ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to the culmination of important synthesis that points to a certain intersection of Hellenistic culture and Christianity: being Hellenized did not necessarily mean being anti-Christian—it meant to be civilized. At this stage Neoplatonism was not simply a school of thought that existed alongside or in opposition to Christianity. Rather it was a characteristic of Hellenistic cultural expression that in Late Antiquity was penetrating most layers of social life and influencing different religious groups. What makes the Areopagitica a unique product of its own time is that it represents an explicit and original speculative synthesis of late Neoplatonism with Christian tradition. This synthesis serves as an important component in securing an ultimate transition from the traditional Hellenistic paradigm to the customs associated with the establishment of an imperial Byzantine Christian identity. The Areopagitica not only helped to make this transition, but by uniting the final expression of Neoplatonism with Christianity, it contributed to the unprecedented historical continuation of Western civilization: its uninterrupted existence from Ancient Greece to the present time. In this context there is a certain logic in attributing those highly philosophical and deeply theoretical treatises to Dionysius the Areopagite, however, not as a pretentious forgery but as a literary ploy.
