THE ONE, THE GOOD, THE BEAUTIFUL

Dionysius the Areopagite (first century AD) was according to Acts of the Apostles 17:32-34, converted to Christianity at Athens. “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” So Paul left their presence. However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.” Dionysius eventually became the Bishop of Athens. He wrote:

“From this Beauty comes the existence of everything,
each being exhibiting its own way of beauty.
For Beauty is the cause of harmony, of sympathy, and of community.
Beauty unites all things and is the source of all things.
Beauty is the great creating cause, which bestirs the world and holds all things in existence by the longing inside them to have Beauty.
And there it is ahead of all as Goal, as the Beloved,
as the Cause toward which all things move,
since it is the longing for Beauty, which actually
brings them into being.
Beauty is a model to which they conform…
From the One, the Good, the Beautiful –
the interrelationship of all things in accordance with capacity.
From the One, the Good, the Beautiful –
the harmony and the love which are formed
between them but which do not obliterate identity.
From the One, the Good, the Beautiful –
the innate togetherness of everything.
From the One, the Good, the Beautiful, also –
the intermingling of everything, the persistence of things, the unceasing emergence of things…”
(Dionysius the Areopagite, from ‘Divine Names’)

“All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him.” Jesus