ANTONI ŹREBIEC, From Anagogical Deformed Imagery to Analytical Art Symbolic Theology in John Scot Eriugena’s “Expositiones In Ierarchiam Coelestem”

SUMMARY

The aim of the article is to compare the differences between the accounts of symbolic theology in the thought of two greatest Neoplatonist Christian philosophers of Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and John Scot Eriugena. The analysis is based mainly on Eriugena’s commentary on the Dionysian Celestial Hierarchy: Expositiones in Ierarchiam Coelestem. The first part of the article considers the crucial aspects of Pseudo-Dionysian symbolic theology. The second examines the concepts of similar and dissimilar symbols in the works of Eriugena. The third consists of an examination of the 15th chapter of Expositiones revealing the original Eriugenian concept of the analytical discipline applied to symbolical exegesis. The inquiry leads to the conclusion that although John Scot Eriugena tried to keep to the original thought of the Areopagite, he presented a different understanding of the anagogical role of the figurative images of God and the Angels.