SACRAMENTS OF THE INCARNATE WORD - ETD - University of ...

judge rightly about virtuous acts, even if she did not herself have virtue.” Likewise in
sacred doctrine, one kind of
judgment about divine things belongs to that wisdom which is counted as a gift of
the Holy Spirit, according to I Corinthians 2.15: “The spiritual person judges all
things;” and as Dionysius says in On Divine Names: “Hierotheus was taught not
only by learning about but also by experience of divine things.” The second
manner of judgment belongs to this doctrine, insofar as it may be gained through
study, although its principles are gained from revelation. 85
The reply builds on the argument of the corpus, which focused on the making of
wise persons through reflection on God’s own, revealed knowledge of himself. To sift
this body of knowledge is to be caught up in one’s subject matter, at least intellectually;
thus one may come “to judge rightly” about virtue apart from one’s own habit of life. 86
The instance of Hierotheus, however, apparently suggests a more excellent path, for he
was both a student (discens) and a sufferer (patiens) of divinity. In at least his case, the
two ways of wisdom—by inclination and by knowledge—converged, as Dionysius
emphasizes in the passage in question: that Hierotheus was formed (i) by direct learning
from “the sacred writers,” (ii) by “his own perspicacious and laborious research of the
scriptures,” and (iii) by “whatever was made known to him through that more mysterious
inspiration, not only learning but also experiencing the divine things.” 87 Rather than
85 All from 1, 6 ad 3. The Latin from the block quotation runs as follows: “Primus igitur modus
iudicandi de rebus divinis pertinet ad sapientiam quae ponitur donum Spiritus Sancti, secundum illud I Cor
2.15: spiritualis homo iudicat omnia, etc.; et Dionysius dicit, 2 cap. De divinis nominibus: Hierotheus
doctus est non solum discens sed et patiens divina. Secundus autem modus iudicandi pertinet ad hanc
doctrinam, secundum quod per studium habetur; licet eius principia ex revelatione habeantur.”
86
Ibid.: “aliquis instructus in scientia morali, posset iudicare de actibus virtutis, etiam si virtutem
non haberet.”
87 Divine Names 2.9 (in The Complete Works [New York: Paulist, 1987], p. 65). Editor Paul
Rorem suggests in a footnote an Aristotelian parallel (Frag. 15) for the Dionysian patiens divina, and also
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