Alexander Titus: Some Dionysian Influences on John Scottus Eriugena's On Divine Predestination

While Eriugena's magnus opus, the Periphyseon, is well-known for its extensive use of Greek patristic materials, his earlier, lesser-known treatise, On Divine Predestination contains only explicit references to Latin sources, most notably Augustine. Therefore, Eriugena scholars have often concluded that the Irish theologian underwent a substantial transformation in the shape of his thought between his involvement in the Predestination Controversy of the early 850's and his time as an officially-commissioned Greek translator in the middle and later years of the same decade, with the Corpus dionysiacum generally regarded as his first introduction to the Greek-speaking theological milieu. However, a close examination of Eriugena's historical context as well as the primary texts of both On Divine Predestination and the writings of Dionysius suggests the distinct possibility that former's acquaintance with the latter had already begun to inform his thought much earlier than has commonly been believed. This paper therefore aims to demonstrate some of these textual dependencies, both in terms of theological content as well as method, which link aspects of Dionysian thought with some of Eriugena's controversial arguments regarding divine predestination.