 Just as the transcendent nature of God allows us to legitimately apply contradictory predicates to Him (“Deus est; deus non est”), so too we may apply contradictory predicates to human nature. Though Book IV of the Periphyseon has the appearance of a Biblical commentary, dialectic also plays a privileged role. Eriugena employs dialectic to highlight the contradictions inherent in human nature: man is an animal and man is not an animal; man is spiritual and not spiritual. For Eriugena, these contradictions are really indications of man’s exalted status; his essence cannot be circumscribed.  Human nature in this respect resembles the divine nature which too is “both beyond all things and in all things” (Periphyseon, IV.759a–b).   