The Corpus Areopagiticum: The Quest For Authorship

There can hardly be a more enigmatic figure in all of the history of Christianity than the writer of the Corpus Areopagiticum (CD).  The quest for his identity has been ongoing since the first mention of his works.  Many great minds have weighed in on the matter, only to be humbled by the brilliant covertness of our elusive author.  Scholars have seemingly narrowed in on a terminus a quo and terminus ad quem.  These, however, are widely debated.  With each new speculation of a date comes a plentitude of possible authors, each one fitted, trimmed, and tailored to fit the specifications.  No one figure has been proposed with a list of similarities that did not also meet with an even longer list of dissimilarities.  Yet, the author of the CD tells us that he is that famous Athenian from Mars Hill, Dionysius, who, after hearing St. Paul preach his sermon on the “unknown god’ in the account of Acts 17, cast off his pagan ways and submitting himself to Christ, became a Christian.  In his writings, he also speaks of St. Paul as his teacher and addresses the Apostle John, Timothy, Polycarp, and other Apostolic figures.

My Conversion Story

My conversion began when I entered Florida State University as an undergrad in 1999. It wasn’t a conversion to the Catholic Faith, but rather a serious commitment to living out my faith instead of being a Christian in name only. The reason it took some nineteen years for such a conversion to take place was because my parents didn’t particularly raise me to be an active Christian, for they weren’t ones themselves. My parents had me and my brothers baptized as babies, but we didn’t attend church on a regular basis. At the age of twelve, my parents decided to move to Florida, and being around the proper age, my father wanted me and my older brother to be confirmed in the Episcopal Church. I remember joining in with a group of the other confirmed kids who were laughing at two girls who had suddenly stopped coming to church, no

Christ, Our Great High Priest

     When one thinks of titles for Jesus Christ, the title of King is the most common. We even celebrate the feast of Christ the King in our liturgy. We tend to focus on Christ’s kingship by itself, but He is not solely a king. He is also a priest; a royal priest. Thus, the Epistle to the Hebrews encourages us: “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”¹ As Catholics we affirm this (or at least we should since the infallible Word of God has revealed it to us), yet some Christians are hesitant to give this title to Our Lord. Likewise