Jump to content

De Coelesti Hierarchia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Omnipaedista (talk | contribs) at 04:38, 27 July 2014 (add external link). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

De Coelesti Hierarchia (Greek: Περὶ τῆς Οὐρανίας Ἱεραρχίας, "On the Celestial Hierarchy") is a Pseudo-Dionysian work on angelology, written in Greek and dated to ca. the 5th century CE; it exerted great influence on scholasticism and treats at great length the hierarchies of angels.

The work has also been very influential in the development of Orthodox Christian theology.

Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica, I.108) follows the Hierarchia (6.7) in dividing the angels into three hierarchies each of which contains three orders, based on their proximity to God, corresponding to the nine orders of angels recognized by Pope St Gregory I.

  1. Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones;
  2. Dominations, Virtues, and Powers;
  3. Principalities, Archangels, and Angels.

Editions

  • Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita, De Coelesti Hierarchia, London, 2012. limovia.net ISBN 978-1-78336-010-9
  • G. Heil, A. M. Ritter, Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita. De Coelesti Hierarchia, De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia, De Mystica Theologia, Epistulae (1991) ISBN 978-3-11-012041-7.

See also