The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy - St. Dionysius the Areopagite

In The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, the 5th-century Christian theologian Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite outlines the visible Church as a sacred, vertically ordered system. Its purpose is to guide believers upward through material symbols and sacraments, facilitating their assimilation and union with God (known as theosis or deification)