Re-Thinking Dionysius the Areopagite. Edited by Sarah Coakley and Charles M. Stang. Directions in Modern Theology. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. vi + 234 pp. $30.20 paper.

Abstract

in practice, "The idea of unity outlived the reality of separation because Leo understood that transforming the secular world into a Christian 'city' infused the suffering caused by the imperfection of human justice and the cruelty of the barbarian invasions with moral and ethical meaning" (346). Chapter 8, "The 'City of God' Unfolds in History," sketches Leo's vision of Augustine's city of God being realized in history by just humans acting mercifully and altruistically, but here as elsewhere Wessel offers no evidence that this vision had any real influence. In sum, the analysis of discrete events or individual letters can be compelling, but as a whole the work does not cohere. Its length buries its convincing points in either a cursory historical narrative or a fastidious scrutiny of details-the gap between which bridged only by unproven claims for the social importance of Leo's theological worldview. In addition, though this volume contains a wealth of information on which to base a more multifaceted analysis, it interrogates Roman ecclesiastical authority too lightly-perhaps due to its hagiographic emphasis-and so Leo always exercises legitimate power, while others are mere usurpers.