Ecstasy and Order. The Ultimate Aim of Extra-Noetic Mysticism in Dionysius the Areopagite

Through an overview of the (mainly negative) Christian concepts of ecstasy from Origen and Gregory of Nyssa to Dionysius the Areopagite, the paper tries to show that Dionysius the Areopagite promoted a positive view of ecstasy in order to defuse an extremist confidence in the mystical powers of the intellect. Whereas certain monastic strains of the early sixth century promoted a "strong" interiority which could eventualy be independent of the hierarchichal Church, Dionysius defended the latter by bringing the intellect out of itself through an ecstatic concept of the participation in the sacraments administerd by the hierarchy.