Abstract

In Platonic terms “all things to which we apply the term ‘many’ participate” in something beyond the world of matter, while for Neoplatonists there is a higher aspect that is unparticipated (One) and the “lower” aspect which is participated (Henads). In Christian sphere, since God is the cause of all things, then all things have a share (participate) in God, and so Dionysius the Areopagite claims that God communicates himself to those who participate in him. this does not mean that there is some sort of a pantheistic understanding of a being as a fragment of the divinity, but that creatures owe their being to God. However, God himself remains unshared, and there is an ontological separation between him and his creation. What creatures do participate in are the acts of God, which are participated but do not participate. The aim of this paper is to examine the Areopagite’s doctrine of participation, in comparison with the (Neo-)platonic understanding of participation.