BXVI on Asian Religions

[SedesDomi]

The Pope affirmed this during today’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square, which he dedicated to reflect on a “very mysterious figure: a theologian from the sixth century, whose name is not known, and who wrote under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite.”…

Benedict XVI contended that the theology of the sixth-century author is “the first great mystical theology.”

His teachings use “negative theology,” that is the idea that “the most elevated concepts of God never reach his true greatness” and that “it is easier to say what God is not than to express what he really is.”

Pseudo-Dionysius tells us that “in the end, love sees more than reason. Where the light of love is, the shadows of reason fade away. Love sees, love is an eye and experience gives us much more than reflection,” the Holy Father added.

The Pope drew another element from the writings of the sixth-century theologian.

He said he has a new relevance as a “great mediator in the modern dialogue between Christianity and the mystical theologies of Asia, marked by the conviction that it is impossible to say who God is, that only negative expressions can be used to speak of him; that God can only be spoken of with ‘no,’ and that it is only possible to reach him by entering into this experience of ‘no.’ And here is seen a similarity between the thought of the Areopagite and that of the Asian religions. He can be today a mediator like he was between the Greek spirit and the Gospel.”