The coal of Isaiah and the thorn of Paul
On theology, illumination, and purgation
In Pseudo-Dionysius’ mystical work, The Celestial Hierarchy [1], the term “theologian” is notably applied to prophets of the Old Testament. I find that significant, for reasons I hope will become clearer as I amble along. In chapters 9 and 13 of his treatise, the writer (whom I will refer to below simply as Dionysius [2] ) refers to Zechariah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah as theologians. Even though it suggests literally “speaking about God,” the designation is accorded to them by Dionysius because they were not only “prophets,” called to pronounce the word of the Lord, but also because they were visionaries or seers. He could have said the same about nearly any of the prophets, of course. When God communicates a message to seers, it is conveyed with images – the touch of an extended hand, a scroll, a burning coal, visions of many-eyed or animal-like angelic entities, almond trees, grapevines, thrones, chariots with wheels within wheels, and even visions of God himself in anthropomorphic and angelomorphic forms. All such images, as Dionysius tells us repeatedly in his writings, are visions, meaning that they are not the eternal realities themselves, which they simultaneously conceal and reveal through symbols. God condescends by such means to convey to human intellects what they cannot yet encounter more directly: “For the truth is that everything divine and even everything revealed to us is known only by way of whatever share of them is granted. Their actual nature, what they are ultimately in their own source and ground, is beyond all [human] intellect and all [created] being and all knowledge.” [3] The act of condescension on the part of God and of the whole angelic hierarchy, as Dionysius explains, is to uplift all who possess spiritual intellect into ever greater perfection through purification and illumination (“from glory to glory”; cf. 2 Cor. 3:18). The supreme revelation of divine condescension was the full Incarnation of God in Christ, but it had previously been glimpsed in lesser “theophanies” of God, such as the appearances of God to the Patriarchs in Genesis and the startling visions given to the prophetic “theologians” cited above. [4] At this juncture, I’ll prime the pump by acknowledging that the remainder of this post is conjectural and concerned with theologians and theology. I will connect some dots, which, admittedly, fit together in my mind rather loosely, between Dionysius, Isaiah, John, and Paul. So, take these ponderings for what they are in their semi-formed state.
