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Before the scholastic form of systematic theology emerged, the subjects of creation, redemption, and eschatology were frequently illustrated by the pattern of procession (processio) and return (reditus). Processio primarily means division and multiplication from God to every creature as at the creation in the providential developments of the world. Reditus signifies the reversal returning to the origin through the stages of redemption and eschatology. With Paul’s classic statement, “From Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11:36), the theme of procession and return was articulated by the early Fathers, including the Cappadocians and Pseudo-Dionysius, and often was employed philosophically by Neo‐Platonists. It is in the Dionysian corpus that we could find the best example of the framework of procession and return.
Through the textual and thematic analysis of the Dionysian corpus, I will explore the way in which Dionysius initiates the illumination and formation of procession and return and cataphatic and apophatic theology as well. My analysis of the Dionysian hermeneutics of procession and return consisted of two parts: structural examination of the five books, and application of procession and return to major theological issues. The structural format of procession and return, found in chapters one and fifteen of Celestial Hierarchy, embraces multiple aspects of celestial hierarchy in a descending order. Procession and return is closely related to returning and uplifting, symbolic theology, and hierarchy. The triple structure of remaining, procession, and return is illustrated within the triple component of each chapter of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Unique interpretations of “divine birth” and “synaxis” dramatize Dionysius’s theology of procession and return. Two subjects, “human fragmentation” and “incarnation out of love for humanity,” anticipate further development in Eriugena’s anthropology and Christology. Chapters four and thirteen of the Divine Names introduce an overarching framework of procession and return. Dionysius’s comments on Being, Life, and Wisdom (chapters 5, 6, 7) and on three different types of movement (chapter 9) nicely present a range of aspects of procession and return. Mystical Theology envisages procession and return from the story of Moses at Sinai. Even as the shortest of five books, it presents the theological hermeneutics of literal plurality and simplicity within the framework of procession and return. Letter 9 portrays a distinctive symbolism based on imagery of “a mysterious mixing bowl.” A mixing bowl is a sign of an open and embracing power and the providential activity of God. All the analysis shows the structural application of procession and return and its multiple relationships with the theological principles in Dionysius’s theology.
With its apostolic authority and theological subtlety, the Dionysian corpus had a strong impact on later theologians both in the West and the East from the sixth century onward. In the West, it was Eriugena who chiefly introduced Dionysius to Western Christianity. The Dionysian writings, mostly through Eriugena’s translation and commentary, enjoyed a revival around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.