Dionysian Celestial Hierarchy Analysis

For Eriugena, the physical world is not without access to or communication with the other world; there is a bridge between the two, and it is constituted by the symbolum or figura. The symbol has great importance, and its definition plays a part in biblical exegesis where it designates a type of allegory that Eriugena defines as “allegory of words but not of events” (allegoria dicti et non facti). The symbol stimulates the faithful to search for a spiritual meaning, and it drives the viewer toward the understanding of divine mysteries. In the Commentary on the Dionysian Celestial Hierarchy, Eriugena refers to a passage from Pseudo-Dionysius’s Celestial Hierarchy in which Dionysius explains why intelligible beings in the Scriptures are represented …show more content…
As a visual symbol, Christ’s image in the diptych reveals and conceals, and then it encompasses the visible and the invisible character of the Divinity. This characteristic of the image befits the protocol of Carolingian meditational practice founded on the possibility of a deliberate and disciplined transition from the material to the immaterial reality of God. The diptych therefore not only invites Charles the Bald, as the first and foremost viewer, to pass through or beyond the image to a higher reality but it also asks that the viewer reflect upon that reality within himself. In keeping with the union of human and divine natures in Christ, the illuminations suggests a form of imitatio Christi rooted in sight: the king can draw near to God through the admiration of God’s majesty in Christ, a process rooted in a speculative experience that, if properly channeled, can lead him upwards toward eternity. By turning inward through contemplation or interior vision, Charles’s soul will recover an impression, likeness, or similitude of the original in whose image he was fashioned. This process is intended to elevate the Christian king in his temporal office (officium) by raising his mind toward a contemplation of the Divinity …show more content…
Just like his predecessors, Louis the Pious and Charlemagne, Charles the Bald’s idea of empire was conceived as a rebirth of the Old Testament Jewish kingship symbolized by the very name of David and Solomon which he bore. The Carolingian emperor was charged with continuing Solomon’s work to protect and succor the Christian kingdom that was seen as a holy reflection of the kingdom of heaven. And, as the wise Solomon lavished his riches on the Temple, Charles excels in building many things with God’s help and the precious Codex Aureus itself is an example of it. Thus, by providing for the Church, Charles becomes a preacher of a pious life; a life lived according to the Gospel. The magnificent book containing the Word of God has been commissioned for winning temporal as well as divine favor and it credits the king for proper administering the law of God as a new