Areopagitic

English[edit]

Areopagitic (comparative more Areopagitic, superlative most Areopagitic)

(Ancient Greece) Of or pertaining to the Areopagus (council of ancient Athens).
(Ancient Rome) Of or pertaining to the Areopagitic Oration of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (named after but only loosely connected to the Areopagus).
(theology, early Christianity, historical) Of or pertaining to the Corpus Areopagiticum of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.
- 2014, Mikheil Makharadze, “Philosophical Ideas of the Corpus Areopagiticum”, in Tamar Nutsubidze, Cornelia B. Horn, Basil Lourié, editors, Georgian Christian Thought and Its Cultural Context, BRILL, page 326:
  In the concept of pantheism Khidasheli implies the unity of God and the world and not their similarity; he thinks that such an interpretation of pantheism is given in Neoplatonic and Areopagitic writings.
- 2020, Constantinos Athanasopoulos, “5. The Cloud of Unknowing in Eckhart, Palamas, and Wittgenstein”, in Constantinos Athanasopoulos, editor, Orthodox Mysticism and Asceticism, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, page 88:
  In the West, the Areopagitic texts were translated by Hilduin (c. 785 — c. 855), Bishop of Paris, who received a manuscript at his monastery of Saint Denys, and Johannes Scotus Eriugena (815-877) who knew about them from his time in Irish monasteries and produced a widely known and used translation in middle and later medieval times.

Several orations originally delivered to the Areopagus are called Areopagitic orations. One such, attributed to Isocrates (4th century BCE), is also often called the Areopagitikos. It addressed perceived deficiencies in the democratic system of the time, and later inspired John Milton to give the name Areopagitica to his polemic advocating freedom of speech.
The Areopagitic Oration of Dionysius of Helicarnassus (1st century BCE) was in fact delivered to an assemblage of Roman senators and intellectuals, rather than to the Greek Areopagus. It was an argument for the superiority of Greek literature, philosophy and rhetoric.
The Areopagitics (also known as the Corpus Areopagiticum) are 6th century theological works pseudepigraphically attributed to the writer known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.

relating to the Areopagus

Areopagitic (plural Areopagitics)

(Ancient Greece) A document connected to the Areopagus, particularly an oration delivered before it.
- 1836 (1810), William Mitford, The History of Greece, Volume VIII, T. Cadell (London), W. Blackwood & Sons (Edinburgh), New Edition, page 60,
  The Areopagitic carries within itself clear indication of its own date, after the conclusion of peace with the confederates, and before the measures which quickly followed […] .
- 1884 (1869), Thomas Carlyle, Carlyles' ^[sic] Works: Critical and miscellaneous essays, Volume IV, Dana Estes & Charles E. Lauriat, page 201,
  And one Mr. Milton sat in his house, by Bride's Church, teaching grammar, writing Areopagitics; and had dined that day, not perhaps without criticism of the cookery.