The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

This paper attempts to use ancient Byzantine ecclesiology and modern Orthodox thought on Christian anthropology together, with the goal of deepening the Church’s ecclesial consciousness by shedding light on the particular role and calling of the laity within the Dionysian Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. The author reviews the reception of the Corpus Dionysiacum, noting contemporary trends and how myriad detailed contemporary studies — when taken together and viewed through the lens of epistemological changes over time — appear to be forming a higher resolution picture of Dionysios and his writings which points back toward conclusions from his ancient reception, including by Maximos Confessor and Gregory Palamas. Complementing her previous work on the dynamic, fractal nature of Dionysios’s original understanding of hierarchy with evidence from Maximos the Confessor’s reception, the author develops the argument for the centrality of Christ’s anointing as determinate for the Areopagite’s Christological, ecclesiological and cosmological visions — these three being so densely intertwined that they might be commonly termed “organic ecclesiology”. The author demonstrates that Christ’s anointing as both king (victor) and sacrifice is the basic structural building block for the Dionysian hierarchies, as well as his literary method and form. Use of contemporary Orthodox anthropological research into the theology of gender, especially that of the American Orthodox ethicist Timothy Patitsas helps the author more deeply understand and better interpret the relational patterns visible within ancient Byzantine presentations of hierarchy. Inside this vision, the prophetic office of the laity within the Church is revealed, and the most basic implications of this insight are discussed.