On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ: Selected Writings from St Maximus the Confessor (Popular Patristics Series)
Overview
The last half of the twentieth century saw the establishment of the reputation of St Maximus the Confessor as the greatest of all Byzantine theologians, with a wholeness of vision that speaks directly to many of our concerns today. Until very recently, however, little of his work has been available in English translation, save for some collections of brief reflections arranged in centuries and a few brief treatises, too easily classified as “spirituality.” This volume provides translations from St Maximus, two main collections of theological reflections, his Ambigua (or Difficulties) and his Questions to Thalassius, plus one of his Christological opuscula, hitherto unavailable in English.
The translations are accompanied by immensely helpful notes, and prefaced by a long, brilliant introduction to the theology of the Confessor. This is the ideal volume from which to learn at first hand the depth and insight of St Maximus’ cosmic vision and grasp of the complexities of human nature, as he patiently explores the nature and consequences of the renewal of all things in Christ. Robert Wilken and Paul Blowers have put us all deeply in their debt.
Top Highlights
“By his gracious condescension God became man and is called man for the sake of man and by exchanging his condition for ours revealed the power that elevates man to God through his love for God and brings God down to man because of his love for man. By this blessed inversion, man is made God by divinization and God is made man by hominization.45 [1084D] For the Word of God and God wills always and in all things to accomplish the mystery of his embodiment.” (Page 60)
“Therefore the human being is composed of soul and body, for soul and body are indissolubly understood to be parts of the whole human species.” (Page 73)
“Maximus locates the incarnation within a trinitarian matrix. The Three Persons foreknew the incarnation and shared mutually in its realization: the Father approving it, the Son properly carrying it out, the Spirit cooperating in it. This, for Maximus, is the gracious economy which encloses the whole of human history and makes possible both our rational knowledge of God and, more sublimely, our experiential participation in the mystery of deification.” (Page 34)
“the passions become good when they are used by those who take every thought captive in order to obey Christ” (Page 98)
“Therefore the Lord did not know ‘my sin’ (ἡ ἐμὴ ἁμαρτία), that is, the mutability of my free choice. Neither did he assume nor become my sin. Rather, he became the ‘sin that I caused’ (ἡ διʼ ἐμὲ ἁμαρτία); in other words, he assumed the corruption of human nature that was a consequence of the mutability of my free choice. For our sake he became a human being naturally liable to passions, and used the ‘sin’ that I caused to destroy the ‘sin’ that I commit.” (Page 120)
- Title: On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ: Selected Writings from St Maximus the Confessor
- Author: Maximus the Confessor
- Series: Popular Patristics Series
- Volume: 25
- Publisher: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press
- Print Publication Date: 2003
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Jesus Christ › History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500
- ISBNs: 088141249, 9780881412499, 15555755, 088141249X
- Resource ID: LLS:CSMCMYSTRCNFSSR
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:31:16Z