Compilations & Anonymous
Pseudo-Dionysius
6th century · Anonymous mystic writing as Paul's Athenian convert
Around the year 500, an unknown theologian — probably a Syrian monk — published a body of writings in the persona of Dionysius the Areopagite, Paul's Athenian convert from Acts 17. The device succeeded completely: for a thousand years the Divine Names, Mystical Theology, and Celestial Hierarchy were read as almost apostolic, shaping mystical theology East and West and giving the church the very word 'hierarchy.' The corpus blends Christian faith with late Neoplatonism into a vision of God known best beyond all names, in luminous darkness. Renaissance and modern scholarship exposed the pseudonym but not the profundity; Aquinas cites him with deep reverence.
The word 'hierarchy' was coined in these writings — invented by an anonymous author wearing a first-century mask.