Celestial and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy which come from the one and same God.In the fourth part, it is the analysis of Incarnation and how it relates to the Christian Church. I shall argue the Incarnation is the greatest Symbol and the foundation of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and Theurgy. In an anthropomorphic metaphor, I am going to interpret how the Restoration happens in the Christian Church.The last part is the conclusion of Apophatic Theology. I am going to relate it to the Salvation of the whole cosmos, which is performed by the God.