The transfiguration of reason in Dionysius the Areopagite

This article examines the conception of theological reason in the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, a major figure in the Christian mystical tradition. Through rigorous patristic scholarship, Pierre C. Bouteneff analyzes the way in which Pseudo-Dionysius articulates the use of reason in theology with the demands of the apophatic way. The central idea is that reason, far from being rejected in this tradition, is called to transcend itself: it must undergo a genuine transfiguration in order to attain knowledge of God, which exceeds all conceptual categories. The contribution of this article lies in its illumination of the internal coherence of Dionysian thought, which does not stand in opposition to theological rationality but rather proposes a radical reformulation of it, embedded in a mystical and contemplative dynamic characteristic of Greek patristics.