Thursday, 28 March 2024, 10:34 AM
Site: Becker Bible Teacher Resources
Course: Becker Bible Teacher Resources (Scholar)
Glossary: Main Glossary
D

Diocese

An ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop

Dionysian Works

First cited amid the Christological disputes of AD 520-40 during a colloquy at Constantinople in AD532. The corpus includes three treatises which are the celestial hierarchy, the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the divine names. The document has caused questioning over its authenticity; yet, the writings were considered apostolic and highly authoritative for many centuries. The author of the late fifth or early sixth century writings is in not known exactly, but he is referred to with a pseudo of Dionysius the Areopagite (Hill, 103).

Dionysius, the Areopagite

Pseudo author of the Dionysian works that were the corpus containing three treatises. The work was translated into Latin by John (the Scot) Eriugena in the ninth century. His writings profoundly influenced medieval theology and spirituality and through time impacted Alber the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and mystic Richard of St. Victor, Bonaventure. The Gothic architecture of Saint-Denis in Paris is also named for the author-become-missionary, attributed to his uplifting illumination (Hill, 103).

Bibliography

Hill, Jonathan. Zondervan Handbook to the History of Christianity. Oxford: Lion Publishing, 2006.

Diptych

Official list of bishops (past and present) who should be prayed for. A double catalog of the living, and on the other side deceased, names of ecclesiastics and benefactors of the church; a catalog of saints

Discernment

The ability to tell between what is right and almost right.

Discipline

Instruction (direction that is often verbal, sometimes harsh and corrective), Inspiration (aggressively and simultaneously convicting and encouraging) and Intervention (corrects and restores both verbally and physically) are the three components to discipline functions directed by leaders.

Dispensationalism

Belief in a historical progression of revelation by the LORD God about His Being, Works and Will through His covenanted Word.

Divination

A soothsayers attempt to foretell future events or discover hidden mysteries by occult or supernatural means.

Divine

Pertaining to the LORD God that which is religious, sacred and befitting Him.

Divine Healing

A healing as a result of a sacred supernatural and miraculous intervention of the LORD God, in response to prayer, faith, hope or His Will.