Dionysius Inside and Outside Byzantium: Gennadios Scholarios’ Reading of Ps.-Dionysius Between Thomas Aquinas and Earlier Byzantines

The 5th–6th century corpus of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite became a cornerstone of Byzantine theology and philosophy, exerting lasting influence throughout the medieval period. Its impact, however, extended well beyond Byzantium: in the Latin West, it became central to thinkers like Thomas Aquinas, for whom Ps.-Dionysius was the second most cited authority and a key framework for theological and philosophical synthesis. Gennadios Scholarios provides a compelling vantage point for examining these two traditions of Dionysian reception. Scholars have noted Scholarios' originality in interpreting Aquinas (sometimes through Latin Thomist and Scotist commentaries) by incorporating earlier Byzantine theological and philosophical concepts and language. This paper will build on this recent interest by exploring how Scholarios reads Ps.-Dionysius through both his Thomistic engagement and his own reception of earlier Byzantine figures such as Maximus the Confessor, Michael Psellos, and Gregory Palamas. This study will bring out both the distinct approaches, as well as common strategies, in these two traditions' readings of the Ps.-Dionysius, both inside and outside Byzantium.