The Dionysian negative theology between Neoplatonism and Christianity
The Dionysian negative theology between Neoplatonism and Christianity

Summary/Abstract: The following paper builds on diachronic data from the 16th century and 17th century Romanian language and argues that Romanian “clitic left dislocation” actually amounts to an umbrella term covering two different configurations: on older structure, already in place in the 16th century and obtained by way of merging the direct object directly in the left periphery of the sentence, and a more recent one, developing in the 17th century and grafted on the development of another mechanism arising at the time, i.e. “clitic doubling.” The latter configuration comes as a reflex of linguistic creativity and presupposes the leftward movement of a clitic doubled direct object.Dionysius the Areopagite is undoubtedly one of the most enigmatic and intriguing thinkers of late Antiquity. Speculations on the identity of this unusual author had already begun by the middle of the 6th century A.D. Was Dionysius – as he describes himself – St Paul’s first Athenian convert, living and writing in the second half of the first century A.D., or was he more likely a pseudo-epigraph who sabotaged the Athenian contemporary school of Neoplatonic thought to craft a new Christian Platonic theology? Areopagitic negative theology is the expression of a development of thought over centuries; with Dionysius, apophatic tradition reaches its culmination and finds its most refined formulations. The Dionysian moment illustrates the apophatic way at its most highly developed level, marking the climax of a lengthy and sinuous journey that started with Parmenides (5th century B.C.) and was to end with the closure of the Athenian Academy.

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