SOURCE: Carabine, Deirdre. “The Structure of Reality.” In John Scottus Eriugena, pp. 29-43. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

In the following excerpt, Carabine discusses Eriugena's use of negative theology as part of his description of the nature of reality.

Eriugena's overall view of reality, both human and divine, will be familiar to students of Neoplatonism, based as it is on the dual movement of procession and return: every effect remains in its cause, proceeds from it, and returns to it.¹ Although I have chosen to discuss Eriugena's ideas within the framework of divisoria and resolutiva (diairetike and analytike), both “ways” must be understood as intrinsically entwined and, strictly speaking, are not separate movements or processes. “For the procession of the creatures and the return of the same are so intimately associated in the reason which considers them that they appear to be inseparable the one from the other...